Focus on These Three Areas in Your 2019 Real Estate Marketing Plan

The final days of 2018 are upon us, and this means it is also that time when we start to look back and grade our performance over the year. Did the business do well? Could it have done better? For many real estate agents, this time of year comes with mixed feelings: some of relief for having made it this far coupled, and some anxious ones as they wonder what the market will bring in 2019. Preparing in advance is a great way to manage these feelings of anxiety. The question that then arises is what should you focus on? Do you focus on CRM or lead generation or marketing automation? While the options are many, we suggest three broad areas you should focus on as you rethink you marketing plan for 2019.

Lead Generation

Which lead generation strategies did you employ in 2018? Perhaps you run Facebook ads, or you published some videos on YouTube. Regardless of what tactics you employed, what you need to do is go back and evaluate their overall and individual performance. Did your Facebook ads yield enough high-quality leads? Did publishing videos result in more call-ins? How can you tweak all this, so you see better results in 2019? As you perform this exercise, remember it is okay to abandon a marketing channel altogether. If your YouTube channel yielded no leads but your Facebook efforts did resolve to focus more on Facebook in 2019 and maybe put YouTube on the backburner.

Customer Retention

The next area you need to focus on in 2019 is customer retention. First, how well would you say you retained your customers in 2018? 10%? 50? 80%? Depending on how you did, you may need to rethink your strategy. If your rate was in the low double digits or single digits, some of the things you can consider in 2019 are:

• Customer segmentation – to help you better target people who will respond to your offers

• Customer expectations – whether you are meeting your customer’s expectations or not

• Customer follow-up – the money is in the follow-up. Enough said.

• In-person and online connections – how visible you are you to your target market

• Referral requests – the art of asking for referrals

By focusing on these five areas, you can significantly increase your customer retention metrics and grab a bigger share of your real estate target market in 2019.

Sphere of Influence (SOI)

Think of your sphere of influence as the proverbial barrel of fish. If you are not planning to point a shotgun at this easy target in 2019, then you will miss a big opportunity. Consider that the National Association of Realtors found that fewer than a quarter of home sellers engage the same agent who helped them purchase the home. This sounds absurd, but it has more to do with agents forgetting to engage their sphere of influence than it does customers being fickle. In 2019, choose to keep and engage your sphere of influence. Whoever you do business with is your professional sphere of influence. Add them all to your CRM and put an engagement plan in place.

Conclusion

2019 is a fresh start, but like all fresh starts, they soon turn into regrettable ends if we do nothing different. As a business owner, 2019 must find you ready and equipped to do great things. If you ended this year strong, plan to maintain this momentum and end 2019 even stronger. If your finish this year was not strong, regroup, recharge and commit to turning things around in 2019. But to achieve this, you must choose to do things differently. Focus on these three areas, and you will be well on your way to having a spectacular 2019.