In his latest mastermind call, Greg Harrelson – who, by the way, generates over 500 organic leads every month through the power of SEO and email marketing – talked about the importance of email newsletters.
This is one of Greg's favorite ways of converting people, because the buyers and sellers end up reaching out to him (or his team), generally mentioning something valuable that they received in their inbox.
This is because email newsletters are a phenomenal opportunity to showcase your unique tone of voice as an agent and gain something Greg calls 'mindshare.'
Let's explore how to create email newsletters that are impactful and generate consistent business from both buyers and sellers.
Remember, if you want to access full, deep-dive coaching on this topic, including Greg's exact newsletter he sends to his database, join his private community for Real Geeks users, RGMastery.com, for less than $200/month here.
Greg believes that the first step in gaining market share is to gain mindshare.
Think about some of the biggest brands in the world that are almost impossible to beat even if a product of equal quality appears at a lower price.
These are your Apples, your Amazons, your Netflixes.
These businesses are constantly in our minds.
"We may not be an Amazon or a Google from a real estate perspective," says Greg, "but there are some things we can learn from this."
And Greg believes that one of the biggest, most poorly utilized ways to get into your prospect's minds is through effective newsletters.
Here's how Greg does it.
✅ DO: Segment Your Database.
The simplest way to segment your database to start sending out valuable newsletters is sellers vs. buyers.
And a seller doesn't need to be a person who you know is going to sell within a few months, Greg believes. A seller can be anyone who has a property.
Because the idea of these newsletters is not that they're extremely personalized, but that they offer something valuable and that they showcase your unique style.
Sure, perhaps a seller who's on the market already knows all about the selling process. And still, they probably won't unsubscribe from your email list if they receive a concise, fun, and educational newsletter that explains the step-by-step of selling a house with some interesting facts and figures.
You might not have been speaking directly to them, but you still showcased your expertise and gave them some useful information.
A common thought this person might have is: 'This was interesting – doesn't apply to me right now, but I want to keep receiving these in case the next one does.'
✅ DO: Use Automations the Right Way
Newsletters shouldn't be the only thing your buyers and sellers are receiving from you.
"In fact, I believe you should be having 60 touches with your leads every year." says Greg.
How? By leveraging the tools a CRM like Real Geeks provides, like sending a Market Activity Report and a Sold Report every month. Just with that, you've got 24 touches already.
If you add a monthly newsletter to this, you've got 36 touches. And then, you've got the individual, more personalized workflows that should be going out based on where every lead is at in your database.
For these more specific ones, you already know what to do: set some Advanced Search Filters and create the specific workflows for your leads.
If you don't have these set up now, make sure you do so. 36 touches, according to Greg, should be the absolute minimum you have in place to gain mindshare.
Think of it this way: if you're sending a potential buyer four emails every month (two reports, one newsletter, and a more segmented step inside a workflow) you've occupied at least four minutes of their mind that month.
But say that on the newsletter, you've included a link to a YouTube video from you, that they watch until the halfway point. Now you've occupied seven minutes.
And then, they clicked on the link in the description of the video, where they can go back to your site to check out a blog post you wrote on the same topic.
You've now occupied a lot more minutes of their mindshare that month.
Your monthly newsletter should have two sides to it: one that's a bit more generic, and one that's a bit more time-bound.
And, again, you should be sending one for buyers, and a different one for sellers, every month.
So, for example, the start of your seller's newsletter can include a link to a YouTube video where you break down the changes that have been happening that month in your market.
And the second part of your seller's newsletter can break down a common topic sellers tend to deal with, such as preparing a property before selling it. This is generic content that is not tied to a specific time in the year, but it's always valuable to have around.
Now, don't let the more generic part of your newsletter go stale. As the years go by, many of these processes and the common advice surrounding them changes. So even if you have a library of written content that you repurpose for this second half of your newsletters, make sure you're updating it consistently, every quarter.
A big area of resistance for people is that they don't know what to write about in their newsletters.
"For some people this is a real concern," Greg states, "but for many others, it's just an excuse."
And there's a very simple way to come up with lots of content ideas: ChatGPT.
Seriously. Go to ChatGPT, and ask it to generate 10 topic ideas for a real estate newsletter aimed at buyers. And you can give it different prompts depending on your database, such as:
This doesn't mean you're asking AI to write the newsletter for you. The whole point of this is that you showcase your unique tone of voice and expertise, so you want to write the actual newsletter yourself and include your unique experiences.
But if you're struggling with topic ideas, or even if you need some clues on how to put together the first draft of your email, ChatGPT can be a great tool.
The more specific you are with it, the more interesting the topics will become.
To increase the time your leads spend looking at your content, and therefore gain more mindshare, repurpose the content of your newsletters.
For example, you can add a link to a specific tip you shared in your newsletter that reads: "Learn More on My Full Guide". And that can link to a blog where you have a deep-dive on that given topic.
Or, you can link to a YouTube video, where you break down the same exact topic the newsletter talks about.
People consume content in different ways. People learn in different ways. So make sure you're repurposing your content, by writing in-depth guides on your website, creating a personalized video on YouTube, designing social media posts with some notable quotes, and even creating a podcast episode if you have one.
Greg shares the example of a YouTube video he shared of him on his recent newsletter. The video received around 1,000, organically. It was 7 minutes long, and people's watch time was around 4 minutes.
That's 4,000 minutes. That's 66 hours of mindshare that Greg occupied that month, with that one video.
We're always working on generating new business. This is a topic that Greg constantly coaches his agents on in RGMastery.com.
But part of our day should also be dedicated to working on our business. It should be dedicated to working the leads we already have.
Newsletters are perhaps one of the most poorly utilized resources out there. This makes them a unique opportunity for you to stand out amongst the competition, and gain valuable mindshare so that you can then dominate your market.
To your success, agent!