In a digital age, email is a great way to get the attention of clients or potential clients in any industry, even real estate. There are many ways people in the real estate industry can use tailored real estate email marketing campaigns to drum up business, get people talking, and make their brand known.

Many email marketing campaigns are simple to create and send out, and there are a variety of different methods that can be used, depending on the target demographics. Real estate email marketing is a tool, but it has to be used properly in order for it to work.

Here are five steps on how to create an email marketing campaign:

1. Existing customers are key

A gold mine of marketing success for real estate professionals is to market to pre-existing clients. These clients are already aware of the value they received from these services, and an ad targeted to them will create impact in a couple of ways. It shows them that the services are still available, and that if they need those services again, they could return. It will also put that company at the top of their mind if someone is in the market, and they are more likely to recommend those services first.

2. Email marketing can look like anything

Some email marketing can be disguised. For instance, email marketing to past customers can be in the form of a thank you note or other kind of communication. By reaching out to them, the real estate company or professional is actually reinforcing their brand in the minds of those customers.

Email marketing campaigns can be informational, sharing the different service offerings with potential, current and past clients, and how they can access additional information if needed. Email advertising can also present deals, discounts, or special offers that catch clients’ attention. As well, there are a variety of other creative, new, and exciting ways to do email marketing that will catch clients’ eyes.

3. Be consistent

Real estate email marketing is not a one-time deal. It is a continual work-in-progress. Real estate companies and individuals must continue to share different information through email marketing to keep the attention of their clients and potential clients. Through consistency, the company will ensure they are always the first to come to mind. It is about brand awareness and brand recognition, very important concepts in an industry that relies heavily on word of mouth marketing.

4. Be creative

The more outside-of-the-box the thinking, the more attention the email marketing will get. Be creative, change things up, don’t follow the rules. Even a small, unique change in the status quo of an email marketing blast could get people talking about a company, especially in the age of viral social sharing. Make a video, share something funny, present interesting information, offer a sweet deal, use colour, pictures, and animals. But most importantly, be unique.

Take whatever the competition is doing and avoid doing that. The truth is, copying other companies’ marketing strategies is the absolute worst marketing strategy out there. It labels a company’s content as “same old, same old” which makes the email marketing a complete waste of time and resources.

5. Keep it concise

There are two things that must be followed in email marketing: it needs to be comprehensible in 10 seconds or less; it needs to be super interesting from the get go. If a company really needs to use marketing with a lot of words, the best way is to ensure that the most important content is bigger, bolder, more colourful, and closer to the top. On the computer, people tend to focus on the content in the left-hand margin. Keep paragraphs short, and interesting features high.