The main difference between a good real estate agent and a great real estate agent is using systems to run your business. You want to be successful attracting clients then you need marketing systems.
The first step is to plan out your marketing. This is like a recipe made from many ingredients that come together to taste great. Your marketing calendar brings together the right marketing systems, at the right time, and in the right amount.
If you run your marketing by the seat of your pants, you will fail. Planning it out for the entire year allows you to hit important dates, holidays, local events, and hot spots that make sense for the time of year. It gives you an overall marketing message across all of your advertising platforms and most importantly keeps you on task.
How to organize your marketing calendar
If you haven’t been doing much marketing yet, start out slow. It’s easy to start a marketing calendar with grandiose ideas and throw everything you can think of at it. That leads to burnout and frustration.
First plan your marketing by quarter, and start by defining the overall theme you want for each quarter. Again don’t feel that you need to do it all. Start with campaigns you have had success with in the past. If you are just starting out, start with less expensive methods like content marketing, and build up to mailings and print ads.
What to include in your marketing calendar
Now that you have your overall theme for the quarter, break it down by week. Add in fun national days, like burrito day, or national ice cream day and highlight local hotspots in your area. Talk about fun local events, or give tips for annual household maintenance. Do you have any big events you or your brokerage sponsor? Be sure to include those in your marketing efforts as well.
Try to be creative, many agents cover the big holidays but you want to stand out. So think outside that box and come up with some other creative and fun ideas.
Can you plan any community events? Maybe a community garage sale, food drive, or back to school school supply drive in your farm? Do any of the local schools do fairs or does your community do events that you can get involved in? Think of anywhere you can get your name out there, particularly if you are targeting a niche and they are doing something.
How to execute your marketing calendar
Now that you have the basic framework of what you want to do each quarter broken down by week, it’s time to get into the details. Take each overall theme and event and think of marketing pieces using all the different marketing mediums. Can you do a blog post about a local event? Or a Facebook and Instagram post? Or maybe run a Facebook ad? How about a print piece to your farm? Or a video before and at the event?
Let your potential clients see you in several different places to keep you top of mind. You want to be in front of them when it’s time to buy or sell. Provide something of real value wherever possible, so when they do think of you it is positive. This can also stimulate a feeling of reciprocity making them more inclined to work with you.
Now that you have your ideas for the different marketing pieces you want to do for the event, it’s time to plan when each item needs to be done for maximum effectiveness. Give your self plenty of time to design, print, and distribute the pieces.
Creating systems for this is key. Give your self reminders, whether it be on a printed calendar, note program, or digital calendar with due dates for each item to keep you on track. Keep a running daily “To-Do” list so you can see what needs to be done each day.
Having a marketing calendar is a great way to plan out your yearly marketing. We’ve put together a free sample marketing calendar to get you started. It also includes a second page of many the national days you can use in your marketing pieces. Now get out there and start marketing!