How to make your email marketing more effective

September 10th, 2018

How to make your email marketing more effective

With so many choices when it comes to marketing channels, there are several reasons why email marketing is currently favoured as a key communication channel. Most convincing is the fact that email is 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined, when reaching out to your audience.[1]

Understanding your customer segments and being aware of generational differences, will help you create more engaging email campaigns. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Marketing by segment

Segmenting your database into audience groups by buyer type is standard practice for mortgage brokers, as it enables you to target your communications according to which rung the prospect occupies on the property ladder.  You’ll find our new Digital Marketing Hub (DMH) provides pre-prepared templates* to appeal to each group, and for each stage of the buyer journey, to make it easy.

The three main audience segments which have proven to work well for our most successful brokers include:

• First home buyers
• Next Home Buyers/Refinancers, and
• Property Investors.

Keeping your messages relevant

Connecting with the people who occupy each of these categories in a relevant way is key to the success of your email marketing campaigns. Taking a generational approach to creating content may be a useful way of prioritising and meeting the information preferences of people within each category. Here are some basic motivators for each age group to help you target your content.

First Home Buyers. People who fall into this category of buyer tend to be between the ages of 18 and 35 and generally fit into two generational groups:

• Millennials (Born 1980 – 1995) who are a generation of entrepreneurs and are very active online and on social media. Often stereotyped for putting life experience ahead of wealth creation, Millennials are influenced by peer reviews and recommendations. Many Millennials are first home buyers or ‘rentvestors’ – the older end of the segment may already have purchased their first home and are likely to be keen to move up the property ladder.

• Gen Zs (Born 1996 – 2010) who take a more frugal, skeptical approach to financial freedom. They have grown up with digital technology, consider real estate to be a smart investment and look to influencers like you on what to buy. These savvy young people are looking to get on the property ladder as soon as they can. They are likely to be first home buyers, either now or in the next few years, and may even consider ‘rentvesting’ with friends to get an early start on the property ladder.

A good DMH template for these groups might be: “3 reasons to talk to us now”. This template demonstrates how you can support first home buyers get into the market sooner.

Next home buyers/refinancers tend to be people in their mid-thirties and older. Millennials who managed to get on the property ladder early will also form part of this group.

• Baby Boomers (Born 1946 – 1964) who prefer traditional banking methods, are brand loyal and like talking to real people. These customers are likely to be refinancers or next home buyers and are interested in becoming property investors. Some may even have a sizeable property portfolio already.

• Generation X (Born 1965 – 1979) who, concerned with having enough money to retire and busy juggling work and home life, are drawn to products and services that make their life easier. These customers are likely to own their own home as well as a property investment. They love to save money, so may be interested in refinancing their home loan regularly.

A good DMH template for these groups might be: “Is your home loan healthy and are you happy?” or perhaps one of our pre-approval template choices if you know they are actively searching for their next home or property investment.

Property Investors also tend to be at the older end of the scale and cover the largest age band – Millennials, Baby Boomers and Generation X. Property investors are entrepreneurial by nature and are often self-employed or own their own small business. It stands to reason that those who have been investing in property the longest will have the most properties in their investment portfolio and these will tend to be Baby Boomers and Generation X.

The DMH has several templates that cater for this segment, including “Talk to me about investing in property” which is a simple but effective approach.

Sign up for Connective’s new Digital Marketing Hub

99% of consumers will check their inbox every day[2], providing you with an undeniable opportunity to connect and drive sales through email marketing. Our new Digital Marketing Hub makes it easy. You can access a great selection of professional email marketing templates* that cover each of your audience groups – visually appealing emails that will motivate first home buyers, refinancers, next home buyers and property investors.

The Digital Marketing Hub also provides a variety of other communications that help you start conversations and stay in touch with the customers in your database. These include a professionally produced template for each stage of the buyer journey, as well as a monthly eNewsletter, Birthday Text Messages, Professional Booklets and more to help you stay in touch. The best thing about the Digital Marketing Hub is that is a fully automated service that takes care of much of the hard work for you, whilst giving you access to a best-in-class email marketing tool which integrates with your Mercury CRM.

To find out more about the Digital Marketing Hub, visit the Connective website here or speak with your local Broker Support Manager today.

[1] McKinsey

[2] DMA Org UK

*Premium Digital Marketing Hub subscribers only.