Digital marketing is a crucial tool for every Nigerian business. Realtors are constantly looking for innovative strategies to generate leads and convert them into buying clients. While social media and online advertising are popular choices, business owners often overlook that email marketing is an effective marketing method with a great potential. In this article, we will explain the concept of email marketing, highlight its benefits, and recommend the best email marketing services for real estate agents.
Table of contents
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is a targeted marketing technique that involves sending transactional messages or newsletters through email to a list of subscribers who have willingly provided their information.
Email marketing is different from the traditional method of sending direct emails. It offers more robust benefits. It allows realtors to engage with potential clients directly, nurturing leads and building lasting relationships through personalized content.
When you run paid or organic ads on social media, it is very important to get the names and email address of those who show interest in the property you are selling. To make this more effective, you can offer them a lead magnet in the form of ebooks, free tours or webinars which can either be free or low-cost. Then, you can follow them up with email marketing campaigns till they become paying customers.
Why Use Email Marketing as a Real Estate Agent?
As a real estate agent, here are the reasons you need to add email marketing to your marketing activities:
1. Cost-Effectiveness
If you are a real estate agent, email marketing is a cost-effective means of reaching your targeted audience without breaking the bank. When compared to traditional advertising methods, email marketing offers cost-effective results. By writing personalized and engaging emails, you can effectively nurture leads, thereby increasing the likelihood of converting them into clients.
2. Distraction-Free targeting
Unlike social media marketing where a prospect can easily be distracted by a funny video, which in turn reduces your chances of getting their attention, email marketing is an effective approach to retarget your leads and eventually convert them into paying clients.
3. Targeted and Customizable Campaigns
One notable advantage of email marketing services is the ability to segment your audience based on the stage they are on your funnel. Nigerian realtors can categorize their email lists into different customer groups. This allows you to send targeted messages to your prospects, leading to higher open rates and finally converting them from leads to clients.
4. Increased Conversion Rates
Email marketing has been proven to be an excellent channel for driving conversions. Nigerian realtors can use persuasive copywriting techniques and catchy calls-to-action (CTAs) in their email campaigns to guide potential buyers through the sales funnel.
Key Considerations for Choosing the Best Email Marketing Service Providers
1. Pricing options and plans
When considering the best email marketing services, you should consider the pricing options and plans. Some of the platforms offer lifetime plans while some are monthly or yearly subscription based.
2. Features and functionalities
As realtor, consider your marketing goals and choose an email marketing platform that offers the features and functionalities that will enable you to achieve your goals.
3. Email automation capabilities
What is the essence of email marketing without automation? The email marketing service must allow maximum automation. This helps to reduce manual work and increase your productivity.
4. Deliverability rates
The best email marketing platforms ensure that your recipients receive your newsletter and transactional emails directly in their inbox and not spam or junk folders.
The Best Email Marketing Services for Real Estate Agents
Sendy
If you are a realtor who needs the cheapest email marketing platform that enables you to create unlimited email lists, add unlimited contacts and send 10,000 emails for just $1, Sendy is the solution. It is a self hosted email newsletter application that lets you send bulk emails through Amazon Simple Email Service (SES). There are no monthly fees. You only pay for what you send. You only need to buy the lifetime licence for $69, and a web-hosting account with Cpanel access. Meanwhile, your cost will be extremely reduced if your business has a website already.
Features of Sendy
- Integration with your website through API
- Send up to 100,000 emails per day at $1 per 10,000 emails.
- Autoresponder
- List segmentation
- Email scheduling
- List and subscriber management
- Detailed reports
- Automation
- Schedule emails
- Custom HTML email templates
- Bounce and complaint handling
- Double opt in, etc.
To configure Sendy on your web server, you can contact us.
Zoho Campaigns
Zoho Campaigns is a marketing automation tool designed for businesses of all sizes, enabling the automation of their entire marketing process through email. It serves as an affordable option for realtors. The paid plan costs as low as ₦900 per month, billed annually with a maximum of 500 contacts. If you want to have more than 500 contacts, you will need to upgrade your plan.
Features of Zoho Campaigns
- Autoresponder
- Email scheduling
- Email templates
- Drag and drop email template builder
- Funnel automation
- Live chat & email support
- Integration with your website through the API
- Campaign Reports, etc.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit is a powerful email marketing tool that enables you to expand your email list and effortlessly send automated emails to new subscribers or choose to manually send messages whenever needed. They offer a free plan with limited features. The paid plan starts from $9 per month, billed annually with a maximum of 300 contacts. If you want to have more than 300 contacts, you will need to upgrade your plan.
Features of ConvertKit
- Unlimited forms.
- Email scheduling
- Audience tagging and segmentation
- Live chat & email suppor
- tCreator Network
- Free migration from another tool
- Automated email sequences
- Visual automation builders
- Landing pages for those who do not have websites.
- Third-party integrations through the API, etc.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp, established in 2001, has evolved into one of the leading email marketing platforms. Over the years, it has gained immense popularity as a tool for handling email campaigns. They have a free plan which gives access to 500 contacts and a single email list. The most affordable paid plan starts at $13 per month for 500 contacts with very limited features. To have access to extended features and contacts, you need to upgrade your plan.
Features of Mailchimp
- Landing pages
- Email scheduling
- Landing Pages
- Pop up forms
- Live chat & email support
- Third-party integrations through the API.
- Custom HTML templates
- Campaign Reports
- Drag and drop email template builder, etc.
GetResponse
This email marketing platform is both affordable and user-friendly, enabling you to easily send emails to your clients and leads, grow your email list, and automate your marketing efforts.
Like the other three mentioned earlier, they do offer a free plan that gives you access to 500 contacts per month. They also offer a 30 days free trial for any of the plans you decide to go for. The lowest plan costs $19 per month for 1000 contacts and you can send unlimited emails.
Features of GetResponse
- Newsletters
- AI email generator
- Autoresponders
- AI campaign generator
- Automation builder
- Conversion funnels
- Website and landing pages
- Signup forms and popups
- Excellent customer support, etc.
NOTE: When you use the free plan of GetResponse, Mailchimp, ConvertKit and Zoho Campaigns, the email provider’s will include their branding in all your campaigns which is not good for your personal branding. You should either go for the paid plan if you can afford it or you opt in for Sendy.
Conclusion
In this article, you have learnt about benefits of using email marketing in your real estate business and the best email marketing services for real estate agents.
Among the options described in this writeup, Sendy is the most recommended because it offers a lifetime license without restrictions on the number of campaigns and email lists you can have access. It also remains the most flexible option for Nigerian realtors
We can set it up on your server for just $100 (excluding domain name and hosting fees) and enjoy the juice of email marketing without restriction. Contact us today.
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