A marketing plan is your road map to get from where you are to where you want to be. If you haven’t taken the time to put one together for your real estate business, consider taking a few minutes today to draw one up. A marketing plan will help you focus on your most critical tasks to grow your business while saving you time and money. Here are six easy steps for creating your marketing strategy.

1) Review your business. What were your key metrics for last year (sales commissions, listings taken, listings sold, number of clients, etc)? What were your successes? What do you want to improve?

2) Decide where you want to be. What do you want to accomplish over the next year? Based on last year’s performance, what key metrics do you want to hit? Be specific. How much will you make? How often will you work? What types of clients do you want to attract?

3) Review your performance. Which marketing activities are bringing in business? Which are a waste of money and can be cut out? What marketing activities should you invest in, such as publishing a monthly newsletter, developing your online marketing strategy, or doing more business networking?

4) Select your marketing tactics. It can take seven to ten contacts with someone before they hire you. Plan for it. What is the step-by-step process you will implement to convert a complete stranger into a paying client? What marketing tactics will you use to:

* Market to strangers: How will you attract the attention of those people who have never heard of you?

* Market to suspects: How will you follow up with people who have opted in to receive more information but you haven’t yet talked with one-on-one?

* Market to prospects: How will you sell your services to those who contact you?

* Market to clients and past clients: How will you keep in touch with clients, deliver excellent client service, and ask for referrals?

* Market to referral partners: How will you find and partner with professionals and community influencers to cultivate referrals?

5) Schedule your activities. Now that you know what needs to be done, schedule your activities in your calendar. What activities will you do each week? For instance:

* Strangers – Run weekly classified ads.

* Suspects – Publish a weekly email newsletter.

* Prospects – Follow up with phone calls, mailed letters and emails.

* Clients/Past Clients – Take a past client out for coffee each week.

* Referral Network – Subscribe to blogs, newsletters, and social media channels where colleagues interact. Each day, post a new comment on someone’s blog or engage with them on Twitter/Facebook.

6) Schedule a monthly review. Block off a few hours each month to review your marketing calendar and your goals. Are you hitting your targets? What is or isn’t working? What do you need to modify to achieve your goals?

While sitting down to write a real estate business plan might not seem like much fun, the reality is that an hour of planning can be worth a month of hard work. By “business plan,” I don’t mean a 40-page document you will never look at again. I mean a review of your business that outlines your top 3-5 key goals for the year as well as your main action steps for achieving those goals. By spending some time planning, you can take control of your daily activities and schedule to get far more done than you ever imagined.

Where do agents go wrong when writing a business plan? Here are six key mistakes.

1) Not creating a written plan – Spend a full day to detail how you want your business to look a year from now. You must schedule this time; it won’t just magically appear.

2) Not conducting an annual business review – Collect all your numbers from last year. What were your key metrics? This is more than how much you made or how many transactions you did. Here are some questions to answer:

- How many listing appointments did you close?
- How many transactions did you complete?
- Where did each transaction come from?
- What was your ask price vs. closing price for each listing?
- How much money did you spend marketing each listing?
- Which marketing activities were most effective?
- How many people did you add to your mailing list/sphere of influence?
- Which people refer the most business to you?

3) Not setting goals – Setting goals may sound cliché, but if you don’t decide in advance where you want to go, you will never get there. What do you want? Now, why do you want it? What is the main reason why you want to reach that goal? If you don’t identify your motivation for wanting to achieve your goals, you won’t achieve them. What is really important to you?

4) Not factoring in buffers – Once you have set your goals, plan for setbacks. You won’t practice optimum time management 100% of the time. It will probably cost you 20-30% more than you budgeted. Things will go wrong, so plan accordingly.

5) Not planning time off – When working for yourself, it can be easy for your job to take over your entire life. Set boundaries so you have specific time to devote to yourself, your family and friends and your hobbies. How much vacation time do you want?

6) Not scheduling monthly reviews – The only way you will stay on track is by reviewing your progress each month. Are you moving towards your goals? If not, you may need to course correct.

Your business plan should outline exactly what you plan to do to make your business a success. Keep it simple and refer to it regularly to make this year your best year in real estate.

Real estate agents often ask me, what’s the best marketing tool for real estate? In fact, if I had a dollar for each time I heard this question, I would be on vacation right now!

So what are the best marketing tools for real estate? Well, I’m always quick to say that you are your best real estate marketing tool. Yes, you … the real estate agent reading this article. I’ve gone so far as to write an article about the most powerful real estate marketing tool, which is the agent behind the marketing.

So that automatically gets into the top-ten list of marketing tools for real estate. But what are the other nine? Here’s my list.

1. A Real Estate Website

Each day in your market area, hundreds (possibly thousands) of home buyers and sellers turn to the Internet for real estate information. Having a real estate website is the first step to connecting with this ideal audience. Thus, the website is a core marketing tool for real estate in the modern age.

2. A Web “Presence”

What’s the difference between a web presence and a website? Plenty. A website is a grain of sand on a long beach, with little hope of standing out in any significant way. But a web presence increases the chance people will find you online. A web presence includes such things as the real estate website, online press releases, real estate blogging and other online ventures. your chances of be. In an age where so many people use the Internet for real estate research, a strong web presence is a necessary marketing tool for real estate success.

3. A Real Estate Blog

In my opinion, real estate blogs can be one of the most effective marketing tools for real estate agents. Especially when they’re used properly. When you publish quality content to a real estate blog on a regular basis, you are increasing your web presence (mentioned above). You’re also positioning yourself as an authority in your area. These are just a few of the reasons a blog makes a good marketing tool for real estate success.

4. Real Estate Postcards

“Postcards,” you say, “aren’t those a little outdated?” Not at all. The postcard marketing strategies used by a lot of real estate agents are indeed outdated, but the medium itself can still bring great rewards. Real estate postcards have been a reliable marketing tool for real estate agents for decades. They can still be highly effective, especially when integrated with some of the other marketing channels on this page.

5. Home-Buying Seminars

I frequently recommend home-buying seminars as a marketing tool for real estate agents. No other real estate marketing technique can produce a room full of potential clients, eager to hear what you have to say. Sure, there are plenty of logistics involved, but the rewards usually outweigh the effort. Home buying seminars are most effective as a real estate marketing tool when conducted in collaboration (i.e., a real estate agent teaming up with a home inspector, mortgage professional, etc.

6. Client Referrals

It’s no secret that client referrals lead to a lot of business in the real estate industry. So in this regard, referrals are a powerful marketing tool for real estate agents. But some agents forget that the process leading up to a good referral begins on Day 1 of the working relationship. Take good care of your clients from first contact to closing day, and you’ll tap into one of the most powerful marketing tools for real estate — the client referral.

7. A Big Idea

This is a real estate marketing tool you can’t buy in stores, which is partly why it’s so effective. Big ideas are everywhere, but it’s almost impossible for me to list them for you. Once a big idea has been used in a certain market area, it can never be repeated with equal success. When you can come up with something that gets people in you’re area “buzzing” and spreading the word, you’ve tapped into another powerful marketing tool for real estate success. You’ve harnessed a big idea!

8. A Modern Outlook

The Internet has forever changed real estate research, as well as the real estate transactions themselves. So it’s important for real estate agents to adopt a modern way of thinking about their business. Start with what consumers are doing today, how they’re using the Internet, etc. Work backwards from there? How can you use that to your advantage? Keep a modern outlook toward real estate, and you’ll acquire yet another marketing tool for real estate success.

9. The Website Listed Below

Currently, there’s only one place online where agents can go to learn about direct mail marketing, online marketing, blogs and other topics on the subject. That website is listed below, and it offers dozens of free articles on the topics mentioned above.

10. Behold, the Real Estate Professional

As we discussed at the beginning of this article, you are your most powerful marketing tool for real estate success. None of the other items on this list can be effective without your energy, focus, compassion, intelligence and enthusiasm. So the next time a software or web marketing company says, “We have the most effective marketing tool for real estate business” … you can say, “No you don’t. I do!”