What’s better for real estate agents, social media or email marketing?
Both.
If you’re focusing your marketing efforts on a single solution you may be wasting your time. According to Litmus, businesses without an integrated digital marketing approach, meaning both social media and email, will have decreased success in reaching their marketing goals. This makes sense, given your clients wide range of preferences. Some prefer simple emails with your latest listings. Others prefer 360° images on Facebook. Only by offering both can you maximise your audience. Yet, a disconnected strategy may damage your prospects as well. It is safe to say that your email and social media marketing should be on the same page if you want your efforts to pay off.
To help you optimise your efforts, we have assembled a few simple steps to integrate your social media and email marketing.

Use emails to promote your social media, and social media to promote your emails
Clients that sign up to your newsletters or like your Facebook page are showing interest in your services and professional, industry specific content. Cross promotion is an effective way to strengthen your connection with these contacts. If you use email and social media in your marketing, then you should provide calls-to-action to help clients engage with both platforms. This combined approach will enhance your ability to stay top-of-mind, increase your brand awareness, and sustain relationships with your audience.
From your emails, you can showcase your social media icons to link your contacts directly with your pages and invite them to follow you. From your social media pages, you can include sign up or opt in pages so viewers can subscribe to your mailing list.
Develop exclusive content for each platform
You may find that your eager audience members will sign up for emails and follow your social media presence with little encouragement necessary. However, most contacts will only subscribe or follow you if each platform has something unique to offer. Think about why people subscribe to your newsletter. Are they interested in your latest listings, market insights, or nearby sold properties? Similarly, consider what draws visitors to your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Are they watching your livestreamed auctions, participating in your promotions, or viewing your shared content? Once you identify what your audience craves, you can offer exclusive access to your most popular content. Promote your social media content from your emails, and vice versa. The exclusivity will add value, and encourage your contacts to engage with you further.
Engage your subscriber database directly on social media  
Most social media systems offer many tools to expand your audience. One of the most powerful options in Facebook is to import your database into a Custom Audience and utilise Facebook’s built in advertising features. This can be better than the audiences created by Facebook since these members have already shown a level of interest in your brand. You would then build a campaign designed for this group, and run it simultaneously with your email marketing. In boxing terms, it’s the equivalent of the “one-two combo” that effectively makes each ad land more effectively. It increases your brand exposure, provides more opportunities for engagement, while minimising the potential for a negative response.
Another clever way to incorporate a custom audience is to create a custom audience with all contacts that do not open your emails, then experimenting with Social Media ads or promotions. Given everyone’s different preferences, you may find better engagement with people who show little interest in emails.
Whether your goal is to increase your brand awareness, nurture current contacts, or develop leads, an integrated marketing approach that uses the strengths of email and social media will produce the greatest results.
How do you manage your digital marketing? Do you have tips that have proven effective? We would love to hear from you, whether you have advice or questions, let us know in the comments below.