A Guide To Starting A Real Estate Newsletter

Email is one of the most robust marketing tools for real estate professionals. Here are some reasons you should be using this digital marketing tactic:

Email marketing has an average return on investment (ROI) of $42 for every $1 spent.

In the real estate industry, marketing emails have open rates of over 20% and click-through rates of nearly 4%—this is among the highest across all industries.

Real estate newsletters have a response rate of 102%, which is higher than SMS and social media.

The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) has found that 89% of potential clients prefer email marketing compared to social media and text messages.

If you’re not using email newsletters as part of your real estate marketing strategy, you’re overlooking a significant opportunity to attract clients and secure more deals.

In this article, we’ll discuss some best practices for real estate email newsletters so you can leverage this tool for ultimate success.

How to Create a Real Estate Newsletter Strategy

Before you start firing out emails to everyone on your mailing list, first establish a strategy.

Launching a real estate newsletter without a plan could end up being a waste of your time and resources.

Here are three steps for creating your real estate newsletter strategy.

1. Define your goals

Outlining your goals clearly will help you make decisions about the type of newsletter content you create, how often you send out emails, and how you’re going to cater directly to your target audience.

Your goals could include:

Increasing website traffic.
Growing brand awareness.
Increasing the value of sales.
Generating more leads.
Attracting top agents.
Speeding up deals by educating clients.

2. Create a plan

You also need to consider the more practical elements of your newsletter campaign such as:

⏱ The frequency of your newsletters

How often will you publish your newsletter, and when is the best time to send them out?

If you’re aiming to keep buyers up to date with listing alerts, for example, it might be a good idea to email them once a day. On the other hand, once or twice a week might be enough for general news, tips, and guidance.

📧 The content you’ll be sharing

It’s essential to align your business objectives with the content your subscribers are interested in. Consider their preferences and the desired actions you’d want them to take after reading your newsletter.

If you want to increase sales in a particular neighborhood, then consider producing a guide to that area.

This guide may include valuable insights into the best spots to eat, local leisure facilities, and places to visit. You could also include a roundup of the latest properties you are selling.

Here’s an example of how Smith & Berg Partners use their newsletter to highlight local attractions as well as provide details on upcoming open houses:

💻 The email marketing platform you’ll use

Selecting the right platform is crucial for designing and sending your newsletters, as well as tracking the outcomes of your marketing endeavors.

Mailchimp and Campaign Monitor are great email marketing tools for crafting and managing your newsletter.

Numerous real estate newsletter templates are readily available, and most of the tools are user-friendly and intuitive.

3. Monitor and optimize

Keep an eye on your email analytics, which can be found on the platform you choose. This will help you to understand what you are getting right and which areas you need to work on.

Pay attention to:

Open rates.
The number of people who unsubscribe.
Click-through rates.
Call-to-action responses.

Using these metrics will help you determine the type of content people respond best to and what they’re not interested in.

7 Real Estate Newsletter Ideas

Here are a few real estate newsletter ideas to get you started:

💡 New listings and price reductions

Listings are what most industry professionals want to put in their newsletters to help drive sales.

But it’s important to think about what you are sending your recipients. Overloading them with all of your listings at once will diminish the value of your newsletter.

Here are a few tips to get this specific newsletter strategy right:

➡️ Use personalization

If you send clients a generic list of all of your properties, then they are likely to be overwhelmed. It’s possible that they don’t have the time to scroll through all of them.

It’s a good idea to focus on sending out listings and reduced property price alerts that are tailored to individual subscribers.

This is how Zillow uses personalization in their newsletters. They rely on people’s recent property searches to understand the types of properties a user is interested in and the style of rooms they like:

Another example from Blue Elephant Realty shows how the company sends personalized listings to potential clients:

Ray White also send out regular newsletters with their latest listings:

➡️ Avoid outdated listings

There’s nothing more frustrating for buyers than being sent a listing that has already been sold.

Ensure that you relocate all properties that are under offer to the “recently sold” section of your newsletter.

➡️ Use sharing options

Your subscribers might know someone else who is looking to buy a home. It’s a good idea to provide sharing options within your email that will allow them to send your listings to friends and family.

Another benefit of this is that your subscribers can ask friends and family what they think of a property they’ve discovered in your listings newsletter.

The example below shows how Zillow provides sharing options in their newsletter:

💡 Property buying guides

Your clients don’t know as much about buying and selling property as you do. Use this to your advantage and share helpful information with them via your newsletter.

Here are some ideas for guides that may be valuable to your subscribers:

How to choose a real estate agent.
The buying process.
The selling process.
The closing process.
How to get the best property deal.
How to prepare your home for selling.
What to look out for when viewing a property.
What fees need to be paid in a real estate deal.

Here’s an example from Greater Midwest Realty. They have supplied a straightforward checklist to help readers prepare their homes for showings and photos:

Another example from Zillow shows how a helpful guide can be designed into a newsletter:

💡 Guides to other services

Your prospective clients don’t only work with real estate agents when buying or selling a property. They also need to consult lawyers and mortgage brokers, for example.

You could provide guides on how to navigate these steps of a deal. Some ideas include:

How to find the right attorney.
Explaining mortgage refinancing.
How to qualify for a mortgage.
How to get the best deal on a mortgage.

You probably know attorneys and mortgage brokers in your area. You could offer to promote their services in exchange for some of their expertise for your guides. This makes your newsletter more credible and helps you build relationships with other professionals.

For example, your guide to qualifying for a mortgage could be published as an interview with a local broker you know.

Below is an example from JVM Lending. In this newsletter, they provide tips on understanding the most important information in loan estimates and how to compare offers:

JVM is a mortgage lender, but a realtor could easily use this kind of content as it would be valuable to subscribers.

💡 Market statistics

Data and reports give your clients a snapshot of the housing market. It helps them understand whether it’s a good or bad time to buy or sell, how much competition there will be, and in which direction the market is heading.

The more market updates are tailored to the local real estate market, the more useful it will be for your subscribers.

It also helps to demonstrate your expertise and knowledge of the current market.

Here’s a good example from Kymberly Sims of Tenpenny Realty. Her newsletter includes this useful market update for buyers:

💡 Local information

Successful real estate agents don’t just sell properties. They’re also selling a neighborhood and a lifestyle.

Inform your newsletter subscribers about fun local events, restaurants, and leisure facilities in the neighborhoods of your current listings.

Here is a great example from Asheville Realty Group. They have written about fall in their city, describing its beauty and some of the local seasonal events taking place:

The newsletter suggests several hikes that allow people to enjoy the colors of autumn. It then lists the local events throughout the season.

💡 Home renovation and maintenance guides

First-time buyers may not have prior experience in home maintenance. Tasks such as repairing leaks or cleaning gutters may be unfamiliar to them.

Even experienced homeowners may be faced with maintenance challenges when they move into a new property. For example, perhaps their new property has a pool, and they have never had to maintain one before.

You could use your newsletter to share information about home renovations and maintenance. Some ideas include:

Seasonal garden maintenance tips.
General home improvement guides.
Tips for specific maintenance tasks like plumbing and electrics.
How to hire contractors.
Interior decor trends.
Landscaping advice.
Guides to certain property types, like a ranch or a colonial home.

Here’s a good example from Geni Manning. She provides a list of maintenance tips for each month:

💡 Company updates

You can use your email newsletter to help potential clients get to know you and your business. Sharing company news and updates in your emails can help you do this.

Including personalized news showcases your expertise and enhances your credibility.

You could use your newsletter to announce:

New staff, highlighting their expertise.
Any new services you offer, areas you cover, or offices you’ve opened.
Awards that you have won or been nominated for.
Upcoming events you’re hosting.
Charity or volunteer work that you’ve done.

5 Tips for a Great Real Estate Newsletter

Now that you understand what a good real estate newsletter looks like, let’s discuss some best practices for your emails:

✅ Write a strong subject line

Your subject line is the first thing that your subscribers read, and it needs to be compelling enough to get them to open your email.

The challenge is that subject lines need to be short, as many email providers cut them off at a certain amount of characters. In other words, if you make your subject line too long, your subscribers won’t see the full text.

Here’s a good example from ZeroDown. Readers can tell immediately how this email is going to help them in their search for a home:

✅ Use a branded header

A branded header ensures readers immediately know the newsletter is from you. It also looks professional.

Use your brand colors and include your company name and logo in the design.

Here’s an example of a good header from Lisa Malcolm Real Estate Group’s newsletter:

✅ Make it easy to read

Email users don’t have the time or attention span to read long walls of text. This may even result in them unsubscribing from your database.

Make your newsletter’s text light, simple, and easy to read. Here are some tips that will help do this:

👉 Keep it short

Sentences should be concise, and you should stick to one idea per paragraph. Use bullet points to make neat lists. Try to communicate in the least amount of words possible.

👉 Use the inverted pyramid technique

Start with the main point of your email, followed by the rest of your information.

👉 Avoid multiple columns

The more columns you have in your design, the denser the information appears. It also makes it harder for your newsletter to be accessed via a mobile device.

As you can see in this newsletter from Redfin, two columns are more than enough to make your email visually appealing and include plenty of information:

👉 Use clear images with a singular point of focus

Using a single, large, and straightforward image can help avoid the perception of a cluttered newsletter, as excessive smaller images may overwhelm readers.

👉 Choose simple fonts

Try to avoid using more than two fonts, and ensure that you have a clear hierarchy of headings. Readers will struggle to read your text if it includes too many different fonts.

✅ Use eye-catching graphics

If you have an interesting statistic or key point you want your readers to know, use a graphic to illustrate it. This will draw the reader’s eye so they don’t miss key information.

Creating graphics for your newsletter can be challenging. However, tools like Canva are affordable and include free templates for creating your own graphics.

If you’re willing to pay extra to have a graphic professionally designed, consider hiring a freelance designer. Freelancer platforms like Fiverr and Upwork are great for this.

Here’s another good example from Lisa Malcolm Real Estate’s newsletter. Rather than writing a lengthy explanation, she has simply created a graphic to ensure the message is snappy and eye-catching:

✅ Add clear calls to action (CTAs)

A good newsletter always inspires readers to further engage with your business. It could be by visiting your website, enquiring about a property, or getting in touch with a real estate agent. You can achieve this using a strong call to action (CTA).

Make your CTAs as clear as possible using bold text, buttons, and links.

Vonesh Real Estate Team’s newsletter is a great example of how to use CTAs effectively in your emails. Each section includes a clear blue button guiding readers to access more information on the subject of the email:

Paperless Pipeline Gives You More Time to Focus on Your Newsletters

As you can probably tell, writing, designing, and sending newsletters takes time and effort. While there are email tools available to automate certain aspects of this process, it still demands your focused dedication.

But how do you spend time on newsletters if you’re also trying to juggle multiple transactions at the same time? That’s where Paperless Pipeline comes in.

With our software, your transaction management process is completely automated. This means you don’t have to spend time trying to manage this process yourself.

Streamlined operations give you more capacity to focus on marketing your real estate business through tactics like email newsletters. They also make running your company so much simpler.

Try Paperless Pipeline for free today by visiting our website. We’ll show you exactly how much time and effort you can save by automating your transaction management and more.