With the year drawing to a close and many prospective buyers more focused on holiday parties than house-hunting, December is a perfect time to take a look back at the current year’s business, and start planning for next year’s success.
If you want to make a solid plan for your business, you’ve got to look back before you can begin looking forward. What real estate marketing strategies were particularly successful for you in 2014? What didn’t work as well? Did you meet all of your goals for the year? If not, why not? (And if you didn’t set goals for the year, that’s definitely something you’ll want to change!)
Once you’ve got a good sense of where you’ve been, you can start to map out where you’d like to go. If you’ve got big goals for where you’d like to take your real estate business in 2015, then you need to market consistently and aggressively. There are four main areas to consider: direct-mail marketing to new prospects (e.g., real estate postcards), in-person networking (with both potential clients and referral partners), list-mining (getting back in touch with previous clients and prospects), and online marketing (whether through social media, branded real estate websites, or a combination).
The more specific you can be about your real estate marketing goals for 2015, the better your chances of actually accomplishing your goals. For example, if you know that direct mail has worked well for you in the past, you don’t want to set a goal of “doing more direct mail”. Instead, aim for a specific and measurable goal: “In 2015, I will send mail to my list every 6-8 weeks, including “Just Sold” postcards three times per year and prospecting postcards in March and August.” You may also want to consider setting maximum goals for marketing activities which have the potential to take up a lot of your time, like “I will attend only two in-person networking events per month”, or “I will spend a maximum of three hours a week on online marketing activities”.
The specific mixture of real estate marketing strategies you choose will depend on your region, your personality, and your business. But whatever you choose to do, make a plan and stick to it. The best marketing plan in the world won’t do anything for your business if you don’t follow through with it.