Do you have a real estate agent marketing plan?

Not just a vague idea of sending mailers once in a while or “trying” to cold call on Wednesdays. But a real, documented plan for reaching the number of leads you need to reach to close the number of deals you need to close to hit your income goal for the year.

The reason so many real estate agents struggle with lead generation is because they don’t have a documented real estate marketing plan. A written marketing plan keeps you organized, keeps you focused, and keeps you accountable so you can generate more leads and close more deals!

So today, we’re going to show you exactly how to create a real estate agent marketing plan of your own.

How to Create the Ultimate Real Estate Agent Marketing Plan

Here’s a simple 6-step plan to creating a real estate agent marketing plan that will elevate your business.

1. Define Your Production Goals

All good plans start with the end in mind. What do you want your real estate agent marketing plan to accomplish in terms of production?

Are you looking to hit $100K in GCI (Gross Commission Income)? $200K? Maybe it’s your first year, and you’re planning to start your career with a solid $50K.

If you followed along as we created a Bullet-Proof Real Estate Agent Financial Plan, you already have your production goal documented. And, even better, you already have this figure converted into:

1. the number of homes you need to sell to hit your goal, and
2. the number of leads you need to reach to sell that many homes.

These numbers are critical to creating your real estate agent marketing plan. Without them, you don’t know how much time to devote to marketing. So if you need a refresher on how to calculate your numbers, head over to our post on creating a financial plan for the formulas.

2. Focus Your Message

Before you can start marketing, you need to know what you’ll say to your audience. Your message depends on who you are and who your audience is.

In The Quick and Easy Guide to Real Estate Branding, we covered a bunch of how-to’s relating to branding your message. Like how to:

• choose a niche (and why the riches are in the niches!)
• create your client avatar
• craft an origin story that will resonate with prospective clients
• define your mission
• explain what makes you different

All of this is necessary for focusing your marketing message. You need your message to be relevant to the right people.

One of the most common real estate agent marketing mistakes I see is messy messaging. Many agents don’t know how to target their market. They use vague statements in an attempt to attract anyone and everyone. Or they throw mismatched marketing materials out into the world instead of using a cohesive branding strategy in their marketing.

Don’t be that agent! Know who you’re trying to reach, and what message they need to hear.

You may want to review that Real Estate Agent Branding Guide if you can’t clearly explain the message you’re planning to convey through your marketing.

3. Know Where Your Leads Are Coming From

Do you know where your leads are coming from?

Online? Geo-farming? Cold-calling the Expireds? Somewhere else?

To know where your marketing dollars are making the most bang, you need to know which marketing methods are working for you.

If you don’t have a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) System that automatically tracks the return on investment for your leads, you can create a basic spreadsheet to handle this task. Just list your marketing methods in a column on the far left, then add columns for the:

• annual cost of each marketing method
• number of leads generated every year by each method
• cost per lead (annual cost divided by the number of leads generated)
• number of closed deals
• net profit from those closed deals
• ROI of each method (net profit divided by the annual cost)

Or you can simply download The Ultimate Real Estate Agent Marketing Plan from Etsy, which includes a ready-made template.

If you’re brand new to the business and don’t yet have any data to analyze, don’t worry. Start your marketing strategy with 3-5 cost-effective marketing methods. My recommendations for most new agents in most markets are:

1. Social Media Marketing: you can create professional profiles and post for free (check out How to Create a Lead-Generating Social Media Calendar for tips).
2. Content Marketing: adding blog posts to your website to boost your search engine rankings so buyers and sellers can find you online.
3. Calling FSBO’s and Expireds in your niche: these people are actively trying to sell! Get out there and talk to them. Make sure you have a FSBO Guide ready to show FSBOs how much work it takes to sell a home.
4. Mailers: mailers may be old school, but in many markets, they’re still a low-cost way to generate leads.
5. Open Houses: while open houses aren’t effective for selling in all markets, they’re often effective at generating new leads.

4. Schedule Your Marketing Activities

Armed with your chosen marketing methods, it’s time to decide exactly when you’re going to take action.

You know that if it isn’t in your calendar, it won’t get done. Other tasks, like showings and inspections, will inevitably take priority because they are more urgent. Don’t let the urgent tasks keep you from the important tasks. And since your business doesn’t exist without a client pipeline, marketing is possibly the single most important task you can complete to keep your business growing. So schedule it!

Grab your calendar now and decide when you’ll:

• launch your website (if you don’t already have one)
• write and publish your blog posts (one per week is ideal)
• post to social media (several times per week on your focus platforms, and at least once per week on the other major platforms)
• call Expireds and FSBO’s (daily! – so what time will you carve out every day for distraction-free phone marketing?)
• send mailers (at least quarterly)
• attend networking events
• order any print media ads
• launch any social media ad campaigns
• etc, etc, etc

5. Add a New Marketing Activity Every Year

The real estate industry is always changing. What works one year might not work so well the next. And next year, you may find new marketing opportunities you weren’t even aware of this year.

Innovative agents experiment with new marketing technologies to keep their businesses growing.

One great example of a marketing activity to add in a down market is to target renters. Home prices are lower than average, interest rates are favorable, and rents are increasing. Show these renters how to get a low down payment FHA or VA loan so they can use the market to their advantage!

Another great example (albeit a more ambitious one!) of a new marketing plan for a down market is to expand your services to include property tax appeals. Most agents don’t even know this service exists, but it can provide you with a whole new income stream while simultaneously generating new leads and nurturing your relationship with past clients. And it’s far easier than you might imagine!

All you have to do is explain to the county that your client’s home is worth less than the value on their tax bill (which is very often the case in a down market). You do this by running comps, like you already know how to do. If the county agrees, they’ll lower your client’s property taxes, and you get a cut of that reduction. You’ll be able to pitch this service to all homeowners in your niche and gain some serious exposure for your real estate business! Learn more by reading How to Make Money With Property Tax Appeals.

There are tons of creative marketing strategies that most agents never consider. Trying a new marketing activity each year will keep your business growing in any market!

6. Track Your Results

To know what works you need to track your results.

Back in Step 3, we looked at where your leads are currently coming from, as well as the return on investment for each marketing method. Without tracking your leads, you’ll never have this valuable data to help guide your next marketing move.

Every time a new lead comes in, record the marketing source that drove them. If you have a fancy CRM database, you can record the information there. If you’re just keeping your leads in a simple spreadsheet, no problem! Just make sure you have a column to record the source. And if you don’t currently have a system, consider spending a few bucks on a printable CRM template from Etsy (by the way, there is one included in The Ultimate Real Estate Agent Marketing Plan). A CRM database may be worth the investment once you have hundreds of active leads to manage, but a low-tech printable works just as well as an expensive database for new agents. As long as you diligently use it, that is!

Resources

Here are a few killer resources for anyone looking to learn more about real estate marketing:

Mindset, Model and Marketing!: The Proven Strategies to Transform and Grow Your Real Estate Business by Tom Ferry

The Million Dollar Listing Social Media: The Ultimate Social Media Marketing Guide for Real Estate Professionals! by Sebastian Acosta

The Book of YES: The Ultimate Real Estate Agent Conversation Guide by Kevin Ward

The Real Estate Marketing Playbook by Brandon Doyle

Creating your real estate agent marketing plan will only take a couple hours, but it will change the course of your real estate business. This is one business planning task you can’t afford to put off. Start creating your Ultimate Real Estate Agent Marketing Plan today!

Photo credit: Campaign Creators