Yes, there’s still time! Here are six ways to help you stir up more activity in your market before the year-end.
1. Stick to the plan (or create one if you haven’t yet)
A marketing plan does much more than let you know how much money you’ll spend for over a period of time promoting your services. Chief among the additional benefits is that it helps you fill your days with prolific and directed activity.
That forward-thinking stuff you need to create a plan forces you to carefully consider each option, both in terms of its financial impact and effectiveness.
“Big ideas fail without a plan, and your marketing plan is the one thing that will still drive innovation and help you meet sales targets,” according to Mark Ellis, a business writer at Business2Community.com.
If increasing listing activity is your goal, hammer out a marketing plan for the next three months and stick to it.
2. Adhere to a regular prospecting schedule
Whether you door-knock, cold-call, chase after expireds and FSBOs or use another method of prospecting, ensure that it gets done by making it a part of your daily or weekly schedule.
Prioritize the task as well. It’s easy to keep putting it off when there are more interesting tasks to pursue, but it’s not wise. The more leads you steer toward that real estate sales funnel, the more prospects you can convert into new listings.
3. Nurture those relationships
People who sell customer relationship management software are fond of claiming that a CRM is the “lifeblood” of the real estate agent’s business.
Guess what? They’re right. Building and nurturing relationships is the key to increased commission checks, and to do it right, you need a way to keep track of leads, prospects, clients (both current and past), and just about everyone else you know.
While there are probably a million and one ways to set up a CRM, find a way that makes adding information and finding what you need easy. A way that works for you. Then ensure that you keep it safe, and back it up.
HOT TIP: We offer a free CRM, the Contact Manager, on ProspectsPLUS.com. With the Contact Manager, you can tag entire mailing lists or just one contact within a list, building one highly targeted list for your marketing materials.
In addition, you own your list, so you can export and download your CRM list anytime if you decide to move it. Now schedule time on a daily/weekly basis to reach out to the contacts in this database and nurture these relationships.
The Looking For Listing Scheduled Farm Campaign is shown above.
4. Fine-tune your response time to leads
You can’t turn a lead into a prospect that you’ll convert into a listing if you don’t respond to their initial contact promptly.
The short and sweet of it is that you have five minutes to respond to an incoming lead if you hope to reach the person live and get them into your sales funnel, according to InsideSales.com research.
In fact, the agent who responds within this period is nearly 25 percent more likely to snag the lead. Wait a half-hour? You might as well forget about it and let the agent down the street who responds quicker have the lead.
5. Start farming, via direct mail, if you haven’t already
Farming is a low-cost, effective, and easy way to reach out to many people simultaneously and build relationships over time.
The fact remains that direct mail is one of the most powerful marketing methods available. Mix that with a focus on a specific farm, and you have something powerful working for you.
When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.
1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazin
Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine with rich, full-color content and a sharp, professional aesthetic. It includes compelling, direct, response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts and engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you. Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here
2. The Free 6-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Planner
The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 6-Month Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do and when. Four key market segments include niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here
3. The Free Online Real Estate Business Plan
The Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for the year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closings, and so on are needed to reach your financial goals. – Click Here
4. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook
Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here