Kyle Malnati
By Kyle Malnati
This is an excerpt from my article that will appear in the 2018 spring issue of Commercial Connections, available in print and online May 28.
Even though the internet, email, and social media allow you to communicate, they do not connect you with your clients. Talking “kneecap-to-kneecap” in a conference room and hammering out details over the telephone are still the most effective ways to negotiate a deal. The foundation of your business is people serving people so it’s vital to view technology as a tool and not as the center of your business. As long as you focus on taking care of people, you will continue to have a successful career.
With that in mind, let’s talk about using tech tools to amplify your real estate business. My first tip is to pick one method to market yourself, such as email marketing.
Strategies and messages that were effective many years ago can still work today, but you should deliver them differently. Email marketing is efficient, inexpensive, and measurable. Gone are the days of spending thousands of dollars on a mailing campaign and wondering who received it. You should still produce postcards and newsletters, but do so digitally.
Proof of this concept was tested by my company recently. We created a survey for our own clients and found that email marketing was still their preferred way of gathering information over Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
Here are my top five types of email marketing campaigns:
@pexels, 2016. pixabay.com
- Hyper-local, geographical farming e-newsletters
- “Just Listed” and “Sold” digital cards/flyers
- Video interviews of clients
- Market statistics
- Collection of links to relevant articles
My second tip is to avoid chasing after change, which should be a relief to you. If you look at recent innovations and figure out what hasn’t changed, you’ll realize one consistent central theme: your client wants to be assured that you are the expert who can help them. Make sure you are addressing client need in any marketing and communication plans.
Commercial real estate brokers are interested in results, right? My third tip is to effectively execute your email marketing campaigns using four simple steps designed to deliver optimal outcomes.
Step 1: Pick a broadcast email distribution company. A few examples are MailChimp, Constant Contact, and Vertical Response.
Step 2: File email addresses from your CRM database into a spreadsheet that can be uploaded to your email provider’s system. You will want to upload this same list for every marketing campaign category you use. Here’s why: you will lose email followers that unsubscribe every time you send an email. Some of your clients won’t want market statistics while they will want new listings from you.
Step 3: Start sending emails and do it regularly within your campaign categories. You should be emailing once or twice a week to get reliable statistics.
Step 4: Review the statistics after you’ve sent about a dozen emails. You will start to notice behavioral patterns. Use this data to improve your next batch of emails. I track open rate, click through, and subscribers with most opens. You read that last sentence correctly. Your email platform keeps track of who interacted with your email the most, what they clicked, and what time they clicked it.
Now it’s time to go “old-school” with my fourth tip and foster that relationship. Pick up the phone and call the subscribers with the most opens.
Commercial real estate thrives on relationships, after all, and email marketing is a powerful way to deepen your connections. Remember, clients want to hear from us when we make deals happen, so use email campaigns to keep yourself essential to the consumer throughout every transaction.
Kyle Malnati is the CEO and founder of Calibrate Real Estate, a Denver-based commercial real estate company specializing in apartment building brokerage services and investment sales. In 2017, Malnati won the Denver Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 award and was featured on the cover of REALTOR® Magazine as a 30 Under 30 in 2012. Malnati has been consistently awarded by the Denver Metro Commercial Association of REALTORS® as a top 10 “Heavy Hitter” since 2007.