How to Create a Property Marketing Plan that Wins Listings

Is your marketing plan enough to seal the deal with sellers? If you're only doing what the majority of other agents are doing to market a home, you're not standing out. And if you're not standing out, you're not growing your listing business.

Today's real estate consumer is far more sophisticated than they were just 10 years ago. They can not only find detailed property information online without the help of an agent, but they can also research what it is agents should be doing for them.

For sellers, the number one thing that they want is for their agent to market their home to buyers, according to a recent study from NAR. But where are the buyers? They're online, according to a 2014 study from Google that says that a whopping 97 percent of buyers search for properties online. What's more, almost half of buyers found the home they eventually purchased online first.

"Sellers know that people go online to search for properties, and they expect you to market their property to those buyers online," says Chris Scott of The Paperless Agent, a company that offers agents training on digital marketing and is owned and operated by the leaders of GoodLife Realty. If your marketing plan doesn't address the expectations of today's digital consumer, it's time to consider an overhaul.

Crafting Your Marketing Plan

Fortunately, this doesn't have to be a difficult process. Scott suggests starting by simply making a list of all the promotional and marketing activities that you do for your listings. "You may be surprised by how much you do when you write it all down," says Scott. "But consumers will have no idea what you do to market their home unless you explicitly tell them or show them."