Wholesaling How To: Avoid the SPAM Folder
Email marketing is the lifeblood of many businesses — but especially for real estate investors. 99% of consumers are logging on and checking theirs every single day. And even though there are new, “sexy” content platforms emerging every day, email marketing still proves to be the most effective. It’s also one of the most cost effective ways of getting your message out there and converting prospects into customers. For every dollar you spend on email marketing, you’ll yield an average of $38 in return.
Read that again and do the math…
It doesn’t get a whole lot sexier than a 3,800% ROI, does it?
But numbers like that won’t do you any good if your campaigns keep landing in the SPAM folder — a problem you can face even when your message is anything but. The reality is, the majority of wholesalers are shooting themselves in the feet by not knowing and following the rules of email marketing. And those mistakes could cost you a great potential buyer or seller.
So, without any further ado, let’s dig in and explore 6 easy ways you can insure your next campaign lands in the in-box, not the SPAM box.
#1: Start with Consent
You probably already know that you should never rent or buy an email list to send blasts to — it’s a direct violation of the CAN-SPAM act. But you might not realize that if you are manually adding in subscribers without using an opt-in or double opt-in, this can contribute to your marketing messages essentially going straight down the toilet.
Before you add someone into your newsletter list, your first order of business is to send them an opt-in email that grants you verifiable permission to send them emails. The easiest way to do this is through an auto-responder message or series of messages that you can set up on most email marketing platforms in no time flat — no high-tech specialization required.
Investors are notorious for failing to take this critical step. In an industry faced with so much competition, why not give yourself a leg up on the rest by showing that you are a true professional right from the start?
#2: Turn to an Email Client You Can Trust
Did you know that even if you’ve never had a message flagged as SPAM and you’ve followed all of the rules, if your email client doesn’t you can still wind up in the SPAM box? That’s because IP addresses that have been flagged for SPAM give all of their clients a bad name and can absolutely decimate your open rates, all at once.
You’ll also want to make sure that your client allows you to create mobile friendly version of every email, as well as a text-only version. And when you design your email templates, be sure to keep your brand identify clearly present so that they remember who is sending the messages and why.
#3: Scrub Your List of Inactive Members
We’ve all done it — created a “special” email address we use just to sign up for offers or access gated content. Call it karma or whatever, but it turns out that our subscribers do it to us, too. And email hosts know it, recognize it and punish it. It’s a common reason for finding yourself red flagged.
The best way to get around this is to pay attention to your email analytics and search out the people who haven’t opened an email since you sent them the one thing they were after. When you find them (and you should do this every 3–6 months) you can either remove them right then, or attempt to re-engage them with a last shot message series warning them that they’ll be removed if they don’t take action.
#4: Avoid SPAMMY Language
This can be super tough to do, because some words we use without thinking (like “amazing”) will trigger SPAM red flags and put your message in permanent time out. For instance, if you’re trying to assure someone that your can guarantee that the title is clean, the very word “guarantee” can get you flagged!
This is another reason your email marketing platform choice matters. Most of the most reputable options offer some sort of “deliverability score” or SPAM check. If they find a problem inside your email that could result in having your email routed to the SPAM folder, they’ll alert you so that you can fix it before you send. And if you don’t fix it, you can’t send the message so that we keep our IP address safe for all of our clients.
#5: Segment Your Lists
If you’re simply blasting every email message out to your entire list, you’re going to piss off and alienate a lot of your subscribers. Instead, you should be using your CRM to tag or label each of your readers into categories. The most essential categories you’ll need are: motivated sellers, wholesale investors, flippers, and buy and holders.
If you are also adding potential vendors or service providers to your list, you’ll want to segment them out as well.
Then, when you send a message, keep it relevant to your readers by only sending it to subscribers with associated tags. You may need a little help from a VA or consultant to implement this tip, but in the end it will pay off with higher open rates, increased engagement and lowered unsubsribes or SPAM complaints.
#6: Educate Your Subscribers
Your readers will likely have the biggest impact on whether or not your email winds up labeled as SPAM. That’s why it pays to educate them on how to prevent it from happening. Consider taking the time out to create a short welcome series that shares tips on how to white list your emails, avoid losing them in social or promotional folders in Gmail and how to use the unsubscribe button to stop receiving messages, versus marking them as SPAM.
If you’re not satisfied with your current open rates or have been so freaked out about winding up in the SPAM folder that you aren’t using email as much as you should, stop missing out on what could be your best opportunity to increase your buyers and sellers list and start putting these simple strategies into play.
