10 Totally Free Real Estate Email Ideas to Boost Your Open Rates

Coming up with brilliant real estate email ideas is simple, right? Sit down to write an email or newsletter and stellar ideas just come pouring out. Wrong! Coming up with two good email ideas to send your contact list is time consuming. But fret not; I’ve got 10 real estate email ideas to keep your emails fresh all year long.

The goal of sending email is not to sell to your database, but to nurture those relationships and leads so they remember to send you referrals and become repeat customers. Content quality is crucial to getting people to open your emails. And if you’re like most agents, an hour of your time is worth $273, so the cost of producing your own emails is steep.

When 80% of your business comes from past clients and referrals, keeping them engaged should be the primary goal of your marketing spend. And when email marketing is consistently ranked as the single most effective tactic for awareness, acquisition, conversion, and retention, you know it’s well worth your attention.

For those of you who want high quality emails written and sent for you, we can automate all of that. We offer real estate agents a 100% do-it-for-you solution that taps into your sphere of influence, increases referral business and nurtures your leads into prospects.

And for those who prefer a more hands-on approach, these 10 ideas will increase your open rates, boost client engagement and help you stay top-of-mind.

10) How-to Emails: Cleaning and Organizing

As a real estate agent, your email marketing strategy should be to make your leads familiar with you without trying to sell them anything, even if what you’re sending is not directly about real estate. At OutboundEngine, we call this “lifestyle” or “industry-adjacent” content.

How-to emails focused on something like spring cleaning checklists or top 10 wall mounting storage ideas for your garage are great examples of this sort of industry-adjacent content. As an agent, you’re very knowledgeable about tips and tricks for the home and people truly value this advice.

That’s why how-to emails are so effective for real estate agents. Take things you’re already well versed in (like cleaning or storage ideas), throw together a quick checklist, add an image or two and voila! Instant email newsletter for your clients. Below is an example of content we sent out for our real estate agent clients.

9) How-to Emails: Staging

Remember that emails to your past clients are first meant to entertain and engage, but secondly, they are meant to keep you top of mind. Did you know that agents lose 20% of their clients annually due to attrition? The most common reason is that the agent failed to stay in touch.

Another great how-to topic for an email newsletter is staging a home to sell. Emails like this are an easy read on the go, and you might actually catch someone at the right moment who’s interested in selling their home (which is also why good calls-to-action are important in your emails).

Here’s another email we’ve sent out on our agents’ behalf. While this content might be second nature to you, don’t underestimate people’s desire to have a helpful checklist.

8) Send Your Blog Content

If you’re already writing a blog for your business (or looking for some incentive to start), repurposing that content in an email campaign is a great way to kill two birds with one stone. We do the same thing at OutboundEngine with our own content. Recently, we published a blog titled 5 Crucial Elements for Writing Great Social Media Posts and thought the content was super applicable to our audience.

A week after posting it, we put together an email campaign and sent it to our email list of potential customers. We practice what we preach at OutboundEngine and keep the content we send out as helpful as possible. This approach saves a lot of time and gives a lot of life to your hard work.

7) Local – Content/Stat Writeups

One nifty trick you can use to make you look like a pro is referencing someone else’s content. For example, Austin (OutboundEngine’s hometown) is constantly mentioned in a variety of national news and blog articles. An Austin-based agent could put together a list of all the top 10 lists that mention Austin and use that as your email campaign. People love lists, and you can try this approach with any number of stats and articles. This could be a great blog post too, if you’re running one of those for your business.

6) Local – Deals and Steals

Another idea on the local front is to curate a list of local stores that you personally frequent. Being an expert in your market, you know the best places to get furniture refinished, the best landscaper, a great place to shop for blinds, etc. You also know when the best deals happen, who to talk to and how to get the best deal. A few times a year, put together a list like this that shows just how in tune you are with the pulse of the community you serve. This type of content is pure gold.

5) Local – Event Calendar

In the same vein of locally focused content, you can also be the community events maven for your clients and prospects. Have a subscription to a local business journal? On the email list for a city events calendar? Watch your local news? Guess what! You’re now a local event expert!

My friend Sara Duncan here in Austin puts together some really wonderful emails each month that do just that. They’re always full of things to know, places to go, upcoming events and great food and outing recommendations. Check out one of her recent email campaigns below.

4) Seasonal Content

Seasonal content is great because there’s always something to write about. Use seasonal ideas year round of if you’re ever in a jam. Are there any holidays coming up? What sort of activities are people doing this time of year?

I’ve already come up with a bunch of ideas as I’m writing this post. Two seasonal things jump to mind:  there’s been a lot of rain lately in Austin, and it’s springtime, so people are starting to venture outside into their yards. I could write a quick guide to building a rain barrel at home and link to a how-to video. Or perhaps I could put together some planting ideas that work for anyone’s living situation, including both potted plants for balconies or the office and ideas for a flower bed at home.

3) Knowledge Share – Home Upgrades

Like I mentioned before, you have a lot of knowledge to share with people that you’ve picked up over your years of being an agent. Time to put that to work! Knowledge share emails are a great way to show off how helpful and insightful you can be.

Home upgrades, even small ones or temporary ones, are always rich content options to write about. Having staged homes and seen a lot of interior and exterior home design, you’re well versed in design and style tips for anyone’s taste and budget. This is the sort of content that keeps people wanting to open your emails!

2) Knowledge Share – Contractor Advice

It’s incredibly crucial to remember that not everyone on your email list is looking to buy or sell a home, which is why you can’t just be pushing that sort of message. You want your audience to see you as a trusted resource and friend, and you can do this by proving your usefulness using a long-term engagement strategy. Let them come to rely on what you have to say and nurture them with great content to keep them loyal to you.

One of the more recent emails we sent our for our real estate clients was about hiring a contractor. Remember, the majority of your contacts are in a home already, so it’s best to match quality content with their current situation. Here’s what this looked like:

1) Knowledge Share – Insurance Help

Lastly, keeping the best interests of your clients in mind will ultimately help solidify their trust in you. They want to know that on top of being extremely helpful and resourceful, you’ve got their backs as well. One of the more popular campaigns we recently launched was about potential gaps people might have in their home insurance. It was concerning enough for most people that they opened it and compelling enough that they took a lot of the advice to heart. It was a real win for our clients.

Wrap-Up

Keeping yourself top of mind with your sphere of influence increases your referrals and repeat business. You want to send content that people are excited to open. And when only 20% of your past clients are actually sending you referrals, high quality content via email is the best way to activate your base and make a lasting impact over time.

Finding real estate email ideas and writing emails doesn’t have to be difficult, but the content you produce does have to be valuable to your clients in some way. Good content marketing is your ticket to branding yourself as a trustworthy, helpful and knowledgable friend. And if you’d rather not spend your time on email marketing, we’re here to do all the work for you.