An effective real estate marketing plan defines your marketing strategy and provides you with a detailed list of actions.

It explains how you're going to promote your business, including marketing efforts, budget, and provides a financial forecast for the year ahead. 

It's also an essential element for every retail estate business and a primary reason realtors succeed in the industry, not to mention a source for manufacturing valuable real estate leads. 

So, what's the secret to creating an effective real estate marketing plan?

The answer:

Knowing what to put in it and where to find the relevant information.

Then you can implement a marketing strategy and successfully compete with your competition and convert your prospects into valuable clients.

Your real estate plan is your key to unlocking the real estate market.

And to help you,

We've compiled a list of what you should include, so you can create an effective real estate marketing plan that delivers successful results.

1. First, determine your business objectives 

An essential first step in building your real estate marketing plan is thinking over your business objectives.

These are specific and measurable results that you want to achieve and maintain as your business grows. If you've been trading for over a year, you can also use past numbers, look at how many deals you closed, your marketing expenditure, gross and net profits, etc. 

By doing so, you'll see which performance goals you should implement and achieve in the coming year. If you keep track of performance levels throughout your business, you'll ensure you're always moving in the right direction. 

2. Find Your USP, Create Your Message, Set Your Goals

Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is the basis of your message, and your message is a hugely important aspect of your marketing plan. 

Your message is the foundation of everything you do; it's how you distinguish yourself from your competitors and resonate with your customers. To find yours, you have to pinpoint exactly how your business is unique compared to your homogeneous competitors.

Once found, you can start creating your marketing goals around it: 

The style of voice you choose to promote your message should, of course, be unique to your business while also suiting your market place. Your message should flow throughout all your marketing strategies. One goal you should set is to deliver an attractive real estate logo, as it creates a visual cohesion, helps you stand out, and provides your customers with a reference point. 

3. Use Your Competition to Your Advantage

Your marketing plan also needs to cover who your competition is, how well they're performing, and how they're doing it. 

You can find the information using competitor analysis. You use it to identify your main competitors and research their marketing strategies in your area. Find out where they're investing; is it paying off? Is it connecting with the public or being ignored? Look for what's working and what isn't for your competitors. 

By gaining these insights into their strategies, you'll have a better idea of what resonates with your local audience, which techniques you should use, and which to avoid. In doing so, you'll remove trial and error from your strategies and ensure your marketing is always on the money. 

4. Identify Who Your Buyers and Sellers Are

Knowing your target audience is another crucial part of your real estate marketing plan. 

And when you do, you can tailor your marketing listings and design them specifically to locate and engage with your optimum buyer and seller prospects. This tactic can be hugely beneficial because not all buyer demographics resonate equally with the same marketing tactics.

Essential buyers and seller indicators are:

• Age
• Gender
• Profession
• Income
• Location
• Lifestyle
• Family size, if any
• Interests and hobbies
• Buying experience

By knowing this information about your audience, you'll stand a far greater chance of connecting with and providing a service specifically designed for them. And that's the primary objective of your real estate marketing plan.

5. Get Your Budget on Budget

Before you can start implementing your marketing plan, you should first organize your budget to ensure you're not overreaching and that you receive the highest possible return on your investment. And setting out your budget is an excellent way for gaining a comprehensive and accurate overview of every dollar you'll spend over the coming quarters and year. 

Start by listing all of the marketing suppliers and the real estate marketing tools required for engaging your target audience. Check out prices and determine your monthly marketing debits. If it's beyond your budget, now is the time to look at all of the free marketing tool alternatives.  

Most suppliers provide them at an entry-level, but if you require extra paid tools, look at using one supplier for all your marketing needs, and then request a bulk discount.

Set Your Milestones 

Your real estate marketing plan provides you with an outline of your long-term goals; however, your plan should also contain a list of milestones so you can ensure you're achieving them.

And milestones also give you something to work towards that's not in the distant future, enabling you to stay focused and positive by turning what might now seem like monumental tasks into achievable bite-sized projects. 

It's all about mini accomplishments and a sense of achievement, resulting in building a momentum that will carry you and your real estate business towards achieving your long-term goals and executing your real estate marketing plan as quickly and successfully as possible. 

Establish Your Timeline

And a proven way of hitting your milestones and implement a successful real estate marketing plan is to establish realistic timelines. 

By giving yourself an idea of how long your marketing plan will take to work, you give yourself productive urgency, an essential element for ensuring you stick to your overall goals. Timelines also enable you to establish a foundation of your entire plan and set your pace for moving forward. 

You should not underestimate the importance of your timeline, as it can make the difference between a real estate marketing plan that never gets off the ground and one that drives your career towards realtor success.

Track and Measure Your Real Estate Marketing Plan

Timelines, milestones, and goals are, as you now know, critical to your real estate marketing plan's success; however, to ensure every channel of your plan is performing, you have to track and measure all the metrics. 

All your marketing strategies are essential, but your marketing plan's overall result relies on every element being successful, as each one is a small part of your overall real estate marketing strategy. 

And metrics can save you money and avoid possible future marketing disappointments because if you have a handle on what is and isn't working, you can adjust accordingly, focusing your efforts on the marketing tactics proven to provide you with the highest ROI. 

Final Thoughts

Your real estate marketing plan provides you with a solid foundation for growth.

One you can build on yearly.

At first, it can seem like a daunting task, but if you break it down into the stages we've provided, your plan will provide you with an ever-reliable blueprint for future success.