In 2024, email marketing is the third most-used channel for lead generation. It is an effective technique for home builders and construction companies looking to continue and grow their relationships with prospective buyers to secure sales.
Whether you're a sales director or an agent looking to increase sales, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide to creating effective construction email marketing strategies.
Why is Email Marketing for Construction Important?
There are many reasons why email marketing for construction companies is essential. First, it can help build and nurture relationships with prospective buyers. When agents bring traffic to their model homes, most, if not all, prospects will only want to move forward with the purchase if there is effective follow-up. Statistically, it takes about seven impressions before a purchaser is willing to make a purchase. Thus, the key to securing the sale is all in the follow-up.
Email effectively reaches potential buyers and leads them down a favorable path personalized to their needs. This method invites the buyer to interact with the brand on the website and learn more about the incentives offered, the inventory, the builder, and more — all at their fingertips with one click.
Effective Construction Email Tactics
On average, people receive about 120 emails in a single day. Standing out amidst the influx of emails can seem like a challenge. Don’t worry; we’ve put together three steps to help your emails be unique.
1. Segment Your Emails
Successful construction email marketing campaigns begin with segmenting email lists to personalize the messaging to be relevant to the wants and needs of the buyer. There are many strategies by which you can segment your database for follow-up. If you are a sales leader training a team or an agent, we recommend dividing the database by prospects, referrals, and realtors.
Prospects will want to hear about incentives, more information about the homes offered, and various marketing events catering to your target consumer profile.
Referrals can be a list of homeowners who have recently closed with the agent. These emails can focus on inviting the homeowners to invite their friends or family to choose their dream home. Most content can be focused on community events, incentives for referring prospects, and even holiday emails.
Emails to realtors may look like lunch invitations to learn about a community, emails about incentives for that realtor to sell, or even e-gift cards for a holiday gift to maintain the relationship.
2. Create Compelling Content
Compelling content will make you stand out. This creates attention-grabbing subject lines and short, powerful content in your construction email efforts.
The subject line provokes the recipient's interest. After reading it, the recipient should be eager to open the email. Adding emojis is a simple way to make the subject line stand out. A study conducted by Experian showed that open rates improved by 56%. Here are some examples: “To be or not to be your next dream home! ✨🏡”; “Snow much to love in these new homes ❄️”; or “$10,000 toward your dream home 💸🏡".
Regarding the body of the email, the length is crucial to entice the reader to take the next step. If the goal is to have a strong response rate, the ideal length is 50 to 125 words, and if it is to improve click rates, the ideal length is 100 to 200 words. In other words, the best-performing emails have short copy to pull in the reader — every word matters.
Every aspect of the email plays a major role, from the subject line to the body copy. Over time and through testing, learning what the recipients find most interesting to create eye-catching information to create a lasting impression is essential.
3. Implement Automation and Drip Campaigns.
Sending follow-up emails manually can take a lot of time and may seem overwhelming, especially if you have hundreds of contacts in your database. Automation and drip campaigns are the best way to make follow-up effective and convenient.
Automations are when emails are sent out on a scheduled basis rather than manually. Drip campaigns, on the other hand, are emails that are sent based on a series of actions or times. For example, once a customer meets with the agent for the first time, an email can be scheduled to send to thank them for their time and consideration. Drip campaigns are usually a series of emails scheduled to be sent, such as thank you emails, holiday emails, reminders to complete the next steps in the process, etc.
For prospects, here is an example of an email marketing for construction drip campaign to secure sales:
Email 1: Introduction and Welcome
This email welcomes the prospect and introduces yourself and the builder.
Email 2: Home Buying Tips
This email should contain valuable information for the prospect as they continue their home buying search. This can include tips for financing, choosing the right neighborhood, etc. This assists in positioning yourself as a helpful resource and encourages the prospect to continue their research and reach out to the agent to ask more questions.
Email 3: Featured Properties
This email can include three to four of the builder's inventory to showcase features of houses within the buyer's ideal price point and include a link to schedule a tour with the agent.
Email 4: Incentives
It is always important to point out any incentives. This email helps create a sense of urgency and allows the buyer to secure a better deal on their new home.
When crafting all of these construction email marketing campaigns, it is essential to keep the buyer in mind and create a message personalized toward the community's ideal buyer. For timing between emails, it is essential to choose a manageable time frame but not so far apart that the prospects forget. A best practice is sending the emails 3-5 days apart.
When sending out these campaigns, the agent will need to compliment these efforts through other methods, such as phone calls or texts, to ensure that they have a personalized experience throughout their entire experience.
Executing Effective Email Marketing for Construction Companies
Email marketing is a powerful tool to increase leads and secure sales. Builders can invite prospects to stay engaged throughout their home-buying process by creating personalized, compelling email campaigns. Whether showcasing inventory, highlighting incentives, or thanking them, email marketing offers a cost-effective way to connect while driving results.
Ready to take your construction business to new heights? At New Home Star, we offer various home builder marketing services specifically designed to help builders sell more homes more profitability.
