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Here we are only a few days away from another year’s end and the beginning of a new one. It’s an exciting time for most people, especially this time around since ringing in the new year means we can say our final goodbyes to a wretched 2020. For real estate professionals – aka small business owners – the last months and days of the year signal a time to slow down, enjoy the holidays, assess our progress in business goals and aspirations, take a hard look at last year’s strategy, and lay down the plans moving forward. Making adjustments whether large or small to last year’s marketing strategy is necessary in achieving the goals you set forth every year to grow your business. Whether it’s through expanding your outreach into the community by sponsoring a 5k and using PR to get your name into the local paper, designing and sending postcards and/or email marketing pieces to potential clients, writing great blogs, or making short videos to post on your website or YouTube channel, a solid marketing plan is paramount to achieving your goals.
Marketing is always somewhere in the mix, especially if you’re working on establishing a name for yourself in your local market or you’re leveling up your game on the latest social media channel. We find that people tend to approach their marketing plans like they do their health and fitness goals, and it goes something like this: Research “new” ways of doing things because “new” is motivating. Purchase the latest technology or service to get organized and “get things done.” Begin implementing those new ideas for a few weeks or months. And then – boom – all of a sudden the year’s over with only those few months of effort to show for it. What happened?
Maybe business suddenly took off and you had no time to market yourself, or maybe you found yourself interrupted by a few unexpected occurrences and it took time to get yourself back on track. Whatever the circumstance, marketing became a luxury you just couldn’t afford. And at the end of the year you found yourself at exactly the same spot as last year with your brand recognition or illustriousness in your market, and likely ending up with the same amount of money in your pocket like previous years yet having worked more than ever.
So, if this describes you, what should you do?
You could start by hiring an agency with a solid track record for real estate marketing, but if you’re not inclined to do so or your budget can’t make room, here’s what we recommend you do to get the ball rolling.
Take Time to Research and Listen to the Experts
When we’re doing any kind of content marketing for a client, whether it’s creating an email campaign to recruit new agents or designing ads and copy to attract the right target audience, it all starts with identifying the strategies that hold the least amount of risk, ones that have already been proven to be successful. Typically, you can look to your successful peers and industry professionals, those people that continue to gain recognition for their outstanding sales records year after year or those who continue to rise in the ranks of sales and marketing. Do a little online research if you don’t know them personally. People who are successful generally tend to share not only how successful they are but also how they got that way. And those people who rise up in the ranks are often there because they’ve helped a lot of people along the way to become successful.
Start With One Idea and Make a (Detailed) Plan
After you’ve gathered up a list of solid marketing ideas, the next step is a slightly difficult one. Take that list you’ve created and then shorten it to, at most, three ideas you are excited about and know are achievable within a shorter period of time (less than a year). Then, of those three ideas, narrow the list down to one. Yes, just one. Pick one out of a hat if you have to, but be sure to narrow it down so you can maintain focus. Take that one idea and then write down all the steps needed to execute on it successfully. For example, say you’d like to branch out into a new real estate market, or maybe you’ve been primarily assisting first-time home buyers and now you’d like to start building a reputation of helping other types of buyers like investors or families who are in the market for legacy-type properties or vacation homes. You’ve identified a few good approaches. Now it’s time to write it all down, from educating yourself on what these buyers are looking for, to laying down the steps of proactively marketing to your new audience. Get as detailed as you can with how you’re going to reach your target audience and take care of their needs.
Calendarize Your Plan
Yes, calendarize is a word and it means that you schedule all of the tasks into your calendar, even if it’s over a period of one or three or even six months! Really successful people do this. It sounds so tedious and boring but it’s the consistent attention to the plan and constantly staying fixated on your goals that will eventually get you there. Yes, it’s likely you may reschedule your calendar but the main thing is that you’re taking the time to focus on an important aspect of your business. Don’t forget to plan into your calendar the crucial step of assessing your progress. Even if things are going well, it’s a good idea to sit down to ask yourself why and understand when your plan really worked. It’s important to keep experimenting, repeating the tactics that worked while finessing the ones that fell flat or deciding which approaches to drop all the same.
One More Thing
Here’s something we come across all the time when working with real estate agents. Oftentimes they’ll ask us to take care of a marketing need when I KNOW with certainty that their own company or agency has the resources to – partially, if not fully – handle their request. After working with real estate professionals for several years I do understand why this happens. The demands of real estate work can be overwhelming. It’s easy to push certain things aside for later when navigating the most important aspect of being a real estate agent: handling clients’ needs. Marketing is multifaceted and if you’re working with an agency they often have a staff that has vetted much of the technology and resources out there to provide you with the latest and the best. So, go find out what your company has to offer, fill in the gaps, and then get to work! 2021 is here!
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