Will this Yellow Submraine graphic draw attention to my sublese listings? Maybe not.
I have developed a reputation over the years for developing creative commercial real estate marketing emails. It is most important to inform, but I believe that you get a better response if you also entertain. I often receive compliments on emails I sent many years ago. I try to provide memorable content, and if people like what I do today, there is a better chance they will engage with my content in the future.
That has always been my philosophy with KensTrends and I do the same when marketing a property. Lately, I have been representing buyers and tenants more than marketing properties for landlords and sellers. But I recently started on two sublease assignments and wanted to try to make my emails stand out.
(By the way, I have two really great spaces for sublease in the Cypress Creek submarket of Fort Lauderdale at 5601 Powerline Road and 1000 NW 65th Street )
One tap on delete blows up my chances of reaching my prospects. (Thx Chat GPT)
I receive dozens of commercial real estate promotional emails every day. As a tenant representative, my next big deal may involve a property in one of those emails. I pay close attention, but I also keep a very itchy trigger finger over the delete key.
When I market a property, I try to make my emails stand out. I thought it would be interesting to try an A-B test; sending two different versions of the same email to see if something creative would get more attention. I thought it would be fun to use a Yellow Submarine graphic for the “Sub-leases.” So I split my list in half and sent out 2,508 emails with the graphic and 2,506 without. While Commercial Real Estate emails generally have open rates of in the 30 percent range, both versions achieved open rates over 50 percent. That is due in part to the quality of our emails but equally due to our constant refining of our proprietary mailing list at Levy Realty Advisors.
Most inboxes have graphics turned off. If you’re looking for attention, focus on the subject line.
The bad news is that the regular (A) version had an open rate of 51.9 percent while the (B) “submarine” version was at 51.7 percent. I was hoping to show how creativity generates more attention, but in this case it did not.
So do I give up on creative emails? I don’t think so. Constant Contact only gives us the option to test subject lines and not graphics. I think there is a reason. When I initially receive an email, I generally see the subject line and subheader. I don’t see the graphics until I open the email. It is the subject line that keeps your finger off the delete key. But creative content and compelling graphics are what keeps the reader engaged. So I won’t stop trying to make my emails stand out from the dozens I get every day. But I will be putting a lot more thought into my subject lines. I’m also paying closer attention to my subheader, which I now realize gives me a second chance at attracting your attention.
And by the way, I have two really great spaces for sublease in the Cypress Creek submarket of Fort Lauderdale. (5601 Powerline Road and 1000 NW 65th Street)
