Getting Your Real Estate Newsletter Ready for 2022
Putting together a real estate newsletter every month for your clients, sphere of influence, and leads can be, quite frankly, a pain in the rear. Real estate agents are always looking for the best newsletter template, examples, samples, ideas for newsletter content to talk about - and most of all, they want it free.
Collecting all of this information, putting it together, formatting it, and sending it out each and every single month (or week) can be a hassle, and it's one we've dealt with at Happy Grasshopper for years. Luckily, we've got you covered.
We will begin by going over the important aspects of a real estate newsletter and important things to keep in mind and at the end, we give you some content that you can include in your newsletter this year (Click here to jump to the sample content now). Since it's a bit cold out there, we selected June as the month for the example, think warm cozy thoughts!)
Why Should I Send A Real Estate Newsletter?
Sending a real estate newsletter is a great way to keep current clients, past clients, and your leads engaged with you, even if they're not actively seeking a property right now. By keeping them engaged, it keeps you top of mind so that when they are ready to transact, you stand a better chance of being the agent that they call.
Sending a newsletter is important because real estate agents need consistent communication channels in place as much as possible in order to stay ahead of the competition who may be doing the same things. It allows you to position yourself as an industry expert who is always keeping up with the latest developments and helps to build trust from your audience.
From a marketing perspective, an email newsletter is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to reach and engage your audience when done right.
Should My Real Estate Newsletter Be Monthly Or Weekly?
The questions that may be on your mind are: "How often should I be sending a newsletter?" or, "Is monthly better than weekly?" The answer is different for everyone and depends on the individual agent's goals. Ultimately it comes down to what makes sense for you as an individual real estate professional.
It also depends on your audience. If you are sending the newsletter to brand new leads, a weekly email might make sense. If you are sending your real estate newsletter to past clients or old, unresponsive leads, a weekly email may not stand as well because there are fewer opportunities to provide new information.
The most important thing when deciding on sending a monthly or weekly real estate newsletter is ensuring that you can do it consistently. If you are promising a monthly newsletter, make sure you send it every single month or you risk being seen as someone who isn't doing their job - and no one wants to work with someone who isn't doing their job.
Give Me Ideas For My Real Estate Newsletter!
Again, your audience is important to keep in mind when you are thinking about ideas for your real estate newsletter. New leads are looking for information on real estate, so you would want to include more real estate information in those. For a newsletter to past clients, sphere of influence, or old leads, you will want to make your newsletter less about real estate and more about engagement.
Your newsletter should position you as an expert in the industry while also showing that you are a real human being and care about the same things they care about.
There are a lot of ways to take advantage of this, but the simplest way is probably just being personal. It should not be a hard sell to get them to transact today. Instead, it should feel more like 2 friends talking about what's going on in the community. The newsletter could be as simple as an update on what you have been up to lately (professionally and personally) and some talking points about topics that they would find interesting. You'll find some examples below.
Words of wisdom: If it looks like #marketing, it's safe to ignore.
But Nobody Ever Engages With My Newsletters!
Engagement for your real estate newsletter can come in multiple ways - they can reply to it, they can click on links in it, or they can pick up the phone and call or text you. These are the goals - you want as much interaction as possible.
Before they can ever engage with the content, though, they need to actually open it, so let's start with the subject line. One of our core beliefs at Happy Grasshopper is "If It Looks Like Marketing, It's Safe To Ignore." You have about 8 words and 3 seconds to convince someone to open your email once it lands in the inbox. If you received an email that had the subject line "Monthly Newsletter," would you open it? Probably not.
Instead, pick what you think would be the most engaging article or topic in your real estate newsletter and come up with a subject line that generates curiosity about it. You don't want to use clickbait subject lines that have nothing to do with the newsletter, but you still want to get them to open and read it.
Once they open your real estate newsletter, the whole purpose is to get engagement, so make sure you give people a reason to interact with it (and you). One of the best ways to do this is to provide some information, create a question to build curiosity, and leave it unanswered.
Here are 2 examples:
"There were 175 new listings and 84 closed sales with an average sale price of $315,000 in *city* last month. The average days on market is 8 days."
"Average days on market this month was only 8 days and we only have 3 weeks of inventory! This could have a major effect on you and your home. If you'd like to learn more, give me a call."
This is essentially the same information, but which one would you engage with?
Real Estate Newsletter Content Ideas
Ok, let's get to the meat and potatoes and give you some content ideas that you can use this month in your real estate newsletter. Just remember, if you aren't following the advice we discussed above, you could be wasting a lot of time. Make sure you read it. If you have questions, please post them in the comments below. We promise we'll answer!
What you can write about:
- Market Stats - you know your market better than we do. Just remember what we said about creating curiosity.
- Closings - Did you close any deals this month? Offer up congratulations in your newsletter. Remember to keep it about them and not about you.
- Birthdays - Do any of your clients have birthdays this month? Wish them a happy birthday publicly!
- Houseaversarries - Yeah, it's not a real word, but you can celebrate the anniversary of closings from years past.
- Upcoming Holidays
Remember, the point of the newsletter is engagement, so we include the major holidays as well as some holidays that you can have some fun with in your newsletter. You don't have to include all of them, obviously. Pick a few that would be most special to you and your database. Thinking summer-ish thoughts, enjoy some future holidays you can start planning to share now.
Month-long Holidays
- June is "Effective Communications Month" "PTSD Awareness Month" "Dairy Month" and "Iced Tea Month"
Week-long Holidays
- June 6th-12th is Pet Appreciation Week and National Gardening Week
- June 13-19th is Flag Week and National Email Week
Daily Holidays
- June 1st - National Say Something Nice Day, Global Day of Parents
- June 2nd: National Leave The Office Early Day (we're in!)
- June 4th: National Doughnut Day
- June 5th: National Environment Day
- June 6th: D Day, National Cancer Survivors Day
- June 8th: Best Friends Day
- June 14th: Flag Day, National Blood Donor Day (here's 13 surprising facts about the American Flag)
- June 15th: Smile Power Day
- June 19th: Juneteenth, National Kissing Day
- June 19th: Fathers Day
- June 21st: National Selfie Day, International Yoga Day
- June 24th: National Handshake Day
- June 25th: National Take Your Dog To Work Day
- June 27th: National PTSD Awareness Day, National Bingo Day
- June 29th: Hug Holiday
- June 30th: Social Media Day
Here's your Newsletter Bonus!
If you are only collecting this information for your real estate newsletter, you are missing out on a lot of opportunities. Your newsletter should only be a small part of your monthly communication plan, but the research you do to put your newsletter together is where the gold is.
As you are putting together the list of clients who have birthdays and houseaversarries this month, make sure to mark those down on your calendar so that you can call and text them personally (we provide a nifty real estate automation tool that can do this for you).
Turn your newsletter into a blog post for the world to read.
Record yourself and turn your newsletter into a video for the world to watch!
Share holidays on social media - these can get a lot of engagement. If you are super creative, create a meme or gif for them and get even more engagement and shares. Remember don't just post the holiday, write something that gets people to engage with it!
What other ideas have you used successfully in your real estate newsletters in the past? Post in the comments below and we may add it to our list!