Do you remember life before email?
I can’t imagine my life without email now.
But … there’s just one problem …
People don’t always open their emails …
Why is that?
People just get too many emails! Emails are too long. And so many emails today are spam or “junk mail.”
In 2020, the average email open rate was only 21% globally, meaning that people didn’t read or even bother to open almost 80% of the emails in their inbox!
People just don’t read emails.
But we all know that sending emails is part of every real estate transaction -- just like breathing is a part of life. So, when you do send emails to your consumers, here are 3 best practices for maximizing email effectiveness (and getting people to actually want to open your email!):
We’ll keep this first takeaway very short because the first way to get more out of email is simple.
Since we know that emails rarely get opened, don’t waste valuable time typing up lengthy emails and then waiting/hoping for a reply.
Once you send an important email, shoot a quick text to the recipient to let them know you sent something they should look at as soon as possible.
It does not need to be long; it can be as simple as a one or two-sentence text. This creates a sense of urgency that an email simply does not.
One note: please do not do this more than 4 or 5 times during a closing, otherwise, you run the risk of acting like the kid who cried wolf one too many times. When you text the client, it should merit a fast response, so use your texts wisely.
Templates are great because they save time and eliminate redundancy but still keep the personal touch.
Why do the same tasks over and over again? Templates allow you to perform redundant tasks with the touch of a button or with automation instead of manually typing out a whole message each time.
Imagine how much time you could save if you could template your most used emails …
Imagine what you could do with all that extra time.
The average closing that we have seen in the title industry includes 5 steps. If you can template emails for each of these 5 steps, it will help the consumer know where they’ve been, where they are, and where they’re going. Each step can be conveniently templated with visual timelines and other visuals that help the consumer feel engaged.
But, we often hear concern from title companies that templated emails sound templated -- that they lack the personal touch.
No worries! There is a way to personalize templated messages.
If your templating software is integrated with your title production software, your template can pull in the consumer’s name, address, and other pertinent information. If you can’t integrate your template with your title production software -- if you’re simply using Gmail, Outlook, or another email provider, don't worry. Just put a space in the necessary places and remember to fill in the name and other personal information as needed. That will save you countless time per file.
We don’t want you to become less personal. Instead, using templated emails should allow you to keep the same personal touch, but without all the work.
When your real estate agent or consumer opens an email from you, you only have a split second to get their attention. Why waste that opportunity with long text?
Instead, you can include a visual, which is more interesting than text and which your client can actually comprehend faster than words. In fact, “our brains can process visuals up to 60,000 times faster than text.”
Templates allow you to insert a .jpeg, so you can show a visual timeline of the closing process. When Domino’s came out with their pizza tracker and when Amazon and other online retailers began using tracking during the shipping process, customers could track the progress of their items as they worked their way through the delivery process.
To learn more about how companies like Domino’s and Amazon have changed the game for title and escrow companies, check out our eBook, Game Changers: Title & Escrow “Customer Experience” Playbook. The main takeaway from Domino’s and Amazon’s trackers is that they show people where they’ve been, where they are, and where they’re going.
If you insert a .jpeg image in your email template, your client can see from the timeline image that they are on step 2 of a step 5 process, for example. Below is a CloseSimple timeline that can easily be added to a templated email to show real estate agents and consumers the progress of their file.
On top of using visuals, the old adage applies: KISS (keep it simple stupid).
When was the last time you read through the entirety of a long email?
Probably never.
Nobody likes long emails.
The average email open rate is only 21% while the average text message open rate is 98%. And 90% of texts are opened within just 3 minutes of being sent!
Templated emails don’t need to include a lot of information. We recommend that you use minimal text in the actual email but include a link to your company’s website where they can read more if they want.
If the information in your email requires responses from your consumer, obviously you need to keep that kind of information in the email. In that case, we recommend bullet pointing, and whenever possible, cutting the email shorter and directing the consumer to your website for more information.
If you're interested in seeing how CloseSimple can help take your communication to the next level with automated and templated emails, along with text messages that can send directly from your title production software, feel free to check out a demo on one of our integrated title production software, or schedule a live demo here.
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