How do you know if your email newsletter is getting results?

This is part two of a two-part series on email newsletters. Read part one here.

Email newsletters are an incredibly effective marketing tool with a cost that does not markedly increase as your subscriber list grows, yet, blasting one out without an understanding of whether it’s actually working happens too often in real estate. Measurement is critical over time to optimize content and delivery to generate leads, foster conversations and help you stand out amongst your peers. 

We all have newsletters in our inboxes we never open or delete before viewing, as the amount of emails that people receive threatens to overtake our daily bandwidth. Consider this: almost 320 billion daily emails were sent and received globally in 2021, and that’s projected to increase to over 376 billion daily by 2025. 

How can you know if your newsletter is amongst the dreaded deleted or ignored? And what can you do about it?

Measuring effectiveness 

First and foremost, it’s important to track the performance of your newsletter, as most in real estate perform mediocre at best. This means keeping an eye on metrics so you can make data-driven decisions about how to improve it. The most important metrics to watch for any real estate email newsletter are:

• Unique open rate: The number of people who have opened your email. This provides insight into your subject line.
• Total open rate: The total number of times the email was opened, including multiple times opened by the same subscriber. This also includes when an email was forwarded. When content is interesting, you’ll see a total open rate that is higher than the unique open rate.
• Click-through rate: The percentage of subscribers who clicked one or more links in your newsletter. This is also an indication of the quality of your content, as interesting content drives clicks.
• Response rate: This tells you how your subscribers are engaging with your content, specifically for a newsletter the “call to action.” Experts say a good response rate is 10 percent or higher. 
• Custom-defined goal conversions: These are measurements of desired actions; you decide what goals to track, for instance, submitted forms to learn more. 
• Unsubscribe rates: The percentage of subscribers who no longer want to receive your emails. Many industries have averages as high as 1 percent or 2 percent. You want the lowest possible unsubscribe rate.

Changing delivery and content based on findings

Many newsletters hit inboxes in the morning or late afternoon. Recent research notes that Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays have the highest open rates, and Fridays and Saturdays have the highest conversions. Notably, emails on Sundays perform the worst. As for times, research finds between 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. are optimal. Monitor your data and adjust accordingly; perhaps Tuesdays at 3:00 p.m. work best for your customers followed closely by Saturdays at 10:00 a.m., in which case you could focus on those dates and times. 

Next, consider your open rate and its direct correlation to email subject lines. While your subject line must be accurate and descriptive, it also must grab the readers’ attention. Try different strategies with your subject lines and closely monitor open rates with different strategies. 

If your email newsletter has a “call to action,” the link to click must be high up in the content, clearly labeled and prevalent. Burying the “call to action” midway down a newsletter will definitely hurt responses. Monitor success of your “call to action” in your data. 

Overarchingly, the quality of your content and the frequency with which you send will affect your unsubscribe rate the most (keeping in mind the goal is a low unsubscribe rate). If you send bad or irrelevant content or send it too frequently, you will see your users unsubscribe at a fast clip.

While you may want to send your newsletters as often as possible, it’s a tightrope as you do not want to negatively affect your unsubscribe rate. Keep a close eye on your metrics if you do increase how often you send.

Content relevance reigns supreme

Your number one goal is to create an email newsletter that cuts through the noise and the most important element above all is relevance. While national real estate topics are applicable to your readers, local content is king, and yours should be unique, current and targeted to your readers and their community.

As well, consistency with delivery during optimal days and times will serve you best. Keep an eye on the metrics and be ready to tweak content and delivery should the data show a need, and you can expect a higher-performing newsletter that provides value to your customers and generates leads. 

Eric Bramlett is the owner of Bramlett Residential, a mid-sized real estate brokerage in Austin, Texas. Connect with him on Instagram and LinkedIn.