As a real estate agent, marketing is one of the most essential tools to reach out to your clients and build relationships with them. In this industry, personalised communication while marketing is the way to go.
However, sending generic marketing emails to a vast real estate database may not yield the desired results. This is where lead segmentation comes in.
Segmentation, or splitting your real estate database into specific groups based on various factors, allows you to personalise your email marketing to better connect with different sets of recipients. In this article, we discuss the importance of segmentation and explore a simple technique that can help real estate agents create a high-converting email list.
Understanding Segmentation In Real Estate Email Marketing
Segmentation involves categorising your real estate database into smaller groups with similar characteristics. This enables you to send targeted content that addresses specific needs and interests.
Why segment? This makes it easier to plan your lead follow-up and lead nurturing strategy.
Segmenting can do wonders for your marketing – since you’ll be planning your marketing efforts for the intended audience, you’ll see higher open rates and engagement. It allows you to provide relevant information and build stronger relationships with your potential clients.
Clubbing large groups of people together and using a blanket marketing strategy can lead to assumptions and ineffective marketing efforts. For example, let’s say you have a lead interested in villas in Al Barari, but you send out market updates on properties in Sharjah – your lead isn’t going to find value in your content.
Techniques To Segment Your Leads For Marketing
In Bayut Academy, we talk about segmenting your leads as A (hot) leads, B (warm) leads, and C (cold) leads. While segmenting your leads for email marketing, you can add a few additional segments to keep in mind, such as:
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- Intent: Segmenting them as buyers, sellers, investors, etc.
- Properties of interest: Are they interested in apartments, townhouses, villas, or commercial properties?
- Psychographic segmentation: Segmenting your leads by things that influence buying behaviours, such as beliefs, values, lifestyle choices, social status, opinions and activities.
- Demographic segmentation: Segmenting your leads based on characteristics such as age groups
- Geographic segmentation: Segmenting your leads by the locations they are interested in. Which emirate are they interested in, and which area in the emirate are they interested in buying/selling?
- Lifecycle stage: Are they a new lead? Are they ready to buy, ready to sell, etc.?
Add any details you have about your lead, along with their contact information, in your CRM.
*Remember that gathering feedback from customers can ensure that segments are relevant and accurate. During your first conversation with your lead, ask them open questions about their interest in buying/selling property, their timelines, budgets, etc. This information can be valuable when segmenting your leads.
For example, let’s say you’re creating an email about the sales prices of the top 5 popular buildings in Dubai Silicon Oasis – targeted to first-time home-buyers. This means you’ll send this email to leads interested in buying property, and looking specifically at Dubai Silicon Oasis.
Here’s an example of email marketing done right using lead segmentation.
| Segment | – New lead from Bayut – Ready to buy immediately as their lease is ending in 5 months – Interested in studio apartments in Dubai South – 25-year-old single man | – B lead (warm lead) shared their details from a listing on your agency’s website three months ago – Interested in buying a villa in Meadows for their family – 45-year-old woman. | – C Lead 52-year-old single man – Looking to buy an apartment ( 1-bedroom, sea view) that reflects the ‘Dubai lifestyles’ – Lives in Russia, and comes to Dubai very often for business. |
| Examples of mail content you would send | – Price trends in Dubai South/ popular properties in Dubai South – Tips for first-time home-buyers in Dubai -New listings in your inventory from Dubai South | – Price trends from the Meadows – School guides of the schools close to Meadows – Things to do around Meadows for families – Tips for first-time home buyers in Dubai. | – Listings on Bayut in Russian – Area guides on places such as Dubai Marina and JBR – Blog posts about things to do in Dubai – Price trends and market trends in the Dubai property market. |
Here are some tips and best practices to follow while lead segmentation:
- Keep your segments simple and manageable. You don’t want to create multiple segments in your database. We would recommend keeping it to geographic segments and transaction types.
- Keep your segments flexible and dynamic, such that you can update your segments from time to time to reflect changes in the market and customer behavior.
- Keep an eye out for your marketing performance and use the data and feedback to improve your lead segmentation strategy.
There is no true right way to segment your real estate database, and you can choose the segments to market to depending on your strategy. Once you’ve mastered the art of segmenting your leads, check out our detailed resources on lead follow-up and lead nurturing.
Take your real estate career to the next level by joining us at Bayut Academy, our in-house series of workshops for realtors in the UAE. You can also explore more resources on our Content Corner, on the Agent Portal