I recently had lunch with a successful agent who had just undergone an IRS audit in which the auditor, when questioning all her expenses and the high ratio of expenses to income, said, "No one in their right mind would work this hard for this little money!" Do you ever feel that way?

As our business becomes more and more competitive and changes, it is increasingly important to your financial success to manage your net, not just keep your eye on the overall production. Expenses can quickly eat up the profit in our business and we all have seen top producers whose cost of doing business leaves them with little in their pocket.

Marketing expenses are a significant chunk of the cost to run your business. Trends have changed consumer buying habits, though, and if you have not changed your marketing plan to reflect the changes in the marketplace, you may be spending more than you should or not spending in the right places. In the last 10 years, three fundamental shifts have impacted how consumers are choosing their real estate agents.

Attraction VS. Marketing

Become an attraction machine - not a promoter. The best agents have shifted from a hard sell type of selling into a coaching or consultative mode. People like to buy but don't like to feel they are "being sold." There is an increased skepticism & sophistication among the public these days; so, the harder we push, the more we repel or push them away.

Like a magnet that pulls toward it, an attractive real estate campaign combines many elements that provide value to the client. The value attracts and creates an energy flow that is fun and easy and everyone feels good.

Print Media VS. The Internet
Over 30% of buyers have checked out the inventory on the internet. Those numbers are increasing daily and the faster you create a solid internet presence, marketing plan and site that consumers can use, the better positioned you will be for the changes.

One To One Marketing
You have seen the "occupant" and "Dear Sir" letters vanish to be replaced by solicitations addressed personally to you that know how old you are, how many kids you have and even the name of your pets. Building your databases that can be segmented and used for specific campaigns will be a hallmark of the successful agents. Build your business so that your referral base is consistently growing and you are spending less and less time on having to attract new clients.

Now What?
These three trends provide the background strategy to rethink your marketing and to question if you are spending the dollars in the most effective places. Here is a top 10 list for you to use to examine your marketing and its effectiveness.

Top Ten Secrets to Maximizing Your Marketing Dollars

1. Assess & Review
On at least a bi-annual basis, review and assess where your marketing dollars are going and the return you are gereating. Where did the closed transactions get generated from? What % of your budget is marketing? Where are you getting the best return on the dollar spent? If you are not using financial software for tracking these, I suggest using PREP Financial.

2. Work from A Monthly Budget
Reassess on a quarterly basis. How can you leverage what you are doing? Is there a way to use ad reprints as a mailer? Combine mailing costs with a strategic partner? Shift snail mail to email? Implement at least 1 new strategy per quarter.

3. Use the Internet
Keep up to date by spending time weekly educating yourself to the ways this will help you build your business. Are you taking advantage of all the free sites you can have a page on? Have you built relationships for referrals with other real estate agents?

4. Use Automatic Follow Up Programs
Automation is the key word again. To effectively manage your business, the follow up is essential. Internet clients get into the buying and selling process much earlier. The average client in the past would only be in the market for about 60 days before making a decision. Now, it is not unusual to see people doing research 18 months out. Don't throw these leads away. Set up automatic response systems and follow up. On the web, a good resource that will send automatically predetermined messages at predetermined times for follow up is AWEBER. For your mailings, PREP Prospecting is a great program and will automate the reminders.

5. Reward Your Client Base regularly
Do they hear from you on a regular (at least quarterly) basis? Do you call at least 2 times per year? Do you give them value after the sale? Do they get an immediate thank you and token of your appreciation when they give you a referral?

6. Underpromise & Overdeliver
When we promise too much, it causes stress to perform and can cause disappointment with the client. Promise less. Then surprise them with more. They will say, "WOW!" And it will open an opportunity for you to enhance your value in their eyes.

7. Leverage Your Materials
Every marketing piece should have more than one use. Reprint your homes magazine page as a flyer or mailer. Print out your webpage in your presentation book. For every promotion you do, think who else could I get to help me pay for this? Who else is interested in this target market?

8. Become An Expert
Use press releases and write articles for the local media. Get to know the local editor for real estate and become a resource of information. Do something noteworthy. Then get it covered and send copies to your databases.

9. Niche Yourself
Develop up to 3 very specific well-defined niches where you are the EXPERT ! Look at the needs of those niches and personalize and customize services. Reach them one to one. This will lower your marketing costs by going deep rather than wide.

10. Don't give TOO MUCH!
Distinguish between value-added and client extra. Don't give more than you have to. We assume something will be valuable, when it isn't something the client is interested in. Find out what really makes a difference in each of niches and don't give too much!

Your bottom line is the most important number for you to track. Your marketing dollars, used effectively, can dramatically impact your success. Used ineffectively they can put you out of business. Take some steps today to increase your effectiveness by going deeper into your niches and spheres of influence, combining your efforts with synergistic partners, using new technologies to save time and increase contact and by knowing what you do best and doing MORE of that!