How to Create A

Real Estate Marketing

Plan

Creating a real estate marketing plan is of paramount

importance for any investor seeking to begin a career in this industry. There is no ‘right’ or

‘perfect’ real estate marketing plan as marketing is

always situational, flexible, and fungible in nature.

Before giving you actual items for your real estate marketing plan, I want to give you a couple of words

of caution to think about before deciding what to implement:

Create a budget.

What will you spend every month on marketing? This budget will dictate what types of marketing

you will use.

Create a ‘time’ budget.

Marketing can take time and effort. For example, if you’re

going to place bandit signs on a weekly basis, you are committing

yourself to early Saturday mornings every weekend and late

Sunday evenings to pick up the signs again. Can you commit to

that time?

Create a Real Estate Marketing Plan | Strategies• Farming an Area- this tactic is

the simplest and least expensive way to get started. You simply

drive a series of small neighborhoods in your target area

and look for homes that show signs of distress.

These signs can be an unkempt lawn, boarded up windows, piles of

newspapers in the driveway, weeds, etc… Then get the

addresses, find the owner, and contact them to make an

offer. This method is good because you become an expert in an area

and costs very little money to do. The only drawback is that it

takes time to farm areas.

• Door Handle Signs

this is a sign that you hang on people’s doors with your message and a call to action. This is a great way for

finding buyers…going to apartment complexes and hanging on their

doors.

This is a relatively inexpensive form of marketing, but as you’re finding

out by now, the lesser the expense of real estate marketing, the greater the

time requirement.

• Post Cards

post cards are the most inexpensive way to perform direct mail. As such,

they also have the lowest conversion. Post cards allow you to display your message in a manner

that the homeowner will see without having to open an envelope.

Post cards require quite a bit of testing, not just on the post card itself, but also on the mailing list

used. However, as is the case with flyers, if you put enough out

consistently, then you will have success.

• Hand written letters

handwritten letters take time to write out and costs money for the paper,

envelope, and stamps, but this strategy also performs the best open and has the highest conversion rate.

This is because they look more unique and less like junk or spam

mail. When writing the letter, it’s best to use lined yellow paper and

blue ink. Keep the message short and simple. For this strategy to work, you

must commit to sending out letters consistently.

• Networking events

real estate networking events are great ways to meet other professionals to obtain

referrals. They’re also great ways to meet and create relationships with other real estate investors. This is

important because not every investor uses the same strategy to buy and sell

a house.

Therefore, if you meet someone who focuses on short sales and you focus

on subject-to, then you two can create a nice little referral network. Also,

these events are great places to meet other experts and learn from other,

more experienced investors.

• Social Media

social media is the electronic version of networking or referral

marketing. However, when promoting yourself on social media

sites, like Facebook, it’s important to make sure your posts are providing value rather than simply promoting

yourself.

If you want to find home sellers, then provide tips on how to sell your

house, how to stage a house, contract tips, etc… Brand yourself as an

expert. Then people looking to sell their houses will look for you.

• Video Marketing

video marketing is an excellent and underutilized strategy. It’s

inexpensive and doesn’t take much time. Plus, video is the media of

choice- more people would rather watch a video than read text. You can use video to provide tips or to give a walk through of a property you are

selling.

Then you can upload and promote through YouTube as well as other

social sites, like Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. As an additional bonus

tip, I highly recommend having a Google+ account for SEO purposes.

• Web sites

people love being able to search for information online. Therefore, you

want to have a very informative website that answers questions for

those in need while showcasing your expertise.

I strongly recommend having something to give

away (ebook, video, checklist, etc…) in exchange

for their email information. This way, you

are able to contact these potential customers through

newsletters and autoresponders.