Why Email Marketing is a Must-Have for CRE Firms
Commercial real estate is an industry built on relationships. Investors are taking a risk and entrusting CRE sponsors with significant sums of money. Both historically and to this day, networking, face-to-face interactions, and relationship-building are critical to success. After all, choosing the right sponsor could mean the difference between success or failure.
But technology is changing the way that commercial real estate professionals engage, communicate, and otherwise conduct every aspect of their business. Technology has enabled new strategies and channels for developing and building relationships with investors, including email marketing. While new marketing techniques and opportunities seem to pop up on the regular, email marketing has exhibited staying power and proven itself as a key channel for B2B professionals, including commercial real estate sponsors.
Read ahead to learn about why email marketing is an effective channel that commercial real estate professionals must take advantage of in today’s world of CRE investing.
It Works
Email marketing is proven time and time again to be one of the most effective marketing channels to reach and engage an audience. As Litmus Software says, “Email is the dominant digital identity and the channel consumers prefer when receiving communications from brands”. Furthermore, 95% of opted-in email recipients indicate that the emails they receive from companies and brands are either somewhat or very useful. While it may not be as glamorous (so to speak) as social media, in comparison, email marketing is 40x more effective. What’s more, social media platforms come and go (take the examples of MySpace and Vine), but email is the channel that is most likely to still be around in 10 years.
It’s Scalable
Email marketing enables firms to create valuable, personalized, relevant messaging en masse.
According to Litmus, “Email marketing is becoming all about connecting to each and every customer at the individual level across their entire journey. […] The best marketing is and will always be providing strong customer-centric experiences.” Today’s investors demand personalization, and email marketing helps sponsors to meet those expectations. This customization also helps to make sure your emails get a click-through instead of being sent to the spam folder. After all, content that is relatable, relevant, and timely is much more likely to garner engagement.
Email marketing also addresses a common problem in many businesses: silos of information. For example, you may know that somebody at your firm called a prospect last week. But you don’t know what they said or when they said it, and you can’t always take the time to track down that information from the individual who made the call. A marketing automation tool enables more integrated marketing efforts and tracks critical data within the CRM, allowing you to customize communication efforts and have a clear history of previous engagements. It also saves time by automating processes that were previously manual.
It’s Versatile
Email marketing can address several key objectives within the firm. It can be leveraged for:
- Brand Awareness: Tell potential prospects about your firm, who you are, and what you stand for. Position your firm as a thought leader within the industry by supplying relevant content and thought-provoking points of view.
- Investor Acquisition: Use bulk email functionality to educate investors about new offerings and invite prospects to invest in relevant opportunities.
- Investor Engagement: Keep investors up-to-date on projects, promote industry happenings, and regularly share news and content.
- Investor Retention: It’s easier to engage current or previous investors than to convince new prospects to invest with your firm. They are already familiar with your company, have the experience of working with you, know what to expect, and (hopefully) have a positive impression. Stay top of mind with regular updates so that they know who to come to when they are ready to make another investment.
