Real estate email deliverability has been burnt – 8 ways to fix

Remember the famous line by Meg Ryan, “I go online, and my breath catches in my chest until I hear three little words: You’ve got mail.” My oh my, how times have changed? That was the late 90s. Twenty-five years later, fraudsters have taken the fun out of emails, and now there’s no guarantee that your email will make it to its intended reader.

Growth in Cybercrime in Australia & New Zealand

Due to the massive increase in the amount of spam and fraudulent emails that are sent across the internet each day – email security increased considerably after cyber attacks increased.

According to Cyber.gov.au’s last report, “In Australia, we saw an increase in the number and sophistication of cyber threats, making crimes like extortion, espionage, and fraud easier to replicate at a greater scale. The ACSC received over 76,000 cybercrime reports, an increase of nearly 13 per cent from the previous financial year.

The New Zealand Cyber team are also hot on the trail of fraudulent activity with many security measures in place. The NCSC’s latest report advised that their capabilities prevented an estimated $65.4 million in harm to nationally significant organisations.

Many real estate email broadcasts no longer arrive

Sending emails to a large group of recipients might seem like a great idea (to send one message to many in one fail swoop), but it’s actually riddled with problems – you could lose your authority or worst still, you could become blacklisted.

Big email providers like Gmail and Microsoft, as well as the IT departments of bigger organisations, closely monitor emails sent to people on their network and decide whether your email ends up a) in the recipient inbox, b) in a spam folder, or c) is not delivered at all.

Ultimately you want as few (to no) bounces, unsubscribes and spam complaints. Follow my 8 point check list to ensure you get the most out of your real estate email broadcasts.

1. Use smaller real estate email lists with fewer contacts

The overall aim of the game is to monitor your email open rates and aim for high results. If the ISPs and big email providers like Gmail and Microsoft see that people want to open and read your emails, your email marketing will be more successful.

It’s, therefore, always better to send emails to smaller groups of people who share similar interests (e.g. homeowners versus landlords versus tenants) and to personalise the email to each group.

2. Check in with your real estate contacts regularly

Sending your contacts a prompt to move in and out of your different lists not only helps you to keep your email lists up to date but shows that you are interested in where they are at right now (without needing a cold call) and that you are an organised and proactive property professional.

Make sure you ask your contacts about their current situation three times a year. Are they happy as they are (not looking to transact), or are they looking to buy, rent, lease or sell?

3. Remain relevant to homeowners at all times

For those who are not currently in the market to transact, you can keep in touch with them with lifestyle content, i.e., topics about the neighbourhood, home life and upcoming local events. These topics will have broader appeal, are helpful to anyone who lives in the neighbourhood, and most importantly, help to keep you front of mind.

4. Make updating or unsubscribing super easy

To meet anti-spam laws, you must give your contacts the ability to update their subscription.

Every email you send should have a link in the footer for the recipient to update their current personal information or mailing list preferences or unsubscribe.

5. Remove emails that bounce

If you have a big email list with lots of out-of-date email addresses, you will get many emails bouncing, and you could be penalised for this. A high number of email bounces can be a red flag to block or mark your future emails as spam.

Tools are available to help you check the deliverability of emails in your list, so if you haven’t sent an email to your contact database for several months, I advise you to check your email list first. You can then remove emails that will bounce ahead of sending your next email broadcast.

6. Look at your unsubscribe rates

If an email that is sent out results in a lot of people unsubscribing, it might be a good opportunity to reconsider what you are sending and to whom. For example, if you send every new property listing to your entire real estate database, there will be a large number of people who are not currently ‘in the market’ to transact.

7. Minimise spam complaints

In terms of spam complaints, you are only allowed one complaint per 1,000 contacts, and if you go over this, your email marketing software provider is supposed to stop you from sending any further emails to anyone on this same list.

8. Cease emailing people who are no longer interested in real estate updates

Similarly, if contacts haven’t engaged with your emails for an extended period of time, stop sending emails to them. A good CRM should automatically monitor people’s behaviour when it comes to email opens and link clicks and will move a contact in and out of lists based on their level of interest and engagement.

Engage the Hoole.co team to grow your real estate brand

When you choose our marketing agency to take care of all of your brand marketing initiatives, you only pay a low monthly fee, and this gives you access to all of the expertise (people, including 9 different creative disciplines) and marketing tools that we have at our disposal.

Engaging professional digital marketers allows you to get on with what you do best, buying, selling or leasing properties for your clients. You can leave all the brand marketing to us. After all, it’s what we do best and are very good at it.

If you would like help with real estate branding, websites, or digital and social media marketing, you can organise a free 1-hour consultation with me, Melanie Hoole. Go ahead; take a step toward improving your business today!

Written by Melanie Hoole

My team and I specialise in helping real estate and property professionals perfect their personal brand, build a first-class digital profile and implement inbound marketing activities to attract leads. If you are unsure which direction to take with your digital marketing contact me for help.