Regardless of skill level, experience, niche or what have you, one of the most important aspects for a successful real estate agent is to focus on attracting valuable clients. Lead generation is a top priority, with the Placester 2018 Marketing Strategy Survey Report revealing that the top goals for agents included generating more leads from the previous year, improving client conversion rates, focusing more on quality leads and learning how to better nurture prospects.
Here’s how you can create your own personal marketing plan for success.
Setting Goals and Objectives
If you haven’t already done so, the first step in any marketing plan, in any industry, is to assess past performance and make realistic predictions of where you hope to be at about the same time next year, and perhaps further down the road too. How many deals do you want to close? What’s the sales volume you hope to achieve? What’s your goal for gross income? Those are just some of the things you’ll need to ask yourself.
Track these goals throughout the year and refine for greater marketing success. As they say, setting goals makes you more likely to achieve them.
Determine Your Target Market
Your plan should include something about your target market, such as who you plan to attract, like foreclosed homeowners, sellers or buyers. You may want to think about lifestyles, age groups, income brackets, geographical areas and other factors too. Describing in detail your target customers will help to identify your audience so that you can spend your time more wisely.
This will reflect both the nature of your business and how likely you will be in reaching your goals and objectives. This information can then be used to create buyer personas in whatever media you choose to target and give you an idea of what competitors are using in their marketing plan.
Know What Sets You Apart and Create a Compelling Message
With all that competition, you need to consider your strengths, qualities, skills, etc. that makes you stand out from the rest. Create a message in a language that your target audience will resonate with, and that they frequently use. For example, using some current slang may be a good idea if you’re targeting millennials or younger age groups, but not so much for a retiree audience. Ideally your message should highlight what makes you different from your competitors, giving your target market a reason to contact you.
Social Media and Other Media Outlets
One of the most important aspects of marketing is media, and these days, social media is a must. Be sure that your marketing plan includes how you’ll utilize networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as well as print, radio and television.
Unfortunately, organic reach over social media for all businesses has rapidly declined, especially among Facebook. This is why so many agents pay to promote their business to their target customer set.
There are many ways to do this by offering Lead Ads for your own personal real estate service or advertising housing listings for people to make a conversion.
Instagram and Facebook offer great visual tools for advertising properties on the market. I wouldn’t recommend Twitter marketing for real estate, only because conversion rates will be really low.
Now, organic social media does offer some benefits. people can use your business page to share user generated content and message you directly about deals or sales opportunities. The more you engage with your customers and use your social media pages to add value, the higher your ratings and referrals will be.
Create a Website or Landing Page
Search is a valuable platform to meet new customers and advertise your brand. PPC ads for choice local real estate terms could steal some much needed traffic from the big real estate companies.
Mostly though, you want a page where you can explain your business and offer contact information. Beating out established brands may be impossible organically, so it’s key to have a landing page where people can find you and contact you in directories or even through your print advertising efforts.
Many companies like Redfin also make it easier for you by offering you the ability to register on their site and get some business through them. Becoming a partner with Redfin or another established brokerage could present more opportunities and easier wins for your marketing objectives.
Become Involved in Your Community
One of the best marketing strategies available for local businesses is just establishing a local presence. By sponsoring events, hosting events and contests, and donating some of your proceeds to a local cause, you can earn the trust of the people you’re marketing to. This is also a good opportunity for a blog post and a few links to extend your organic visibility and authority over the web.
Budgeting
Finally, you need to set aside a great enough budget to actually accomplish real results. Managing your money property is key for any successful real estate agent. Without that, you’re bound to fail. Spend time organizing all your financial information, determining how much and where to spend on marketing, and then make adjustments as needed.
Ideally, you’d want to allocate at least 10% to 15% of your yearly earnings to supplement an aggressive marketing campaign. Saying that the market is saturated is an understatement. Home sales have been declining month-over-month as low inventory constricts the market from meeting demand.
Advertising over social media or AdWords will be your most effective marketing channel, but also your most expensive.
Conclusion
Marketing your real estate business is the first step to growing your business and expanding its regional foothold. Leverage common marketing tactics, such as demographic research and competitive analysis to create strategies that help you earn your marketing objectives. Being an industry that thrives on referrals, your greatest marketing tactic will always be fulfillment and great customer service.
Whatever your goals are, from extending the home flipping market of El Paso or to emerging millennial markets in major cities across the country, a personal marketing plan is a must.
