Email marketing is one of the most useful tools available to home builders, renovators, and contractors. With email marketing, you may personalize your message for each individual customer, contact them personally, and provide them with the information they will appreciate.

Why is email marketing so vital? What are some of the best strategies for utilizing email marketing in the construction, remodeling, and repair industries? What software should I use to manage my team’s email communications? With our comprehensive guide to email marketing, we can help you answer those questions!

The Importance of Email Marketing for Contractors, Builders, and Remodelers

Email marketing is a fantastic approach to giving value to your leads, prospects, existing customers, and previous clients by delivering timely information, updates, deals, and more. You may improve your relationships with individuals on your list by customizing your messages and ensuring you’re sending the right information to the right people at the right time. A quick, simple, and cost-effective technique that will assist you in converting better leads into clients if you learn how to do it.

Contractor

Contractors should use email marketing to maintain and grow relationships with potential and current customers. Past clients might require your services again in the future, so keeping touch through email marketing-provided customized communications can help you gain repeat and loyal consumers.

Home Builder

Homebuilders are encouraged to use email marketing to inform current and prospective clients about new home sites for sale, as well as urge them to reserve houses in areas where you know they will be interested. As well, if you want to schedule more custom home construction appointments, more home buying journey utilizing targeted marketing emails can help your prospects remember you when they are ready.

Remodeler

Remodeling contractors should use email marketing to build relationships with potential and old clients in order to encourage them to do all future remodeling work with your firm. For example, you may promote kitchen makeovers via email to past customers who have completed bathroom renovations.

Tips for HomeBuilders, Remodelers, and Contractors

Email marketing, whether it’s for small businesses that specialize in luxury houses or construction managers, is a function that demands special attention.

While each sector has its own set of rules, contractors may find it straightforward to develop email marketing campaigns that pack a punch where it’s needed.

After all, the audience is already well-defined: those who have a reasonable amount of money (at least enough money to pay a builder), people with an interest in highly customized service, and individuals seeking quick, high-quality work at a value-driven price.

1. Build it and They Will Come

While the above saying isn’t always accurate outside of baseball stadiums—and even then, there’s no promise—it is critical to focus on developing a database of consumers before designing an amazing email template. The first thing to consider is: Who will get these emails? Are they current or previous consumers, referrals, or prospects who might be interested in the niche marketplace? Every builder should begin by building a comprehensive database of individuals that are classed into these various categories.

2. Give Freely

Any email campaign is designed to develop a customer base, increase revenue, or acquire money. Readers, on the other hand, are usually looking for something from you.

This might include some simple DIY home improvement ideas, cost-cutting services with recommendations, or video lessons on the fundamentals of house flipping. Fostering a relationship with clients by doing this doesn’t just create positive karma; it also helps the builder develop a connection with them.

3. Give Just the Right Amount

Make sure that emails are sent at the correct time and in the required quantity. Sending them only once a month can help you achieve a good response rate with your newsletter or outreach campaign. Anything more comes across as spam and will likely get ignored, deleted, or even filtered toward the trash.

Besides, it takes time to come up with a great email campaign, especially for busy home builders, remodelers, or contractors. Focus on it once a month, and send it at a time when people need a distraction or entertainment.

4. Make Sure The Emails are Readable

Your recipients might be reading their mail on anything from an iPhone or tablet to a PC or laptop. It’s critical that your messages are simple to understand, links are visible, and recipients can follow links without difficulty, regardless of the device they’re using. Responsive design is a way of thinking that you can use to improve your designs and email campaigns. Every six months or year, engage a webmaster to verify that the template has a responsive design and update it as necessary based on user feedback. It’s well worth the effort for professionals who aren’t in the tech industry.

5. Keep Plugging Away at the Database

Update undeliverable emails in your system every time they come back. At the same time, continue to build your database. This implies that you must complete the networking loop once more.Reach out to new clients and provide them with a reason to give you their email addresses. Perhaps you provide a special discount on services if they share their contact information with you. Whatever you do, be sure that their information is handled correctly and never shared or sold to other people. If this all seems like too much work, keep in mind that skilled email marketers can assist you in developing an effective email marketing strategy.

What Else Should You Know About Email Campaigns for Home Builders, Remodelers, and Contractors?

If used correctly, email marketing for homeowners, renovations, and contractors is an extremely successful marketing strategy. You may be disregarded or regarded as spam if you send too many emails. People might forget about your firm if you only send a few mails. It’s difficult to find the sweet spot when it comes to using email campaigns, but learning how to use them effectively is well worth the effort because it can help your marketing efforts become more successful.

The average person receives more emails in a day than he or she would like. As a result, while creating an email campaign, you must be confident that your communications will be noticed enough to counteract the natural inclination to skip them. Creating emails that people want to open and read is a matter of knowing the right techniques to better engage your readers.

Emailing Techniques

The first step is to build a maintainable, up-to-date subscriber list. Use these tactics to increase your email response rate after you’ve created your email subscribers list.

  • Short is preferable. The more frequently you send messages, the shorter they should be, according to most experts. Unless your firm runs a successful campaign such as “Home Builder’s Tip of the Day,” it’s usually better to have a maximum of two or three emails each week – but no matter how often you email, make sure your emails are concise and energetic. If you have a great deal of information to send out at a given point, drafting it into a newsletter attachment can be effective.
  • Use a basic subject line. Subject lines should be helpful yet not overly complicated. You want to give your visitors a taste of what’s inside in enticing language that they will open the email. Also, be careful what you write. The word “free” is often filtered from email servers. To avoid being classified as spam, consider using a different term to communicate your message more effectively.
  • Make sure the address is correct. Personalization in correspondence has been shown to boost response rates by 50%. To assist you incorporate distinct names into emails, consider using email drafting software. Personalized emails are more likely to be read since they appear to be handled with more care. When the message is personalized, email filters are less inclined to consider it spam.
  • Create an email writer profile. Having your subscribers receive correspondence from the same individual in each message is a good method to develop relationships. Over time, your subscribers will become familiar with the writer’s voice, which makes them feel as though they know someone at your firm. Email writers should use a conversational, informal tone to be more likable.
  • Don’t just go ask questions; instead, use email to distribute casual surveys or gather responses to a certain issue. Send out an email with 1-3 questions about a prospective marketing campaign for your home construction, renovation, or contracting firm if you have any queries on the subject. If your email marketing is meaningless and ineffective, you’re losing out on a lot of potential leads. The more customers are chatting about it, the more inclined they will be to open and read it! This will pique people’s curiosity, help you make better-informed decisions regarding your marketing strategy, and provide an approximation of how many individuals are engaging. Instead of asking questions that need time-consuming written responses, you may send a series of simple, multiple-choice questions.

Keep the following strategies in mind as you build your email campaign for the best results.

Dos (and Don’ts) of Email Marketing Subject Lines for Home Builders, Remodelers, and Contractors

Now that you’ve learned some email marketing strategies, you need to make sure your subject line attracts people to open it! If you’re wondering why the monthly email that you spend so much time on is not working great for you? The problem could be your subject line!

Why Are Subject Lines Important?

You’ll need to get the user’s attention if you want your email marketing to work. You should aim for them to click over to your website or landing page from the email and respond by providing their contact information in response to your call to action so that you may assess their level of interest. The first step, however, is getting them to read the message, and this is where subject lines are especially important. According to research, people usually scan email subject lines quickly, and you have 4 seconds to pique their interest before they hit delete.

The Open Rate

Improving your subject lines improves your open rate. The typical email marketing open rate is 35%, but with a strong subject line, it may reach up to 50% or more. The more people who open the email, the more visitors you receive and the greater your appointments and sales numbers. So, is there any reason why you wouldn’t want to double or even triple your open rate? We thought not!

Good Words to Use

The words that perform well in a subject line are not subjective at all! They’ve been tried, tested, and proven through extensive study. Here’s a list of the five greatest words to use when advertising your house or buying a new one, as well as data that supports their use.

Steps

Customers like steps. They want to be informed in a logical, organized way that helps them save time. According to the study, this was the most successful term used in an email marketing subject line.

How to use it: “5 Steps to the Perfect Home Renovation Project”

Listing

It’s simple to scan listings since they’re easy to read. They spare him the trouble of having to figure out what he wants and provide alternative possibilities at the same time.

How to use it: “See a Listing of Home Remodeling Projects that Offer Good ROI”

Campaign

This is a psychological word that leads your user to believe several things:

  • It may contain a special promotion or discount
  • It’s probably a limited-time offer
  • It’s likely seasonal

All of these are reasons why he shouldn’t withdraw it prematurely. He may not open another email from you if your “campaign” fails in any of these categories. So don’t utilize it as a campaign unless it truly is one.

How to use it: “Have You Checked Out Our Winter Campaign Specials?”

Next

The question wraps up with a psychological tactic that encourages your reader to look at it because most people interested in house construction and renovation are probably aware of what comes first. “Next” suggests there may be something new, but it isn’t as sales-y as “New.”

How to use it: “Welcome to Acme Home Renovations! Here’s What’s Next for Spring.”

Update

Up-to-date information is always appreciated. You might never know what you’ll discover. Once again, don’t try to deceive your reader by using the same old, same old in this area, but if you do have news (or new information), it’s a fantastic way to utilize it in your email marketing. This indicates you’ve got something new to share with potential clients, especially if you exchange contact information frequently.

How to use it: “Here’s an Update on the Price of Kitchen Remodels”

Bonus: Words to Avoid

Okay, you know what good words to use—now what about the ones to avoid? There’s a long list of those, but the top 5 (based on open rates) are:

  1. One (58.46%) – as in “One More Thing..”
  2. Best (49.72%) – as in “We Offer the Best Deal”
  3. Hey (49.66%) – as in “Hey, Have You Seen Our …?” Yes, it seems some people do actually use this as a subject line!
  4. Site (47%)—as in “We’ve Launched a New Site.” Apparently, people don’t want to read about sites. Who knew?
  5. Can (48.73%)—as in “Can You Picture Your New Bathroom this Holiday Season?”

There’s little to suggest what works and what doesn’t, so if you’re preparing an email marketing strategy, it’s critical to test your messaging before sending it out. You may also keep track of the outcomes so that future mailings are informed.

Email Marketing Frequency – How Often Is Too Often?

Email marketing is still one of the most efficient methods to reach out to potential customers. It has been found to be an effective digital marketing strategy for engaging with people who are already interested in your company’s products and services.

The goal is straightforward: generate traffic to your website and boost subscriptions to your mailing list among existing consumers, as well as heat leads from your company blog.

Step two is to create an email newsletter or an auto-responder series that appeals to your target market’s interests, automates your email marketing, and maintains contact with your prospects.

It’s a clever idea to have your company front and center in the thoughts of your prospects, but there is often a thin line between maintaining touch and communication overkill. Here’s what you need to know:

Less Is Definitely More

Sending out several teasers in a short period of time, on the other hand, might have been an effective approach a few years ago. People were less irritated by spam and prospects had more time to focus on your message because email inboxes were emptier.

Today, studies suggest that companies may actually profit more from limiting email marketing outreach to once a month. As a result, your monthly e-newsletter may be the greatest method of maintaining touch with prospects. This is excellent news for marketers who have felt like losers because they haven’t yet amassed ten new emails to send each month!

If you have a fantastic offer to send to your list, this one-a-month plan may not be appropriate. A significant increase in interest might be provided by a great bargain, sale, or promotion!

Other Key Email Marketing Factors

Sending less frequent marketing emails has definitely been proven to be successful for most companies, but there are other things you can do to make sure you get a better result from your campaigns, including:

  • Make sure you only include people who have actually expressed an interest on your list by carefully examining it and ensuring that you only include recipients who have done so. Even the most successful marketing emails will be ineffective if they are sent to a stale, purchased, or rented list.
  • Creating genuinely useful, interesting emails. If you’re sending out fluff instead of real news, important information, and excellent offers, consider reducing your mail frequency or making an extra effort to include top content.
  • Include your social media profile links in all of your emails.
  • Mix things up a bit. To encourage sign-ups, run email-only competitions, utilize social media to generate interest, and make sure your blog includes a list of article highlights in your newsletters.
  • Take the time to track the response of your email campaigns. Take note of click-throughs, opens, and unsubscribes, as these are the best indicators of whether your marketing strategy is effective.

Email marketing is still effective, but it has evolved significantly over the years. Take some time to figure out what works best for your home building, renovation, or contracting firm, and keep an eye on your results all the time. Small changes may be all it takes to get your marketing efforts back on track.

Automatic Lead Follow Up for Home Builders, Remodelers, and Contractors

It takes a lot of effort to generate leads. It’s far more difficult to make use of them. To mention a few, home builders, remodelers, and contractors invest time and money on trade show displays, website content, and email marketing in the hopes of obtaining leads that aren’t always followed up because the sales team is too busy. Research from the Trade Show Exhibitors’ Association indicates that salespeople typically follow up only the “hottest” leads and engage with those prospective customers, while the other 60 percent to 80 percent fall by the wayside.

Losing To the Competition

The prospect is left feeling ignored. They’ve given you their contact information so that you can get in touch with them. They’re hoping for something from someone—and often, nothing happens.

Even if they aren’t “prepared to buy” (and 80 percent of all leads, according to Gleanster Research, are not), other research shows that the majority of those leads convert into customers for a rival company within 24 months. So how do you avoid losing those leads to the competition, even if you can’t follow them up right now?

Use Automated Emails

The solution is to nurture your leads manually using a completely customised, cloud-based email marketing system. An automated email program sends emails at predetermined intervals or when prospects reach certain milestones, which is one of the cornerstones of excellent CRM systems. You may also use the goal to direct mail messages such as, “Your lead arrived,” “Take action immediately using this information,” and so on. For example, you can have the program send out the first email right after a lead is received, followed by content based on the keywords used in the inquiry. Your prospects could receive email at regularly scheduled.

You write the material, connect it to the system, and BAM! You have the ability to nurture a lead by providing him with a unique offer with a direct link to your website’s landing page. This could include:

  • Advice to help the prospect do his job better
  • A recent blog post crammed with useful information about the uses of your product
  • A case study or testimonial from a satisfied client
  • Promotions or coupons for a special offer
  • An invite to join an online webinar or attend an event
  • A white paper or e-book jam-packed with material

The emails can be set to launch automatically, the system keeps a mailing list and updates it as subscribers are added or deleted, and you may obtain comprehensive reports at any time. This works beautifully with your website and CRM systems, and you may use it to offer information and links to your site or social media accounts.

Format

The most appealing branded HTML email is always the one that has been created using a campaign with the recipient’s contact information. Most marketing automation systems allow you to produce plain-text versions for those receivers who want them. Whatever you send out nowadays needs to be accessible on mobile devices as well. Because material is involved, email copy should also be optimized for your most important search keywords if you want to rank highly online. The benefit, however, is that your potential client will be contacted by the system if he responds to the automated message with a question or a willingness to buy.

With this approach, you won’t have to worry about losing leads because you’re too busy to deal with them as they come in. Whether they’re a result of your website’s contact form or business cards being scanned, the goal is the same. Nurture your leads until you’re able to deal with them on your own time, and then close the transaction as mutually convenient.

Types of Emails Home Builders, Remodelers, and Contractors Should Be Sending

Your approach to email marketing as a service provider, rather than a product or a new release, will be distinct from that of a big box shop or a boutique. You must not only promote the worth of your service; you must also communicate how much it costs. It may take months to nurture a prospect through the sales process, so you must keep them up-to-date, engaged, and interested in your company and its services. Email marketing may be one of the most effective remodeler marketing tools available.

Welcome

The welcome email, as you might expect, greets potential consumers to your firm. Aside from your established online presence, the welcome email establishes the tone for your new potential customer’s experience with you. The welcome email may take a variety of tones, ranging from friendly and warm to formal and direct, depending on your company’s culture.

Finally, it’s up to you how your email should sound. In addition to establishing the tone for your connection, the welcome email discusses nurturing emails, an important technique for converting visitors into leads and leads into customers.

When to Send It:

The welcome email should arrive no later than 48 hours after the new lead has completed a form on your website. To ensure a timely follow-up, consider automating your emails. With Email Marketing, you can set up automated emails for your subscribers. When a lead comes to your site and submits a form, they’ll automatically get an email, taking the guesswork out of it and guaranteeing that every lead has been recorded in your database.

Newsletter

When it comes to email marketing, a newsletter is a must-have if you want to keep your audience up to date on the latest news about your industry and business. Newsletters allow you to maintain your material fresh by regularly providing new content. While the formatting and structure of newsletter emails should remain consistent, the text that comprises them may always alter. You can use newsletters to highlight events, special offers, introduce new team members, and make other announcements. Newsletters assist in the growth of your website by informing clients about what’s new and exciting. The most important thing is that you keep potential customers in the funnel so they don’t leave after reading one email.

When to Send It:

Keep in mind that newsletters may be distributed on any day of the month. The key, as with all things, is to maintain consistency. We generally send out newsletters on Tuesday or Wednesday of the second week of the month, according to studies carried out by companies such as Mailchimp and Wordstream.

Review

Reviews are crucial for any business, regardless of sector, but they are especially vital for those who operate a service-based company. Customers nowadays conduct research on potential contractors and design-build remodelers almost exclusively via the internet. They’re researching review websites to accomplish this. Sites like Google, Houzz, Facebook, Yelp, and GuildGuality all feature past client reviews – both positive and negative. Don’t be afraid to ask your most recent clients for a review after the job is finished if you want to preserve the reputation of your firm.

When to Send It:

Two to three weeks after your project has been completed, you should send out review emails. This ensures that the dust has settled (no pun intended!) and distance has been created for both parties before asking for an objective, favorable review.

Referral 

In the remodeling business, client referrals may be a major source of revenue potential. Feel free to ask your past clients if they would pass along your information to anyone considering a remodel. Here’s a potential script to use:

“Hi CUSTOMER, we’re looking to help more homeowners like yourself create amazing home transformations. Is there anyone in your network that you’d be willing to connect me with?

Thanks in advance!”

When to Send It:

Referral emails can be sent at any time, but it’s best to avoid inundating your existing customers with favors or demands.

Upgrade email

When your clients understand the value of what you provide, they may be tempted to proceed with an upgrade. To see whether they agree, send an email sketching out the benefits of a different product or administration level. Customers don’t like being marketed to when they’ve already bought in, so keep this email short and include a link to a landing page with the more aggressive offer.

When to Send It:

You can use this template to send out an email to your past customers who haven’t contacted you in more than a year. Giving them a significant amount of time between emails will guarantee that your prior clients are not annoyed.

Email Marketing Software for Contractors

Automating emails through efficient email marketing software is essential when you’re doing home construction, remodeling, or contracting. Email delivery software can guarantee that your emails are delivered correctly, avoiding spam filters, and gathering valuable statistics.