Today’s post is in keeping with this week’s referral network/agent network theme, but with a twist. We are going to talk about broker blasts, the biggest waste of my time every day.
For the uninitiated, broker blasts are emails sent by agents that highlight a specific property or group of properties he/she has listed. I do not send them, and personally do not think I ever will. In today’s world I don’t see the benefit of adding another email to the mass pile of shit that people already receive every day, and, unlike my newsletters, I do not think they add value. Compass has built a search experience that makes it easy to find properties that interest you, so I do not also need to receive random properties in my inbox. It’s reductant and unhelpful.
However, I respect that sending these out is part of many agents’ business plan, and they can be well done. If you are dealing with markets that don’t have great search functionality or where people are not as technologically literate, this can be a good way to get your properties in front of agents/clients. You do you, babe.
But it is 100% fucked up and unacceptable to send your “blast” to EVERY. SINGLE. AGENT. in NYC. It’s ridiculous and I don’t want them. Sometimes I get broker blasts from random agents in markets where I don’t work or know anyone to refer. And it’s not just that this is annoying; it actively interferes with my ability to do my job, which is why I get mad. I keep my work inbox extremely organized and labeled, because my job involves juggling multiple clients and endless emails with countless agents about different properties for each one. I will be out with a client trying to look back for a specific piece of information, only to find my inbox swamped with useless emails highlighting condos in North Florida or a random UES co-op that would work for approximately zero people I know. I have unsubscribed from hundreds of mailing lists, but more keep coming. It’s the gift that keeps on giving, but terrible.
So for those of you who still want to use the blast approach, I have a few tips:
Stop sending them to ALL AGENTS. If you do not know someone, don’t email him/her. If I reached out to you about a listing and got added to your mailing list, fine. I will probably unsubscribe but understand why I’m on the list. If we have never before communicated, do not email me. I don’t know you #nonewfriends.
Stop sending so many of them; multiple a week to the same people is overkill, regardless of how many properties you have. And if someone unsubscribes, DO NOT KEEP SENDING THEM. I’ve started to recognize certain agents/teams that clearly make new email blast lists every few months, and then I have to unsubscribe all over again.
If you insist on sending these, and sending them to EVERY AGENT, make sure you are doing it the correct way and include an unsubscribe button. Otherwise it’s actually a violation, can get your brokerage in trouble, and is the #1 way to make us millennial agents mad.
So how is this related to referral week? Because if one of my friend-agents in another market is sending me broker blasts, I’m probably not going to unsubscribe. I would still prefer that the agent just send me a newsletter and include listings in it, as that’s more interesting, but again, if we know each other then I can cheer on your success while learning a little bit about property in a different market.
Which brings me to my last point: if you are sending a bunch of blasts out, you’re going to get more unsubscribes than if you send out fewer emails with more useful content. You’re actually doing yourself a disservice, because while you may in the short term think it’s no big deal, you will lose the engagement of your audience for when you really need to market something that matters. Don’t be the agent who cried “sick deal” and have everyone ignore you when you actually have something to say.
xo
Anna