With the emergence of email increasingly being used for advertising commercial real estate listings and services, the biggest question I get is, “Where can I buy an email list?”.  Due to anti-spam laws, purchasing mass emails has become a little tricky…but you can get around this with lists that have opted-in to “affiliate marketing” lists.  In other words, people that have approved their emails be distributed to certain lists.  Here are 9 options for emailing your target market.

 

I ordered the commercial real estate email services in what I, personally, believe is the best bang for your buck.

 

1. Big Boys Blast. They claim 100,000 emails in their database including both brokers and investors. Email starts at a low cost of $69 and you can advertise your listings or services to a huge group in one shot. I have had personal experience with Big Boys Blast.  I received about 110 clicks from one email blast (USA, no Canada).  Assuming the national click-thru rate holds true, Big Boys Blast likely has an open rate of estimated 10,604* emails.  An inexpensive option that is CRE specific.

 

2. Property Campaign. They claim over 300,000 commercial real estate investors, owners, developers, tenants, and agents. Benefit from one of the most highly affluent commercial real estate databases in the industry. They spend money and time on data acquisition, management, & verification, so you don’t have to.  Emails start around $59, and you can buy monthly packages to save money.

 

3. Property Blast. They claim over 90,000 emails in their database. You can also choose to do emails by states (great for leasing). Emails start at $59 per email.  In my personal experience with Property Blast, I received 43 clicks and an open rate of estimated 4,145* emails.  An inexpensive option that is CRE specific.

 

4. Property Send. Company claims 120,000 in their database comprised of buyers, brokers, agents, owners and developers. Their emails start at $145 per email or you can save money with a monthly plan. In my personal experience with Property Send, I received 27 clicks and an open rate of 2,009 emails.  An inexpensive option that is CRE specific.

 

5. Catylist Emails. The sales rep claims about 50,000 emails in their database. One of the few options that allows you to choose emails by state (great for leases)! From my personal experience, I have received 150 clicks.  Assuming the national click-thru rate holds true, Catylist likely has an open rate of estimated 14,400* emails.  A moderately inexpensive option that is CRE specific.

 

6. News Funnel. This is an online real estate news site with a weekly newsletter of top stories. They have several options to advertise in this newsletter including banner advertisements and sponsorships. Many options are not expensive and easy for agents or small brokerages to afford.

 

7. BisNow. Newsletter ad and featured article options will have you in thousands of emails across the country. I can’t tell you how much it costs, since it ranges quite a bit based on where you are located and what kind of ad experience you want, but I can tell you – it’s not as expensive as you think.  A small brokerage should be able to afford sponsorship in one of their newsletters pretty easily.

 

8. Reonomy. Buying a list from Reonomy is simple and easy. Their filtering software makes it easy to pull only the leads you want! Get as targeted as needed, IE “Multifamily owners in zip-code 85225 with 3 to 10-unit complexes.” You can download these into an Excel spreadsheet for easy contact.  While not every contact has emails, many of them do!

 

9. Data Axel. Data Axel allows you to either send emails within their system or purchase email lists in Excel / CVS files. These are people who have opted-in to “other marketing partners” email lists.  Unfortunately, you can’t separate residential real estate agents from commercial, so about 80% of the entries are home buyers/sellers.  At $0.40 per email, this can be a large waste.  But, if you work with one of Data Axel’s sales reps, they can refund you for unusable emails.

 

* These email estimates were not given by the company.  I used the average click-thru rate for emails (3.6%) to calculate the likely number of emails viewed or “open rate”.  These are estimates, not actual numbers or claims by the company itself.  If you see your company on here and would like to correct my numbers, feel free to contact me!

 

If you want more ideas on how to promote your listings, check out Listing Hero.  With Listing Hero you’ll get (4) listing brochures, (4) offering memorandums, (4) email blast, and (2) press release templates.  I’ll also show you how to promote your listings and how to submit them to major news networks quickly and easily.

Providing you with an easy way to promote your listings and turn them around fast, is yet another way I’m taking the “broke” out of commercial real estate brokerage.