How to Create a Foolproof Marketing Plan for Your Real Estate Business

A formal marketing plan is necessary to grow and sustain a successful real estate business. Whether you are a real estate rookie or celebrating your 25th anniversary in the industry, creating an annual marketing plan will help you stay relevant in a constantly evolving industry. Follow the below to recharge your marketing strategy and meet your 2014 goals by the end of the year.

Bonus: We have included a link to download a marketing plan template to help you get started.

1. Analyze your competitors: Competition is a given in the real estate industry. Before defining your goals, understand where your business ranks among your local competitors.

Ask yourself:

• What are my competitors doing differently than me that helps them succeed? How can I adapt those strategies to align with my marketing efforts?
• Where are my competitors not performing well, and how can I fill this gap for potential clients?

Based off of your competitive analysis, determine what you can do to differentiate yourself in your market and give your business a competitive advantage.

2. Pinpoint your niche: Use the insight from your competitive analysis to identify your niche. Specializing in a focused area of real estate (like multi-generational housing or Millennial starter homes) will establish you as a local authority and differentiate you from other agents in your market.

If you are unsure of what your niche should be, complete a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis. Outlining your professional strengths and the opportunities in your market will help you pinpoint where you should focus your attention.

3. Create goals: Once you have identified your niche, set three to five "SMART" (specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic and timely) goals. Be honest with yourself during this process. Lofty goals are inspiring, but not realistic. After establishing your goals, create three to five specific tactics that will help you accomplish each goal. See the example goal below.

Example Goal: Increase your online lead generation by 10%.

Tactics:

• Establish strong social presence on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.
• Determine search keywords for my local market and include these keywords in my bio, content and social profiles to increase my search engine optimization.
• Budget for online marketing tools that will increase my online exposure and drive traffic to my website.

Think you are ready reinvigorate your real estate business's marketing strategy? Download our easy to use marketing plan template to fully build your marketing plan.

To view the original article, visit the HomeFinder.com blog.