The truth of the matter is that home sellers and home buyers are most likely not comparing you and your marketing to other real estate professionals in the area.  They are comparing how professional, how useful, how relevant your services and marketing are to them compared to national brands that are totally unrelated to real estate.

They see shiny, glossy flyers in the mail from big box stores.  Their email inbox is filled with graphically dense announcements from national retailers.  Special offers abound in their text messages from stores of every type.  They are comparing you to this mega-brands that have huge budgets (and a huge audience to pay for it.)  They expect high-quality.  They expect professionalism without a doubt.

How do you compete?

Ensure your marketing is the best that it can be.  Enlist professionals to print your marketing materials.  Hire editors (even if it’s a college student English major) to review your materials before they’re finalized.  Never settle for “good enough” in anything you use to attract home buyers and sellers.  Create your marketing to look polished and professional and that is the image you’ll portray.

Let us know how you ensure that your home selling and home buying audience stays tuned in to your message even when your marketing budget isn’t endless.

In other words, you may have never sat down to create a marketing plan.  You’ve been winging it — quite successfully — and the true direction of your marketing isn’t a known entity.

It’s time to sit down and create a marketing plan.  You don’t need tons of time, high-priced consultants, a huge marketing budget or fancy graphs.  You do need a marketing road map to acknowledge where your business has been, where it currently is and where you want it to go (and what you want to achieve).

• Who are your best prospects?
• How are you going to reach this group effectively?
• Compare your business to others — can you do better in your area?
• Analyze your marketing — what has worked?  What hasn’t worked?
• What is your marketing budget?  Are you looking to keep that budget the same, increase it or decrease it this year?
• What marketing are you doing that can be reduced in cost?  (Changing vendors, changing frequency, etc.)

The marketing plan will help you see your business in a new light.  And, getting the plan on paper will help you achieve your business goals.

If you have a marketing plan in place, good for you!  Depending upon how long it’s been since you wrote it, you might consider reviewing and updating it.

Let us know how returning to the basics — like your marketing plan — can reinvigorate your business!

However, it’s just as important to look at all other marketing elements to determine what marketing worked best (and which didn’t).  What follow-up programs converted the most leads?  What past client contact generated the most referral business and repeat business?  If you track this information as well, your decision making for the next marketing plan will be easier and your marketing dollars will be going toward programs that are proven to bring you more business.

Tracking marketing isn’t easy.  It takes a bit of sleuthing and a bit of asking the client (or would-be client) what moved them to start working with you.  Gooder Group has historically tracked all of its marketing asking all inquiries where they heard about us and/or what promo code (marketing piece) they have in hand.  It’s work that useful to ensure that marketing dollars are spent wisely and effectively.

Share with us how you track marketing and what you’ve learned analyzing your marketing.

And here we all are down the line and the thought process currently is, if it works, don’t fix it…or is that true?

Now as the economy starts to move to more stability, many real estate pros continue their electronic-only strategy for marketing.  Or, perhaps, feeling that the method works, they are increasing their marketing budget, but not expanding the methods in which they communicate to find new leads and prospects or keep in contact with past clients.

What are you missing out on you wonder?  The fact is that by limiting your marketing to just one type of media (electronic), you limit your possibilities.  The email inbox of everyone is crowded.  Does your marketing message stand out?  Even get opened or clicked on?   Sticking only with electronic marketing could be limiting your business!

Branching out, like with financial investments, you need to diversify your marketing.  Intertwine electronic with printed marketing.  It’s a perfect match.  You can use direct mail for prospects ready to make a move and direct them to online resources.  A good old postcard, flyer or envelope will get more attention in a stack of paper mail than a single email in a bulging inbox.

Let us know how you mix your marketing methods while still keeping a handle on expenses.

Regardless of your situation, it’s worth reflecting on what other marketers predicted for 2010′s marketing spending.  According to CMO Council State of Marketing Report featuring the Marketing Outlook Audit the following areas of business need will receive the most resources and funds in 2010:

• 59% Lead generation and qualification
• 55% Customer retention and monetization
• 50% Corporate branding and identity building
• 46% New products or program launches
• 38% Sales pipeline optimization

Almost 60% of marketers were going to allocate resources to lead generation and qualification.  New business is important during difficult economic times.  Finding that new business and bringing new clients in is paramount.

55% were allocating funds to customer retention.  Although in the real estate realm, you can’t retain a customer like a cell phone company keeps a customer month-after-month, you can retain a customer who is loyal to you and supplies you with quality referrals.

Half of marketers were supporting corporate brand and identity building in 2010.  Getting your brand and identity out there and recognized is hard for every product.  Your service and YOU are your brand in the real estate profession.  Making sure your marketing is consistent and relevant is one vital piece of brand building.

Almost 40% of marketers were spending funds toward sales optimization.  Streamlining your methodology to get leads converted and sales closed is a vital task in building — and maintaining — your real estate business.

Let us know how your 2010 stacks up in terms of marketing.

There is no doubt that direct mail costs more than many other marketing methods, especially email and other electronic means.  Just because direct mail costs more doesn’t mean it’s not a viable and worthwhile marketing method anymore.  You simply need to be more targeted with its use in order for it to bring in business.

Direct mail works as you’ve probably used it in the past to garner new and repeat business.  They key now is to segment your lists of leads, prospects, clients and past clients and determine who is most likely to appreciate the mail piece’s relevancy to their situation — and be moved to action by it.  The impact of direct mail is significant if the right recipient gets an appropriate message with a specific call to action.

Share your successful direct-mail know-how.

• When you do group emailings to your contact list, offer a small section of your email (sidebar, P. S., etc.) to other advertisers who might benefit by getting new business with exposure to your list — all without having to share your email list with these other businesses.
• Postal mail can be expensive in big numbers, but if you divide the costs up among other businesses, it can be affordable while providing the same quality leads for you…and your partnered businesses. Consider newsletters (like Gooder Group’s Rainmaker MyCustom newsletter) that offer a section that can be offered up to local advertisers to help you offset the cost of the marketing.
• Advertising on grocery store carts, billboards, bus stop/bus/taxi placards, etc. can be split between you and a business partner while still achieving the same impact from your marketing dollars.
• Consider asking local businesses to contribute flyers and coupons for you to include in new home buyer thank you gifts that provide even more value for home buyers…and ask for referral business as well.
• If you are thinking of creating a commercial (for use on TV or YouTube or other places), consider segmenting the time into sections where each business partner and you have a time slot and split the costs of production.
• To help offset the costs of maintaining your blog, consider selling relevant ads on your blog while bringing added value to your home buying and selling visitors.
• Look for other businesses in your community who are targeting the same demographic group you are.  Contact them to see if they are currently doing mailings or advertising that you can partner with them on, giving you exposure to a new contact list.

Let us know what types of businesses you partner with and how your marketing has expanded due to these partnerships.

When the real estate market gains momentum again (and in certain niche segments they already have!), if you’re name hasn’t been out there regularly and consistently, you’re going to lose precious time ramping up your marketing and you’ll lose customers to the competition.  Those who will garner the new business are the ones who have continued their marketing, unchanged their visibility and strengthened customer loyalty during the lean times in order to benefit in the upswing.

Keeping your name and expertise out in front of home buying and selling consumers is vital to earn trust.  During times of economic uncertainty, consumers are hesitant and skeptical of businesses and services.  They want to see that you’ll be around tomorrow if they commit to start working with you today.  They want evidence that you’re successful in this market and continuing to market means you’re doing something right in their eyes.  If your business survives the downturn, you’re still going to be around and can be trusted.  Home buyers and sellers who witness this will reward you with even more business during the good times.

What has been your strategy to stay connected with consumers even while they are unwilling or unable to make home selling and buying decisions?

A late 2008 DM News/Pitney Bowes survey showed:

• Of consumers surveyed, almost 40% tried a new business for the first time because of information received via direct mail.
• Nearly 70% report renewing a relationship with a business after a period of time because they received a direct mailing or promotional item.

When you eliminate direct mail from your marketing mix, you might be losing out on additional business you never knew you could have.  As you review your marketing plan, take the time to truly analyze your return on investment on your direct mail efforts.  Consider re-introducing direct mail where you’ve previously eliminated it and you might be surprised at the results!

What has been your plan with direct mail?

This division by method of communication will help you establish your marketing budget quickly and easily. And, if you’re hoping to move most of your contacts to an electronic form of communication, offer enticements (an inexpensive real-estate related item to stress your professionalism) or point out the environmental advantage of going to electronic communication.

Once you know who goes into what “bucket” you can also plan your marketing around how many contacts are in each bucket, what frequency of contact best fits that type of communication and what your marketing dollars allow.

The most important thing to examine above all is your goal for each contact. Even if everyone on your contact list prefers email for communication, you will always want to ensure that your messages, call to action and results are effective and producing results — more business! Don’t forget you will still need to test your marketing, analyze your efforts and regularly determine when you need to make changes.

How do you reach all your contacts effectively and efficiently?