Agents - is drip email hurting your real estate business?

On the surface, drip email might seem like a great way to keep leads on the hook without having to invest much - but in reality, canned messaging just doesn’t work. And not only does it not work, opting leads in to receive drip messaging campaigns can actually hurt your real estate business. (We do tons of research on the effectiveness of lead messaging campaigns here at Zurple. After all, effective lead nurturing is our specialty!)

Nevertheless, for busy agents the idea of a “set it and forget it” drip marketing campaign is too good to pass up. But before you take that plunge, consider the following three major risks:

1. Abusing email privileges can easily annoy leads

   You most likely agree that being annoying is not a good way to start a new business relationship, right?
   
   People’s patience with unsolicited email is minimal at best these days - so a descriptive email opt-in process that discloses what types of emails your lead will be receiving and how often is critical. Don’t risk losing leads to poor email etiquette.
   
   
   

2. Canned content may never end up in the inbox
   

   Email clients have been dealing with spammers for a long time now – and they’ve become really great at identifying things that could potentially be spam. Due to these tight restrictions, even legitimate messages can sometimes fall victim to the spam filter.
   
   So what do email clients look for when determining whether or not a message should be considered spam? Two main things; email traits and mailing patterns. Within the email itself, email providers evaluate the subject line and inspect the body content to identify things like the ratio of photos or links to text and excessive punctuation. As for sending patterns, email clients look at both the frequency and volume of email sends from your email address. All of these things combined create a spam score, and if your message exceeds what’s considered to be a “green light” score that will land you in the inbox – off to spam you go.
   
   Unfortunately, if you are using a drip email provider that isn’t built to effectively manage filter triggers, you can end up with some major problems down the line, which leads us to…

3. Getting marked as spam damages your online reputation

Being marked as spam doesn’t stop at the filters – your email reputation also lies in the hands of your leads. Think about how many emails you get a day. Do you read them all? Do you delete a lot of them? If you’re consistently being emailed content you didn’t ask for, do you mark those messages as spam? Always keep in mind: How you manage email is likely very similar to how your leads manage email.

This is a problem for two major reasons. First, being marked as a spam sender flags you as a not-so-trustworthy person in the eyes of the email hosts – which reduces the chances that your emails will make it past the dreaded filters. Second, being marked as spam enough times can get you blacklisted – which is not only a big pain in the butt that’s difficult to reverse, it’s a problem that will limit your ability to effectively reach inboxes in the future – even with important, relevant emails.

You can avoid these issues all together by taking the time to write personalized, relevant emails to your leads on a one-on-one basis. It is more time consuming, but the benefits far outweigh the risk of drip marketing pitfalls.

Don’t have the time?

Do you get leads from Zillow or Trulia?

Clean up your act: