When it comes to email, Mary Cheatham King and her Director of Marketing, Meg Gravley, have found a system that works for their North Carolina-based real estate team. In fact, in a market with a population of roughly 68,000 people, their business has grown 1,119% over the past 7 years. And it’s experienced the most growth in team production between 2019 and 2020, when email became the backbone of their marketing strategy.

Mary Cheatham and Meg discussed the two types of marketing they do in their business: attraction marketing and retention marketing. Attraction marketing refers to generating brand awareness so that people know who you are and retention marketing talks about keeping the people who have transacted with you and already know and love you connected to your business. For them, email does both. As their most utilized marketing tool, the team sends out emails to 22,000 people each and every week. Read on below for more about the power of email and tips on how to use it to grow your own business!

The 5 Benefits of Email

1.  Emails provide a variety of useful information

The majority of people receiving your email are likely not currently involved in a transaction. So whether the recipient is on the verge of buying or selling or happy as can be in their current living situation, your emails can provide information that appeals to everyone. In other words, don’t just send out real estate information. Provide a variety of content on both real estate and things that have nothing to do with real estate, but still appeals to your audience because its relevant to them.

2.  Emails are basically free to send

The Mary Cheatham King Real Estate team designs their emails in Canva and send via MailChimp. However, no matter the email platform you use, many design their pricing based on the number of emails you send. Depending on the size of your database, you may be able to send some marketing messages for free! When something is low-cost and high-impact, you can’t go wrong.

3.  Emails are easily forwardable

Unlike a mailer, an email can take on a life of its own once it leaves your outbox. Mary Cheatham and Meg shared that they get many inquires into their business from people who aren’t in their database but received one of their emails because someone believed they would be interested in some aspect of the content and shared it with them. Reaching more interested eyeballs than you expected opens the possibility to reaching even more potential clients.

4.  Emails can provide great insights about your audience

Through using emails as a core part of your marketing strategy, you can use the insights and statistics on the content to better understand who your audience is and what they are interested in. For instance, you can determine what piece of content gets the most traction, figure out what people what to read, and how they want to receive the information. And the more you know about your audience, the better you can connect with them and create a long-term relationship.

5.  Emails don’t require you to rely on an algorithm

When it comes to other types of marketing – like social media – you can try your hardest to get in front of the right people, but you aren’t guaranteed to reach them. Email, on the other hand, will always reach your database’s inbox. And even if they don’t open the email, your name is still showing up consistently in their inbox. You’re staying top of mind and therefore, getting mindshare that you likely wouldn’t have received without it.

Bringing Value Through Email

Ok. Mary Cheatham King and Meg Gravley have convinced you: emails are a must-have tool in your business. Now what? First, figure out what your cadence for delivery and keep it consistent. Then, provide value each and every time. Think of your email as a job interview – each and every time you send out a message you want your database to appreciate the quality, content, and personality behind it. You want them to think of you when they need help with real estate.

Consider the bucket system they use each and every week to categorize their content. Your bucket system may look a little different, but the important thing is to have a piece of content that fits into every bucket consistently each and every week.

1.  Listings

Mary Cheatham and Meg show a variety of listings in this section of their email. Everything from new listings, to listings that need love, to a listing you’ve recently done your own walkthrough of (giving credit of course to the listing agents). This section can showcase homes in creative ways that don’t just appeal to current buyers or sellers.

2.  Market update

Like you’ve heard time and again, it’s essential to be your database’s economist of choice. However, think about who your audience is and don’t overcomplicate the information. Rather, choose a simple statistic to showcase each time and explain why it matters to your readers. For example, Mary Cheatham films a short “carpool video” while she’s waiting to pick up her kids about the market. The email contains both the video and key takeaways for the people who don’t want to watch along with a call-to-action based on the information.

3.  Community

More than likely, the community ties you together with your audience. So showcase it. Be the guide for your community by staying in front of them with interesting content. Whether you ate out and had a great meal at a local restaurant, had a great find at a nearby shop, learned about the work of a community member in a non-profit, think about your experiences out and about in the community and share them. This is a great place to let your personality shine through.

4.  Team

It can sometimes be hard as a business to show authenticity. This is another great place to infuse your personality into the content. Show who your team is, who individual agents are, and what’s happening with your families. Let people get to know you.

Remember, it’s not necessary to start emailing at full throttle. Simply start with a consistent plan to add value to your database. You can grow over time and tweak it through trial and error. However, with such a low-cost way to reach so many potential clients in a meaningful way, don’t wait to get started!