One of the biggest challenges for any homebuilder can be finding new customers. Construction marketing is tough in any city, in any economy, because you’re selling a big ticket item, and while great construction websites and killer content can help to get you found by prospective clients in your city or town, it may take more than one visit to your site to turn them into paying customers.

The answer, for many home builders looking for effective construction marketing solutions, is to set up an email marketing system. Here’s what you need to know.

What Is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is a type of content or information marketing. Instead of waiting for customers to visit your website to read your content and view your offers, however, this marketing relies on prospects subscribing to your list, and on your sending them email newsletters, updates, information and offers from time to time.

By staying in touch over time, you greatly increase the likelihood that when that customer is ready to make a big ticket homebuilding purchase, you’re one of the companies they consider. It’s a great system, but there are a few tricks to get it working properly.

The Opt In

According to anti-spam laws in most first world countries, consumers must opt in to any email marketing under most circumstances. Once they have opted in, a practice that is also known as “permission marketing,” you can continue to send them marketing emails unless they decide to unsubscribe. So the trick is to a) get them to sign up, and b) keep them signed up.

Free ebooks and downloads are a great way to get customers to opt into your list, and the best way to keep them subscribed is to ensure that the mail you send them is not a nuisance, not too frequent, and contains interesting or relevant information.

The Emails

The best way to manage an email marketing campaign is to use automation software to manage contacts, subscriptions and unsubscribes, and to create and send emails automatically. There are many options out there, including well known options like Aweber and Mailchimp.

Once you’ve chosen a package that works for you, decide how often you’re going to send out your emails, and what they will contain. Some companies find that sending out one newsletter per month, and one marketing offer, is the sweet spot, but you might need to change that according to your business and prospects.

Design your emails to be easy to read, and make sure that they include your company branding, logo, links to social media profiles, and links to interesting content on your site.

Track Everything

Long term success in email marketing, like so many things to do with construction websites and home contractor marketing, can be a matter of trial and error. Make sure that you have tools enabled to track the success of your campaigns. Consider opens, clicks and other key metrics, use split or A/B testing to compare different tactics, and use the information you get from comparisons to improve future campaigns.

Email marketing can be a cost effective, easy way to reach out to prospective customers, so if you aren’t using it yet, maybe it’s time to consider this option?