Real Estate Email Marketing: Templates & Tips From the Pros

Real estate email marketing uses autoresponders, email newsletters, and behavior-triggered emails to encourage a buyer or seller lead to become an agent’s client. In an age when most people use email to communicate, all agents should invest in some form of email marketing; doing so can increase a client base and grow sales dramatically.

Real estate agent emails can often become caught in spam, however, unless their emails stand out. To be sure you’re delivering unique, high-value content, consider creating videos for your email using BombBomb. Learn more about this easy-to-use video creation platform and get a free demo.

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How Real Estate Email Marketing Works

Agents need warm leads like prospective clients before they can conduct email marketing. To collect these leads, you can employ both organic and paid lead generation methods, including social media advertising, networking, and referral nurturing. Once these leads are collected, agents use a series of autoresponder sequences, newsletters, and behavior-triggered emails to market to each lead until they become a client.

Before emails are sent, however, it’s recommended that agents choose a customer relationship manager (CRM) with email capability — or a CRM and an email program like Mailchimp  —to manage their email marketing. This is critical to tracking the success of individual campaigns and ensuring that no lead nurturing opportunity falls through the cracks. It also automates much of the email marketing process, saving agents time.

Real estate email marketing is typically done with a series of drip emails. The initial email includes an introduction to the agent and their unique services. This is the first email in the autoresponder sequence is sent after a lead submits their contact information on the agent’s website. Subsequent emails in this sequence are sent at set intervals — typically a few days apart — and include information about new listings, neighborhood information, marketing analyses, and other information of interest to the lead.

In conjunction with the autoresponder sequence — also referred to as drip real estate marketing — agents often send monthly newsletters with listing highlights, fun event details for their farm area, educational information about the real estate industry, and more background about their brand. These newsletters are primarily designed to keep the agent top-of-mind for all leads.

Finally, real estate email marketing often employs behavior-triggered emails that are sent whenever a lead takes a certain action on an agent’s website. The most common behavior that triggers an automatic email is viewing a specific listing on the agent’s website; the follow-up email immediately reaches out offering further details about the property with a suggestion to set up a showing or attend an open house. This moves a lead closer to a purchase or sale.

Real Estate Email Marketing Costs

Real estate email marketing prices vary depending on the services you’re using and the number of lead contacts you have, but agents can generally expect to pay less than $50 per month for email services like Mailchimp or Constant Contact. Additional expenses for things like lead generation tools and CRMs vary widely depending on advertising budgets and CRM features.

Here are the basic costs for real estate email marketing:

• Email marketing services: Email marketing programs like MailChimp, Constant Contact, BombBomb, or GetResponse range from $15 to $50 per month depending on the number of contacts, types of services, and frequency of emails
• Lead generation platforms: Buying leads generally means paying per lead or for a monthly subscription; if you use a lead generation solution like BoldLeads or Real Geeks to get contacts, then lead generation will likely cost between $199 to $299 per month; alternatively, Zillow and Market Leader charge $30 to $60 per lead
• CRM: Real estate agents should take the time to set up a CRM like Freshsales or Pipedrive to track buyer leads, email campaigns, and follow-up messages; cost is minimal at $15 to $25 month, but many real estate CRMs have free trials to test drive features

While the total cost for email marketing can be high, it’s recommended that you simplify your process by selecting a CRM with lead nurturing capabilities, lead tracking functionality, and email marketing tools. Read our article on the best real estate CRMs for more information.

Types of Real Estate Email Marketing Campaigns

Real estate email campaign types vary based on the interest of a lead and where they are in the sales funnel. There are five primary campaign types that accommodate leads in all stages, including things like targeted campaigns, cold campaigns, real estate drip campaigns, open house follow-up campaigns, and referral campaigns.

These are the five main types of real estate email marketing campaigns agents.

1. Targeted Campaigns

Targeted email marketing campaigns are aimed at a certain subset of your leads, based on demographic information, location, or interest. These contacts usually come from lead generation ads and are often segmented according to age, gender, or income. For example, an agent may send an email campaign to leads older than 65 highlighting low-maintenance, single-level homes for retirement living.

2. Cold Campaigns

Cold campaigns are emails sent to potential leads with whom you’ve had no contact. That might mean sending introductory real estate emails to new buyer leads or niche leads like for sale by owner (FSBO) contacts. These leads often take a longer time to convert in the buying process, so cold campaigns may take more emails to start a conversation or spark interest. Generally, these emails spend more time building up your brand as an agent before introducing listings.

3. Drip Campaigns

Drip real estate email marketing campaigns are typically automated or triggered by lead behavior. These emails gradually share new listings, neighborhood updates, and interesting information over time to keep lead engaged. It might take weeks or months for buyer leads to convert to a sale, so keeping them interested with a drip campaign is important.

4. Open House & Event Follow-up Campaigns

Open house campaigns encourage people to attend open houses and talk to agents about their interest in making a purchase. After an event, follow-up campaigns give real estate agents the opportunity to touch base about interest in the property and schedule another viewing. Check out our article on open house follow up email templates.

5. Referral or Testimonial Request Campaigns

Most agents forget about a lead after making a sale. The reality, however, is that contacts are as valuable after closing a deal because they can offer valuable testimonials or referrals. An email campaign at this stage makes the most of an agent’s relationship with a lead by requesting positive reviews and/or a referral.

6 Rules of Real Estate Email Marketing

To be successful, a real estate marketing email needs to invite the reader to engage with the agent and take action. We have included templates below this section that help you achieve exactly that, but it’s important to understand the rules of email marketing first. Begin by making a good first impression, request an action, educate your audience, and keep your emails fun — not sales-y.

Here are the six rules for email marketing success.

1. Make a Good First Impression

Competition for buyer and seller leads is fierce, but you don’t want to appear desperate for business. Make sure you present yourself as personable, professional, and easy to work with. Make your unique value — your real estate knowledge, industry experience, and marketing savvy — known quickly without appearing snobby.

2. Call Readers to Action

Like all good marketing messages, real estate marketing emails should end with a prominent call to action (CTA). Your CTA can be an offer to schedule a phone call or in-person meeting, an invitation to connect on LinkedIn or other social media, or an invitation to add you to their address book so that further newsletter emails don’t end up in their spam folder. Whatever your CTA, give your lead something to do at the end of each email.

3. Educate Your Audience

To help educate your lead, you can post content like infographics highlighting market data — use a free service like Canva to create eye-catching infographics — links to interesting news articles about your local market, home improvement tips, recent sales information or new listings, open house invites, or mortgage news and advice. Always focus on their needs and interests — not your own.

4. Make Your Emails Entertaining

For people who don’t work in the real estate industry, a newsletter about interest rates and a median price per square foot can get dull pretty quickly, so be sure to spice up your newsletter with fun local events, holiday greetings, or reviews of new local restaurants. You can also include information about charities or local events you participate in. This is a great way to warm them up by showing what you’re passionate about — the human side of you as an agent.

5. Don’t Sell Your Services

There is no quicker way to end up in someone’s trash than pushing for a sale constantly. No one likes to be thought of as a dollar sign. You should include invitations to open houses and promote new and recently sold listings but try to keep the main focus of your emails on educating and entertaining first. Remember that you’re building a relationship.

6. Get Personal After the Sale

The last thing most people who have closed on a home want to read about is the real estate market, so avoid sending former clients your regular newsletter or buyer and seller emails. Instead, you can send more personal emails spread much farther apart to stay top of mind. Reaching out on the anniversary of their move to see how things are working out or sending holiday or birthday greetings will remind your former clients that they were more than a paycheck.

5 Real Estate Email Marketing Templates

Real estate email templates help you make the most of your time and effort by giving you an outline for emails that fit into the campaigns above. These templates can be edited easily to include your information and personalized information about your leads.

Here are five real estate email templates agents need to get buyer and seller leads.

1. The Welcome Email ― Introduce Yourself

The first email any lead should receive is a welcome email. This a short, friendly, and professional message meant to thank them for signing up for your email list. You should also tell them what to expect from future emails — and from you as an agent.

Real Estate Welcome Email Template

Subject Line: You’re One Step Closer to Buying/Selling

Buying or selling a home can be a daunting experience, so I started this list back in ______ to give my clients the competitive edge that only many years of real estate experience can give you. You can take a deep breath and relax now. You’re in good hands.

Having worked in __________ for the past ___ years, I’ve not only gotten to know this city better than I ever imagined, but I also stumbled across the best methods for finding and selling homes here without the usual frustration.

But, enough about me. Here’s what you can expect from my emails:

Every week, I will teach you everything you need to know about our unique real estate market in ____________. You’ll also get curated reviews of new restaurants and local news that can affect the market. You’ll also get sneak previews of hot new listings before they’re available to anyone else.

Welcome aboard, and if you’re ever near _______, drop me a line, and we can grab a coffee and bagel on me.

Thanks!

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Phone number/email address

2. The Newsletter ― Educate, Entertain, and Sell

There is no better way to tell your lead that you’re a local market expert and someone they want to spend time with than an email newsletter. Email newsletters are a terrific way to educate, entertain, and sell to your leads until they’re ready to hire you. They’re also an ideal way to stay in front of your best source of new leads — former clients who refer you to friends.

After the welcome email, your newsletter emails should focus on educating, entertaining, and selling to your lead in that order. Try to keep these emails short enough to read or skim in a few minutes, and only send relevant, engaging, and shareable content. You can include market reports, interesting articles, or sneak previews of new listings. Two to four topics or articles per email are more than enough, and your content should match the season.

Real Estate Newsletter Email Template

Subject Line: [Season] is Finally Here!

It’s that time of year again. Your big wool coat is collecting dust in the back of your closet (where it belongs) and playing hooky from work for a day trip to Coney Island is starting to sound more realistic.

There’s only one thing you’re still trying to figure out: Where are all the coolest concerts and events happening this summer? Don’t worry. We did all the research for you and came up this list of the top 25 must-see events in the area.

Here’s our list of the hottest events of the summer:

{list of fun local events}

See you at the beach or on the town!

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3. Buyer Lead Emails

Unlike most of the subscribers to your newsletter, buyer leads primarily want to see new listings. If they sign up to receive listing alerts through your website right away, that means they may be ready to buy. These emails need to include information about the newest listings that match their criteria and how to contact you for an appointment.

Buyer Lead Email Template

Subject Line: Here are the Listings Your Requested

Hi there!

I wanted to send you a quick message to update you on all the crazy sales activity in the neighborhood this month. This is your inside scoop on the local market!

Below, you’ll find 10 notable sales in the past month as well as a few hand-picked listings that we think you’ll love. As always, if you want to grab a coffee to talk about the local market, call me on my phone at XXX-XXX-XXXX.

{list of notable sales along with pictures and descriptions}

Oh, and here are the new listings that might be of interest to you:

{new listings that match your lead’s search criteria}

Best regards,

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Phone number/email address

4. Seller Lead Emails

Whether seller leads find you through a home valuation page on your site, an open house sign in sheet, or referral, potential home sellers are primarily interested in only two things: learning how much their home is worth and figuring out if you’re the person they want to hire to sell it.

With a series of strategically written emails sent at the right time, you can give them the right answer to both questions. These emails should be sent every 28 days with information about the sales market in their area, any increase or decrease in their home value, and what homes around them have sold for in the past 30 days. Also, be sure to mention what homes you have sold recently.

Seller Lead Email Template

Subject Line: Your Competitive Market Analysis is on Its Way

You are one step closer to finding your new home.

I wanted to reach out to tell you that our team of market experts is crunching the numbers for your personal comparative market analysis as we speak. Once they’re done, you’ll have a professional assessment of what your home can bring to the market today.

Even though we have ___ combined years of market expertise, our valuation of your home would be much more precise if we had a chance to see it in person.

I know you’re busy, but can you make time next week for me to come to assess your home and talk with you about its value? Our appointment only needs to be around 15 minutes, and there is no need to prepare anything since we already have a good idea of what your property is worth. We need to tweak our assessment a bit.

Please give me a call at XXX-XXX-XXXX to set up an appointment. We can discuss the right way to sell your home and new marketing ideas that will increase exposure.

Best regards,

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Phone number/email address

5. Former Client Emails ― Get More Referrals

The best new clients always come from referrals. Staying top of mind with former clients should be a large part of your email marketing efforts. These emails should be sent 90 days after closing a deal and be personal. Asking for a referral requires trust, and that means making yourself more approachable.

Former Client Email Template

Subject Line: Season’s Greetings!

Hi ______,

I wanted to send some holiday cheer to you and your family. Did you ever get a chance to go sleigh riding last week with _____ and ____? I know they were excited about trying out the hill behind ______.

How is everything with your new home? Did the new water heater give you any trouble? We went tankless last year, and it changed our lives. If you need a great plumber to install a tankless system, I can send ___ over your way for an estimate. He’s done great work and still hasn’t raised his hourly rate.

We’ve been very busy this year. We hired three new agents and closed 50 deals last year. Amazing! It’s been very exciting, and I am so happy that we were able to help you find a home you love.

As always, if you or anyone you know ever needs real estate related advice, please don’t hesitate to call my cell at XXX-XXX-XXXX.

Best regards,

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Phone number/email address

Top 5 Tools & Resources for Real Estate Email Marketing

Having the right tools for real estate marketing makes collecting, managing, and marketing to leads not only possible but successful as well. A real estate agent with the proper tools will notice a significant increase in their client base and commissions.

Here are the top five tools and resources to help you with your real estate email marketing:

• Freshsales CRM: Freshsales Free Forever CRM helps real estate agents monitor leads as they progress through the pipeline towards conversion; this is an ideal way to keep all of your marketing efforts in one place
• Real Geeks Lead Generation: Real Geeks lead generation starts at $199 per month and includes an internet data exchange (IDX) website with marketing tools and online advertising to collect lead information
• Fiverr: Agents can use Fiverr to find real estate email marketing freelancers to help with administrative tasks, email campaigns, and graphic design work beginning at $5 per project.
• Canva: Canva is a free real estate email template and graphics design site that makes image creation and editing easier for non-technical real estate agents and brokers
• GetResponse: GetResponse is an all-in-one email marketing platform with a 30-day free trial for real estate agents seeking landing pages, webinars, and autoresponder emails

8 Top Tips from Real Estate Email Marketing Pros

Success with real estate email marketing is nuanced and can be very challenging. That’s why we’ve reached out to the pros to get expert guidance on how to get buyers to share their email addresses, engage readers using dynamic email content, and keep buyers interested throughout the sales process.

Here are the eight top tips from real estate email marketing pros.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Does Video Increase Email Responses?

Some companies report a five-fold increase in email responses when using video in their emails. The real estate industry is prime for this kind of multimedia content as it gives readers a visual representation of attractive listings. Find out more about how agents are using real estate video marketing.

Does the Spam Law Apply to Real Estate Email Marketing?

Real estate agents who use email addresses gained without written approval of the recipient might be violating the Can-Spam Law. The best way to avoid violating the spam law is never to send any text or real estate email marketing to someone who has not given their written consent to receive your messages.

Should I Consider a Lead Generation Company as Part of Email Marketing?

Lead generation companies like BoldLeads, Zillow, and Real Geeks can help real estate agents quickly and easily capture email data to grow their real estate email marketing list. In the end, this will likely save you time and increase your return on investment. Learn more about the best real estate lead generation software.

Bottom Line

Real estate email marketing (as well as real estate text message marketing) engages buyers and sellers over the long-term with topic-specific campaigns to make sure that they progress through the sales funnel. This intentional approach to marketing means a greater chance of securing clients and, ultimately, increasing sales and commissions. Given the success email campaigns, all agents should consider it as part of their marketing.

To be truly successful at email marketing, however, agents need to stand out. BombBomb helps agents and brokers do exactly that with email-based videos designed to engage the reader. Find out more about BombBomb video real estate email marketing by scheduling a free demo.

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