Real estate email marketing is how an agent stays in touch with the people most likely to send business: past clients, the sphere, and leads who are not ready yet. It is quiet work. A good email arrives, is useful, and reminds someone that you are the agent they know when a friend asks or a move comes up.
Marketing For Realtor is an independent referral service, not a marketing agency. When you send the form, your details go to an independent marketing agency that prepares any proposal and does any work.
What agents send
- New listings and price changes, for buyers who saved a search or asked about an area.
- Market notes, a short monthly note on what you see in your areas, in plain words.
- Past-client touches, such as a home anniversary, a seasonal maintenance reminder or a local event.
- Lead follow-up, a short series for people who asked a question and are months away from moving.
- Open house invitations, for neighbors and buyers who follow an area.
Keep each email about one thing, written the way you talk, with one clear next step. A link to a listing page or an area page on your own site keeps the conversation with you.
Building the list
The best lists are built from people who asked to hear from you: open house sign-ins, website sign-ups, saved searches, past clients and the people you know. Ask permission plainly, say what you will send, and send that.
CAN-SPAM: the rules on every marketing email
The FTC’s compliance guide for the CAN-SPAM Act sets out what a commercial email must do:
- Do not use false or misleading header information: the from, to and reply-to must be accurate.
- Do not use deceptive subject lines.
- Identify the message as an ad.
- Include your valid physical postal address.
- Tell recipients how to opt out of future email from you.
- Honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days, and keep the opt-out working for at least 30 days after you send.
- Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. The business and the company sending the email may both be liable.
Breaking the rules can bring large civil penalties per email. Fair Housing applies to listing emails as it does to any housing ad, and your state’s license-law advertising rules apply too. This is general information, not legal advice: for a legal question, ask a lawyer.
Measure what matters
Opens and clicks show whether people read your email, but the number that matters is replies: past clients who sent a friend, owners who asked for a value, buyers who booked a showing. Keep each email’s link pointed at a page on your site, so you can see which ones brought people back, and put every reply into your CRM with where it came from.
Plain or designed
A short note that reads like a message from you often feels more personal than a heavily designed newsletter. New-listing alerts usually carry a photo. Try both and keep what your list answers.
What an agency can do for your email
- Set up the email tool in your name and bring in your contacts.
- Build sign-up forms on your site and connect them to your CRM.
- Write a monthly note and a follow-up series in your voice.
- Set up new-listing alerts that link to your own IDX pages.
- Check every send for a postal address and a working opt-out.
Email is the follow-up half of lead generation: ads and search start conversations, and email keeps them going.
Want email that keeps past clients close? Get a written proposal.
Questions agents ask
Does CAN-SPAM apply to real estate emails?
Yes, to commercial email. It requires accurate headers, honest subject lines, a valid physical postal address, a clear opt-out and opt-outs honored within 10 business days.
How often should I email past clients?
Often enough that they remember you, rarely enough that each email is welcome. Pick a rhythm you can keep, such as a monthly note, and watch replies and opt-outs.
Can I email people from an open house sign-in sheet?
Say on the sheet that you will send updates, send what you said you would, and give everyone an easy way to opt out.
Do state license rules apply to my emails?
Your state’s license-law advertising rules apply to your advertising, and marketing email is advertising. Ask your broker or your state’s real estate commission what your emails must show.
Who owns my email list if I use an agency?
Ask for the email account to be set up in your name, so the list, its history and its opt-outs stay with you if you change agencies.
Does this site send email for agents?
No. Marketing For Realtor is an independent referral service, not a marketing agency. When you send the form, your details go to an independent marketing agency that prepares any proposal and does any work.
Request a proposal