Email marketing has pushed through the pack and is now one of the most important yet least expensive, marketing tools available to both residential and commercial builders. Email allows you to reach your leads and customers on a frequent basis without the need for a large marketing budget. When used correctly, it can be a super effective way of generating leads and ultimately sales.
Putting together a few tips for email marketing will help you ensure your tactics are working and working well!
Build Your Personas
First off, the #1 thing you have to do is identify who you are writing to. We refer to this as developing your “buyer personas”. Who is going to be receiving that awesome email you are typing up? What are you saying that really sets in with them and makes them want to read it? What keeps you out of the junk folder? These are some things you need to put a lot of thought into. This will determine your success. There are many great resources for building a buyer persona.
Segment your lists
If you have a large list or just getting started, take your list and segment it into smaller sections so you can better target your email to that specific “persona” (remember, from above..) A good way may be to separate your individual customers from your commercial customers. Bill, who is looking to have a house built for his family will have different expectations from an email than Joe who is looking to get you to help develop a neighborhood.
Calls to Action
Whoah! What the heck are these? Believe it or not, you already know what they are. Have you ever opened that email and seen something to click on, somewhere the sender wanted you to go? That is a call to action. You are sending this email to your wonderful leads and customers for a reason. What is that? What do you want them to do? For example “See our newest homes”, or maybe “visit us for a free estimate on building your new home”.
- Subscribe option – ALWAYS, and I mean always, have a subscribe option for visitors to your website. Put it somewhere prominent so a user has the ability to elect to receive information from you. After all, that great email only goes so far if you don’t have people to send it to.
- Email A Friend/Share – Why not give someone the option at the top or bottom to email or share that wonderful email with a friend. After all, you spent hours putting it together, making it right.
A question I am asked frequently I wanted to address as well. “Should I buy a list of email addresses?” My answer is no. I will cover this topic in another blog post coming soon.
Using these simple steps will help you develop your email marketing campaign to reach those interested consumers looking to build or purchase a home or building from you.
Don’t forget:
- Build your personas
- Segment your lists
- Use a call to action
- Always have a subscribe option on your website
- Always give the reader an option to share your amazing email!
