Do you have a nurture drip campaign for your real estate work that’s not getting much engagement? 

If that’s the case, you’re in the right place. 

Often, some small adjustments can have a big impact on the performance of your email drip campaigns. 

Whether you’ve designed your drip campaign for first-time buyers, sellers, or other interests, you can use these tips to see an immediate improvement in your real estate email marketing results as you qualify and nurture new leads.

Read on to learn:

• What a real estate drip campaign actually is
• How you can use drip campaigns
• My top ten tips for real estate email drip campaigns

What is a drip campaign in real estate? 

Drip campaigns allow you to gain instant credibility with leads, identify your hot ones, and stay top-of-mind with those who are not ready to take action. Email drip campaigns are a set of marketing emails sent automatically when a contact sets off a trigger.

A trigger could be any number of actions, including joining your email list. For example, let’s say you’ve created a Buyer’s Packet that you’ve offered for free on your real estate website in exchange for an email address. Once someone enters their email address and hits “subscribe,” they get added to the list that sets off the associated drip campaign you’ve set up. 

Here’s another example. Someone signs up to learn more about a specific property. In your automated welcome email, you give the contact some options about specific neighborhoods to click on to show their interest. Click segmentation allows you to automatically add these people to lists triggering the related drip campaigns to provide details on those neighborhoods. 

With a drip campaign, you automate part of the relationship-building process so you can focus on your hottest leads.

Find out more about sending personalized, targeted, and timely emails with drip campaigns. 

How do you do a drip marketing campaign? 

First, you’ll need a real estate marketing tool, like Constant Contact, that allows you to create and execute your drip marketing campaigns. 

Find out how to use Constant Contact to create an automated email series. 

Then, choose the most valuable segment of your overall audience to create your first campaign. These are the people you feel most comfortable working with and you have a positive track record of closing as clients. 

By focusing on this specific group when creating your drip campaign,you’ll know the burning questions to answer for them, which makes your content highly relevant and increases the overall engagement you’ll receive from the series of emails. 

Working like this allows you to figure out your answer to the inevitable question…

How long should a drip campaign be? 

I know, I know. You want a definitive answer. The truth is it’s never that simple when it comes to marketing. There are many factors to consider, such as your experience, who you’re talking with, and how much information they need to feel comfortable enough to do business with you. The answers to these questions help you determine the length of your drip campaign. 

Here’s a good rule of thumb though: The bigger the investment from the client, the longer your campaign should be. Since you’re helping someone make perhaps the most significant purchase decision of their life, three emails are likely not enough. You’re going to need more for a new client to get to know, like, and trust you versus a returning client who’s buying a second home. 

How much time in between your emails? 

Timing is likely the next question you may have regarding your drip campaign. And yes, the answer is, “It depends.” Once again, the audience’s needs are going to drive your decisions here. The expectations you set for the contact during the sign-up process should influence the answer. 

For example, if you indicated you’d be sending a daily email over the next 10 days about the homebuying process, your contact signed up for and is expecting an email every day for the next 10 days. But if you’ve set the expectation that you’ll be sending new information every few days, well, then that’s what they’re going to be looking to receive. 

Use the tips below to create and improve your real estate email drip campaigns. 

1. Keep the whole experience in mind. 

Sure, the actual emails you send in your drip campaign need to provide value. But you should also consider how someone gets into the series in the first place. If they’ve come from a sign-up form on your website, continue the conversation from that experience in emails. 

In most cases, the first email in your series should welcome the contact, reiterate the expectations, and deliver on whatever you offered in exchange for their email address. 

2. Segment your contacts by needs. 

Not everyone on your list has the same interests or needs. Don’t try to talk to everyone at once. Break your contacts into groups and then address the needs of those contacts. What is the conversation that each group is most in need of having with you? 

Here are some examples of segments you might identify for separate drip campaigns:: 

• Buyers
• Sellers
• Active clients
• Past clients
• Agents
• Professional services

You can see how the conversations would differ between each of these groups. So speak to them separately rather than trying to cater to everyone in the same campaign.

3. Write to one person. 

Whatever segment you’re creating your drip campaign for, think of a real person you know in this group. Write as if you’re talking to that person specifically. Doing so allows your emails to feel more personal and kicks off that know-like-trust cycle that is so important to create those personal relationships that matter so much in the real estate world.

4. Simplify your design to feel more like a personal email.

Highly-designed templates are great for when you want that newsletter-feel or want to highlight a specific property. But when it comes to relationship-building, keep your design simple. Make your template feel like it’s written on professional letterhead, with your logo on top, your signature at the bottom, and be sure to include your picture. 

5. Deliver on your subject line. 

Aside from who the email is from, the next factor a contact uses when deciding to open an email is the subject line. Tell the reader what’s of interest to them when they open the email.  Don’t be misleading. That may work once to improve your open rates, but it also ruins the trust you’re working hard to build. A quick bump in opens isn’t worth it in the long run. 

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try new approaches for the best possible results. A/B testing is a great way to test a couple of options to a subset of contacts and then send the winner to the rest of the list automatically. 

6. Give more than you ask. 

Patience is a virtue. Of course, you’ll want to let people know you’re available if they need you. But focus mainly on giving your contacts things they need before you ask them specifically for something YOU need. Provide more value than you ask of people. Give, give, give. Then ask. 

7. Get specific. 

If you’re segmenting your contacts and have one person in mind as you create your emails, you can go beyond the general and get more specific in your information and guidance. In turn, there’ll be more interest and engagement overall from the reader. What can you address in your content that the reader needs right now? 

8. Get express permission. 

Permission may be the number one factor in your results. Make sure you’re putting your contacts in control of being in your drip campaign. It’s simple. What would you find more interesting and engaging? Information you asked to receive or random stuff that someone just started sending to you? 

Use sign-up forms, text to join, and landing pages to let people take that step to sign up. If you already have contacts that haven’t explicitly permitted you to send marketing messages to them, send a note from your personal business email to let them know how they can sign up. By taking this step, you’ll get better engagement overall because you’ll know your contacts are interested in receiving your emails. 

9. Use your series to help your contact achieve a specific goal. 

What goal is your contact looking to achieve? A first-time homebuyer wants to find a home, but also needs some peace of mind and guidance through the process. How can you use your drip campaign to help them? Create your series based on the goals of each segment. 

10. Have a plan to keep in touch after the series is over. 

Once your series is complete, how will you keep top-of-mind? Depending on the segment, this could be sending regular updates on properties as they become available, sharing seasonal home ownership tips, or perhaps checking in with new insights into the market. 

Ready to improve your real estate drip campaigns?  

By reviewing what you’re already doing with these tips in mind or using them to create your first drip campaign, you’ll set yourself up to get better engagement, which means better relationships, clients, and referrals. 

Next steps.

Review your current drip campaigns. Did you create them with a specific group of contacts in mind? Review the content of those emails. Do they answer the specific questions that the people in that group are going to have? Make adjustments based on what you’ve learned in this post.

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