40% Open Rates on your Cold Estate and Letting Agency Email Lists

Spam emails in UK Estate Agency

Just think .. it’s a demanding Friday morning and you log on to your emails, you have a handful of really nice Rightmove and Zoopla emails, few solicitor chasing emails and then there are the unsolicited multitude of sales emails from an estate Agency PropTech firm. Those emails that disrupts your mojo. Now you might be lucky and you might just have the just one email, and let’s be honest, it only take one left click to send that *%*&**** email to the trash bin – never to cast a shadow over your inbox again.

… but that PropTech or Estate Agent software supplier, what has he or she done to deserve that .. what’s the harm in them sending that email to every agent in the UK, like a fisherman casting their net as far and as wide as possible? After all some agents might take the bait?

Yet, its not just one email is it .. its ten, twenty, thirty emails a day

.. but then we go and send thousands of emails to our database

The issue we are faced with as estate and letting agents is that our one email isn’t just one email. Its one ‘sales’ email that sits along side emails from others. .. and its not just estate agents sending these emails .. its every type of firm sending these ‘sales’ emails

So all ud think .. how can we cut through this clutter? To make our email stand out. We are all trying to cut through the muddle/clutter and make our email campaign the one that works. But here lies the issue .. every agent and every firm trying to sell something is trying to cut through the same muddle/clutter  … and that in itself creates even more clutter.

And the real human beings, (the ones you are hoping will become your landlords and vendors) who are on the receiving end are worn-out and cynical by it all.

Why do I say this .. well don’t you feel jaded by the cr*p emails in your email box?  This email arrived in my inbox. How would it make you feel?

Look what I received yesterday …

Hi Chris

[Who starts an email with Hi .. and anyway.. you don’t know me, so who gave you permission to interrupt my day?]

Last month we opened our third Estate Agency office in [name removed to save their blushes].

[Tell me why I should care?]

[Name of firm removed to protect the guilty] is a professional estate and lettings agency, with over 23 year’s experience

[Describe to me how does this help me?].

Because we have already let and sold all our properties in the first week, we are looking for property to sell/let.

[So you have sold all your houses .. what does that mean to me .. and whilst you are at it … explain to me what are you trying to sell me?]

Your property would be put on every website, including Rightmove and Zoopla. So, at the heart of it … you are getting the exposure for your property.

[I am intrigued to know how you know ‘exposure’ is my problem?]

Therefore, are running an EXTRAORDINARY OFFER until the 1st November 2017!

[You are in a rush aren’t you.]

… and you don’t need to pay us a penny up front.

[Hold on … You still haven’t explained to me what you are selling and why the f****** hell it matters to me.]

Our office is having an open evening on the 3rrd  of October 2017

[Did I need to know that?.]

If you would like further information on using  [Name of firm removed to protect the guilty]  please either email me or call me on………

[OMG – where is the delete button]

Kind regards

[Did you really mean that?]

[insert name of manager]

Traditional estate agency marketing emails and flyers are constantly written and re-written, but we’re so afraid of becoming undistinguishable and invisible, that we as an industry continue to use marketing tactics that do nothing to help grow our agencies.

There is something worse than being invisible  …. And that is disaffecting and alienating the very people we are trying to attract.

The best estate (and lettings) agency marketing starts with the customer’s story – not yours

Every agent reading this has the chance to do that and to practice understanding, sympathy and empathy.

Want to know the solution?

Go to my blog  www.landlordfarming.com and you will find this same article (posted 6th October 2017) .. but with answer  … a copy of the email which when sent to a cold list of Linkedin connections, has open rates of 35% to 40%, unsubscribed in the numbers that are insignificant and people happily clicking on the links to their hearts content

 

 

Christopher Watkin

I teach, guide, support, mentor, consult, counsel, partner many hundreds of UK Estate and Letting Agents in their quest to grow their estate and lettings agencies business. Old school techniques of touting, landlords wanted leaflets, ring us for a free valuation, we have sold this in your street leaflets don't work anymore. There are too many competitor agents .. meaning cheap fees are epidemic, overvaluing is almost a norm to get the stock and don’t even mention about the online/hybrid threat. So a few years ago, I set about looking around the UK and spotted that certain agents (not many mind you) in certain towns were still seen as the ‘go to person on property’, the person the newspaper editor rang up every week for a comment and I looked at what they did and they were doing some thing quite remarkable…. Only one thing but they were doing it so well .. and reaping the reward in terms of decent listings and decent fees, happy staff, decent sales pipeline and exchange income, managed lettings portfolios in the many hundreds .. but more importantly, they really enjoyed the job… they enjoyed getting up in the morning and people looked up to them Over 400 agents around the UK are on a mission to change the way our Estate and Lettings agency profession is perceived and looked upon, doing it town by town, city by city. I guide these 400 agents, teach them, mentor them and support them to be seen in a different light, to be seen as the ‘go to person for property’, actually be the ‘local property expert’ and prove it. Christopher Watkin 07950 147 572 christopher@christopherwatkin.co.uk

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