Developing a real estate marketing plan often is the difference-maker between realtors who succeed no matter what and those who fall behind at the first sign of trouble. The lack of one contributes to why 87 percent of realtors will fail in the first five years.

In the following article, we’re going to show you how not to become one of the washouts. We’re going to do it by taking you step-by-step through an essential marketing plan. But first, let’s look at the mistakes many people run into when trying to get there.

Real Estate Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Real estate marketing success depends, in part, on knowing where many realtors and agents go wrong. Unfortunately, it takes more than hard work and good intentions. Let’s look at the most common missteps you’re likely to encounter.

Product Orientation Over Customer Orientation

Real estate professionals can fall into a trap when they assume they’re in the business of selling houses. That’s a means to an end. The real business you’re in is the people business.

There are two types of people within every real estate transaction. Buyers and sellers. We’ll discuss the things to look for with each as we move into the essential elements of your plan.

Lack of Spatial Awareness

Spatial awareness could refer to lots of things. But in the confines of real estate, we’re talking about geography. Geography is about a lot more than what city or state you’re in, and we’ll be covering just how in-depth to go with it a little later in the article.

Flying by the Seat of Your Pants

Real estate agents who fail to act with purpose run into the trap of making things up as they go along. There’s no bigger set-up for failure than a realtor or agent who has no idea what they’re going to do during the day.

You need to be out there, showing properties, getting to know the prospective buyers, and treating your career with the respect that it deserves. That requires planning and action.

Ignoring the Competition

Your competitors are either doing something very right or very wrong. You should be aware of both. In each of their successes or failures, there is a lesson to be learned, an idea upon which you can build.

Do not ignore what they’re doing or live inside your bubble. If you do, you’ll be missing out on a valuable education.

5 Elements Every Real Estate Marketing Plan Needs

Now that you know what mistakes are likely in this career, it’s time to construct a plan that capitalizes on this knowledge. We’ve isolated the five essential elements that every real estate marketing plan should have. Let’s dig in!

1. Buyer and Seller Profiles

All human beings are different. But when it comes to buying or selling a house, some archetypal emotions are universally shared. To improve your odds of effectively serving these individuals, create two profiles: a buyer and a seller.

• How old are they?
• With which gender do they identify?
• Are they married, single, or complicated?
• What’s their reason for wanting to buy or sell?
• What’s their household income?
• Any children?
• What factors aside from the house and property itself are influencing their decisions (things to do, schools, etc.)?

If you’re having trouble getting started, those questions should help. Most real estate social media marketing companies will advise that you turn to social networks like Facebook as well. Using their marketing data to set up paid advertising can get you closer to some precise profiles on both sides.

2. Geographic Data

As the old saying goes, the three most significant rules of real estate are location, location, location. Not very original anymore, but it remains true nonetheless.

To be successful in your marketing strategy, you need to know specific data about your area.

Things like:

• What homes sell for by neighborhood
• How long they typically stay on the market
• What the current state of inventory is like
• What’s on the horizon for interest rates and market forecasts (again, geographically specific as well as nationally specific)

Once you know more about the cities, counties, and neighborhoods you’re working in, your real estate marketing efforts will make a lot more sense. But it’s still not time to put things on auto-pilot.

3. Assessment Mechanisms

You have to start where you are. Analyze what your performance is like so far. If you’ve been at it for a year or more, this is much easier to do.

If you’re just starting, think of where you’d like to be a year from now. This is you putting your goals and objectives into place.

Most real estate marketing companies urge their clients to be as detailed with their data compilation as they can. It may not paint the best picture of the past or present if you’re struggling, but it will give you a clear starting point and make it easier to set future benchmarks.

4. Competitor Profile

This is different from buyers and sellers in one sense. You probably won’t be doing business with these individuals directly.

But understanding who they are will give you such an advantage when it comes to selling your services in the coverage area. That’s because it teaches you what’s working and what isn’t. And it also helps you understand your competitive advantage.

How can you set yourself apart from other realtors and agents in this space? Perhaps a real estate video marketing series if everyone else is doing blogs or vice versa? You won’t know until you analyze the competition.

5. Plan of Action

Your marketing plan is almost ready. But you’ve still got a little bit of work to do. It’s time to put all your big ideas into action.

How do you do that? By going step-by-step through the things, you’ll need to address to open the doors, market your services, and keep the lights on.

You’ll need an operational budget that shows all marketing and administrative expenses. You’ll need to know how much staffing is required.

On the marketing front, you’ll need a content calendar that tells you which real estate marketing materials are going out. You’ll also need a list of vendors that can help you with some of the heavy lifting.

Once your team and budget are in place, it’s time to make it happen. And that’s only limited by your amount of hustle.

Real Estate Marketing Plan

A real estate marketing plan can work wonders for you during times of success. It can also help sustain you during lulls in the market. Make it a part of your everyday work, and you won’t be disappointed.

Best of luck as you do. And for help with your marketing, contact us today about our available digital marketing services.

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