Create your 2022 real estate marketing plan? 10 tips from a marketing director

Start the fall with Marketing and Branding Month at Inman. We deepen agent branding and spend best practices with Zillow, realtor.com and more. The best marketers also come to share their new tactics. That’s all you need to take your branding and marketing strategy to the next level.

With over two decades of marketing experience in multiple industries, I have created many marketing plans over the years. For our 2022 plan, I rely on some good practices that I have developed over the years and I integrate current market conditions to refine certain elements.

Laying the groundwork: setting goals

Now that I’m in real estate, I can apply terms like foundation, architecture, and plan to the planning process, which are business related.

For example, when building a house, you need to make sure that the result is a fully functional house. If you don’t follow the plan, you could end up with a toilet in your kitchen – not what you had in mind.

Align with your business goals

Let’s start with the foundation. Marketers shouldn’t plan in a vacuum – everything we do should be tailored to business goals.

When making a marketing plan, start here: Understand how marketing can support your leader’s goals, goals, and targets for the year.

Using the business goals as a basis, you can create a framework or plan for your marketing efforts to “build the house”, so to speak.

Build the house: Plan how you’ll get there

Make sure your plan includes concrete steps to achieve your goals.

Define an action plan

Make sure you are working towards these goals. For example, if one of the company’s goals is to increase GCI by 10%, our marketing plan will identify specific routes to market that can directly influence that outcome.

Our brokerage is known for its high levels of agent support. So many elements of our plan align with the goals set for agent retention and activation. We are also incorporating consumer and community elements into the plan to increase awareness of our business.

These goals feed into quantifiable goals, which give us a way to measure and focus our efforts.

Take advantage of flagship content

After identifying the different avenues to market, the next step is to define specific audiences and the type of content and channels that resonate with each.

In addition to leveraging the unique lifestyle content for consumers from Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, we also produce market-specific lead generation materials, such as comprehensive guides for buyers and sellers.

Over a year, we’re pulling smaller pieces of content from these flagship guides across various channels to enable our agents to maintain ongoing engagement with consumers through strong calls to action (CTAs).

On the agent side, we are focusing on SEO support and marketing specific training content, keeping current market conditions interwoven into our message.

Sweat the assets

The next step is to create a channel plan to determine which pieces of content will be distributed and where. Each platform has a specific function based on our goal.

For example, on Instagram we focus on consumer content, while our Facebook pages are currently more focused on recruiting and internal communication. Creating a strategy behind each social media channel allows us to build better cohesion and effectively target each of our markets.

We use a ‘rocks, pebbles, sand’ approach to fill the content ‘pot’ and the tactical timeline.

• Rocks: These messages are fixed, scheduled explicitly in the calendar year, such as generating a new ad layout for the spring sales season, attending conferences, or producing award material.
• pebbles: This is more flexible content that can fit into the spaces around the rocks, like a drip email campaign.
• Sand: One-off and unplanned content. We treat sand as spontaneous or one-off activities that we can easily add to the schedule.

We approach the tactical calendar quarter at a time to be nimble in responding to the market and the rocks and sand that come our way.

Budget

I approach the budget as the last step in the planning process. In my experience, I’ve had much more success when I don’t make the budget the determining factor but see it as the outcome of the plan.

Architecture: Understanding the Landscape 2022

The pandemic has highlighted how much real estate buyers and sellers expect connectivity, ease and personalization.

Technology

The pandemic, in some ways, was the boost our industry needed to meet consumers where they are. A big part of our 2022 plan will be to build on this momentum and make technology adoption permanent – consumers will expect it.

Digital marketing

Consumers have shown us that they are more connected than ever to the digital world. As an agent, it is essential to be involved with consumers every step of the way, especially online.

The days when potential clients physically turn to a brokerage for help will dwindle, which is why in 2022 we will enhance the digital presence of our business and agents with strong SEM and marketing efforts. SEO and invest more in digital marketing campaigns.

Messaging

Another way we’re planning for 2022 is to tailor our messaging to better resonate with customers today. The buying spree of 2021 was probably very frustrating, especially for buyers who couldn’t win in a bidding war.

We work with our agents to get their personal marketing messages from how quickly they’ve sold a home, and for how much above the asking price, to a more customer-centric message of personalized service, expert advice and feedback. proven negotiating skills, using testimonials and success stories. if possible.

Stay on top of the market

Being responsive and responsive to the market is invaluable when it comes to planning. You can plan for a full year of content, but if that content seems deaf to your audience, it’s not actionable content that will support your business goals.

Collaborate

And just like content needs to resonate with your audience, a marketing plan needs the full support of the company’s top management. This is why working with my sales representatives throughout my planning process is essential. I always socialize my marketing plan to get feedback and buy-in throughout.

In 2022, marketers are expected to build on proven planning best practices while adapting to market changes that impact target audiences. The year ahead is an opportunity to reset and create a path to a new normal.

Kristen Diamond is Director of Marketing at Better Homes and Garden Real Estate The Masiello Group in northern New England. Connect with her on Facebook or LinkedIn.