Open houses can be great for a lot of reasons.

On one hand, they’re an effective way to get local leads interested in a property you’re trying to sell. On the other, they give you an amazing opportunity to connect with buyer leads—particularly if you’re hosting an open house as a favor for another agent.

In either case, you want to be sure that the event is well-attended and that your follow-up game is strong. Fortunately, email can help you connect with clients at every stage—leading up to the event and afterward.

Keep reading to learn how you can use email marketing to close more deals from open houses.

Promote the event in your newsletter

If you’ve already got an email newsletter that goes out to local leads, that’s a great start. If not, you should consider creating one.

Email newsletters are a great way to keep your contacts in the loop about the local housing market, new listings, and community events.

Though you should avoid focusing too heavily on what you’re selling at the moment—because you might put off some people who aren’t ready to buy—it’s a good idea to cap off each issue of your newsletter with a list of upcoming open houses.

Our Digital Marketing Platform includes a biweekly newsletter of hand-curated events local to your market. Check it out.

When you do this, you’re creating awareness of these open houses among your database and increasing the likelihood you’ll get your listing in front of a relevant lead. After all, what could be easier than forwarding an email to someone you know who’s looking to buy?

Send an item of value to attendees

Whether the event is for one of your listings or you’re helping out another agent, you’ll want to be in a position to follow up with leads afterward. That’s why you should have a sign-in sheet to collect contact information. (Click here for our free open house kit, which includes some awesome, printable sign-sheets and signage for your event.)

Once you’ve got a list of email addresses, you’ll be in great shape to stay in touch. Keep in mind that your attendees are going to be at all different stages in the sales funnel—from “I’m ready to buy right now” to “I’m a neighbor and just wanted to see what their living room looked like.” Keep in mind that, sooner or later, all of these people can become clients.

With those leads who are looking to buy soon, you can make a strong impression by sending along something of value, like a guide for first-time buyers. That way, you’ll stand apart from all the other agents who are simply focused on making the sale.

Try sending one of our personally branded digital magazines (it’s one of the four tools that make up of our Digital Marketing Platform) as a follow-up to leads at any stage in your funnel. When your leads receive a copy, it feels like a gift rather than a marketing piece. Depending on the theme you select, your recipients receive an interactive experience full of articles on topics like the home, interior design, health and wellness, art, travel, along with delicious recipes. Plus, when a lead shares an article from your magazine, your branding stays intact—giving you and your brand potentially limitless exposure.

Use email to win appointments

If your goal isn’t to sell this particular property but instead to win over buyer leads, you probably won’t have time to do that at the open house itself. That’s why it’s important to follow up.

Email marketing is an effective approach for following up because it allows you to share links, photos, and other compelling content that you simply can’t relay over the phone.

Here’s an example of what a strongly crafted follow-up email might look like after an open house:

1. A bold subject line, such as, “I’d love to help you find your dream home.”
2. A warm opening, saying how nice it was to meet them at the open house—be sure to include the date and location.
3. Links to helpful resources for buyers.
4. Close with an offer to help the buyer, with a clear call-to-action asking when they might be free for a phone call or in-person meeting.
5. In the footer of the email, a customer testimonial.

If you don’t succeed in getting the appointment from this first email, try reaching out again with additional links or your hottest listings. This will help the potential client see you as a valuable resource, increasing the chances they’ll want to work with you.

Use email to keep in touch after the sale

If all goes according to plan, you’ll close the deal—whether that means selling a listing or helping a buyer client. But this doesn’t mean your job is done.

The key to true success in real estate is a business where you don’t need to constantly hunt down leads. And that means a business that thrives on referrals and repeat transactions.

Once again, email marketing is your friend. Add your past clients to your email newsletter so that you can stay in touch and continually remind them that you work in real estate.

If your newsletter is geared more towards prospects, consider creating a separate newsletter just for former clients. In each issue, share valuable resources for homeowners, as well as analysis of the housing market and what its recent performance means for your clients.

As previously mentioned, our Digital Marketing Platform can help you here too. The Branded Posts tool offers you a vast library of prewritten, personally branded posts you can use on any of your social media channels to can share valuable information on a wide range of topics. You can use our Facebook and Instagram schedules to schedule posts weeks, even months, in advance—making it a true set-it-and-forget-it tool.

Whichever way you choose to stay in touch, your goal is to continue to add value and stay top of mind. That way, you’ll be poised to capture referrals, while encouraging past clients to work with you again in the future.

Now that you’ve got some ideas for how email can support your pre- and post-open house activities, be sure to take action on what you’ve read here today. When you use email to meet the needs of your clients and prospects, you’ll be amazed by the results.