Write emails people open and click

Good marketing email feels like a helpful note from someone you know. These habits will make your campaigns easier to read, easier to act on and more likely to get results.

Subject line and preview text

Your subject line and preview text are all most people see before deciding whether to open. Treat them as a pair.

• Be clear before clever. “Just listed: 3-bed near Kits Beach, $1.25M” tells people exactly why to open.
• Keep it short. Phones cut long subject lines off, so put the important words first; around 40 to 50 characters is a good target.
• Use the preview text. It appears after the subject in most inboxes. Add something the subject doesn’t say, such as “Open house Saturday 1–3 pm, with photos inside.”
• Skip the tricks. ALL CAPS, piles of exclamation marks and fake “Re:” lines annoy readers and can trigger spam filters.

Give every email one job

Decide the single thing you want a reader to do, such as book a showing, request a valuation or read the market update, and build the email around it.

• One main button, placed where people see it without scrolling far. Extra links are fine, but make the main action unmistakable.
• Say what happens on the button: “Book a showing” beats “Click here”.
• Cut what doesn’t help. If a paragraph doesn’t move the reader toward the action, it can probably go.

Design for a phone first

Most people read email on their phone, so design for a small screen and let it scale up.

• Short paragraphs of two or three sentences, with clear headings.
• Big, tappable buttons rather than small text links for the main action.
• Strong photos, with alt text. Some readers have images turned off, and alt text tells them what they’re missing.
• Check the mobile preview in the designer before you send. BumbleBlast’s designs are built to stack neatly on small screens.

Personalise with care

• Use names thoughtfully. A greeting like “Hi {{first_name|there}},” uses the contact’s first name and falls back to “there” when you don’t have one, so nobody sees a blank.
• Send to the right people. A segment of buyers interested in one neighbourhood will respond better than your whole list. Relevance beats volume.
• Write like a person. Use “I” and “you”, and sign off with your name. Your agent card adds your photo and contact details automatically.

Test, then learn from results

1. Send yourself a test and read it on your phone. Click every link.
2. After sending, check the report. Opens tell you how the subject line and timing worked; clicks tell you how the content and button worked.
3. Look at the link report to see which links people chose, and the first-24-hours chart to see when your audience reads email.
4. Change one thing at a time from one campaign to the next, such as the subject style, send time or button text, so you can tell what made the difference.