Email marketing is an essential tool for commercial real estate brokerages looking to connect with their spheres, expand their audience, and follow up with prospects and leads. 

Optimizing Your Brokerage’s Email Marketing Campaigns 

The first step for any email marketing strategy should be to improve email open rates by prompting email recipients to actually open your messaging rather than scroll past or delete the email. 

Once you have achieved a stronger email open rate, the next step is to work on getting better engagement and click-through rates after your mail has been opened and read. 

What is Email Click-Through Rate?

Click-through rates refer to the number of people who receive your email, open it, and take some action. This includes responding to your call-to-action, clicking on a hyperlink, or reaching back out to your team with a response. 

Ultimately, the goal of email marketing should be to maximize your click-through rate as this indicates that your recipients are engaging with your messaging and expressing interest. 

How to Calculate Email Click-Through Rate

The formula for calculating the click-through rate of each email is: 

• Determine how many clicks were generated from the email’s bulk send-out. 
• Divide the number of clicks by the total number of emails sent.
• Multiply the sum by 100 to convert the decimal into a percentage. 

For example, if you sent out an email to 1,000 recipients and received 600 clicks, your email click rate would be 60%. If you sent out 5,000 emails and received 600 clicks, the total email click rate would be 12%. 

The higher the percentage of your email click rate, the better your emails are performing. As you continue to build up your email marketing campaigns and lead follow-up efforts, tracking your click-through rates can help you optimize and improve your team’s strategy.   

4 Best Practices for Boosting Your Click-Through Rate

Here are four tips that can help you increase your email click-through rates, allowing you to improve the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts. 

#1. Organization of Text

When arranging your copy, emails should be easy to read, skimmable, and engaging. 

Avoid wordy emails that are too long, or bulky paragraphs creating “walls of text.” Always consider how the email will look on a mobile device, which has a condensed width — making even short paragraphs appear longer and harder to read. 

Break up your text with:

• Bullet Points
• Numbered lists
• Bold, underline, and italics 
• Headlines and subheadings 
• Colored text 

#2. CTA Buttons

The main goal of an email campaign would be to initiate an action, which is communicated to your readers through the call-to-action buttons. The copy of the email will be setting up the recipient to want to take the action, priming them to engage with your email. 

Your call-to-action may be: 

• Getting in touch with your team
• Setting up a meeting with an agent
• Reading your latest publication
• Browsing through your available listings

Your call-to-action button should be the most eye-catching part of the email, and the email itself should drive the attention to your CTA. Using your branded colors, bold text, and headings can help to prompt your readers to engage your CTA. 

Remember to position your call-to-action as a value-add for your recipients, giving them the chance to gain something from your email. 

#3. Choosing the Right Colors

Using color can bring your emails to life, and funnel the attention to key points of your message. 

Your emails should include your brand colors to help promote recognition, so your recipients immediately know that the message is from you. Besides your branded watermarks and logo, you can also use your brand colors to create custom graphics to embed within your email. 

You can also use color to highlight key points in the copy of your email. 

For example, you might want to use a vibrant blue for hyperlinks, or green and red text to communicate do’s and don'ts if you’re sharing tips and advice. Your call-to-action should be identified with a unique color not found within the rest of the email to draw as much attention as possible to your CTA button. 

#4. Providing Multiple Engagement Opportunities 

A great way to increase your click-through rate is to provide multiple engagement opportunities throughout the email. 

In addition to your call-to-action, consider embedding more than one hyperlink that leads back to your website within the email’s text. You can link to relevant blog posts and landing pages, as well as your social media pages. 

Good luck using these tips to improve your click-through rates when sending out emails to your sphere. For more marketing and outreach best practices, find more articles on the RealNex Blog.