07 Oct 2022
Have a Land Buyers’ List? Sell to Them With an Email Funnel
How often do you make a big purchase on a whim? With no discussion, minimal info and barely an ounce of motivation. Not exactly the hallmarks of confident decision-making, right?
Well, that’s more or less the situation your potential land buyers find themselves in when they initially come across your properties. While they might have a passing interest, there’s generally more needed to reach the tipping point on a big buy.
That’s where buyer lead email funnels come in.
Warming up leads through thoughtful (and well-timed) messages can slowly take someone from potential to purchase.
Just because they’re not ready today, doesn’t mean they won’t be tomorrow.
What You Need to Build an Email Funnel
Honestly, it’s pretty simple, with a bit of setup work upfront yielding a solid flow of passive inbound leads. We’ll break it down point by point but here’s the overview:
- Website
- Recommendation: LandList
- Opt-in form
- Recommendation: Ninja Forms
- Email automation
- Recommendation: MailerLite
- Zapier (optional but helpful)
Website
They gotta find you somewhere and that means having a presence online.
A professional website is more than a digital location though, it creates confidence and builds trust off the bat – necessities for sales and long-term buyer relationships.
Not sold? Think about wary and skeptical people are of Craigslist purchases. Easily overcome a boatload of objections with a dedicated land site.
You can get started with us and have an integrated LandList site up and running in minutes with our templates.
Opt-in form
You’ve got a great piece of land, your site is up and looking great, now what?
You need to collect the contact info of interested buyers. We recommend Ninja Forms if your site is built with WordPress.
FYI, we’re not pumping our own site just because, all of our LandList websites include Ninja Form integration, making life a lot easier.
Email automation
This is more than a tool for sending out your emails, it’s the system that you bring your leads into.
Our go-to is MailerLite, which offers an easy-to-use, drag & drop editor and has a great free option that lets you send up to 12,000 emails a month to lists smaller than 1,000 subscribers.
That editor is a nice touch too because just like your website, your emails should be polished. We all judge books by the cover, overcome that with a good-looking cover every time you reach out.
Zapier (optional)
This one isn’t required but we’re big Zapheads and process nerds so we wanted to mention it.
MailerLite can already connect to your opt-in form but integrating and automating through Zapier increases your flexibility a bit.
Writing Emails: Templates and Timing for the Win
Putting together emails already isn’t the most thrilling use of time, especially when you aren’t sure how to create an engaging sequence of them and when exactly to send them to begin with.
We’ve been there.
Over the years we’ve whittled and shaped a basic buyer lead email funnel that nurtures folks (without annoying them) and has kept the sales coming.
Here’s a cheat sheet of each email and when to send it:
Day 1 – Explain and rapport
Even though people have opted in to receive these emails, it’s important to reiterate and reemphasize the benefits they get from these emails. This first email does that and sets the tone for the relationship.
Day 2 – Build trust through personalization
You want to create a human connection, not just make a transaction. That means being personable and trustworthy, the best way to do that is to open up a bit and share your own story about land investing and how it’s helped you.
Day 3 – Strengthen trust with benefits
Make it easy to “yes” by explaining how simple it is to finance land with you and the surprisingly low monthly payment amount that can turn them into land owners (or expand their portfolio).
Day 4 – Cement trust with a demo
Transparency in the process and genuinely helping people builds tremendous confidence. Show people how to research land, even if that leads to competition with yours, to highlight that you’re working in their best interest.
Day 5 – Answer the most common question
The question is “when I find a property I want to buy, what do I do to move forward?”. Even if this isn’t the most common question, the goal is to prime people to buy and explain how simple it easy to do with you.
That’s it, that’s all.
Steal our templates now and get started!
What Else to Do with Your List
Those 5 emails aren’t the end of the line! Not all of those on your list will become buyers immediately so you need to keep leads warm by continuing to nurture them throughout the year.
Here are some ideas of what you can send to keep the people that opted in engaged, remember, they want to hear from you, they wouldn’t have signed up otherwise.
- Property updates
- Company info or changes
- Exclusive discounts
- Contests
- SPEARs
1. Property updates
Are you selling another piece of land? Let your list know! The beauty of these lists is that they’re full of people opting in to receive information about land for sale. Give it to them! A well-made funnel can be a pot of gold!
2. Company info or changes
Is there something about your company that might create a deeper connection with your audience of potential buyers or pertinent info? Get the word out.
3. Exclusive discounts and sales
Ok, these don’t have to be exclusive but people sure do like feeling like they’re on the inside. Consider using that to your advantage by offering occasional email-only offers. Whether it’s exclusive or not, everyone loves a sale.
4. Contests
A great way to see the level of engagement or temperature of a lead is by running a contest to entice and excite buyers.
5. SPEARs
SPEAR stands for Short, Powerful, Expecting A Reply. These brief emails are meant to re-engage and reinvigorate your list, in fact, they’re also known as reactivation emails and are meant to be as simple as “Hey John, still looking for a property in Cuyahoga County? Let me know.” Your leads don’t think about this stuff every day, that’s why they’re on your list – they need reminders. SPEARs are perfect for that.
Long Story Short
The sales cycle for selling land isn’t the shortest. Couple that with the fact that potential buyers generally aren’t ready to become actual buyers right away, it’s critical to open and maintain the lines of communication with the least friction possible.
Buyer lead email funnels do just that.
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