Agent Advice: How often should I email my database?
If there is one question that comes up more often than anything else when I speak to real estate salespeople, it's this:
Q: How often should I be emailing my database?
Look most good questions, the answer depends.
Many agents start answering the question above with concerns around upsetting people. Their focus is on figuring out the balance between keeping in touch and pissing people off.
The problem is, most salespeople, in my opinion, over-estimate the negative repercussions of emailing too often.
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The vast majority of agents I have worked with are far too worried about causing a few unsubscribes from their database. They put too much weight on this possible outcome and allow it to influence their marketing strategy.
They spend their time imagining the pain of getting a grumpy email from a unsubscriber, rather than imagining the positive reaction of other clients thinking: "Gosh that agent is good at keeping in touch. And they are consistently sending out really useful info, too!"
Letting unsubscribes stop you from emailing your database is like letting one negative reaction at an open home stop you from running open homes forever.
Yes, if you email your database every week, you will get unsubscribes.
Yes, you might even upset a few people. But here's the thing: Were those people going to list with you anyway?
When you send out your next email. Most of the positive responses are not going to send you direct encouragement.
Consider measuring success this way:
- Work out the total number of people who opened your email and didn't opt-out of future emails. Consider those the opposite of an unsubscribe.
Once your mental outlook on success is focussed in the right direction, consider the following question to decide how often you should be emailing your database:
Q: Is your business in a growth phase? Or maintenance phase?
Growth phase - email weekly
New agents fall into this category along with anyone who is unhappy with their level of appraisals. You should be emailing your database once a week. Pick a consistent time (eg. Wednesday, approx 10am) and focus on sending out helpful information. For the first few weeks, you will get unsubscribes, but the numbers will reduce over time.
Slow growth phase - email fortnightly
Perhaps your business is growing, you are flat out running from house to house and don't yet have admin support in place. Or perhaps the idea of emailing people every week just doesn't sit right no matter how much I try to convince you otherwise. That's ok. If you still want to grow your pipeline and generate more appraisals, the next best option is to email fortnightly. Keep your email concise, informative and quick. Also try to be consistent with timing. Eg. Every second Wednesday @ 10am, or whenever suits you schedule best.
Maintenance mode - email once per month
This really is the minimum frequency if you are actively running a real estate business. Everyone on your database who hasn't unsubscribed should be getting something from you monthly. This level of contact will likely allow you to maintain your level of business where it is currently at.
From my own experience, I have tried all 3 schedules and didn't get more unsubscribes with one vs the other.
It all comes back to the quality of the content you are putting out.
At the start of my selling career, I emailed weekly, then moved to fortnightly once I was consistently selling around 50 houses per year. Once I had a family to look after, my focus switched to optimising for life balance. As a result, I started emailing once per month.
If you email more often, you will get more unsubscribes. But this is counter-balanced by the benefit you'll receive by keeping in touch more often with clients who are open to receiving your message.
Look at it this way...
If you email less often, people won't unsubscribe, but the vast majority of your database probably won't hear from you.
If you email more often, people will unsubscribe. But were they going to list with you anyway? Probably not. On the plus side, you have reminded everyone else that you are an active, successful real estate professional. That you are the go-to expert in your local area.