5 Ways to save Money on your Marketing- without jeopardizing sales!
If you're experiencing a challenging year, you might be tempted to cut back on your marketing expenses. But how can you save money on marketing, while ensuring that you don't jeopardize your current and future sales... especially when other agents are actually INCREASING their marketing activity to grow their sales and market share in a tough economy?
1. Figure out what works!
Make a list of your current marketing and for each item (e.g. postcards, birthday and holiday cards, website, email, print ads, Facebook ads, online ads etc...), figure out how much you are spending, how many people you are reaching and how many people (on average) are responding with either a call, email or completion of a lead generation form. Do the math for every tactic and figure out the average cost per impression (ie, how many people see your marketing) and the average cost per response (ie, how many people respond to your marketing).
For example, if you receive 5 leads every time you send out 1,000 postcards for a total cost of $2,000, your:
-cost per impression is $2.00 ($2,000/1,000 postcards)
-cost per response is $400 ($2,000/5 leads)
Then aim to lower your overall cost per impression and cost per response by figuring out ways to decrease your overall expense for each item.... or by reallocating some of your budget to the things that get you the most impressions and leads at the lowest cost.
2. Look for the 'small savings'- they add up!
Scrutinize your marketing budget, and look for small savings that add up over time. For example, how many client birthday or Christmas cards do you send out each year, and how much do each of them cost? If you are sending 200 cards and buying individual greeting cards AND individual stamps to mail them- you could be saving a lot of money each year with a system like Top Producer's LivePost, where you can send real estate, greeting and holiday postcards from your 8i for $0.54 each- design, printing and postage included.
3. Look for free online marketing opportunities
The Internet offers a number of free (and low cost) marketing opportunities that agents know that they should take advantage of... but many still don't! Try these marketing opportunities- they're absolutely free!:
- Create a Blog to grow your online presence- if you have a Top Producer Website, a free Blog tool is included
- Run ads on free online advertising sites like Craigslist and Kijiji to advertise your services, and your listings
- Grow your social network and sphere of influence on Facebook
- Grow your professional network on LinkedIn
- Growing your professional network on real estate social networking sites like ActiveRain.
4. Try free or low-cost email marketing
You can lower your marketing cost by strategically switching some of your budget to low- or no- cost email marketing.
For example, if you are already a Top Producer 8i user, your 8i allows you to send email messages using your own HTML Stationery to anyone in your Contact List, ensuring that emails sent from your Top Producer account reflect your professionalism and personal branding. You can even create your own e-newsletter to send to your contacts on a regular basis.
5. Remember to plan for long term growth
The number of U.S. REALTORS® dropped 10.61% from Jan. 2008 to Jan. 2009. With focused and aggressive marketing, you can gain the clients that these past-competitors used to have a hold on, and capture a larger share of your local market.
While it's important to manage marketing expenses intelligently so that you are not throwing away your hard earned money, you also need to examine your business goals and determine whether today's market might be the perfect opportunity to grow your business with a more aggressive and well-planned marketing strategy.
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