Last July we conducted a survey among the users of our Bemail (Broadcast Email) real estate service to identify ways that we could improve it for our customers. We got some great responses and as a result will be rolling out a few changes to the Bemail form and outgoing Bemail format over the next several weeks. Check them out, along with the survey results, below the cut.
Bemail Format
We asked for feedback on a number of different aspects of the Bemail format and got responses for all of them. Most will stay the same, but the following will be changing in outgoing Bemails in the near future:
Subject Lines
There’s been both neutral and negative feedback on the use of property districts in Bemail subject lines, so they will be phased out of Bemails entirely going forward.
Open houses and other special offers such as price changes and agent commissions will stay in Bemail subjects, but the use of ALL CAPS to highlight them will be removed, and Title Case will be enforced across the entire subject line.
Finally, a large number of respondents showed a preference for shorter subject lines, so Bemail subject lines will be subjected to a limit of 40 characters for the main message, leaving another 20 characters for mention of open houses and special offers, for a total maximum length of 60 characters. (Of course, we encourage agents to make their subject lines even shorter if possible, as studies have shown that very short subject lines encourage email open rates.)
MLS® Links
A number of REALTOR®s have expressed interest in having the MLS® number in outgoing Bemails be a link to the listing’s full details on REALTOR.ca. Unfortunately, REALTOR.ca encodes their listing links in such a way that we aren’t able to link them directly using only an MLS® number.
As a middle ground, we’re looking at including a field in the Bemail form where REALTOR®s can enter the Matrix link for the listing. When submitted, the Matrix link will be attached to the listing’s MLS® number on the outgoing Bemail.
Templates
There will be some research made into updating the default template design for Bemails.
Bemail Form
The Bemail order form is currently being reworked to be more automated, which should cut down on ordering errors and making it easier to select things like listing photos. Keep an eye out for it over the next few weeks!
Thank you again to everyone who responded! Check out the survey results below.
