If you’re using email to stay top of mind with your past clients, that’s terrific. It’s not an easy thing to do consistently, so well done!
If you’re using software like MailChimp or Constant Contact, even better. Your emails look professional and you have access to all sorts of important information.
There are so many different reports you can generate that the problem becomes having too much information and not knowing which numbers and information really matter.
Here’s a primer on which numbers to pay attention to and how you can use them.
Open rate:
This is the percentage of people on your list who open your email.
According to MailChimp, the average open rate for a real estate email is just under 20 per cent. This includes people who download your email but don’t read it. If your average is higher, that’s great. If it’s lower, you may need to make your subject line more compelling (give people a reason to open the email!) or change the time and day you send your email out.
Click-through rate:
This is the number of people who not only open your email, but click a link, to learn more about a listing or article you’re featuring.
A click shows true engagement. Someone was interested enough to open your email and take an action to read more. Pay attention to which links people are clicking because they are telling you what interests them. Give them more of those topics. Email marketing is not meant to be a direct sales tool, it’s meant to keep you top of mind. To get people to open an email, it’s more about giving them what they want and less about you think they should know. You’ll likely find the three kinds of content people click on most are food, local events, and décor.
Bounced email addresses:
You can pull a list of all the email addresses that have bounced. Some may have easy to spot spelling errors, some will be out-of-office autoreplies, but some will be inactive. If you know these people (you may not know everybody on your mailing list – some may have signed up via your website or social media) it’s the perfect opportunity to reach out for an updated email address and touch base. If you don’t know them, delete these addresses on a regular basis.
Unsubscribes:
It’s normal for up to one per cent of people on your list to unsubscribe every month. Most software systems allow people to give a reason they’re unsubscribing, and those who do are giving you good information. If the unsubscribe rate is higher than one per cent, it’s worth revisiting your strategy. Are you sending too often? Is the email too long? Is your content relevant?
Ready to go deeper?
Consider pulling a list of people who haven’t opened an email in six months to a year. You know they’re not engaged. You can decide if you’d like to remove them or if you’d like to reach out. It can be as simple as confirming an email address – “I was wondering if you’ve been receiving my monthly newsletter?”
On the flip side, you can pull a list of everybody who’s clicked a link in the past six months. Identify them as your top fans and offer them something special, such as early access to tickets to an upcoming home show or something else they’d enjoy. You know your clients best.
Your database can be a gold mine, but it’s not going to work on its own. You have to pay attention to what’s happening so you can get the best results.
If you have any questions about how to access any of this data or are interested in having somebody else take over your email marketing, please get in touch!