In today’s real estate market, it’s going to be hard for you to see the results you want for your business without a clear marketing plan in place (sorry not sorry!).
Converting strategies don’t come from posting a picture on Instagram here and there; they come from strategic planning, gathering analytics, and setting specific, measurable goals.
If you’ve been sitting your real estate marketing plan on the back burner because you’re unsure of where to start (or what the heck it even includes), then you’re in the right place.
In this guide, we’re breaking down exactly why you need a marketing plan in the first place, everything that needs to be in the plan, and how to actually write your strategy so you can be well on your way to your next closing… or two.
What Is a Real Estate Marketing Plan?
A real estate marketing plan is a detailed document containing information about the year ahead and how you’re planning to grow your business.
The benefit of creating a marketing plan is that you get clearer on your real estate strategy and what you offer prospects so you never feel clueless about your next steps or how to land your next client.
Think of it as a roadmap that outlines – with specifics – your current business standing and the goals you’re working towards with the detailed, actionable steps you’re going to take to reach the listed goals.
Specifically, real estate marketing plans include the following pieces of information:
- Goals for the year
- Target audience
- Your real estate niche
- Social media channels you’re using
- Other marketing efforts (print, door knocking campaigns, etc.)
- Overall marketing budget
- Current analytics
- Your brand’s USP (unique selling proposition)
12 Tips for Building Your Killer Real Estate Marketing Plan
So, now that you know what a real estate marketing plan is, the question is how do you determine the specifics to include in said plan?
Here’s how to conduct a deep dive into your real estate business to find the specifics that will make your marketing plan all the more effective (meaning, the increase in conversions you’ve been chasing!).
1. Identify your niche
First and foremost, it’s important to identify your real estate niche so you know what specialized market your services fit into.
This vital piece of information sets the foundation for the rest of your plan since it determines your target demographics.
This then leads you to the specific marketing channels to use and goals to set.
Take some time to evaluate your business and passions as a realtor to discover what niche you currently fall into or want to fall into, and then write it down. If you’re wondering about the possible niches your business could align with, here are some examples to consider:
- First-time home buyers
- Retirement communities
- Townhomes
- Vacation homes
- Luxury home
- Commercial properties
2. Unveil your target audience
Your real estate niche is not the same as your target audience, though they go hand-in-hand.
Just like our last point, your target audience is also an important aspect of your real estate marketing plan since you’re literally tailoring your plan to this ideal buyer.
So with that in mind, it’s important to get extra clear on who your target audience is.
And what better way to do that than by creating an ideal client profile!
An ideal client profile is a fictional profile of a dream client based on data and your niche.
You need to know more about your dream client other than if they’re first-time home buyers or wanna-be luxury home owners in your area.
You’ll need to conduct super in-depth research to discover specifics of your target audience, such as:
- Their age and gender
- Pain points
- Average income
- Real estate desires
- Buyer habits
Not to sound scary, but your business will boom the more you seem to get inside your buyer’s head.
Knowing who your target audience is on a personal level is the crux of your business since it helps you to know how to speak to them through your marketing efforts.
3. Evaluate the market
Once you have an understanding as to what your real estate niche and target audience is, the next step is evaluating the market.
Before you can market the market to your dream clients, you have to know what the industry is like in your service area(s) at the moment.
You can do this by evaluating the three P’s: Product, Place, and Price:
- Product: Study your service area(s) to see the type of homes or properties that are predominantly listed for sale.
- Place: Are these homes in prime locations near excellent amenities? Are there prime locations in your service area that seem to be a hotspot for real estate at the moment? Are there any exclusive properties with special features?
- Price: Understand the pricing for the properties in your service area(s) in correlation to the market demand and property value.
These three factors may fluctuate as the market changes, but writing down what you find at first provides a good starting point.
4. Study the competition
Though this step is not necessarily being written in your marketing plan, it’s still an important step not to skip.
Studying the competition shows you what your competitors are doing right in their tactics and where there’s a gap you can fill with your own efforts.
As you study the competition, here are a few questions to answer about your competitors so you can gain better clarity on your own strategy in later sections:
- How many closings do they average per year?
- What’s the average sale price?
- What channels are they using to market their brand?
- How, specifically, are they marketing their services?
- Do they use any special tools, software, or platforms?
Remember the goal is to not look at what’s working for the competition to try and copy them. In order for your business to be successful, you will have to differentiate yourself with the messaging you share and how you utilize similar platforms.
5. Discover your USP
Speaking of differentiating yourself from the competition, one aspect to write down in your marketing plan is your USP.
Your brand’s unique selling proposition is what will set your business apart from the competition since it tells clients exactly why they should choose to work with you instead.
But in order to market your USP effectively, you have to discover what it is first.
This can easily be done after studying the competition since you’re able to see how brands are marketing themselves to clients and you can compare their strategy to yours.
Plus, you can compare services and see how you’re different.
Start by asking what you’re doing differently and better than they are. What do you bring to the table to clients that the competition doesn’t? How can you make the buying or selling journey easier and more effective?
When you find the answer to these questions, you’re one step closer to defining your USP.
The second half of the answer comes from evaluating the feedback from previous happy clients.
If you haven’t surveyed clients, take some time to reach back out to those you previously worked with and ask them about the highlight of their experience with your brand.
Gather a large consensus to see what the common denominator is and it might surprise you.
It could be that you’re able to secure quicker closings than others, offer better financing, or have more listings in an exclusive neighborhood or development.
Once you determine what your USP is, write this down in your marketing plan since it will be a key point in your brand messaging that you’ll convey in your marketing content.
6. Determine your goals
Since real estate marketing plans are all about growing your business by meeting goals, it’s imperative that you write down what, specifically, you want to accomplish through your plan.
For example, are you wanting to end the year with 15 transactions? Meet a certain revenue goal? Become a top performing leader in your industry on social media? A combination of them all?
Like your niche and target audience, the goals you set for yourself and your business will dictate how you carry out your marketing strategy.
Writing down your specific goals also allows you to stay focused so you can continuously track your progress with analytical tools.
7. Analyze your current strategy
Odds are you’re currently operating with a marketing strategy whether you know it or not and whether you’ve been going all in or not.
Regardless of how tedious your current marketing strategy is, you should analyze your current channels, platforms, and efforts to see if anything is working and what can be kicked out based on performance and ROI.
For instance, if you’re mailing out fliers and not getting a hefty dose of incoming clients, this tactic can be removed from your strategy and this portion of the budget can go to a tactic that’s proven to be more financially successful, like social media ads.
8. Set up (or revitalize) social media channels
In case you didn’t know, social media can be a goldmine for your real estate business if you use the right platforms… and use them correctly.
Social media can help you meet nearly every goal you set since each platform is flooded with potential clientele and the opportunity to run paid or free advertisements.
As long as you create a strong presence online and market your services by posting content that resonates with your target audience, you should expect to see a high ROI on any paid marketing campaigns.
If you’re new to social media marketing for real estate or you have a few accounts you need to dust the cobwebs off of, we have a complete guide to real estate social media for you to view!
9. Create high-quality content
Creating valuable content is key for seeing your real estate business grow, but there’s a keyword in this sentence: valuable.
Content marketing is highly lucrative for realtors who utilize this strategy in their marketing plan through a variety of methods, including:
- Client testimonials: These serve as social proof to prospective clients that you provide a pleasurable experience and are an expert in your industry.
- Photo listings: Showcase the glory of unbelievable, put-your-offer-in-now homes you’re representing with high-quality photos.
- SEO blog posts: Answer your clients’ most-searched questions in-depth with your expertise sprinkled in while increasing your website traffic organically from top search engine rankings.
- Videos: Whether it’s humorous, a behind-the-scenes look at the day in the life of a realtor, or a walkthrough of a current listing, video content captures your audience’s attention.
- Infographics: Educate your readers on important statistics they need to know about the current market.
- 3D Home tours: Utilize several of the helpful software tools that can create 3D visuals of current listings so homeowners can feel like they’re seeing the house in person.
The best part about including content strategy in your marketing plan is that you don’t have to select one or two methods.
Incorporating a variety of content modes increases your online visibility and gives you a chance to find the mode that produces the highest engagement and conversion metrics.
10. Utilize an email marketing strategy
No real estate marketing plan is complete without the inclusion of an email marketing strategy.
At first, you may be wondering how this can help you achieve your goals since it comes with the challenge of growing your email list, but the good news is that it may be done easier than you think.
There are simple ways you can persuade clients and prospects to join your email list. Here are a few to consider:
- Lead magnets: Offer homeowners a freebie in exchange for signing up. Offer a free seasonal home maintenance checklist, free list of things to do before listing your home on the market, or something of the equivalent.
- Landing page: Create a converting landing page on your website with a strong CTA in an opt-in form for potential homeowners to sign up.
- In-person event: Whether it’s an open house or client appreciation event, have a sign up sheet for attendees to write their names and email addresses on to subscribe to your list.
- Promotion: Sometimes simply promoting your email list on social media platforms is all you need to gain a few new subscribers.
As you can see, there are a variety of ways you can market your email newsletter to grow in subscribers, but you also need to give a reason for people to want to subscribe.
Your email marketing strategy doesn’t have to be extensive, meaning, you don’t have to use emails as your way of communicating with your subscribers in a lengthy manner (please… don’t do this).
Email marketing is a great way to promote other content you’re posting or send subscribers reminders and announcements of exciting upcoming events or changes to the market.
The ideal email copy length is anywhere between 50 to 125 words, which means you have to be selective in what you say.
Every single word in your email message should be strategically used, so here are a few ideas of how you can use this strategy in your marketing plan:
- Promote your freshly posted blog answering a popular real estate question
- Inform subscribers of the beautiful new exclusive property you just listed
- Educate subscribers on the important changes in the market
- Remind subscribers of the changing seasons and preventative maintenance measures they should schedule
- Wish subscribers a Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings
- Share client wins via email to remind subscribers of your stellar business expertise
11. Define your marketing message
No matter the content mode you decide to post, the overall marketing message will be the same and should be in the back of your mind as you plan each pillar of content.
Your marketing message relates to your USP since you’re figuring out the best way to convey this benefit to your prospects.
Here are a few aspects of your marketing message to consider to help you clearly define it for content purposes:
- The pain points of your dream clients
- The benefit of your dream clients choosing you over the competitors
- The background/story of your professional journey
12. Track & adapt metrics as you go
Lastly, a successful real estate marketing plan – or a marketing plan within any industry, for that matter – is all about being fluid. Meaning, you should plan to adapt it as you go.
Once you begin to implement the strategies you’ve outlined in your marketing plan, it’s important to track your growth by keeping an eye on the following measurements:
- Conversions (transactions and closings)
- Newsletter sign ups
- Follower count
- Organic website traffic
While there are online platforms that provide measurement tracking for you, it’s a great idea to ask prospects how they found you so you know what strategy or campaign provides the best results.
If you start to notice a couple months in that one system is not performing as you had hoped, it’s okay to deviate from that tactic and put more effort into one that’s working.
How to Actually Write a Real Estate Marketing Plan
This may seem like a lot of information to include in your real estate marketing plan, so you’re likely wondering what the best strategy is for writing it all down in an organized manner.
The good news is that it doesn’t matter how you write your marketing plan as long as you do it!
But, if you’re a stickler for organization and helpful tools, there’s a bountiful array of real estate marketing plan templates you can find online to help you compile this information in a structured way for reference as you work towards your goals!
