You are emailing clients and leads weekly, if not daily, not too mention you are most likely sending texts, too! Whether we are communicating wirelessly to remind each other about an appointment or we are using these tools for marketing purposes, they will be hearing from us in some electronic fashion.  We have found some very useful tips and stats from sources like Hubspot, Inman News, KISSmetrics, Marketing Sherpa and many more to provide you these helpful lists below.

When sending emails, remember:

Worst open rate for emails – Sunday
Top 3 days for open rate – Thursday, Wednesday, Tuesday
Open rate – Best time to send – Between 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Never send marketing emails between 4 am – 9am (statistics show the lowest open rate)

When managing your contacts, remember:

• Grow your list(s) at all times.  The first email you send to your new opt in users will have the best open rate. However, it will decrease moving forward and won’t increase until email 5 or 6.  This means you must be expanding your database regularly to make up for the fact that your open rate is going down. To even out the the norm, expansion is key.
• Create LISTS – plural. Statistics show that two to six different lists saw a better click through rate than just one list. Segmenting your main contact list into lists will benefit you in the long run because you can provide better targeted content. For example: Buyers, Sellers, Zip Codes, Families, Retired, Age, etc.  (2-6 Lists gained more clicks then 1 lists in the statistics found)

When creating email content, remember:

• Keep your options open. If you want a higher click through rate, give your audience more links to click.  Total Market Dominator says the most clicks come from videos (55%), blogs (25%) and Facebook (11%).
• Get personal. Happy Grasshopper and MailChimp offered stats showing that non-real estate emails saw an increased number of unique opens and click through rates. Providing real estate related emails is important, however make a personal connection with other valuable content too! It’s been proven to catch the eyes of the audience.
• Be the sender. Having an email sent by you versus the company has a slightly higher open rate.
  (Example: From “Amber Alcaraz, Real Estate Inc” vs. From “Real Estate Inc”.)
• Learn from others. Research the your Top Competitors and Opt-In to their emails. See what they are doing and evaluate how you can improve.

General Email Tips

1. Send personal messages. Avoid the “Too Busy” auto-respond messages. Consumers may feel as though your business is too busy to take the time to work with them. Show them you care.
2. Stay concise in your messages. Ask yourself, “What will my reader take away from this message?” Remember, it is a message, not an essay.
3. Take care of prospects by communicating with them promptly. It doesn’t matter how far in advance they are looking for a home or planning for financing. It’s better to nurture them as soon as possible and not lose their business due to lack of communication.
4. It’s OKAY to let them know that you are on the way out the door, or in an appointment.  Assure them you have read their message and will give their message the attention they deserve when you return to your email.  Stay consistent in being prompt, this will assure your lead or client they can trust and depend on you as their real estate professional.

For more resources, look at these examples from Inman of how text in an email can be altered to be positive and assuring.