Brands and companies look to marketing strategists for assistance in standing out. In a market as competitive as home building, it's crucial that your homes and communities are welcoming and match their lifestyle requirements. This mission is clear-cut and easy to understand, but the challenge comes in deciding which channels to use to disseminate your messages. And despite new-age forms of digital marketing rising in importance, it has not taken away from a reliable staple in marketing campaigns: email.
In a world that sees new social media platforms popping up frequently, email may be starting to feel like the new snail mail. While it's no longer the flashiest way to communicate, it still is one of the easiest and most impactful ways to reach your audience effectively and affordably. For every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect, on average, a $42 return on investment.
There's no doubt that your target audience will be reachable through these means. Digital mail has a shockingly wide reach; remember — most forms of social media and online communication require an email address to sign up. If you can reach clients at their email addresses, you'll have a much easier time convincing them to buy your home.
Buying a new home is exciting, but it is undoubtedly overwhelming. Shoppers are inundated with promotions, phone calls, and meetings and showings with Realtors®. In order to stay on top of clients' minds, frequent communication is key. Emailing is inexpensive and, with automation, extremely efficient.
Email strategy has evolved beyond the "spray and pray" marketing that inundates receivers and is frequently marked as spam. By incorporating personalization and useful content, your online outreach can nurture leads and strengthen brand recognition.
Here are our top tips for generating conversations and conversions.
1. Include multimedia content
Emailing gets you an audience with potential customers, so it can be tempting to flood them with all of your homes’ great features. However, boring, endless emails will not incentivize your target market to engage with future content. Recipients may not always have time to read, and there are constantly other things online competing for their attention. When it comes to email marketing, the old adage rings especially true: a picture is worth a thousand words.
Embedding multimedia content into your emails will hold viewers' attention and encourage them to engage more with what you are sharing. Especially in the home building industry, one of the best ways to stay memorable is allowing audiences to associate a home with your brand name.
2. Make your content diverse
Unfortunately, your brand won't be the first to pick up on the value of email marketing. It's likely that many other builders will be checking in with clients, with similar subject lines. This is the opportunity for a marketing director or online sales consultant to get creative.
Sending emails with themes like "Schedule a Tour!" or "Meet Your New Home Sweet Home!" may be valuable for a home builder, but they offer little value to a customer — just another overwhelming task to complete. Instead, you can intertwine promotional content with more educational content, including tips for new homeowners, the latest interior design trends, or information about how to introduce a pet to a new home. This will create a mutual benefit, with your brand sharing useful information and your clients becoming more exposed to your brand.
3. Format your content to be digestible
Remember — the members of your contact list want to open an email, not a book. Long blocks of text are a surefire way to face skimming — or worse — deletion. Focus on short paragraphs and brief summaries of content that allow recipients to easily move down the page.
If you have more information to share, link out to external sources. This encourages your readers to have autonomy in the information they encounter and ingest. For more information on engaging content strategy, click here. (See what we did there?)
4. Utilize attention-grabbing subject lines
You never want your subject lines to be misleading, but they should certainly be intriguing. This email "title" serves as your message's first impression. Use it to describe the content inside and incentivize the viewer to click for more information. Consider topics like:
Of course, if you'll remember point three, you probably won't actually want to list 10 trends in one email. Instead, you can provide the first two tips and then encourage readers to view the rest elsewhere — perhaps in a blog post on your website.
5. Tailor your outreach to specific persona journeys
Everyone likes to feel seen. Sometimes, we are more likely to open an email that is wishing us a "Happy Birthday!" than we are to receive some promised, enclosed coupon. Personalization is an easy way to stand out in a client's inbox. In fact, personalized subject lines are said to improve open-rates by up to 50%.
Well-honed targeting goes beyond just adding someone's name to your opening, however. Each of your clients is on a unique buying journey, and alternative content can be sent to first-time buyers, empty-nesters, and those looking to expand. Sending your customers content that is relevant to their specific experience shows that you are listening and respect their time.
Now that you have the tools to create a successful campaign, you just need to execute it. With advanced automation technology, reaching your target audience with tailored, valuable information has never been easier.
Incorporating resources like customer relationship management (CRM) software allows you to easily map different journeys, save time, and avoid the mistakes that can accompany manual work.
Milesbrand
For years, Milesbrand has partnered with real estate developers and home builders to earn their brands the recognition they deserve. With our dedication and your design, we form the perfect team to see your project through to the end. From our first planning meeting to your final sale, Milesbrand helps craft and communicate your company's branding. Contact us today to start a partnership or learn more.