By Adam Mohrbacher

Many people assume that the best way to market their business is through a large marketing campaign. But the truth is, such initiatives can often be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming. That goes double for title agencies, which often must balance multiple priorities simultaneously. One way to overcome this is to build your marketing efforts directly into the hustle and bustle of title workflows rather than conceive of them as an entirely separate program. Creating repeatable mini-marketing campaigns tied directly to routine closing milestones can amplify your agency鈥檚 reputation without diverting significant financial and human capital.

How are mini-campaigns unique and why do they matter?

Before we dive into the nuts and bolts of mini-marketing campaigns, we must first define what they are. Unlike a traditional campaign, mini-marketing efforts do not require weeks of planning, a major launch or a boatload of campaign cash. They primarily involve developing a core set of messages paired with largely evergreen content that can be repurposed throughout your workflow.

These campaigns can be especially impactful for title agencies, as they work with customers who are navigating some of the most important 鈥� and sometimes stressful 鈥� transactions of their lives. Providing short, snackable and helpful messaging throughout the closing process can go a long way toward reinforcing your agency鈥檚 reputation as a reliable partner.

Mini-campaign possibilities

Title workflows offer numerous opportunities for agencies to build mini-marketing campaigns around 鈥� from wire fraud warning emails to explainer videos describing the value of title insurance. Other opportunities include:

• 鈥淗ere鈥檚 What Happens Next鈥� email
• Closing timeline graphic
• Closing day checklists
• Post-closing explainers

Using these and other examples, your agency can inform, educate and guide stakeholders at each step of the process, helping ensure smooth closings and satisfied customers.

Put together your campaign

To start putting together your mini campaign, work through this step-by-step process:

• First, select the part of your title workflow where you want to focus your campaign, such as wiring, closing day prep or post-closing follow-up.
• Then, define your audience. Are you trying to reach buyers? Lenders? Real estate agents? The messaging will change depending on who you select.
• After that, determine the process element you wish to clarify for your chosen audience. Is it improving wire safety? Making the closing go smoothly? Helping stakeholders know who they should contact and when?
• Next, select the core message you want to ensure comes across during your process milestone.
• With this in place, put together an asset aligned with the messaging. In addition to the examples included above, your assets could include:
  • FAQs
  • One-pager guides
  • Social posts
  • Infographics

Whatever asset you choose to create to accompany your messaging, make it easily repeatable and accessible across your org. If possible, generate a simple template that people can repurpose and send repeatedly.

Track your progress

Tracking analytics is important with every campaign, but there is no need to overthink it. Depending on the assets you create, your analytics tracking could be as simple as:

• Email replies
• Reviews received
• Repeat questions reduced and related time saved
• Social shares for related posts
• Positive client feedback

By compiling these quantitative and qualitative data points, you can get a better sense of whether weaving in mini-marketing moments is paying off for your business in the long run.

Mini-marketing can produce big results Like any other industry, title agencies must jostle to win customers. Yet launching a large, splashy campaign is no easy matter, namely because of the time and money involved. This is what makes mini-marketing so powerful. With mini-marketing campaigns, you don鈥檛 need to create a whole new project with lengthy timelines and endless assets. You merely add one core message and one new asset to important milestones and let the results come in. Creating these small touches can have a big impact on your business, helping you stand out from the crowd without bogging your ope

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Nobody likes to see their email leads go cold, but sometimes it happens despite our best efforts. The trick is not to give up hope, especially when there is no reason to do so. There are many strategies to reignite your dormant prospects. We鈥檒l dig into a few of them here.  

Why leads go silent

It鈥檚 important to note that leads are not static. At the end of the day, leads simply represent people, and people are always changing. Seen through this lens, it becomes clear why a lead that was once active could suddenly go dark. Agencies must continually assess their leads and adjust their approach to avoid this.  

Leads can go dormant for reasons that either have to do with the business or with the customer. We will begin on the business side. When putting together your outreach campaigns, problems can arise if:  

• Your content is no longer relevant to your audience.
• The message鈥檚 quality is perceived as poor and includes:
  • Grammatical or spelling mistakes
  • Delivery or presentation problems
  • Timing issues
• Larger structural issues like lack of brand trust or awareness.

Then there is the customer side of things, which may include:

• Budgetary constraints
• Changing goals
• Staff turnover
• Inaccurate data
• A competitor offering a more compelling value proposition

Reconnect with your leads

To begin rebuilding a connection with your leads, take a strategic approach by reviewing your marketing lists and segmentation strategies. As mentioned, leads often disengage if your content is no longer relevant to their needs, goals and pain points. Determine if your buyer personas are still accurate and that you are actually sending the right content to the right people at the right time.

After that, review your email marketing programs and ask hard questions about whether you are incorporating all the latest best practices. You may want to consider developing personalized content for future messages. Ensure you emphasize value for the reader. And don鈥檛 forget to double check that your copy is optimized for mobile!

Reengagement campaigns

Agencies can also go one step further by creating a reengagement campaign. These campaigns involve sending a series of emails or phone calls (or both) that de-emphasize hard sells and prioritize educational and helpful content. Over time, reengagement campaigns show cold leads that your agency is a trusted, go-to resource that is equally committed to solving their problems as it is to making money.

Keep the momentum!

Once you start to see engagement again, it鈥檚 important not to stop. Stay consistent with your messaging. Consider using a content calendar if it鈥檚 helpful. Whatever you do, keep a watchful eye on your email analytics. Staying vigilant is the best strategy for adjusting in real time and ensuring your audience stays engaged and happy.

Final thoughts

Sometimes in marketing, it can feel like you are taking one step forward and two steps back, especially when a lead goes quiet. Yet marketing is often a pendulum rather than a straight line. Anytime leads go cold, it can feel like a major setback. But with some thoughtful course correction, your results can soon start swinging in the right direction.  

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Are you looking to ramp up the marketing of your small agency? If so, consider making an email newsletter part of your toolkit. It may be tempting, especially these days, to think that email is no longer effective. Guess again. According to recent data, email marketing has an average ROI of $42 for every dollar spent. 80 percent of professionals say email is an effective tool for customer acquisition and retention.[i] Get started with your newsletter marketing and start building sustainable demand by implementing the following best practices. 

Subject Lines are Key

It is hard to overstate the importance of your email鈥檚 subject line, as prospects need to open your email before they can read it. The subject line is essentially your best opportunity to sell the reader on your email鈥檚 contents, so you need to make it count. Some main points to remember are to keep your subject lines short, convey the email鈥檚 main point or thesis, and avoid using characters like excessive exclamation points, which increase the possibility of your email getting stuck in a spam filter. 

Emphasize Your Value Proposition 

With any marketing strategy, it鈥檚 critical to make it primarily about the customer, not your business. The same idea holds true for your newsletter content. People will open and read your newsletter only if they understand there is something in it for them. Think about how you can deliver content that is exclusive, educational and actionable. For instance, your agency could put together a helpful video explaining how consumers can help keep their escrow funds safe from scammers and include it in your newsletter. You could even solicit participation from your audience, asking them to submit their own topics to be covered in a future newsletter. 

Optimize for Readability

Having strong content is only one-half of the equation; you also need to ensure that your newsletter is laid out in an aesthetically pleasing way. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short. Use strong, active verbs. Whatever you do, do not neglect including images. Nothing will turn readers off quicker than encountering walls of text within the body of an email. Many email marketing platforms now include free graphics that you can easily insert into your newsletter, and several sites offer stock photography either for free or at a relatively low cost. 

Stick to a Schedule

 Amidst all the other responsibilities that come with running an agency, making sure that your newsletter goes out at roughly the same time can seem challenging. Yet it is important to prioritize consistency if you are going to maximize your readership. Sending your newsletter at the same time will make it feel more professional, and it will also help you stick out in your recipients鈥� crowded inboxes. 

Toward More Meaningful Customer Relationships 

The marketing landscape is growing ever more complicated, with marketers having access to a variety of different channels and technology. But sometimes tried-and-true methods remain the way to go. Despite being decades old, email is still a viable marketing method that belongs in your arsenal. And when executed correctly, an email newsletter can help you build more meaningful and valuable customer relationships. 

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There are a lot of benefits to shifting focus to digital. While there are still costs involved in online marketing, they鈥檙e often less. However, it also means competing with literally everything else on the internet at any given time. What we present to our target audience has to be put forward in an interesting enough manner that their attention can be pulled from the thousands of other options calling for them at any given time. That鈥檚 a tall order!

Shifting your marketing behaviors can be a difficult pill to swallow, but remember that it doesn鈥檛 all have to happen overnight. It鈥檚 also important to remember that this might not be forever. Right now, we鈥檙e in a constant state of adapting. Here are some tips for taking the plunge into this new landscape.

Focus on Engagement

We鈥檙e not just talking clicks here. Right now, one of the best things you can do for your marketing is to keep yourself accessible. Schedule live chats or seminars, or even create an online forum. These things may not have been considered to be standard marketing in the past, but right now it鈥檚 all about getting that attention. Accessibility will go a long way to set you apart from the rest of the pack.

Keep Your E-Blasts Interesting

You know what鈥檚 exhausting? Endless mailers. You know what鈥檚 even worse? Endless cookie-cutter mailers. Cutting and pasting information into the same email format you鈥檝e sent forever might be the easy route, but it鈥檚 not going to get you the engagement you want 鈥� especially not right now. Give your audience a reason to click on your newsletter! You can utilize anything from small giveaways to something as simple as a snappier intro. Make your readers feel like you鈥檙e making an effort to connect.

Avoid Platitudes and Watch Your Frequency

We鈥檙e all getting inundated with marketing from across industries telling us that everything鈥檚 going to be okay and that our best interests are being looked out for. You don鈥檛 need to be that person. No one wants to hear platitudes all day long. We鈥檙e far enough into our current global situation that we鈥檝e all pretty much figured out what we need on an individual basis. Focus on what you鈥檙e bringing to the table, and don鈥檛 overwhelm your email list with correspondence.

If you find yourself constantly digging for information to include in your marketing or other digital correspondences, lower the frequency of your newsletter. The people you鈥檙e reaching will appreciate that a lot more than a halfhearted information aggregate.

Keep on your Toes

As things change, change with them. There鈥檚 no sense in wasting your money on ad space or physical marketing that isn鈥檛 working for you. The future鈥檚 more uncertain than it has been in several generations. While it can be hard to accomplish, do your best to just go with the flow. Keep with the digital marketing while it makes sense, but be prepared to incorporate the physical back into rotation if the marketing landscape calls for it.

Focus on What Works Best You can read all the advice columns out of Forbes you want, but no one knows better than you do about what you and your audience are looking for. Use the advice of the experts as a spring board, and then do your best to make something unique out of your marketing. Not only will this set you apart from the crowd, it will also give your audience more of a reason to engage.

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With a statistic like that, it鈥檚 not hard to see why email marketing is a go-to for marketing campaigns. What鈥檚 confusing, though, is that sometimes, email marketing ROI can look a little bleak.

An unsuccessful email campaign in a world where opening emails is such a big part of people鈥檚 lives can be confusing, and brings up an important question:

Where is the gap between consumers checking their email constantly, but not clicking on your brand鈥檚 message?

As you consider the value of email marketing, consider this 鈥� 73 percent of millennials prefer email communication when receiving marketing material. Ultimately, the problem may not be the marketing channel, but the message delivery. So, is email marketing dead? Or, is there something that can be done to enhance the email marketing experience 鈥� for consumers and marketers?

A marketing strategy makeover might be necessary for a struggling brand. Email marketing as a marketing tool isn鈥檛 dead. But some email marketing practices are, such as impersonal email address lines, violating General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), ignoring user experience, and not tracking metrics.

If your brand鈥檚 email marketing strategy is currently struggling with bringing in high ROI, it could be that your strategy hasn鈥檛 been improved to reflect how email currently works.

Ultimately, if you鈥檙e not catering to your audiences, or if you鈥檙e not using metrics to appropriately measure and improve your email campaigns, you鈥檙e likely missing out on ROI 鈥� not because email marketing is dead, but because your strategy is outdated.

To improve your email marketing ROI in 2020, here鈥檚 what to retire:

1. Impersonal subject lines

Email marketing starts before readers even open the email. Subject lines can make or break open-rate, a metric that tracks how many subscribers open your emails.

Personalizing marketing messages makes readers feel connected to what鈥檚 being sold. Generally, making a subject line personal can be as easy as noting the holiday season or asking a question to get readers thinking.

Think about what in your email is the 鈥渕ust-know鈥� takeaway, and create a short subject line that taps into emotions to get subscribers clicking.

2. Ignoring GDPR standards

GDPR means making sure the reader gives clear, unambiguous permission to receive marketing emails. Full compliance with GDPR ensures that sending marketing emails is legal.

GDPR was created so consumers know their data is protected and being used by brands they have trusted with personal information. They opt-in to emails they鈥檇 like to receive from brands they鈥檙e interested in.

This is good news for marketers because it means your email campaigns will only be sent to users who are genuinely interested in your marketing messages. It also ensures your email marketing messages are compliant with the law.

3. Using templates that aren鈥檛 mobile-friendly

The world is mobile now. Many people check emails from their phone.

Emails that aren鈥檛 mobile-friendly are probably raising your bounce rate exponentially due to poor user experience. Because it鈥檚 so easy to click away from something that鈥檚 unappealing, emails optimized for mobile should be an important step in the design process.

The Apple iPhone is the most popular method for opening emails. For some audiences, marketing emails that are stellar for mobile should take priority over emails for desktop, so the majority of readers don鈥檛 get turned away from desktop-friendly templates.

4. Poor email design

It鈥檚 imperative to take time designing emails that delight readers.

Emails lately have gotten snazzy. From animations to GIFs, and even embedded full-length videos, businesses are dipping their toes into exciting email marketing efforts to pull readers in.

Emails that have quick loading time, bold CTAs (Call to Action), and colorful visuals typically perform best.

An email newsletter with long paragraphs, the same-old template and a CTA that hasn鈥檛 changed in years are less than exciting, and probably leave readers clicking out of that email.

5. Not strategically using metrics

Tracking metrics helps fill in the gaps when looking where to improve marketing efforts. They break down the behavior of email subscribers. 

Metrics collect data on how many people are interacting with emails, when they are, who they are, and for how long. All of this information is important to know when planning because they lead to important marketing decisions.

Metrics save time by reporting on what鈥檚 working and what isn鈥檛. To begin tracking metrics, consider what email software you use. Many have reporting and tracking built into their tools, as well as information about how that data is collected and interpreted.

Ultimately, the reasons you may not be seeing results, is not because email marketing is dead 鈥� it鈥檚 because of how you鈥檙e email marketing. So, before you turn away from email marketing as a whole, think about ways you can improve your strategy to compete.

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