The Complete Guide To Real Estate Email Marketing For 2025 (And Beyond)
On average, marketers see a $36 return on investment (ROI) for every $1 dollar spent on email marketing. That’s an average ROI of 4,500%, making this marketing channel an excellent choice for your business.
In the ever-evolving and highly competitive real estate industry, you need to find ways to help your brokerage stand out from the crowd. Effective email marketing can help you do just that.
Especially because real estate emails get an open rate of 23%.
However, creating and sending out targeted email campaigns can be challenging. In fact, 73% of small to medium-sized businesses lack confidence in their campaigns.
Earning new subscribers is tough, increasing open rates isn’t easy, and low deliverability rates will negatively impact your campaign.
The good news is that, by using the right tools and following some simple best practices, real estate agents and brokers can get email marketing right.
In this article, we’ll explore what email marketing is, the types of campaigns you can create, and some practical tips to ensure your efforts pay off.
What Is Email Marketing?
Email marketing in real estate is the strategic use of email communication to build relationships with potential buyers, sellers, renters, or investors. It’s used to nurture leads and convert them into paying clients.
It’s a powerful and cost-effective marketing tool that enables real estate professionals to maintain consistent communication with their audience while promoting their services, listings, and expertise.
Nearly 60% of consumers say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions. If you’re not using email marketing to promote your real estate business, you’re missing out.
What Is an Email Marketing Campaign?
An email marketing campaign is a coordinated series of emails sent to a targeted audience to achieve specific marketing goals.
These goals typically include generating leads, promoting property listings, nurturing relationships with potential clients, and ultimately converting subscribers into business for your brokerage.
Real estate email campaigns are designed to engage, educate, and guide your recipients through the various stages of the real estate process.
The Benefits of Email Marketing for Your Real Estate Business
Now that you know what email marketing is, let’s unpack how it’s beneficial to your business:
A cost-effective communication channel
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways for real estate professionals to reach their audience. In fact, it can cost as little as $51 per month.
Unlike traditional advertising methods like direct mail or print advertising, email marketing doesn’t cost much, especially when using free or low-cost platforms for your campaigns.
This makes it an attractive option for both independent agents and large brokerages with varying budgets.
For example, instead of spending thousands on printing and postage on flyers, you can send visually appealing emails to hundreds—or even thousands—of potential clients, reducing overhead while achieving the same results.
Personalized and targeted outreach
Over 70% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions.
Personalization is key to effective communication in real estate, where understanding a client’s unique needs is paramount.
Email marketing platforms allow real estate agents and brokers to segment their audience based on criteria such as buyer preferences, geographic location, or stage in the home buying process. This segmentation ensures that every email feels relevant and tailored to the recipient.
Builds stronger client relationships
Real estate is a relationship-driven business, and consistent communication is essential to building trust.
Email marketing helps brokers and agents stay top of mind with clients and leads through regular updates, newsletters, and personalized follow-ups—follow-up emails increase response rates by 49%.
Real estate professionals can position themselves as trusted advisors rather than just salespeople by sharing valuable content such as market trends, property listings, and home maintenance tips.
Showcases property listings effectively
Email marketing provides the ideal platform for showcasing your property listings with captivating visuals and detailed descriptions.
High-quality images, videos, and virtual tour links can be embedded directly into emails, making it easy for potential buyers to explore properties from the comfort of their inboxes.
Listings with videos receive 403% more inquiries than those without, so including these in your emails is an excellent way to generate leads.
These emails can be tailored to specific audience segments. For instance, luxury property listings can be sent to high-net-worth clients, while affordable housing options can target first-time buyers.
This email marketing strategy increases the likelihood of inquiries and showings, accelerating the sales process.
Enhances lead nurturing and conversions
Not every lead is ready to buy or sell immediately, but email marketing helps nurture these leads over time. Companies that use lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at a 33% lower cost.
Through automated drip campaigns—which we’ll discuss later in this article—agents and brokers can send a series of educational and promotional emails that guide prospective clients through their real estate journey.
This keeps leads engaged and informed until they are ready to make a decision.
Strengthens and builds brand awareness and credibility
In a study of 1,000 small business owners, email marketing was ranked as the most effective channel for building brand awareness.
Consistently appearing in clients’ inboxes helps establish your brand and reinforce your expertise.
Emails that provide educational content, success stories, or client testimonials demonstrate your value and build credibility in the competitive real estate market. This can help you stand out from other real estate agents or brokerages.
Drives traffic to websites and new listings
Emails are excellent for driving traffic to real estate websites, blogs, or property listing pages. Marketers report that 27% of their website traffic comes from email marketing campaigns.
By including clear and compelling calls-to-actions (CTAs) like “View This Property,” “Schedule a Viewing,” or “Learn More About Market Trends,” you can encourage recipients to visit your website for more information.
Provides measurable results and insights
One of the most significant advantages of email marketing is that it provides measurable results.
Metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversions allow you to assess the effectiveness of your campaigns and refine your strategies over time.
For example, if a particular email highlighting a luxury property has a high click-through rate, you can focus on creating similar content for future campaigns.
Automates time-consuming tasks
Email marketing platforms often include automation features, allowing you to schedule messages and set up drip campaigns that run without manual work. This saves time and ensures consistent communication, even during busy periods.
In fact, 63% of businesses implementing marketing automation software see the benefits of doing so within six months. Additionally, automated emails generate 320% more revenue than non-automated ones because they deliver highly personalized, timely, and targeted messages.
Keeps real estate agents and brokers competitive
There are currently over 360,000 real estate brokerages in the U.S. alone. In a highly competitive industry, email marketing gives you an edge by enabling you to maintain constant visibility.
Brokers and agents who regularly communicate with their audience are more likely to be remembered when a client is ready to buy or sell.
Additionally, email marketing helps smaller brokerages compete with larger firms by providing a cost-effective way to promote their services and build relationships.
What Are the Common Objectives of Email Marketing in Real Estate?
The primary objectives of real estate email marketing revolve around building relationships, driving engagement, nurturing leads, and converting them into loyal clients. Let’s unpack each of these objectives:
Generating and capturing leads
Lead generation is one of the most common email marketing objectives in real estate. Over 69% of marketers use email marketing to generate leads.
You can aim to attract potential clients by offering valuable resources, such as downloadable guides, property alerts, or invitations to subscribe to your newsletters.
You can collect email addresses and expand your contact lists by strategically placing CTAs on websites, social media, and open house forms.
Once captured, these leads can be nurtured through consistent and personalized email communication, ensuring that prospects remain engaged until they are ready to take action, such as working with you during their buying or selling process.
Nurturing leads and building relationships
This objective is to keep leads engaged by providing useful and relevant information, ensuring that potential clients think of you when it comes time to buy, sell, or invest.
For example, you could send a series of educational emails such as “How to Prepare for a Mortgage Application” or “Top 5 Tips for First-Time Homebuyers.”
By addressing common concerns and offering valuable advice, email marketing can position you as a trusted advisor, strengthening your relationship with potential clients.
Promoting property listings
A key goal of real estate email marketing is to showcase properties effectively. Emails provide a platform to highlight new listings, price reductions, open houses, and virtual tours. This makes it easy for prospects to explore your available properties.
High-quality visuals, engaging descriptions, and links to detailed property pages help generate interest and inquiries.
Typically, realtors achieve an average open rate of 37.18%, meaning a large portion of your prospects will see your listings.
Educating clients about the market
Email marketing is ideal for educating clients about real estate trends, market conditions, and neighborhood insights.
The objective is to keep your audience informed and engaged while establishing you as an expert.
For example, a monthly market update email can include information on changes in property prices, mortgage rates, and inventory levels.
This keeps your recipients informed and demonstrates that you’re actively monitoring the market and can provide valuable insights.
Converting leads into clients
The ultimate objective of email marketing in real estate is to convert leads into clients. By guiding prospects through the decision-making process with relevant and timely emails, you can build trust and provide the right information at the right time.
Email campaigns can target different stages of the buyer’s or seller’s journey, ensuring the message aligns with their current needs.
For instance, a buyer nearing the decision stage might receive an email offering a free consultation or access to exclusive property listings. Or, a seller could be sent tips on staging a home to maximize its market value, encouraging them to engage with your services.
Retaining past clients and encouraging referrals
Email marketing also focuses on retaining previous clients by turning them into brand advocates.
Sending follow-up emails, holiday greetings, and property anniversary reminders helps maintain a connection, increasing the likelihood of repeat business and referrals.
Email marketing is more effective than organic efforts and social media for driving repeat business by as much as 3.5%.
Let’s say you’re a real estate agent. You might send a personalized email a year after closing a sale, asking if the client is happy in their new home and offering assistance with any real estate needs.
This personal touch fosters loyalty and positions the agent as the first point of contact for future transactions.
11 Real Estate Email Campaigns to Consider
Let’s take a closer look at some of the types of campaigns you can create and send out to your audience to get great results:
1. Welcome campaigns
A welcome email campaign is the first step in building a relationship with new subscribers or leads.
Welcome emails get a high open rate, with more than eight out of 10 people opening them. They also get 10 times more clicks than other email types.
These emails introduce you, provide an overview of your services, and set expectations for future communication. The goal is to make a strong first impression and establish trust.
For example, a welcome email might include a warm introduction, a brief bio highlighting your expertise, and links to resources like downloadable guides.
These campaigns help new leads feel valued and informed, increasing the likelihood of further engagement.
Here is an example of a welcome email that offers a thank you message and downloadable guides for recipients:
2. Property listing campaigns
These campaigns are among the most common types of real estate email marketing. Property listing emails showcase available homes or commercial properties with visually appealing content and detailed descriptions.
In this example, Redfin sends out a concise email highlighting a property listing and explaining the state of the housing market:
3. Open house invitations
Open house invitation campaigns are designed to drive attendance to property viewings. These emails provide essential details such as the date, time, and address of the open house, along with a brief description and photos of the property.
To increase engagement, you can include features like RSVP buttons, directions, and links to virtual walkthroughs.
You could also create exclusive invitations to “VIP Open Houses” for luxury properties for high-net-worth clients.
These campaigns help generate excitement and ensure potential buyers can experience the property firsthand.
4. Drip campaigns for lead nurturing
Drip campaigns are automated email sequences that nurture leads over time by providing valuable information and maintaining consistent communication. Email drip campaigns improve conversion rates by 25%.
These campaigns are particularly effective in engaging leads not yet ready to buy or sell.
For example, a drip campaign for first-time home buyers might include emails covering understanding mortgages, tips for finding the right property, and the home-buying process.
Similarly, a campaign for sellers might offer advice on staging a home, pricing strategies, and preparing for inspections.
Drip campaigns guide recipients through the real estate journey, keeping you top of mind until they’re ready to act.
5. Market updates
Market update campaigns position you as a trusted expert by sharing insights into local and national real estate trends.
As mentioned above, these emails can include information on property values, mortgage rates, inventory levels, and neighborhood developments.
On average, a person receives about 121 emails per day. A high-quality, informative market update email can help you stand out in a crowded inbox.
6. Seasonal campaigns
Seasonal email campaigns take advantage of holidays or specific times of the year to connect with clients in a personal way. These campaigns can include holiday greetings, seasonal property tips, or promotional offers.
For example, during winter, you could send an email about how to winterize a home with helpful maintenance tips. Around tax season, a broker could provide information about real estate tax benefits.
7. Client testimonials and success stories
Over 80% of people trust a review as much as personal recommendations. Client testimonial campaigns build trust and credibility by showcasing positive experiences from past clients.
These emails can include quotes, case studies, or even short video testimonials highlighting your expertise and commitment to client satisfaction.
These campaigns resonate emotionally with potential clients and encourage them to choose you for their real estate needs.
8. Follow-up campaigns
Follow-up emails are critical for staying connected with leads and past clients. In fact, 50% of sales happen after the fifth contact, so you must keep in touch with your leads regularly.
These emails ensure no opportunities are missed by keeping the lines of communication open after initial interactions, such as inquiries, open house visits, or consultations.
For instance, you could send a follow-up email to someone who attended an open house, thanking them for their time and offering additional information about the property.
9. Educational campaigns
These campaigns focus on providing value by sharing information that helps clients make informed decisions. These emails can cover various topics, from home buying and selling tips to investment strategies and market analysis.
10. Anniversaries and referrals
Anniversary campaigns celebrate milestones, such as the one-year anniversary of a client purchasing a home, fostering a sense of connection and loyalty.
These emails often include personalized messages and can be accompanied by offers for complimentary market evaluations or referral incentives. In fact, referral incentives can increase client retention rates by up to 37%.
11. Exclusive VIP campaigns
For high-end or luxury clients, you can create exclusive campaigns that offer early access to premium listings, market insights, or invitations to private events. These campaigns emphasize exclusivity and cater to the unique needs of affluent clients.
For example, a luxury real estate agent could send an email titled “Be the First to View This Exclusive Property” with a private link to a virtual tour.
These campaigns enhance the client experience and differentiate you from your competitors.
Best Practices for Your Email Marketing Efforts
As you now know, email marketing is a powerful tool. However, its effectiveness depends on careful planning, execution, and using best practices.
Follow the guidelines below to create email campaigns that engage your audience and drive results:
Define clear goals for your campaign
Every successful email campaign begins with a clear understanding of its purpose. Determine what you want to achieve, whether generating leads, promoting listings, nurturing prospects, or retaining past clients.
Your campaign’s goal will shape its content, tone, and your target audience.
Segment your audience
As mentioned earlier, audience segmentation is critical for ensuring emails are relevant and personalized. Segmented campaigns can result in a 760% increase in revenue and generate a 77% ROI.
Divide your email list into categories based on factors such as:
- Selling status.
- Budget.
- Location.
- Preferences.
- Past interactions.
Segmentation allows you to tailor your message to the unique needs of each of these groups.
This real estate email has clearly been sent to recipients in Greenville, South Carolina, using segmentation:
Craft compelling subject lines
Did you know that 47% of people will open an email based on the subject line alone?
Your subject line is your first opportunity to capture attention, so it must be clear, concise, and engaging.
Avoid generic phrases like “New Listings” and instead use specific, action-orientated language that creates curiosity or highlights value.
For example, a subject line like “Your Dream Home in [City] Just Hit the Market!” is more likely to encourage opens than a vague alternative.
Additionally, personalizing subject lines with the recipient’s name or location preferences can also boost open rates. Personalized subject lines achieve an average open rate of 35.69%.
Use high-quality content and visuals
In real estate, visuals are as important as words. Ensure your email includes high-quality images of properties or neighborhood snapshots. Emails with imagery have a 4.5% higher click-through rate than text-based emails.
Combine these visuals with concise, engaging copy highlighting key features and benefits.
For example, instead of saying, “Beautiful 3-bedroom home available,” you could write, “Explore this stunning 3-bedroom home with a private garden and breathtaking views.”
In the example below, the real estate brokerage uses a captivating video and a great description to describe the benefits of the neighborhood they sell in and the lifestyle clients can expect:
Provide value in every email
Your emails should always offer value to the recipient. Whether it’s a market update, tips for buyers and sellers, or exclusive access to listings, ensure your content is informative, helpful, and relevant to their needs.
Prioritizing value also means steering away from the hard sell, which means you shouldn’t promote your properties and services in each email you send.
The example below doesn’t just promote services and properties; it also provides informative and valuable content for the reader:
Include a clear call to action
Every email should guide recipients toward a specific action. Use clear, compelling CTAs to encourage engagement. Just one CTA in an email can increase clicks by over 371%.
For example, a CTA like “Book Your Free Home Valuation Today” or “View This Property Before It’s Gone” creates urgency and motivates recipients to take the next step.
Place CTAs prominently within your email and ensure they stand out visually.
Below is an example of a strong CTA at the end of a real estate email that encourages the reader to take action and visit a website:
Optimize for mobile devices
Over 40% of emails are opened on mobile devices, so you must ensure your emails are mobile-friendly.
You can do this by using responsive design, keeping subject lines short, and using easily readable fonts and button-style CTAs.
Mobile optimization ensures a seamless experience for all recipients, regardless of their device.
Leverage email marketing software for automation
As mentioned earlier, automation tools allow you to schedule and send emails at optimal times, saving you time and ensuring consistent communication.
Use automation for tasks like sending welcome emails, follow-ups after inquiries, or drip campaigns that guide leads through the buying or selling process.
Let’s say you’re creating an automated campaign for new leads. This could include a welcome email followed by a series of educational emails about the local market, financing options, and the home-buying process.
Later in this article, we will discuss the best email marketing automation tools for you to use.
Monitor and analyze campaign performance
Track metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to measure the success of your email campaigns. Use this data to identify what works well and where improvements are needed.
For example, if a particular subject line results in high open rates, you can replicate its style in future campaigns. Or, if recipients aren’t clicking on your CTAs, consider testing different wording, placements, or designs.
Comply with email marketing regulations
Adhering to regulations like the CAN-SPAM Act is vital for maintaining a professional reputation and avoiding penalties.
Include an unsubscribe link in every email, provide accurate sender information, and avoid misleading subject lines.
You should use a clear sender name, such as “Jane Doe Realty,” and ensure your unsubscribe process is straightforward.
Compliance not only builds trust with your audience, but it also ensures your campaigns are ethical.
Test before sending
Before sending your campaign, test it thoroughly to ensure everything works how you want it to. Check for spelling errors, broken links, and formatting issues.
In one survey, it was found that 80% of respondents see spelling and grammatical errors in emails to be unacceptable.
Use your email marketing tool to preview the email on different clients—like Gmail and Outlook—to ensure a consistent experience for all recipients.
Testing allows you to catch and fix issues before your email reaches your audience.
The Best Email Marketing Tools for Real Estate
Email marketing tools help you create, send, and analyze effective email campaigns. Below, we’ve curated a list of the top five tools for real estate email marketing for you to consider:
1. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing tools, known for its user-friendly interface and powerful automation features.
It offers pre-designed templates, a drag-and-drop editor, and robust analytics to track performance.
Why it’s great for real estate
Mailchimp is ideal for agents and brokers just starting with email marketing, as it offers a free plan for smaller email lists. The platform’s automation features are suitable for sending personalized drip campaigns or property alerts.
What it’s ideal for
Small to medium-sized real estate businesses looking for an affordable, all-in-one marketing solution.
2. Constant Contact
Constant Contact is another widely-used email marketing platform that provides customizable templates, list segmentation, and excellent customer support. It also integrates with tools like Facebook Ads and even management software.
Why it’s great for real estate
Its intuitive interface makes creating professional-looking real estate emails and managing large contact lists easy.
The tool’s event management features are particularly useful for open house invitations and RSVP tracking.
What it’s ideal for
Brokers and agents who frequently host events, such as open houses or real estate seminars, and want seamless event promotion through email.
3. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign focuses on automation and customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities, making it more than just an email marketing tool.
Real estate professionals can set up complex workflows based on client behaviors and preferences.
Why it’s great for real estate
ActiveCampaign is good for lead nurturing with advanced automation, allowing brokers and agents to send highly personalized content based on how prospects interact with your previous real estate emails.
It also integrates with popular CRM platforms for enhanced client management.
What it’s ideal for
Brokers and firms with larger teams and a focus on advanced segmentation and lead nurturing.
4. HubSpot
HubSpot combines email marketing with powerful CRM and marketing automation features. It offers tools for creating personalized emails, tracking client interactions, and analyzing campaign performance.
Why it’s great for real estate
HubSpot’s all-in-one nature means brokers and agents can manage their entire marketing funnel from a single platform. Its robust reporting tools help track client engagement and campaign ROI.
What it’s ideal for
Real estate professionals looking for an integrated platform to manage email campaigns alongside CRM and other marketing tools.
5. Sendinblue
Sendinblue combines email marketing with SMS marketing, offering automation, segmentation, and transactional email capabilities.
Its free plan includes unlimited contacts, making it accessible to small teams.
Why it’s great for real estate
Sendinblue’s SMS capabilities make it a good choice for agents and brokers who want to combine email with text messaging for more direct communication. Its automation features are also highly customizable.
What it’s ideal for
Agents and brokers who want to integrate SMS communication with their email campaigns to improve response rates.
What to Do Once Your Email Campaigns Are Up and Running
Once you’ve nailed your real estate email marketing, you’ll start to see tons of new leads coming in, which will naturally lead to more deals and a higher volume of transactions.
But how do you deal with multiple transactions at once without anything falling through the cracks? This is where transaction management software comes in.
Paperless Pipeline is a purpose-built real estate transaction management platform designed to automate and streamline the entire transaction process.
This means brokers, agents, and transaction coordinators can take a hands-off approach to the process, saving time on tedious admin tasks and reducing paperwork.
Visit our website for a free full-feature Paperless Pipeline trial and see how our software can simplify your transactions and close deals seamlessly.