Many businesses believe email to be an old school source of marketing with no future. The fact is, email is still one of the most cost-efficient and most successful ways to promote yourself as a real estate agent.
But, email has evolved. It’s no longer a one-size-fits-all type of communication.
Segmenting and personalizing your emails will get you the highest return from this highly customizable digital marketing channel. Read on to learn more.
Email Segmentation
Email segmentation is the break down of different groups and categories of people in your email list. By grouping your list, you can send recipients more personalized emails and content to increase your conversion.
Email segmentation helps your emails to seem like they were sent to that individual recipient instead of like a mass email sent to thousands of others.
You can create these segments in many ways. They can be based on several demographics such as age, gender, profession, location, interest, hobbies, etc. Or you can segment by actions such as purchases, specific types of content read on your blog, engagement on social media, etc.
Segmenting your email list helps your business to stay relevant and engaged with your existing clientele.
How to Segment Data
There are four common methods to do this.
- You can manually monitor customers’ activities and behaviors and export or import lists.
- Use email marketing tools with email segmentation or personalization options.
- Send a questionnaire survey to consumers to understand their demands, wants, and needs. You can then sort these consumers out into different segments based on their answers.
- You can ask consumers for information upfront via forms and categorize based on their selections.
Email Personalization
Email personalization refers to using the unique details of a consumer in your emails. These unique details can include their name, business, location, profession, industry or more. You can choose to plug in the consumer’s details anywhere throughout your email, like in the greeting or even the subject line.
Personalization can be more than just a greeting though. You can include information based on the recipients time zone, their region’s currency signs, and other localized jargon and symbols based on their demographic. Personalization is data-driven and it’s important that the data used is accurate and complete.
Getting your facts wrong can make your emails look poorly written. Make sure that your email personalization is seamless, subtle, and not sound over-familiar or understated – test, test, test!
Segmenting and Personalizing by Acquisition Source
Many real estate agents use house shows, events, and social media to generate new leads. Segmenting your clients based on where you got their email address can be very beneficial to you.
For example, whether it was an open house, a webinar, a landing page, or a social media live session – if you segment them appropriately, you can follow up and warm the lead more efficiently. If you can see that some people have attended multiple webinars, you can ask them directly what other topics they would like to see covered in your next one or offer them VIP access to a private one. Or, if you have a segment of followers that are actively engaged with you on social media, try asking them to share your posts as a favor to you. People love to help others and if they already like your content, they will be happy to spread the word about you to their friends.
In your email campaigns, you can include a reminder of your latest interaction with your recipient such as “I’m glad you were able to attend last week’s webinar on how to prepare your house for going on the market” or “it was nice to meet you at the home viewing yesterday,” etc.
You can even tag their interest, such as the best district schools in the area or size of the house at such competitive prices, etc. However, you will need accurate and the latest data on the consumer, their needs, and the market.
Tips to Master Email Segmenting and Personalizing
Here are three tips to help you master these techniques
- Ask your clients the right questions
- Make full use of the name and source of acquisition personalization
- Setup automated emails that are triggered with real-time actions of your real estate clients
Email segmenting and personalizing can be really beneficial for real estate agents. But, it can only be as good as the quality of the data. Don’t just set it up once and then forget about it. It is an ongoing, ever-evolving process, that should be double and triple checked regularly. Your email segmentation and personalization efforts will only be as effective as your input.
Keep experimenting with segment ideas and really get to know your clients – the more personalized their experience is, the better!
