When I worked at a big brokerage we did a lot of email campaigns… being honest, way too many.  I got messages like this all the time, “OMG, if I wanted an update on your piece of **** I’ll do a LoopNet search!” Hmmm…I guess 3 times a week is too many.  Here are a few tips on frequency and messaging that will help you participate in email marketing without being obnoxious.

1) Frequency. A rule of thumb is to not do any more than 1 announcement per week.  If you’re doing a weekly announcement, be sure to put all your new properties or changes to properties into one email.  Also, keep it short and to the point.  No one wants to read through a five-paragraph essay to learn that a lease rate has been lowered.

Newsletters should really be kept down to bi-weekly or monthly.  In my experience, keeping it down to 2 articles and 1 ad (or reminder of a service you provide) is “the sweet spot”.  Don’t get crazy on linking every article you can find. Choose only the most relevant articles to your audience.

2) Separate mailing lists. While it’s more work for you, separating your mailing listing into office / retail / industrial / etc. will allow you to create information that’s specific to your audience.  It has a much higher impact, but takes more time.

3) Subject lines. Subject lines will make or break your open-rate. Don’t get cute!!  I’ve found that the “to the point” subject lines do WAY BETTER than cutesy stuff. Mailchimp allows A and B testing – You can test 2 subject lines by emailing 10% of your list the day before, it will calculate which had the best open rate and send to 90% with the better performing subject line.  Testing the subject line takes out all the guess work.

4) Proof read. OK, this is common sense, but you wouldn’t believe how many newsletters I get with something silly like “commerciel realestate”.  No one’s asking you to be a grammar expert, but at least run your stuff through spell check.

5) Test the links.  Before you send out your email, be sure to click on EVERY link.  Even the stuff you know is correct.  It’s a thousand times more difficult to retract an email with a broken link than it is to test them before hand.

6) Be crystal clear. Have you ever been caught by a vague client or manager that talks in circles? Didn’t you want to shout, “Just tell me what you want!”?  Imagine the audience is shouting that question. How would you get your point across the in fastest and clearest way possible? Use headlines that are short and to-the-point with short descriptions of the article and relevant pictures.