How to Create a Real Estate Agent Marketing Plan
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Creating a real estate marketing plan doesn’t have to be a daunting task. It just needs to be a well-thought-out one.
No matter your budget or your level of experience, your marketing plan is the chance for YOU to set yourself up for success. It doesn’t matter what time of year it is or the season in your business. Everyone could use a solid marketing plan. In today’s episode, we’re going to explore the 10 essential steps to creating your marketing plan.
I’ve created marketing plans with budgets that were hundreds of thousands of dollars for the year and marketing plans that are as economical as possible. They all have one thing in common.
The best plans leverage what you’re already good at combined with where there is opportunity in the market. To figure this out, we’re going to go on a journey today of our own personal goals, analysis of past efforts, research, and ultimately planning.
And to help make planning easier for you, I’ve created Weekly Marketing Action Plan you can use to break your marketing efforts into actionable items that will work together to help you reach your goals! Click here to download your free copy of the Weekly Marketing Action Plan & tune into Episode 121 of the podcast to dive into all the details & this freebie can guide you as you create a clear plan each week to help lead to more closings.
We also have a yearly training for Marketing Planning inside The Marketing Suite with a complete Marketing Planning template that helps you outline your target market, keep track of your goals throughout the year and so much more. Want the complete training and marketing planning template? Click here to check out The Marketing Suite for full access!
Step 1: Set Your Business Goals for the Year
Your marketing plan should directly support your business goals. So, before you complete your real estate marketing plan take time to set solid goals for your business. In this episode and blog post, I’m focusing solely on the marketing side of your yearly business planning.
You’ll need to know what your transaction goals are for the year in units, volume, and specific metrics like the number of buyers and sellers you’re aiming to work with. This foundation will directly impact where you’ll spend your marketing efforts.
Step 2: Analyze What Worked In The Past
If you have a history of past sales, how did you get them? Do you have a lot of referral-based business? Were you running ads last year that were really working?
If you haven’t already, go through each of your transactions and make a note of how you got this business. In your marketing planning, we want to build off of what’s already working and mix in new ideas and strategies.
Next, look at where you had traction last year in your marketing. In Episode 1, “10 Tips to Kickoff Your 2020 Real Estate Marketing,” I dive deeper into looking at the ROI of your past marketing efforts. So, if you haven’t heard the episode or read the blog yet, hop on over.
Keep in mind, cost is not just money. It’s also your time and personal sanity!
If something worked but was a drain on you last year, consider how we can change that in the new year. This might be the year that you hire an assistant or partner with someone else to help you manage the busy work.
Step 3: Choose Your Target Market & Farming Areas
Your marketing isn’t about you. Yes, in the age of personal branding, I’m saying it. Your marketing isn’t about you. Great marketing is about who you plan on serving.
To connect with your ideal customer, you’ll need to have a clear vision of who they are, what matters the most to them, and what their pain points are. People don’t want to be sold to anymore. We’re all smarter than that! In a time of technology, authenticity and genuine care are winning out.
Relationship-based marketing starts with truly understanding your ideal customer and coming from a place of service. In the marketing plan guide, fill in your target customer profiles so you can tailor your marketing efforts.
FARMING
This is also the time to think about any traditional farming that you may want to do. If there’s an area or neighborhood that you want to target, start your research. Why would that area be a good fit for you and your marketing?
You might be used to analyzing a neighborhood through traditional methods like turnover rates, home values, and potential equity. However, I’d challenge you to start researching the competition and desirability for the neighborhood online as well.
Google the neighborhood. What comes up? If there isn’t a lot of information, this could be an opportunity for your digital marketing.
You don’t need to be a Google wizard either to see how many people are searching for your farming neighborhood. Visit www.trends.google.com for an easy to use search tool. Just type in what you’re looking for, and it will tell you how popular that search is and even related topics.
Some digital sleuthing combined with traditional neighborhood analysis will allow you to pick neighborhoods that have more opportunities for your real estate marketing efforts.
Step 4: Figure Out Your Budget - Both Time and Money
Whenever I ask people what their budget is, they immediately jump to money. Time is just as important.
You need to be honest with yourself and set a realistic budget for both.
There will be times during the year where you are busy and times where you might be in-between closings. I get this. If you don’t already know, I’m married to a commercial agent. I know first-hand what this is like.
The trick is to be as predictive as we can with our budget, recognize that it might fluctuate, and figure out a plan to compensate for changes.
As a rule of thumb, I like to say the less money you invest, be willing to invest more time.
Over the years I’ve noticed people tend to set overly ambitious goals for how much time they’ll spend on their marketing and be frugal on the money they’re willing to spend.
You want to be smart with what you’re doing.
That’s why marketing is all about adaptability and as much as it is a creative process. It’s analytical. Throughout the year you should be measuring your success and pivoting when necessary.
Once you’ve figured how much money and time you’re planning to spend, then we can allocate it to the right marketing avenue.
Step 5: Choose Your Real Estate Marketing Initiatives
It’s tempting to jump right to this in planning. You might have a goal to get 1,000 more followers on Instagram this year or want to start a video series. Awesome ideas. I’ll follow you and tune in!
The reason we don’t start with the marketing ideas is because we want to think back to Step 1. Everything we do needs to support our overall business goals. It also needs to relate back to Step 3 and be geared towards who we are trying to attract.
To do this, a well-rounded marketing strategy should contain a healthy mix of outbound and inbound marketing.
Outbound marketing is what you think of in terms of more traditional advertising. It usually involves paying to make that connection with someone. Your plan for the new year might include social media ads that drive traffic back to your website or include paid ads on one of the search sites.
If you’re focusing on sellers and are planning to farm an area, postcards and direct mail might still have a place in your real estate marketing plan.
Now, inbound marketing is what I’m most known for and passionate about.
Inbound marketing attracts people to you. (It’s not a dirty thing to say, but inbound marketing can be supported with a paid strategy as well!)
I don’t’ want you to get confused here. The main difference is that outbound pushes messages to people while inbound pulls people in.
Inbound marketing is usually based around content. Remember, those pain points you wrote down? Inbound and content marketing are your chance to address those in a way that will allow you to connect with more people.
Content could be anything from video to blogging. It could even be in the form of a social media strategy or be event-based. You could have open houses as a key part of your strategy or host seminars on first-time homebuying.
What you might be noticing is that while inbound marketing is typically more compelling (because when it’s done right, it is directed exactly to your target market). It also takes more time.
Consider a healthy mix of both, take into account what has worked for you in the past, and forecast where you see potential opportunities.
Step 6: Set a Solid Sphere of Influence Touch Plan
What are the ways you’re going to engage your sphere this year?
I’d recommend you choose a combination of automated marketing and direct touchpoints. Automated marketing might be in the form of email newsletters or print pieces that you mail to their homes. Direct touchpoints could include picking up the phone and calling them, setting reminders to send texts, poping by their homes, or even hosting customer appreciation parties throughout the year.
If you have hundreds of different people all on different schedules of touch plans, it’s going to be next to impossible to keep up with!
Instead, consider creating a theme for every month. In January you could call and wish everyone a happy New Year, in February drop little Valentine’s day candies off, in March mail them a market update, and so on and so forth.
Step 7: Get Your Collateral and Content Together
A lot of marketing is about the creative assets themselves. You might need a template for a postcard or even a social media graphic. Go through what you already have and make a note of what you need. If you’re planning to do a lot of inbound marketing, creation will be a big part of your marketing plan.
And if you’re struggling with what to post on social media, I have a Social Media Strategy Guide & 30-Day Calendar you can download for free here.
You don’t have to have it all to get started! It can be a part of your marketing plan. We build up and work our way towards different marketing goals.
Step 8: Track Your Efforts
For every marketing idea, you want to implement, you need to know how much you will be spending on it and what the result was.
Let’s say I budget to spend $100 on Facebook ads per month. I end up getting 10 leads from it in the first month. That would make the cost per lead $10. It takes me 5 months’ worth of leads to have a closing. The overall cost would have been $500, and I closed 1 of my 50 leads. So, that’s a 2% conversion rate.
You can better monitor how you are doing throughout the year by tracking this way.
Step 9: Put Your Plan on a Calendar
I have personally done this in so many ways. Years ago I started with an old-fashioned calendar, pen, and paper. Now, in my daily life, I use project management systems and am a big fan of asana.
The only way to get your real estate marketing plan done is to schedule it and hold yourself accountable. Better yet, find a marketing accountability buddy! Figure out whatever it takes for you to complete your plan.
Step 10: Keep Perfecting Your Plan
As the year goes on, you’ll start discovering what works and what doesn’t. Use this information to better your marketing! Your marketing plan doesn’t have to be a static, rigid plan that never changes. You might have opportunities come up throughout the year you want to take advantage of! That’s great. Be flexible but always consistent!
Look at your plan daily for what you need to be executing on, monthly to review your performance, and quarterly to reevaluate.
If you put all of these pieces into place and use the Weekly Marketing Action Plan, or implement the training and Marketing Planning template found inside The Marketing Suite, you will have a solid plan that will help you reach your goals!
Up Next:
I’m Heather Colby, host of the “Ideas for Real Estate Podcast.”
If you like what you read here today, I’d encourage you to take a listen to the episodes.
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New episodes air on Mondays and if you have a topic request, connect with me here!
It's time for seasonal marketing! Fall-themed real estate content and marketing on social media is not only trending, it also works in your Instagram Reels, posts, carousels, and more. The secret is to customize this content with photos and videos of you. So, in today's episode, let's plan an easy fall content shoot for you as a REALTOR to use in your marketing strategies this season!