The Best Real Estate Newsletter Ideas in 2022

So, you’ve decided this is the year you’re going to reignite your real estate email marketing strategy.

Amazing! Email marketing can be a hugely effective tactic for real estate agents.

Now there’s just one thing. You need ideas.

Open house invitations and drip campaigns pretty much take care of themselves. But then there’s your real estate newsletter — it requires creativity, strategic thinking and fresh content.

This post is all about that fresh content. Keep reading for great content ideas and inspiration that you can put to use in your 2022 real estate newsletters.

Neighbourhood Profiles

Local expertise is a huge part of what makes a real estate agent’s services valuable. Highlight your knowledge in your real estate newsletter through neighbourhood profiles.

You can dedicate an entire newsletter issue to a neighbourhood (this is an opportunity to have fun with the design and branding), covering the basics like geographical boundaries and population alongside interesting details about local landmarks, parks and neighbourhood favourites.

This idea could also be rolled out as a regular or semi-regular feature in your newsletter. You can give the feature a spot with a photo and some highlights, and then link out to a full-length version on your real estate blog.

Local Business Spotlights

Speaking of local know-how, here’s another way to share the local love: give shoutouts to local businesses.

Supporting local businesses has become a priority for many over the last few years. Shining a light on your favourites is a great way to send customers their way, build relationships with your community and further demonstrate your local expertise.

To make this idea a hit, go beyond just listing the business name and linking to their website. 

You could share your favourite dish or product (or give an insider tip) or include a mini Q&A with the owner. 

You could even host a giveaway where your subscribers can enter to win a gift card to the featured business (tip: mention “giveaway” in your newsletter subject line to increase your open rate).

Answers to Reader Questions

Think of this idea like a mini advice column. Except instead of answering questions about relationships, you’re answering questions about real estate.

In every issue of your newsletter, invite your readers to submit their burning questions about buying, selling, the local market, home renovations and design trends. Then, pick one question to answer per issue.

You could also use Instagram Stories to invite followers to submit questions, increasing your pool and creating an opportunity to invite your Instagram followers to subscribe to your newsletter for the answers.

Listings of the Week (or Month)

Promoting a standout listing — it has to be special in some way in order to engage your readers — is a powerful way to expand the reach of your listing and boost click-through traffic to your real estate website. 

Some of your subscribers might not be looking to buy, but maybe a particular listing will pique their interest. Maybe they are looking, but hadn’t considered the listing until seeing it in a new light. Or maybe they know someone who they think would love your listing, and they’ll forward your newsletter.

To make your listing of the week (or month) really pop, make sure to use the best, most eye-catching listing photo, and call out just a few of the spectacular details — you want your readers to have to click the call-to-action in order to get all the info.

Memes

Everyone loves memes. They’ve become a huge part of online culture — so much so that yes, real estate memes are a thing, too. 

Including a meme in your real estate newsletters is a great way to lighten up your content, show off your sense of humour and connect with your readers in a more casual way. 

Memes about the real estate business are fine, so long as they’re not making fun of clients. You could also include memes that describe or sum up current local events (maybe your town just got a major snowstorm, and you use a meme like this) or that suit other subject matter in your newsletter, such as a market update (this meme would be fitting alongside a write-up about bidding wars).

You can go beyond memes, too. GIFs can be used to the same effect. A funny TikTok or Instagram Reel makes for great newsletter content, too. Just make sure the embedded content is linked back to the original creator’s page.

Market Updates

Memes are like the sprinkles of your newsletter content, but the bulk of your newsletter should be valuable content that keeps your readers opening and clicking week after week, month after month.

Market updates are one such type of valuable content. You can use them to give your subscribers an easy-to-understand explanation of what’s currently happening in your local real estate market. It’s content that helps your reader and illustrates your know-how.

Feel a bit bored by this idea? Turn your market updates into something more visual by creating simple infographics to go with them — or memes.

Best Buys

In this day and age, it’s rare that we buy a new product without looking up reviews or asking friends for recommendations first. It’s why websites like The Strategist and Wirecutter, focused on product best-ofs and curated lists, are so successful.

You can tap into that with a regular “best buys” feature in your real estate newsletter. You can recommend products that you feel strongly about, or curate suggestions from your audience (again, Instagram Stories is a great tool for this). 

Just make sure the products are somewhat related to the home — think home maintenance, cooking, linens, gadgets, and so on.

This feature offers great opportunities to plug local businesses and to connect to seasonal themes, such as holiday gift giving and summer entertaining. 

Expert Tips

If you’re looking for more ways to provide value to your real estate newsletter subscribers, consider including an expert tips feature where you share advice, how-tos and “hacks” related to the home.

This could look like:

• Three pieces of advice from a home stager
• A short Q&A with a landscaper
• Dos and don’ts from an interior designer
• A YouTube clip or Instagram Reel about a mind-blowing life hack

You can keep this feature short and sweet, or you can use it as a preview of longer content that you feature on your blog.

How often do you send your real estate newsletter?