Whether you write it yourself, hire an assistant or use a marketing company, sending out a real estate newsletter is one of the most inexpensive and effective ways to stay front of mind with your potential client base. Do you send a newsletter right now? Are you still sending a direct-mailout? Read on to find out why e-newsletters should definitely be a part of your marketing arsenal.
What’s the value in a real estate newsletter?
What realtor doesn’t want referrals and repeat business? Sending a realtor newsletter out to your database keeps you front of mind with your network; exposing past, present, and future clients to your brand on a regular basis. It also shows future clients that you are actively promoting your client’s listings, staying up to date with community events and on top of real estate news. Reminding people you exist sounds obvious, but without regular touchpoints with your network, they can forget about you entirely! Don’t let that happen.
What to include in a real estate newsletter
Your brand. It’s important to keep your branding front and center in all of your marketing efforts. Your newsletter should be consistent with your website and social media profiles and include your colours, logo and photos (if personal images are part of your online brand.)
Personal touches. It’s important to showcase your personality in your realty newsletter. Personal introductions, updates about your family life, and photos go a long way!
Information that your readers will find useful. Post about things that will be interesting and relevant to your network. What value can you add with your newsletter? Don't just post about things that are interesting to you --think about what your demographic is interested in.
Your contact information and website links. Your newsletter is an extension of your business and people should be able to quickly find your contact information to get in touch. Your website, social media and newsletter should also be linked to each other - working together to form a cohesive strategy.
10 Real estate newsletter ideas to make your content pop
- Relatable personal updates - what has happened in your life recently? Do you have any cute pictures of your family or happy clients?
- Real estate news and market information - How are condos or single family homes performing in your area right now? What’s going on with your real estate board or region that might impact potential buyers and sellers? Promote yourself as a local market expert.
- Links to interesting articles on home decor, gardening, home selling tips, home staging - anything that relates to real estate and your readers will find engaging.
- ‘Top 5 tips to’…. Stage a room? Throw a killer dinner party? Anything that asserts you as a trusted authority on a real estate related subject. Top 5 or 10 lists are easily digestible and visually appealing on a newsletter.
- Local events and community news. What is happening in the community? Are there festivals happening soon? New restaurants that have opened? New developments or hot new areas?
- Seasonal posts - Is Halloween around the corner? Back to school? The holidays? Link your content to the time of year to be extra engaging.
- Recent content you’ve created - do you write blog posts on your website? Include excerpts and links to them! Not only is this kind of custom content great for engagement, anything that drives traffic back to your website is a great bonus!
- Engaging images or video content. Don’t just include walls of text, make sure your newsletter is visually appealing too! You can get great stock images from free sites like Unsplash or Pixabay.
- Your recent listings! This sounds obvious, but so many realtors get lost in updates about the market that they forget to include the most important part! Include recent solds or current listings to entice readers to your site to browse homes.
- Highlight local businesses - Endorsing other companies is a great way to add value for your readers and they will surely appreciate it, and might even reciprocate.
How often should you send your realtor newsletter?
Once a month is generally a good cadence to send a real estate newsletter. This is enough to be remembered but not be annoying and end up with readers unsubscribing. Most market statistics are also posted monthly.
Your newsletter is just one part of your real estate content marketing strategy. Are you posting on your blog? Keeping your website up to date? Posting regularly on your Facebook page or Instagram account? You should! Make sure you are using your time across several platforms and not just spending all of your time on one!
Ok now what? Who should you send it to?
If you haven’t sent one before, start off with your personal network - friends, family and previous clients.
You can add to this subscriber list all the time, for example when you attend networking events, meet new potential clients or have open houses!
You can also drive subscriptions online. You can add a newsletter subscription widget to your website, or have an iPad set up at your open houses to encourage subscriptions. You can also post links to your most recent newsletter on your social media. Touchpoints across multiple platforms help to nurture your base and generate new clients!
Like the sound of all of this but don’t have the time to think about it right now? Get in touch with Avenue to find out how we can manage your monthly real estate newsletter and a whole lot more!
