What NOT to Mass E-mail

In the real estate industry, email, blogs, and other forms of internet and mobile conversations are now becoming part of the forefront of the way agents are performing business.  Although these are excellent tools to use and are quite effective, here are five suggestions as to what you should not mass email.

Avoid emails that contain large images, graphics, animations, flash, and attachments.

While it seems like a good idea to attach lots of photographs of different properties to catch your clients’ attention, everyones computer runs differently and this can bog down email, create slow service for your customers, and simply not open correctly - proving the email to be ineffective.  If you wish to include photographs, there is always the option of creating a hyperlink within the email or directing your clients to your website which includes more information about properties outlined in the initial email.   While some photographs are enjoyable to view in an email, keep them limited, as they can be a spam trigger and thus defeating the purpose of the email.

Keep your subject line clear and concise, include what the email is about and avoid exclamation points, question marks, and all capitals.

While exclamation points may seem like a good idea to grab your clients’ attention when mass emailing clients for instance ‘OPEN HOUSE JUNE 5th!!!!!’ it will actually inhibit the effectiveness of your email by sending the email to the spam folder.  Spam searches will often times try to pick out emails that include irregular spellings such as all capitals, a mix of capitals and lower case letters, and symbols such as exclamation points and question marks, sending the email straight to their spam box, never to see the light of day.  So remember when writing subject lines keep it simple and to the point to avoid this problem.

Avoid sending your clients’ non-business related or real estate related emails.

While everyone enjoys a good joke once and a while, keep in mind that this is a professional relationship you hold with your client.   When sending emails that do not deal with business it can annoy some individuals and they will remove themselves from your mailing list; thus not receive important mass emails that they might wish to see.  If alerted to a lot of unsucribers via the Contact Management System (CMS) perhaps look at the content of your emails.  Are they business related?  Are they relevant to real estate or your clients’ needs?  If not perhaps consider changing your emails and keep them strictly business related. 

Avoid sending emails with similar content or about the same thing

A reminder email can be a good tool to use in real estate.   However sending out multiple emails that tell your client similar information or duplicate information can bog down email servers, bother clients, and fill up inboxes.   This can prove to be problematic and ineffective as a marketing tool as clients my become annoyed and thus unsubscribe from your mailing list.  Instead of sending out multiple emails to your clients with the same or similar information, newsletters are a good option to send out multiple information without filling up inboxes.  Through your CMS system there is the option to create different email templates such as newsletters.  There is also the option within your CMS email to create a scheduled email that will be sent on a time frame of your choosing, for example a bi-weekly or monthly basis.  By using this feature it allows you to send all the information you wish your clients to receive as well as grouping similar information together to avoid sending out multiple emails.  If you have a one time event such as an open house consider sending out one email to alert your clients to the open house and then scheduling a scheduled email a few days before to remind the prospective clients of the open house instead of sending them multiple emails.  By avoiding using multiple emails with similar or duplicate information you will not annoy clients, and your emails that may be important will not be ignored or considered spam and deleted.

Avoid Sending Greeting Cards for Every Single Event or Holiday

While it is nice to acknowledge your clients big events and celebrations such as birthdays and holidays, sometimes multiple greeting cards can become overbearing.  When receiving multiple greetings they can become insincere and the client will not appreciate them as much as receiving one or two greetings a year.  Instead consider sending simply one or two greetings a year to your clients perhaps try to stick to birthdays, big holidays, and make exceptions for important events such as a promotion or an addition to the family.  When sending greeting cards consider making a template in CMS, for instance instead of sending a greeting card for both Christmas and New Years, perhaps a simple happy holidays will do the trick to acknowledge your clients holidays without bogging down their inbox.  Within the CMS system you can also schedule emails and send out greeting cards for your clients birthdays once a year and avoid seeming insincere in your greetings.

By following these five tips it will help you to successfully email your clients and avoid many of the common problems that arise when using email as a marketing and communication tool in the real estate industry.

Authored By: Kate