Email marketing is inexpensive yet effective.
Though social media steals the headlines of late, the good old e-mail is a marketing workhorse, one that is efficient and effective. So what are the best ways to make it pay off in your leasing efforts? We’ve got a quick “how-to” ahead.
Send to those who want to hear from you
The most important aspect to your e-mail approach needs to be permission marketing—the privilege of sending relevant messages to those who have asked for them, either through a specific e-mail sign-up form, or because they have provided you with their e-mail address willingly through other means. It is important that you only add addresses to your send-to list from individuals who have knowingly given you the okay to contact them.
Create meaningful content
An e-mail newsletter offers a great opportunity to bundle news about available units, recent successes, upcoming promotions or events, and other interesting, useful information in an attractive, cheap and easy-to-move package. Don’t waste your opportunity by putting in either so much information that your reader loses interest or so little that they wonder why you bothered.
Build credibility and follow laws
By law, your recipients need to be able to let you know if they no longer wish to receive e-mails from you. Because of this, you need to make sure an unsubscribe button is easily found on the e-mails you send. The unsubscribe process, as well as a physical address or post office box for your business, are required by the CAN-SPAM Act to be included on every e-mail. (If you use an e-mail service provider, they likely will include the unsubscribe mechanism as part of their service package.) Also, it is a good idea for your reply e-mail address, Web site and phone number to be easy to find so that potential clients can reach you easily.
Remember that those on your list, like any other consumer, are bombarded by messages, many of which they may ignore, as there’s only so much time and mental capacity in a day. Don’t wear out your welcome! Too many e-mails from you could soon inspire even your most ardent supporter to click “delete.” Limit your mailings to weekly or bi-weekly e-mails for best results.
Encourage sharing
The viral aspect of social media is one of its most compelling draws. e-Mail marketing is also social in that way. We’ve been forwarding e-mails to each other since long before we were ever encouraged to “share” or tweet. Make sure that you have a “forward to a friend” option on your e-mail to make it even easier to do this. Also include a subscription link on your e-mail so that those who had it passed to them by a friend can get on your list themselves.
Make receiving and viewing easy
Add a link to your e-mails that allows recipients to put you in their address book or safe senders list to help keep your e-mails out of the black hole of their “junk mail” folders. Because there are so many things that can go wrong with the display of an e-mail depending on the platform it’s being viewed in, you’ll also want to provide a link at the top that allows recipients to view the letter in a browser instead.
Don’t ignore the mighty power of e-mail marketing; make it part of your social and online media strategy for finding qualified renters. If used intelligently, your e-mailed newsletter can share important information about your property that will help bring you new tenants and keep current tenants in touch with what is going on in your community.
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