6 Easy Ways Any Agent Can Engage Their Database Better
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You’ve probably been told to build an email database and send them stuff consistently, right?
Some agents do. Many don’t.
Have you?
If you haven’t, don’t sweat it. In fact, it might be better if you haven’t yet.
It’s better for you to start off on the right foot. Or, if you’ve been going about it and not seeing great results, maybe you need to re-start on the right foot.
Because most of the agents who do have a list are sending out pretty generic stuff anyway… if they’re even sending anything at all.
Don’t be that agent.
Here are 6 ways to take your email game from zero to hero:
1. STOP PUSHING
Most agents who do have a list and send emails out tend to “push”.
They push themselves, and their listings on people.
This makes sense because agents want business. And they want quick, immediate results.This is natural and human.
But it’s wrong.
The problem is, people don’t want to open an email just to read about:
- How great of an agent you are
- How you want their business
- That you want their referrals
- That they should buy or sell now
- Every single listing you ever take
All of those things are relevant, of course. But that isn’t anything your audience is going to get all excited about reading.
You want to create stuff that your list will want to read…will actually look forward to reading.
SOLUTION: Plain and simple — stop pushing. Or, at least stop pushing the same old, same old every other sends them.
2. WRITE HOW YOU TALK
Go do a quick Google search for real estate email templates and give them a read.
Borrrrrringgg.
They all sound so stuffy and rigid.
Sure, this is business. And serious business at that. You handle what amounts to some of the largest transactions in people’s lives.
So, you can’t be too sloppy. You need to show that you are intelligent and business-like.
But when you write like a template, you sound like a template. You don’t sound like a person. And that doesn’t endear people to you. Which is the whole point.
Plus, if people enjoy what they’re reading, they keep reading. Nobody wants to read a formal letter written for the masses. They want to read something that sounds like a quick note to them, and about them.
Heck, you might hesitate to write your own emails because you feel like you can’t write.
SOLUTION: Write the way you would talk to someone. Word for word. Forget rigid grammar rules. But yet, stay enough within the lines that people know you know proper writing rules. Capitalize. Use periods. Spell (most) words correctly. (But you gotta add some words that aren’t really words, too.)
3. KEEP ‘EM SHORT…BUT NOT TOO SHORT
You have an inbox full of stuff. You probably ignore a ton of it. You open and read what you have to read.
Who has time to read every single email that comes in?
So, when you do open an email, you certainly aren’t expecting to have to sit there and read the equivalent of “War And Peace”.
Neither is your audience…
So, keep it as short and to the point as possible.
But!…
Don’t keep it short just for the sake of short. You need to make your point. Otherwise, what is the point?
SOLUTION: Try to keep your emails to somewhere between 350-500 words. It’s hard to make much of a point in less words. And anything more, you probably want to switch it into being an article.
A few more or less words isn’t going to hurt you. So don’t get too hung up on word count. The point is, say what needs to be said. No more. No less.
4. DO THESE THREE THINGS
Good writing does one of these three things:
- Informs the reader
- Entertains the reader
- Gets the reader to take action
Great writing does all three of those things. Shoot to do all three in every email you write.
One thing we know from experience at The Lighter Side Of Real Estate is that humor is the greatest common denominator. Everyone likes wit and humor. Sure, real estate is serious business, but getting your reader to smile or laugh is probably the single best thing you can do to get them to look forward to opening every single thing you send. Entertain your audience.
With that said, you aren’t supposed to be a comedian. You need to have a point to what you’re sending them. You need to inform or educate them about something.
And, since you’re taking the time to do so, you might as well ask them to take some sort of action.
SOLUTION: Open the email with something fun, funny, humorous, or witty. Then get into what you want them to learn or know. Close your email asking them to take some action.
Or click here and join our ‘Inner Circle’ membership and let us write them FOR you. 🙂
5. SEGMENT
One-size-fits-all never truly fits anyone all that well. Nor do most emails.
Just because you have someone’s email doesn’t mean you should send them every single thing that you write.
What many agents do is either send everything to everybody on their list, which gets annoying, and leads to less opens eventually…
…or, they water down every email to make it so general that it speaks to everyone at the same time. And that isn’t good, because if you’re speaking to everyone, you likely aren’t truly speaking to anyone.
SOLUTION: There are some things that are pretty universal, like a holiday related email for instance. You can send that to everyone on your list. But even those, you might want to tailor one that you write specifically to buyers on your list, and another for sellers on your list. And maybe even one specifically to your sphere of influence.
6. SPEND TIME
You probably aren’t spending a whole lot of time writing an email to someone on a day to day basis. How long does it typically take? A few minutes? 10-15 minutes tops if it was long and took some thought?
But when you are writing emails to your list, you should plan on spending quite a bit of time on each email. Remember though, every email you craft is like writing hundreds or thousands of emails. You write it once, you send it tons of times. So, it is worth taking the time.
People who write for a living may be able to crank out emails and articles faster than you can, and even they would probably spend the better part of an hour or so writing an email template.
So, you should plan on spending at least an hour per email.
If you want to save yourself some time, effort, and learning curve, you could always hire a copywriter to write a series of emails for you. That way you aren’t sending the same, boring email templates every other agent sends out. But, that does get pricey.
SOLUTION: Check out this hidden gem very few agents are even aware of. It’s the Lighter Side of Real Estate’s ‘Inner Circle’ membership, and providing you with PROVEN email templates is just one of the many benefits of joining.
When you join you’ll start saving all the time, effort and learning curve at a fraction of the cost of hiring a copywriter.