Email Marketing Costs For Those On A Budget

What does it cost for Email marketing?

Email marketing cost – it’s variable. Your distribution provider, content creation, type of email campaigns and the consistency of providing high quality information via email have to be taken into consideration to determine your costs

BUT

Industry sources (McKinnsey Research)  tell us that for every $1 spent on email marketing, a return of $44 is earned. Way better than social media especially Facebook!

Email marketing is indeed the best way for advertising and marketing the products or services which various businesses offer.

Email marketing is an excellent source of building trust and loyalty between customers and companies.

However, questions which arise in everyone’s mind are how much does it costs? And is it worth it? We will address all of your cost concerning queries in this section.

An email marketing cost varies depending on the type of business. The price also depends on various other factors, including:

• The costs of the service providers
• The amount of the fees invested
• The amount of time spent during email marketing
• Goals of the business
• Size of the market
• Number of subscribers

Email marketing cost considerations

• Cost of self-managed campaigns-

  If a mid-size company is a self-managing the campaigns, they are likely to spend $9-$1,000 each month on email marketing.

• Cost of agency-managed campaigns

  – If a mid-size business is working with an agency to manage the email marketing campaigns, then it will cost $500-$2500 each month to the company, including some content creation

Factors Impacting Email Marketing  Cost

When it comes to finding out the cost of email marketing, then there are various factors which contribute to its value.

• Nature of the advertisement- to determine the prices of email marketing, it is necessary to consider that what the quality of the ad is.

  Whether you are going to market, sell out, or advertise a single product, two products, or multiple products.

  The various products will, of course, cost higher than only products.

• The number of people you are going to send an email- This is an essential part in determining the price for email marketing.

  If you are going to send an email to a large population, then the cost will be higher as well.

• The email design- If the email design is sophisticated and include a large number of designs and frames, then it will impact the email marketing pricing.

  The more complicated your email will be, the more it will require time for its coding, and hence the pricing will also be more excellent.

• Quality of email list- excellent variety of current email list requires less work to implement email marketing.

  Less work costs a small amount of money for the email.

  But the list needs to be ‘live’. By that I mean not ‘dead’ or inactive. It’s difficult to sell to lists that don’t want to hear from you.

• Authentic support behind marketing efforts- To be successful in your email marketing, you need to have a website which will support what you are claiming.

  Otherwise, your words will be a challenge only.

  You must have the supporting tools such as websites, social media, and other sources to aware your audience about the authenticity of what you are saying.

• Current strategy that business offers- Does your business strategy best fits in with the email marketing efforts?

  If the business strategy, tools, software, and knowledge is following your email marketing efforts, then it will be cost effective.

Planning an email marketing strategy  

Planning is essential to make any project, advertisement, and marketing campaigns successful. The approach can lead to a beautifully designed persuading email.

– this An email without proper planning or strategy can end up creating a mess instead of being influential. Following questions must be kept in mind while planning the strategy:

• Who will be your targeted population whom you are going to send these emails?
• What is the purpose of sending emails?
• How many times will you send emails?
• What are your goals?

These questions must be discussed with the client to make planning effective.

Purpose of Email writing – this adds to your email marketing cost

Email marketing requires a person to write an email to the individual to serve various purposes.

• Emails are sent to enhance the relationship of the organization with the customers.
• Emails help to build the relationship of trust, honesty, and loyalty.
• Emails are sent to acquire new customers.
• Sending emails aims at persuading people to purchase your good or services
• Sending emails is an excellent way of connecting with people within a short period
• Sending email increases the sales conversation with customers
• It helps in building a list which allows people to communicate with a lot of people instantly
• Email writing is an effective way of getting feedback from customers immediately

Types of the emails – email marketing cost differs

There are various types of emails which provide a powerful and effective way to build a loyal relationship with the customers. In this section, we are going to mention a few of the types of emails.

• Email Drip campaign- email drip campaign is an excellent way of building up a relationship with the customers.

  When you get new customers, what you need to do is to get full advantage of their enthusiasm and excitement.

  A drip campaign comprises of emails which are sent automatically on a schedule set. Drip campaign contains many different types, including shopping carts, new subscriber, educational, re-engagement, competitive, promotional, and training, and many others.

• Broadcast Emails- broadcast emails mean to send your email to a large number of subscribers at the same time.

  This is the most useful type when you have to send a single email to a large number of people. That’s why these emails are also said to be the bulk or mass emails.

  The emails greatly benefit the used by strengthening the relationship with newsletters, boosting the sales, enhancing the promotions, and building up the relationship.

• Daily emails- daily emails are the important emails sent on a regular basis to remind your customers about the sales that are expiring out very soon.

  Moreover, these emails are sent to help people get more familiar with you and your organization, and at some time, they may start to purchase your goods and services.

  These emails are sent to remind people about the ongoing promotions, job opportunities, sales, ending dates of sales, incentives that brands are giving, and many others. This is the great tactic used by the writers to persuade their customers.

Conclusion

As you have discovered an email marketing cost depends on many factors.

The aim of the email, the number of emails in a sequence, whether they form part of a campaign, occur daily or are simply one off broadcast emails.

All emails should improve the relationship between a seller and their customers; that’s paramount.

Email writing is an art. Hire the best. Don’t skimp. You only have one shot to make a good impression.

Think of email marketing cost as an investment into your business’ growth.

Email Marketing Headlines For Real Estate Buyers

Improve Your Email Open Rates with Eye-Catching Headlines

Email marketing headlines are even more important. It doesn’t matter how great the email is, even if it contains life changing information- without a good headline, it simply won’t be read.

And that would be a shame. Let’s see how we can improve on that.

If you are browsing through a magazine, what makes you turn to a particular article? The design team has put hours of work into how it looks, and the writers have crafted the content to make it sell. But what makes the article initially appeal to a reader?

The headline.

 Tips to Creating a Great Email Marketing Headlines

There are plenty of tips and tricks for writing an email headline that we will get to in a moment, but how the headline is written is just as important.

Writing a short headline means your customers will be able to see the whole thing in their email subject line. Under 50 characters is a good place to start, and will increase your open rates.

Avoid using caps lock for all those characters – using a few capital letters infrequently will draw attention, but you can have too much of a good thing.

Short, descriptive email marketing headlines get good results, especially for notification emails.

Extra points if you can make your headline appealing – try writing tactics like alliteration and good use of punctuation to make your headline stand out.

However, be aware that using both an exclamation mark and a question mark in the same headline can trigger some spam filters, so try not to use both.

More than two out of three millennials said that promotional emails influenced their decision to make purchases. What? Really? YES!

Email marketing has a higher return on investment than any other comparable advertising option, so it’s worth doing right.

Here are some ways to create a catchy, clickable headline and make sure your excellent marketing emails don’t go to waste.

The Personal Touch

Customers are more likely to click on an email that is specific to them. In fact, 55% of consumers prefer to open messages that contain relevant, personalised content.

It’s not enough just to include someone’s first name on the subject line.  No, no. It’s more, much more.

Unfortunately, many spam emails use this approach, so this tactic has lost its impact. However, there are many other details about your client that you collect when they browse your store, or sign up for a rewards program.

Birthdays are a great example – an email sent wishing the customer a happy birthday is much more likely to be opened, especially if it contains a freebie or discount to help them celebrate.

But you can also think outside the box. If you know that there has been bad weather in your customers’ location, your email heading might reflect this,

“Don’t let the weather get you down! 25% off winter clothing”

Think about the information you have that could be used to target your customers personally. You might know their:

• names
• location
• transaction history
• gender
• birthday

All these details can be used to make an email marketing headline that makes customers feel valued and more likely to click.

Create Curiosity

Curious customers are more likely to click. If your email heading makes them wonder what’s inside, you have achieved your purpose.

You can create curiosity by withholding some information in your subject line. Your email heading might say,

“7 Beauty Tricks You Missed This Summer”

Or;

“Are You Using This Top Selling Brand?”

Customers want to find out what it is they don’t know. Curiosity drives them to read on, which can be converted into click-through’s and therefore sales.

Sexy emails are also known to raise curiosity…..and more.

A Sense of Urgency

Urgency makes people less cautious, and more likely to jump into a sale. It also helps you get your emails opened – subject lines that encourage readers to act quickly are opened at a rate 22% higher than other emails.

You can create urgency by suggesting that the number of items or the time remaining to buy them is limited. But it will still have to be creative – short messages like “HURRY LIMITED TIME ONLY!!!” can often be disregarded as spam.

Personal headlines that are crafted to show you are concerned they might miss out on a deal should have good results.

“Don’t miss out! Our 50% off sale ends Thursday”

“Only 30 tickets left – have you got yours?”

Email Marketing Headlines That Scream Freebies

Everyone loves a freebie, and the promise of free goods is enough to convince most people to open an email.

There is an incorrect theory that using the work “free” in a subject line can cause an email’s junk filter to mark it as spam.

In fact, the evidence doesn’t support that theory. While you want to make your giveaway stand out, avoid spam-sounding phrases.

Remember, birthdays are a great opportunity to personalise your emails and to offer your giveaway promotion all in one. Customers feel cared for and more likely to visit your website to see what you have to offer.

 Evidence Removes Doubt

Called “social proof of concept”, the idea is that a concept seems more appealing if a large number of people are already involved and have “proven” its worth.

For example, a headline might show the large number of subscribers the page already has:

“Subscribe to our newsletter! Over 15,000 members can’t be wrong”

If a large number of people are subscribed, that shows the email recipient that the contents are likely to be worth a look.

A similar strategy uses public figures to make the subject more appealing – a makeup item used by a famous celebrity is more likely to be seen as desirable by a potential customer.

Re-Target Customers

If a customer has visited your store but left without purchasing an item, they could be a good candidate for an email with a re-targeting headline.

There are many reasons that customers may leave items in the cart without finishing the checkout process. Your customers might have been:

• Put off by the cost of shipping
• Making a “wish list”
• Checking how much the total would be
• Waiting for a discount
• Not wanting to create an account
• Concerned about the security of their information

If the product was in their cart, they were at least tempted to make the purchase. Your email marketing headline should capitalise on that and encourage them to make the final step.

“You’ve left something behind! Get free shipping now.”

“Finish checking out for a 15% discount – today only”

Email Marketing Headlines For All Occasions

An event creates a sense of occasion and urgency, which encourages people to spend money. There are plenty of holidays and reasons you might have a sale, but you don’t have to wait for a physical event.

Create online promotional events that link to your brand – which could go along with some special offers – and include the most important information in your email headline.

Ask A Question

Questions not only make a headline seem more personal, they invite a response from the reader.

By hinting that a response is desired, you are encouraging action from your customer – starting with them opening the email, and hopefully ending in a sale.

Try headlines that make readers feel like your email needs an answer:

“Is your handbag on trend?”

“Are you coming to Sydney’s biggest party?”

Conclusion

While it is important to create an email that is worth opening, ultimately the most important thing is that the customer opens it in the first place.

There are many types of email marketing headlines that can encourage customers to open your email, and only a few are mentioned here.

For each email, try a few out before you hit send – popular wisdom suggests you write ten headings for each email, and then choose the best one. It might seem like a lot of work, but it’s worth it.

Email marketing gets your business right into the hands and homes of your customers, and allows you to personalise and target your ads like never before. Make the most of this inexpensive and highly effective resource by doing your best to ensure that your emails are the ones that are interesting and appealing, and that your customers actually read.

Can Email Marketing Make Me Real Estate Sales?

Email marketing can make you sales if you have built a relationship with your list, provided valuable engaging content and sent emails with enticing headlines, and a  seductive call to action.

Any advertising campaign takes effort and investment, so of course you want to know if it is going to be profitable and worth your time.

It’s easy to see how an excellent email marketing campaign could raise awareness of your business, but the real question from someone who is considering an investment in this form of marketing is – will email marketing make me any sales?

Email marketing has one of the highest return on investment, and accounts for approximately 23% of sales. That makes it one of the most effective marketing methods, which – when executed correctly – will absolutely result in increased sales.

Here are some reasons why your company needs email marketing to help you make sales:

 People Don’t Spend as Much Time on Your Website as You Think They Do

While a good website is absolutely imperative to support sales, the truth is that most people do not spend a great deal of time browsing a website.

That doesn’t mean that your website isn’t important – it is. You still need to have all that information ready and accessible if a customer goes looking.

But instead of waiting for customers to visit the website and simply hoping they notice the features you have introduced, there’s a way to invite customers directly so that they are able to visit the areas of your website that are designed to support sales.

Of course, that method is through email marketing.

A customer could be a loyal follower of your brand, but without an email informing them that you have new stock or that you’re having a sale, it’s absolutely hit and miss whether they find out in time to make a purchase.

The same goes for new locations that your business might open up, or services your business offers that your customers might not know about.

You can also include things like customer reviews – of course, you probably have a testimonial section on your website, but instead of waiting for customers to get there on their own you can send them through directly through a link in an email.

If you have spent the time to create a great website, make the most of it with a great email marketing campaign.

Your Social Media Campaign is Probably Missing Most Customers

Once again, social media is an extremely important marketing tool. Many customers will turn to a Facebook page for reviews, or ask for customer support through Twitter. It’s an easy way to connect with customers, and you could get some free publicity if your content is shared.

However, there is a catch.

Social media sites are increasingly making it difficult for small businesses to reach their customers. The algorithm change introduced in 2018 was supposed to help keep the news feeds of Facebook subscribers limited only to the kinds of posts they prefer to see.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t gone well for businesses. Even if a customer genuinely wants to see posts relating to that business, they are unlikely to have them come up on their feed.

One company found that less than 2% of their customers saw their posts, and their customer engagement dropped off by 58%.

Without paid advertisement (which can be extremely expensive), there is no guarantee that customers will see your business’s posts – in fact, it’s almost guaranteed that your posts will not be seen by the majority of your Facebook followers.

That’s where email marketing can help.

By reminding customers of the social media presence of a business, emails help support social media pages.

An easy way to link to Instagram included in an email, for example, will greatly increase the chances that a customer will click through and follow your page instead of having to go and find it themselves.

Sending an email about a promotional code going out to followers of one of your social media accounts could be another way to directly link customers to your social media campaigns.

This additional backup supports the effort that you are putting into other marketing channels, helps customers feel more connected, and helps to drive sales.

There’s No Point Having a Sale If No One Comes

Sales, events and promotions are great ways to get customers to spend money. It makes your business look good, customers feel like they are getting a good deal and it could even help you to clear some slow-moving stock.

But how useful is a sale if your customers don’t know about it?

Of course, there are plenty of other advertising channels that might generate some sales leads.

The genius of email marketing, though, is that if you have their email address it’s because at some time the customer has expressed an interest in your company.

These people are already interested. If you’re offering discounts, they are likely to become even more interested.

Most other types of marketing either cast a wide net, hoping to catch someone who might potentially buy something, or they attempt to let relevant people know but run the risk of being filtered out through algorithms.

There are other advertising options that offer targeted ads, but they can be extremely pricey – and are quite likely to be ignored anyway.

An email puts your business directly into the hands of people who are likely to be interested in what you have to say. Whether they click through or not, every email’s subject line reminds them about your business.

Then, when you offer something special that might entice them, you are much more likely to see that marketing option converted to sales. 

Emails Can Directly Encourage Sales

If customers are browsing your site or put items into their cart but don’t purchase anything, how do you follow up on their obvious interest in order to convince them to buy?

Email marketing gives your business the power of direct contact with that person. Of course, the customer may choose not to open the email, but at least your business has had the opportunity to follow up on their interest in order to potentially convert it into sales.

There are a number of techniques that can encourage the customer to open that email – you might offer a discount if they finish the check-out process, or offer free shipping.

But even without added incentives, email marketing can put desirable items back in front of the customer. They decided not to complete the purchase initially, but they may not make the same decision if they get another opportunity.

Getting Personal

Email marketing can generate sales. It is a powerful tool on its own, but it can also be used to support other essential forms of marketing.

While sending an email is very low cost, it can be a powerful tool, targeting customers who are already interested enough to give you their details and who can therefore potentially be persuaded to spend money with your business.

Email marketing gives customers an easy, visually pleasing way to connect with your business, and it lands right in their inbox wherever they are at the time. It provides links that are much easier for a customer to follow then if they had to search and get there on their own.

And it can be personalized, so that customers get the maximum benefit and companies have the maximum impact.

Email marketing is inexpensive and you are bound to increase your sales. All you have to worry about is having something great to put in front of your customers.

6 Real Estate Email Marketing Tactics That Are Off The Chart

Email marketing is alive and well in 2020. With 260 billion emails opened every day, it’s not disappearing soon.

But in a world where attention is king, many real estate agents have opted out of email marketing for the more trendy social media marketing.

BIG MISTAKE.

The biggest mistake is with ownership. You don’t own the lists on your favourite social media platform and that is costly. Get shut down by Facebook and your ‘25,768 followers’ are gone.

But email is totally different. You own your lists!

The other big mistake agents make with email is that they are boring and don’t know how to engage with prospects. With lousy open rates and pathetic engagement it’s no wonder why real estate agents have moved away from email marketing.

But they shouldn’t. So let’s fix that.

According to Emma here’s how we should start:

1. Real  estate email marketing strategies – start with an actionable welcome

Let’s start with the first, and most important, email—the welcome email.

A welcome email is a great way to introduce both cold and warm leads to your services. Your customer may have opted in at an open house or your website, or they may be someone you’ve gotten through a referral.

You could also send a welcome email after your first contact with your prospects. This could be after the first day of house-hunting or following an initial consultation about selling their home.

At any rate, a welcome email will thank subscribers for opting-in and give them two critical pieces of information:

• What kinds of emails to expect from you in the future
• Why you’re the best agent to help them buy or sell their home.

Competition is fierce among realtors, so this is your way of getting the jump on the competition and positioning your brand for success.

No matter how you design your welcome email, make sure it’s clear and actionable.

That means there should be a prominent call-to-action (CTA) to schedule a phone call or meeting, connect on social media, or even a request to be “white-listed” so that your emails don’t end up in the spam folder.

And our friends at Stepps agree:

Strong Email Subject Lines

Strong subject lines are the secret sauce of email marketing. It’s the first thing people see when they open their inbox—a first impression of your content.

A recent Sendpulse survey revealed that roughly 62% of subscribers read emails when the subject line is interesting. If your content is compelling enough, consumers won’t care too much about how often you send them emails.

That said, anything too vague will immediately get sent to spam or be deleted by the email user. Same goes for anything too direct (like an obvious sales pitch) or something that implies that the mailing is part of a big email blast.

A strong subject line can capture the reader’s attention immediately, but not give anything away in the process.

Sacha Ferrandi of Source Capital Funding gives a good example of this:

• Bad – “Learn About an Amazing Property (Address) In the Centennial Park Area”
• Good – “Updated Information Regarding Your Neighborhood Property Values”

Notice how the second option entices the audience to read more? The “Bad” option gives everything away immediately and users don’t need to look any further to know what this is about.

Best Practices for Email Subject Lines

• Short and Sweet:  Campaign Monitor found that email subject lines containing just 65 characters have hit the email sweet spot and that most email subject lines have 41-50 characters (which is about 5-9 average-length words).
• Personalize it:  Experian Marketing Services found that personalized subject lines—think names, neighbourhoods, listings—result in a 26% higher open rate.
• Take note of the pre-header text—also known as the first 40 characters of the email. Make use of this section to expand on the email subject, and ensure you’ve strung together the characters that drive clicks.
• Do A/B Testing: Test out different lengths, different sentence structures, lines that use numbers or statistics versus ones that don’t. Don’t forget to test how the subject line length reads across different devices, too. Most email service providers offer a function that allows you to preview how your email will read on iPhone, laptops, etc.

Getresponse has a feature that shows you the effectiveness of your subject line and it also has an A/B testing feature. If you haven’t yet picked an email service provider (ESP) to use for your real estate email marketing, it’s a great option for beginners.

Interesting content keeps readers…………interested according to Emma

2. Add value with a newsletter full of relevant, interesting content.

Your prospects want to know that you’re an expert in the local market. There’s no better way to convey your expertise than in an email newsletter packed full of relevant, helpful information.

Not only do newsletters feature your own realty services, but they also keep you at the forefront of the prospects’ minds while they’re deciding how to proceed.

Newsletters can also keep you connected with former clients—especially the ones that might refer you to their friends.

Provide interesting, relevant content like the articles and tips found in newsletters, can be incredibly effective for your real estate business. Your newsletters should be short, skimmable documents with content that’s engaging and shareable.

Here’s a sample of one that also includes a video and visual graphics for those that want to skim for important information.

Image: BestPalosVerdesHomes

Be careful with your newsletters, though. Don’t ever send one without the permission or expectation of your prospect.

Sending newsletters to a brand-new lead can impact your chance of conversion. Here are some of the things you can include in your newsletter to educate and entertain:

• Recent or upcoming events
• Focus on local restaurants or businesses
• New homes listed or sold
• Open houses
• Mortgage news/advice

Here’s an example of a variety of newsletter topics sent out by an agent:

Image: BestPalosVerdesHomes

Finally, your email newsletter is a marketing device, so it’s okay to softly sell your services through those homes bought/sold announcements or through invites to open houses.

Just don’t make it the focus of your newsletter.

Real estate email marketing strategies must be engaging.

Brandon Stewart backs up Emma’s strategy.

By consistently sharing engaging newsletters, Brandon has built a growing, loyal community.

What started as a list of about 300 people has grown to over 3,000 subscribers. And with open rates reaching double the industry average, it’s clear Brandon is offering his subscribers something of value, while also allowing them to get to know, like, and trust him.

“Through my newsletters I’m able to bring something completely different to the real estate market,” he explains. “Most realtors only focus on sales numbers and how prices have decreased on increased throughout the year. I’m able to bring content with significance beyond just the numbers.”

3.A Clear and Concise Call to Action

Most agents send emails to convince the reader to take some sort of action. The agent is responsible for making sure the reader knows what they are supposed to do, so tell recipients what action to take on a given email and be specific about how they should use the information.

For example, ask them to request a comparative market analysis NOW or just to visit, like, or comment on your social media sites. When creating your calls to action, or CTAs, use action verbs. For example, “download your free e-book now” is more compelling than a button that just says “e-book.”

Make sure it is obvious as to what you want them to do: capture their attention with bold links, brightly coloured buttons, or even arrows to help direct their eyes to your CTA.

Be honest. There’s enough clickbait circulating the web as it is. If your CTA is just clickbait, it may appear disingenuous and turn them off. It pays to be honest. (thanks Stepps team)

4. Captivate interested sellers with emails.

Sellers want to know what their home is worth and whether or not you’re the right person to trust with its sale.

Answering both questions is important, so keep in touch with them via email to prompt them to action.

Your end goal is to meet your client in person to discuss their needs in-depth, so all emails should prompt a CTA to a meeting, or at least a phone call.

This is critical since 70% of home sellers interview just one agent before signing a contract, and only 4% of them get in touch with that agent through a website. Here’s a simple email that can get the job done:

Image: The Close

Standing out from the crowd and forming that relationship is predicated on a face-to-face meeting, so offer a comparative market analysis of their home after an in-home assessment.

Here’s another example of how to engage a reluctant seller:

Image: The Close

One of the best real estate marketing ideas is what this agent has done at the bottom of the email, including a CTA that offers a free guide that helps clients get more money for their homes.

The added caution here is not to overdo the listing email strategy too much UNLESS the reader is an active buyer or seller (Emma)

5. Bringing Back The Dead – Special care for former clients to promote lead generation

Referrals are the mainstay of a real estate agent’s business. The NAR states that 40% of buyers and 38% of home sellers choose realtors that have been referred to them by a neighbor, friend, or relative.

You need to plan carefully when marketing to former customers. They probably know all they need to know about the current real estate market, so include newsletters that focus on home and garden tips or local events instead.

Another approach is to forego newsletters and send personalized emails that are less frequent.

You can use the anniversary of their move to touch base with them or send holiday greetings to keep your name in the forefront of their minds. Personal greetings also let them know you value your relationship with them.

Here’s an email invite to a holiday party—a great way to get up close and personal with former clients:

Image: Keller Williams Beach Cities

If you’re an independent agent, don’t worry—you don’t have to throw a party to maintain relationships. Sending a card is just fine. The goal is to stay in touch and build trust.

Bringing back the dead is a difficult task but one that should be part of real estate agent email marketing strategies.

6. Maintain the connection using automation 

You should put an automated email system in place to send transactional emails that are triggered by customer behavior.

If a prospect opts-in to your email newsletter, requests information online, or takes some other action on your website, send them an email.

Make it personal, because personalization is the key to more conversions and can increase the ROI of your email marketing campaign.

Conclusion

We’ve looked at a number of real estate marketing ideas that will boost your profile among your competitors and help you stand out in a crowded industry.

Supplying your customers with unique, relevant content and staying in touch with them every step of their buying or selling journey is critical for converting leads into clients.

And in real estate, keeping former clients connected and feeling valued is essential for earning the high volumes of referrals that are necessary for real estate success.

Email is definitely not dead and should be a major part of any real estate agents approach of keeping in contact with prospective buyers and sellers. Industry experts Emma and Stepps agree.

Social Media Time Saving Tips for Real Estate Agents

Social media can put a business right into their client’s hand, allowing them to connect directly in a way that was previously impossible. However, working on creating and maintaining a social media presence can be time-consuming, and it’s important to spend time on the areas that are going to see the greatest real-life returns.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be hard. By wisely investing your time and energy into the areas of the campaign that will give you the best results, you can make the most of your social media presence.

Here are some tried and tested techniques to cut down the time spent on social media, without reducing its impact.

1. Get Specific.

There are so many different social media platforms, and an infinite number of ways to use them. You can’t do them all, and many of the strategies that are achievable won’t work for your business.

Many people think that diversifying is the best way to reach a wider audience, but in actual fact it tends to spread the effort too thin – instead of a few strategies done well, they end up with many strategies that they are trying to keep up in the air at the same time, which is much less likely to be successful.

First, consider your overall marketing plan, and create some business goals. Then you can research a few ways that social media can fit into that broader picture to support your personal direction and help achieve those goals.

2. Choose your platform.

On the same token, targeting just a few social media platforms will be a much better use of your time than attempting to use them all. Each platform has different features and you will need a good knowledge of how they work to achieve the best rate of success.

The way each platform uses processes and algorithms to get content in front of clients, the different ways people use the platforms, and how different audiences that you can target will gravitate towards a certain platform can all be used to get your business in front of customers. 

3. Take the time to update.

We’re talking about saving time, but spending some time on revision will always end up being the wisest course of action in the long run. It’s easy to fall into a routine, or rely on what is working for other people instead of checking in on your current plan of action and making sure it still works.

If you don’t make sure that your actions are supporting your strategy (or that your strategy is still working for you) then you’re likely to spend a lot of time on things that don’t really matter.

4. Get Experimental.

It’s easy to fall into a rut, but spending time trying to resurrect things that have stopped working for you isn’t the best use of your resources. If you have a strategy that’s paying off – great! But don’t forget to keep it fresh if the results start to drop off. Try some different approaches, and see if any pay off. When your current ideas dry up, you already have the next direction to head in.

That being said, don’t change too many things at once or you might not end up with a clear idea of each idea’s effectiveness. Try to implement one new idea at a time so you don’t waste time trying to analyse which of your new techniques actually brought in the clients.

5. Strategic about Scheduling

With the busy schedule of a real estate agent, it can be tempting to fall into a routine of erratic posts when you finally get some free time.

Planning how you’ll spend your time is a great way to save it. A social media calendar helps you to get organised, and you don’t have to waste time figuring out where you’re up to each time you sit down to post. It will also allow you to think ahead about special occasions like Christmas, so you can tailor your posts to the season.

6. Get Ahead

It’s a great idea to stay a few pre-prepared ideas ahead of schedule. Life gets busy, and instead of falling out of routine you can fall back on some more generic posts. It’s a good idea to plan your social media time in batches instead of getting on and off social media all day. Setting time aside for each part of your strategy can help you to make the most of your time.

Don’t forget that most social media platforms have complementary apps that will allow you to schedule posts in advance, allowing you to make the most of scheduled times. HootSuite, Buffer and Tweetdeck are all good options.

7. Delegate

A great way to save time is to get some help. That being said, it’s important to choose the right people, and to delegate the right tasks. You should stay involved so that the social media interactions have your personal stamp on them and stay in line with your strategy, but you can choose what that looks like. Whether you want every post run by you or just to check in from time to time, delegating can help you free up time.

8. Automate Where Possible

Why handle things yourself when you can have a program do it? Wherever possible, using automated processes can help you make sure things are happening without needing to constantly oversee it yourself. Some simple examples are using a program that automatically follows people back when they follow you on Twitter, or using an email scheduler to make sure your mail goes out on time.

9. Engage with your Audience

However, there are some things you shouldn’t automate, like interacting with people who could become clients. As you grow your social media followers, real interactions are worth spending time on. That being said, you’ll need to choose your times wisely. Constantly checking notifications and messages will end up being a distraction and a drain on your time. This is another area where having a schedule can be helpful – make sure you check in a few times across the course of the day, and then try not to keep going back in between times.

Different interactions should be given differing levels of priority as well. A direct message asking for information should be considered much more time-sensitive than a generalised comment on a post.

10. Time it Right

Your target audience will have a pattern for using social media, and if you post at the wrong time you’re more likely to miss them, meaning you will have to work harder in the long run. Tools like Google Analytics are great for showing you when your business is getting the most traffic, allowing you to better target the groups you want to reach. Research the demographic that you’re aiming for, and schedule your social media times to be ready when they are.

11. Link your Platforms

Having a blog is a great way to drive traffic to your site, and it can help you stay engaged on multiple platforms by auto-updating your blog posts to your social media. That helps keep your social media content posts regular, increases interest in your website, and with a few strategic links can convert clicks into sales.

12. Track your progress.

So many social analytics are available to businesses these days, and it is worth your time to learn how to use them and what the data means for you. It can be easy to be side-tracked by statistics that might be good, but don’t necessarily convert to sales.

Recently, a social media influencer on Instagram tried to sell 36 t-shirts to her 2 million followers – and failed It’s easy to focus on data like the number of followers, but if it doesn’t translate to genuine engagement and sales conversions, it’s not going to do your business much good.

Focus on data that really matters, such as the number of click-throughs you get on certain posts, or types of social media engagement that clients are actually using to communicate with you. The best way to save time is to constantly ask yourself – how does this support my strategy? 

13. Get your Reports

Google Analytics can be set up to send you a weekly report that will help you understand how your social media is creating traffic for your website. That saves you having to remember to manually get reports, and also keeps you in the loop with how you’re reaching your audience. When you set up social analytics, choose the report details you would like to see, and click the “e-mail” button at the top of the page.

14. Keep Tabs on Success

If a post does particularly well, make sure that you make a note so you can start to see a pattern of what works for you, allowing you to target your content and develop your strategy as you go. You can access tools to help you understand what interaction your posts are getting – for example, Sharre is a JavaScript program that lets you know how many shares your post has received. If you can avoid wasting time on posts that aren’t getting much traction, it can help you to streamline your social media campaign.

15. Reduce your Mail

It’s important to stay informed, but too much communication will overload you and could distract you from other tasks. Make sure your notifications are only about things you need to stay on top of – direct messages from clients are much more important than someone liking your status, for example. 

16. Consolidate

Instead of having to visit each site individually in an un-ending rotation, there are tools that can be used to gather all your social media into one location. That stops you being tempted to scroll through your feeds and helps with cohesion across your social media campaign. Whenever you can apply a task across multiple platforms, you’ll save yourself time.

17. Get a Third Party Involved

You can’t escape creating your own content, but you don’t have to make all of it, all the time. Instead, you can share relevant content that other people have created (crediting them, of course!). It keeps your feed fresh and means you can really focus on the posts you do create. Content can be found by searching relevant hashtags or general research, but there are even services that can help you find things to share that will support your strategy and boost your posts.

18. Get Plugged In

The Yoast SEO plug-in for your WordPress website can help you save loads of time by optimising it for social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. The plug-in integrates with each site, allowing you to have your social profiles all in one place. It prevents you from having to add code from each social media platform separately. It can also help with optimising your posts for maximum SEO efficiency. If you don’t use WordPress, there are plenty of other options that could work for you.

19. Create a Cache

Whether you mostly create your own content, curate it from other sources, or a bit of both, it pays to get ahead. By using your calendar and looking around ahead of time, you can create a store of different posts to share. Of course, it’s important to supplement with material that is current and relevant, but having a cache of options to choose from allows you to keep your momentum going.

20. Keep it Simple

It’s great to create engaging content, but when you set the bar at the same height for each post it will end up being a big drain on your time. Shorter posts can work just as well, especially at sparking customer engagement. The key is to find a balance between quality and quantity – some more complicated or longer posts, interspersed with some simple posts and curated content will help you to make the most of your time.

Make sure you keep it simple in your approach to which platforms you use as well – one at a time for starters is your best bet, not moving onto the next one until you’ve mastered the one before it. That allows you to get the best set-up that allows you to make the most of your time. If a strategy or platform isn’t getting you results, it’s time to scrap it.

Your time is your most precious resource, and you should guard it well. As a busy real estate agent, your job will take you in and out of the office, with some days providing little time for you to spend in front of a screen managing the intricacies of a social media campaign.

By keeping things simple, planning ahead, setting limited amounts of time aside and automating where possible, you can make sure you always have content ready to go without it being a huge drain on your schedule.

A good social media campaign can and will help your real estate business, but it’s important to go about it wisely and safeguard the most valuable asset you have – your time.

But if all of the above is still overwhelming use our done-for you Social Media Calendar