Real Estate Marketing Plan

Marketing Tools

Marketing tools are the devices used to make your marketing plan come to life. For real estate agents this will most likely be a combination of online and offline vehicles. In the year 2005, the Reality Times reported that while the real estate market spent $11 billion dollars per year in marketing and advertising ventures, only 11 percent of that was spent in online marketing. However, the 2004 CAR Internet vs. Traditional Buyers Study reported that 78 percent of consumers found their realtor on the Internet. In addition, the 2003 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers reported that 71 percent of consumers use the Internet to search for homes. With this being said, it is easy to see that Internet marketing should be an integral part of any realtor’s marketing arsenal. The most common online tools include websites, online listings, virtual tours, email marketing and newsletters. Typical offline vehicles consist of postcards and other direct marketing pieces (calendars, sports schedules, note pads, etc.), tradeshows, newspapers, billboards, radio and television, open houses and flyers.

Budget

Creating a budget can be a difficult task, however it is a crucial step in ensuring your marketing program is cost effective and realistic. While some costs can be estimated, it is best to contact the vendor you plan to work with to get a more accurate quote. According to Jay Conrad Levinson’s book Mastering Guerilla Marketing, The most common equation for the distribution of marketing funds is 10 percent for personal marketing, 30 percent for lead generation and 60 percent for repeat business.

Results Tracking

Finding out the effectiveness of your marketing efforts is a crucial step in fine-tuning the overall program. Be sure to ask clients and callers how they heard about you and keep track of responses. Consider creating a short post-sale survey to identify areas that might need to be refined and those that are working well. In addition, when using direct mail, create a tracking code to see if you can uncover any geographic trends in your customer base.

While it might be time consuming to create, a marketing plan is an essential tool for running a successful real estate business. Careful consideration and consistent review of your plan will help you to become a real estate success story.

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