You have a fantastic new website, and you are getting loads of qualified leads. Now, what do you do with all of them? Use the power of e-mail marketing to convert your leads into residents, of course! In other words, automate your follow-up process by creating a sequence of pre-written e-mails to be sent to prospective residents when they make a request on your website. Here are a few ideas to help get you started.
An Effective E-Mail Marketing Cycle
The cycle of an effective e-mail marketing campaign should begin with an introductory welcome e-mail that answers the prospective resident’s request for information. You will want to design a series of follow-up e-mails that give information about your community, neighborhood, floor plans, pet policy, and amenities. During the final phase of the campaign, ask qualifying questions that separate prospective residents from all of your other leads. Then e-mail recipients, who are truly interested in becoming a resident, with a request to schedule a tour or apply online. If you don’t receive a response during this final phase of the campaign, it is likely that the lead is no longer interested.
Compose Quality Content
When you sit down to write, it’s vital to compose your entire campaign in a single session. This helps your content maintain a unified feel. Mimicking the process of a professional writer, we suggest starting with a diagram of your strategy before you begin to write. It’s important to make this stream of e-mails as seamless as possible.
Next, you need to generate high-quality content, keeping in stride with the idiom “quality over quantity.” If you do not have time to develop first-rate content, you may want to consider outsourcing it to a professional writing team.
Concise content is key. Keep each line of your e-mail short and the words simplified. Although shorter lines may seem disjointed, they lead the reader to believe that they are making progress as they continue to read.
Put yourself in the place of the e-mail recipient. Likely, they receive a significant amount of promotional e-mails each day. You only have seconds to grab the attention of this audience, and it’s important to impress them with engaging content! Consider adding visual media such as images or videos throughout. Including one to three questions in your e-mail can also increase your response rate.
After you compose the body of your e-mail, include a “P.S.” as a means to summarize all of the content relayed throughout your e-mail. Readers tend to remember the beginning and the end of what they read so even though your e-mail may be blunt and to-the-point, it’s necessary to leave the reader with the essence of what you’re trying to say.
And don’t forget to conclude each e-mail with a call to action (CTA) such as “schedule a tour today,” “apply online,” or “request more information.” This should trigger a response from recipients, who are interested in moving forward with becoming a resident of your community.
Hook ‘Em with the Subject Line
The subject line of the e-mail is as essential as the written content itself. Subject lines with three to four words typically receive the most response. The wording of subject lines must be captivating as well. Once more, you should put yourself in the shoes of your targeted audience and ask yourself, “Would I open this e-mail if it were sent to me?” You can even ask for a response in your subject line, which will encourage engagement.
Determine the Frequency
Once you have composed all of your e-mails, you must decide the frequency in which to disperse them. Consider the following questions. After the initial request, when do you think it would be appropriate to send a follow-up e-mail? Do you want to send one a couple of days after the original request was made or a week afterwards?
It is also crucial to determine the time of day the e-mail is sent. You must plan the distribution of your e-mails in such a way that your target audience receives it when he or she is most likely to open and read it.
You may need a test run to evaluate the ideal time to reach out to your target audience. It may be before a prospective resident’s typical work hours, after their typical work hours, or during their lunch breaks.
Perfect Your Tone
Make your e-mails personable. Never skip your greeting. It is imperative to use the prospect’s name. This separates your e-mail from meaningless spam.
And don’t forget to display emotion in your content whether it is positive or negative. Studies find that e-mails using a slightly positive or a slightly negative tone will gain more response from prospects. In conjunction, opinionated messages see a higher response rate than objective ones.
Beyond tone, dress up your e-mail with some rich text. Use boldface, italics, underlines, and font color/highlights to draw attention to the main objective of your content.
Stay Organized
Above all else, stay organized. A successful e-mail marketing campaign is dependent upon your ability to organize content flow. Even if your e-mails are written to absolute perfection, you must keep an eye on the e-mail sequence being distributed to your prospects. It is simple to ruin a campaign simply by sending an e-mail out of your intended progression.
The easiest way to stay organized is to manage a checklist, which will help you keep track of all the steps and materials in your campaign.
Don’t allow your leads to collect dust! Many opportunities are lost when apartment communities do not follow up with their prospective residents. Take advantage of every inbound sales lead that comes your way with these helpful tips on e-mail marketing.