You’ve Got [JUNK] Mail: Recruiting Email Templates

Agent recruiting is the backbone of your brokerage. Therefore having a strong comprehensive recruitment campaign, is vital to the prosperity of your brokerage. While recruiting email templates are a traditional recruitment method, it is still widely effective and should be included in your recruitment campaign. It is important to remember though, that just because recruiting email templates have been used since email was first invented, it does not mean that creating an effective recruiting email template is easy. 

Real estate agents are extremely busy people (duh) and they receive “duh-zens” (upon dozens) of emails every day. Most likely if they are high achieving agents, and happy in their current professional situation, they will see that you sent them a recruiting email and instantly disregard it or delete it. Therefore, if you ever want to achieve an impressive response rate, your email will have to stand out. Immediately show them that you are dedicated to them as an agent. Even if you are focusing on recruiting newer and younger agents, who may be easier to recruit initially, it is important to still show that you value them and want to be apart of their journey as an agent.

There are many approaches one could take in order to stand out professionally, and truly get the attention of seasoned and newly certified agents alike. Join me, as we share with you the methods we recommend and believe to be the most effective. YWIA (the lesser-used cousin of “thank you in advance”)

Formulating the Perfect Recruiting Email Templates

Creating the recruiting email template, you utilize in your agent recruitment campaign, is a task that may seem simple at first. In reality? It needs to be extremely thought out. Concise, yet informative, and very well written.

As you can see, this seemingly straightforward task can become complicated quickly. Not to worry though, we will break down the most important aspects of any recruiting email, and in no time your response rate will increase. Again, you’re welcome.

The Subject Line: Your First Line of Defense

I don’t think I need to tell you, that the subject line of your recruiting email template is extremely important. It sparks the initial deciding factor of whether an agent will even open your email or not. Therefore, the subject line must quickly grab their attention. It should truly convince them that opening your email, and later consider your proposition, is worth their time. This task is even more difficult when you consider that you are very limited by the number of characters you have to work with. Typically you want your subject line as short as possible. Statistically, around sixteen characters work best, to get the highest response rate. Meaning that you have sixteen characters (or less) to convince someone that finding out more about your brokerage is the best career move they could make.

Up For The Challenge?

It’s like someone asking you to make them decide to change their life in the same number of characters as “Peter Piper Picked”. That’s it. That’s all you get! Make this daunting task significantly easier with some guidance. Our advice is: to either go the curiosity or utility route. 

Curiouser And Curiouser

A human’s curiosity is extremely motivating. It convinces people to do things they may not naturally do. Or to do things they may not have time to do. Such as a newly certified agent spending time reading unnecessary emails. A great example of a company that utilizes this tactic is Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed routinely convinces people to read entire articles about the best Christmas cookies to make or watch videos on the latest in the Hollywood movie industry. Buzzfeed is successful in tapping into human curiosity. They convince people to essentially take part in time-wasting activities.

Likewise, you can utilize curiosity to convince real estate agents to take the time to learn about the career-enhancing opportunity of joining your brokerage. Using this approach also allows you to highlight something unique or interesting about your brokerage. This tactic works best if there is a certain quality of your brokerage that captures people’s attention when they hear about it. 

Focus On Utility

This is another extremely effective approach when creating a subject line for your recruiting email template. As stated previously, when an agent receives a recruiting email, they want to ensure that opening the email and considering your proposition will be worth their time. Thus when you answer the question “how could reading this email progress my career goals?” or “why is this brokerage more beneficial to me than my current one?” it immediately sparks an agent’s interests.

Now, it can be difficult to answer either of these questions with the very limited characters you have available. Therefore, it is always best to get multiple opinions on the subject line you create. Ask the agents you currently work with if the subject line you wrote answers either of those questions for them. This may seem like an extensive amount of work to put into an email subject line. Fear not. We guarantee that if you are able to perfect your subject line, you will achieve a response rate that astounds you. 

Where’s the Trust?

Once an agent initially opens your email, the task now is to ensure they continue to read it. The best way to ensure that is to establish trust. Convincing someone you do not know and are not talking to in person, to trust you, is very difficult. In order to accomplish this very important step, utilizing familiarity is the best way to go. To do this, you will address them personally, by their name, in the email. If I open an email that is addressed “To whom it may concern”, I certainly don’t want to be concerned with whatever comes next.

Next, state one to two professional facts about them. Don’t make it creepy. You should not know they spent their 2012 family vacation in Gulf Shores. You could, however, state that you know they have been at their current brokerage for some time now. Perhaps they have had a great sales record this year, or maybe they just completed a new certification. Find any of this information on an agent’s social media or website. It just takes time to find it. This can be a significant downside to utilizing familiarity, but when an agent knows that you have a committed interest in them, they are drastically more likely to give your proposition serious consideration. 

The Proposal

Congrats, you didn’t get ghosted! You have established trust! Next, it is time to really hit them with the true purpose of your email, the proposal. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t come with a gemstone. But it could still end with a happily ever after. Make it known immediately that you are serious about recruiting them and you believe they could prosper at your brokerage. Briefly describe the qualities of your brokerage that are most attractive to agents.

To figure these out, take a poll from your current agents. Find out what made them interested in working with you, and why they have decided to stay. Which, is also good marriage advice, since we were talking proposals. I digress. Mention any innovative practices that your brokerage may use. Speak of the community present, and how they would be able to increase their personal revenue by joining your brokerage.

It is essential to remember though that an agent will not simply switch brokerages because there is a potential they could increase their income. Many real estate agents, new or experienced, have a vested interest in the culture of the brokerage they work for. Agents want opportunities for continued education and an emphasis on collaboration. These qualities of your brokerage are just as important, if not more important, to include when attempting to convince an agent that joining your brokerage is the best career move they could make.

Recruiting Email Templates Follow-Up 

Well, that is a mouthful that sounds like a snooze fest, right? *EEEEEEE* WRONG! We’ve arrived at one of the most crucial elements of any recruiting email template. Drumroll please… asking for a follow-up! Boom. Brain melting advice. You will only be able to give so much in a single recruiting email. Especially if you are following the recommendation to be concise. Ask for some of their time in order for you to give additional information about your brokerage. Yes, it is necessary. Don’t fret, just check out Brokerkit. Request a demo, it comes with prebuilt recruiting campaign sequences. The fun is in the follow-up! That’s our motto anyway.

The Secret

To get the most people to agree to a follow-up, whether in-person or over the phone: You must make all the decisions for the follow-up conversation in the initial one. Basically, booking the second date before walking her to the door. Ask when the agent is interested in a follow-up conversation. You force them to think of a time they are free and participate in email banter with you, to see if that time works for you as well. When this extra work is needed to have a follow-up conversation, most agents will just say no to make their lives easier. Therefore, it is always best to make the ask for a follow-up very specific. For example, you could say “would you be free for a fifteen-minute follow-up conversation on the 13th at 1 pm?” 

Booking that second date, I mean getting an agent to agree to a follow-up conversation, is beneficial to both parties. This conversation allows you to actually get a sense of an agent’s personality, communication skills, ambitions, and attitude towards joining a new brokerage. This conversation also allows the agent to get a better feel for who you are as a broker. This reinforces and expands on the minimal trust you established with them in your initial recruiting email template. An agent is much more likely to genuinely consider your offer if they have a personal conversation with you. Your goal is to grow your brokerage, I assume, so do not forget to include asking for a follow-up conversation in your recruiting email template. 

Innovative Practices 

Utilizing email templates is an age-old method for agent recruiting. Creative methods, inclusions, and innovations are always being made. Utilizing one, or a few of them, instantly makes your email and brokerage stand out. Consider adopting some of these innovations into your recruiting campaign. It may be well worth your time, and could potentially be the reason your newest star agent agrees to join your brokerage. 

Incorporating Communal Publishing 

Or for the layman, good ‘ole social media. Social marketing is only growing in professional use and popularity. Therefore you, your brokerage, and your agents should all have a strong (and positive) presence on the major social media platforms. If this is not the case, then you are significantly missing out on countless recruitment, and business opportunities. Shame. I assume your brokerage does have substantial and thought out social media pages. It is a good idea to include links to them in a recruiting email. Social media is changing the game of real estate. You’ve probably heard. Many agents want to know that the people they are working with have a strong presence on popular platforms. Thus, including your social media handles gives them the opportunity to discover this about your brokerage, and exposes them to more substantive information about your brokerage than you could provide in your recruiting email. 

Video Software 

Utilizing this method may seem a little strange at first. It may take a couple tries to get the hang of, but incorporating a short video is sure to set you apart. No need for stage fright. Casually talk about you or your brokerage in your recruiting email video. This method is rapidly growing in popularity because of the recorded success it brings in. Get it? “Recorded” success. The option to watch video calls on an agent’s curiosity. They are more likely to spend time with your recruitment email if there is a component of it that surprises them. 

A video also allows you to show your face and personality, thus furthering to establish trust between you and any agent you are attempting to recruit. You could even have a view of the office so they could have a glimpse of the environment that could potentially be working in, truly allowing them to envision themselves working there. Utilizing a video also shows to agents that you and brokerage put an emphasis on innovative techniques and technology. Which, is an extremely attractive quality of a brokerage. Given all the benefits you could receive from this method, what is the harm in at least giving it a try?

Agent Recruiting is the Backbone of Your Brokerage 

Agent recruiting is what allows your brokerage to thrive. Without a solid recruitment campaign, it is unclear if your brokerage would even be able to sustain itself and keep it’s doors open. Therefore it is of the utmost importance that you are constantly working to innovate and improve all aspects of your email recruiting template. 

While it is vital to be consistently working to improve your real estate recruitment, it just as important to be persistent with your email recruitment campaigns. Agents delete emails all the time. Emails end up in spam, or maybe you just caught an agent at the wrong time and they are not interested at the moment. Regardless of the reason an agent did not respond to your email, you should still be persistent. Persistence is the tried and true method for creating an effective email recruitment campaign, and should always be utilized to the fullest extent.