“What is drip marketing?” It’s essentially the process of creating emails that can be added to multiple workflows and automated to send to different real estate leads, as you see fit, to nurture them through the inbound sales funnel and enhance your relationship with them.
Simply put: Drip marketing for email can make your life much, much easier (especially when you use pre-made, ready-to-go real estate email templates).
Whether you differentiate your lead segments by buyer and seller, hot and cold, or past client and fresh prospect, there are distinct types of essential emails you can create and automate to get them that much closer to converting into new business.
More specifically, there are 16 particular emails you should include in your drip real estate email marketing campaigns to win over leads.
For Home Buyer Leads
Let’s start with drip email marketing messages for your home buyer leads — ones that convey your position as a super-successful real estate agent in your market, teach prospects about the buying process in general, and highlight the best aspects of your community.
1) The Latest Homes for Sale to Hit the Market
Even buyer leads who aren’t looking to purchase homes anytime soon will find this email intriguing. Make sure you include these new listings on your real estate website and link to those listings in the email itself to drive traffic to your digital doorstep.
2) Noteworthy Real Estate Listings in Your Area
Aside from the latest properties to hit the market, also send drip email marketing messages that highlight unique types of homes in your area. Explain in brief detail what makes each home style so fascinating: any characteristics that distinguish the properties from each other and highlights their distinct value.
3) Housing Market Data from Recent Months
Providing the most up-to-date housing market data, including mortgage rates, home prices/values, and property sales, is a phenomenal way to inform your home buyer audience and make them aware of current conditions. Not only does this information give them a clear notion of the local market’s status (buyer-friendly vs. seller-friendly), it also shows them you’re extremely knowledgeable about the market at-large and that you keep up with the latest news, stats, and trends — something that can go a long way in developing trust with prospective clients. Feel free to update these as often as you like, or make it more generic by providing general market stats.
4) Favorite Aspects of the Local Community
The plain truth about becoming a real estate agent is you won’t last long if you don’t know your market inside and out. Stay abreast of the latest area happenings and relay the best parts of your community on your agent website and drip email campaigns. For instance, you can head to your local government’s website to see event calendars for the town or county and share details about specific festivals you love. Also, read the most relevant and popular local market blogs to discover food and lifestyle trends and share info on restaurants and retail stores you patron often. In short, find out what’s happening throughout the region, list your favorite parts of living/working in your market, and share those details with your buyer leads to pique their interest in local listings.
5) Why People Love Living in Your Market
While sharing your own two cents about your market can help nurture buyer leads, it can be more powerful to show more perspectives. Share thoughts from former clients who purchased properties in your market, as well as general residents who have lived there for a while, to show what’s special about your area. Not all of your buyer clients will likely live near your market, meaning they need to get a clear idea of what life is like for those residing there, so make it easy for them via this drip email by offering an array of insights from locals.
6) A Collection of In-Depth Home Buyer Resources
Surely you offer at least one home buyer resource for your real estate leads on your website … right? Well, if you don’t already, now’s the time to create some so you can effectively nurture buyer prospects in your drip email campaigns. Once you have some up on your site, dedicate an email to drive leads there, by highlighting what kinds of advice is offered, how it can greatly assist their home search, why it’s vital to educate oneself before entering the market, and how to select the best real estate agent in the market to help them find the home for sale that best fits their wants and needs.
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For Home Seller Leads
If you tend to work primarily as a seller’s agent as opposed to a buyer’s agent, then there are some distinctly different messages you should send via your drip marketing software — ones that exhibit your status as a top-selling real estate pro who works hard for their clients and gets the job done.
7) Statistics on the Latest Homes to Sell Nearby
Fleshing out comparative market analyses (CMAs) for seller leads is advisable for the simple reason it can explain to the prospects what similar homes have sold for in their market in recent weeks and months and, thus, give them a clear picture of the price points at which they can expect to list their own property. Traditionally, these reports are shared with bottom-of-the-funnel leads (a.k.a. those close to making a decision on an agent and to list) during in-person presentations. However, including these in your drip marketing campaigns for leads you know will hire representation soon can also help your client conversion goals. Or, if you decide to only share this data with leads you meet with for listing presentations, you can share your CMA report with them during your post-presentation follow-up. Either way, just be sure to update your CMAs regularly (maybe once every couple of months) to ensure you share only the most recent, relevant data with leads.
8) Info on Listings You’ve Sold in the Recent Past
Just as general sales stats for your area can show sellers’ activity in your market, stats regarding your own home sales in recent weeks, months, and years can help convince seller leads of your quality as an industry veteran. Find a way to express these figures in a persuasive manner in your drip emails by noting important averages — for instance, the percentage above initial asking price you were able to sell your clients’ homes — so they can effectively show prospects of your bargaining mastery. If possible, convey this info in the form of a visual (e.g. infographic or video) to make the data more easily consumable, and embed this content in your email. Just as with the CMA email, be certain to update the numbers you share every few weeks at least in this drip email, since you’ll likely have new sales data to share each month.
9) Blog Post Round-up Featuring Home Seller Tips
A comprehensive, routinely updated agent blog is paramount for your email marketing. Why? Because you won’t have much (or anything) to share in your emails other than “Hey, I’m a great agent — hire me!” Drip emails are lead nurturing emails, meaning they’re meant to gradually transition new leads who are kind of, maybe, sort of thinking about a home sale through the funnel to become knowledgeable, ready-to-act, soon-to-be sellers in need of representation.
Thus, the perfect content to share are the blog posts you regularly produce for your site. Individual emails for each post might lead to inbox overload for your leads, so start with a round-up email once a week or every two weeks in your drips to see how that affects your email metrics, then adjust accordingly based on opens, clicks, and other engagement from there.
10) Explanation of Your Background and Value Prop
After several, proven lead nurturing emails have been sent to top- and middle-of-the-funnel leads, it’s time to get a bit more direct with your self-promotion. Get prospects excited to learn more about what you can do for them (in other words, request a consultation of some sort) by showcasing your brand, including what makes you special compared to other local agents and firms, and how you have the sales history and housing acumen to back up your claims as a premier agent.
11) Case Studies and Testimonials for Your Brand
Stats show that social proof in the form of online reviews, testimonials, and case studies is the optimal way to earn leads’ trust. But it’s not effective to only post these on your site: They need to be infused into your drip marketing campaigns and leveraged in a way that easily shows seller leads you are honest, dependable, and have a track record of getting results for clients. Whether you shoot a video with past clients or get feedback from them after closing, use the comments and praise they provide you on your site and link to each of these reviews in your email to earn new business.
12) A List of Your Detailed Home Seller Resources
Similar to sharing your custom buyer resources with leads considering a home purchase, it’s best to dispense your seller tools, guides, and checklists via your real estate drip email marketing campaigns. Even the most experienced seller needs tips and tricks on things like re-pricing their homes for sale when it sits on the market for too long, when to host private showings and open houses, and what kind of furniture to use for staging, and delivering these resources via drip campaigns can make you helpful to seller leads. For starters, you could customize this home sellers’ ebook from Placester and share it with all seller leads who’ve just entered your customer relationship management (CRM) database.
For Previous Clients
It’s likely that not all of your business this year will come from new leads you’ve never worked with before. In fact, statistics show some of your business (assuming you’re an experienced agent) will come from previous clients — and each former client segment deserves its own dedicated drip marketing campaign.
13) Receive Real Estate Agent Blog Updates
If you’re truly a modern, digital marketing–savvy agent, you write at least a few lengthy, informative real estate blog posts each week. While optimizing these articles for search engine optimization (SEO) so they are found organically is key, you still need to conduct a hefty amount of promotion once they are published — for instance, through drip email marketing. Frequently modify a drip campaign dedicated to sharing the newest content on your website so former clients can stay briefed on the latest news, advice, market update pieces, and other blog posts … and so you can remain top-of-mind with them.
14) Inquiry About Current Home Buyer/Seller Status
Consider this the ultimate, straightforward, clearly promotional email you could ever send a lead. The responses (or lack thereof) from this email will, in all likelihood, be mostly “Yes, I am looking to buy/sell again” or “No, I’m all set/for now at least,” with the occasional “I might be in the market again soon” mixed in. It’s up to you how blunt you want to be in the message, but you’ll improve your odds of representing them once more if you remind them why they chose you in the first place: hard work, dedication, and your many other positive traits.
15) Updates and Changes Regarding Your Business
Companies, including real estate agencies, change all of the time, with things like new people coming aboard the team, moved offices, and press-worthy events. Though some of these changes may not seem like anything of interest to the world — including past clients you’ve served — alerting them to updates regarding your business is a great excuse just to say hello again and get them back to your real estate website. Consider sending a quarterly email that notifies these former clients of any company developments so you avoid inundating them with too-frequent updates.
16) Free Homeowner Resources from Your Website
A template that teaches how to maintain personal finances as a first-time homeowner. A checklist on specific home chores to conduct weekly and monthly. An ebook that explains how to maintain a yard or the general value of your home. Send any of these guides to past clients through drip campaigns and you have a cost-effective way to nurture them for a potential second-time-around business relationship. The average REALTOR earns 20% of their annual business from repeat clients, but if you don’t thoroughly nurture them in the months (and even years) following the initial deal you helped them close, the chances of getting their business again dwindles significantly.
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