By Mark Brodsky
It’s happened to all of us. We’ve signed up for a mailing list thinking we’ll be receiving a monthly email when all of a sudden, emails are landing in our mailbox on a daily basis. Whether it’s shoes, kitchen appliances or information from an IT guru, being bombarded with emails is annoying. We quickly delete them or unsubscribe.
If a business has something of value to share on a daily basis, they can post it on Twitter or Facebook. Email is not the platform to be sharing it.
So how often is too often? It depends on what you’re sending and to whom.
Many Realtors find that a monthly newsletter keeps them top-of-mind. You’ll find that an email with articles, market updates and current listings does best when it’s sent on a monthly basis. Send it more often and people start to lose interest.
With a newsletter, the links that people click on most often are the listings. Some Realtors have found success simply sending out e-blasts with a current listing or two, and when sent infrequently, they can be effective. The risk of sending only these is that when people receive an email from you they know it’s sales-oriented and if they don’t have a few moments to look at the photos, your email gets deleted.
Unfortunately, getting great results from your email campaign isn’t an exact science. The best way to gauge how the emails are working is by checking your open rate. If the numbers are relatively consistent, your timing is probably right.
Another factor that gives you insight as to how you’re doing: the number of people who unsubscribe. Depending on the service you use, people may be sending their requests directly to you or clicking an unsubscribe link in your email and removing themselves.
If you’re sending out more than one type of email, consider setting up a separate list in your database and giving your client base the choice of which list they want to be on. When people receive emails they’re interested in, they’ll open them and pay attention.
Mark Brodsky runs Mark Brodsky Digital Communications, a company that specializes in email marketing and social media. In addition to email newsletters and targeted campaigns, MBDC co-ordinates the setup for major social networking sites and ensures that they’re co-ordinated, so one piece of content gets shared many ways. www.mbdigitalcommunications.com;Email [email protected]
