A Marketing Plan

A Marketing Plan

A Marketing Plan - The Thing That Makes Deals Happen!
by Ben Innes-Ker

You’re a Real Estate Entrepreneur or Investor, and you’re out there in the market place looking for deals. I have a question for you.

Are you doing a bit of advertising and just hoping that a deal will fall in your lap, or are you operating in a way that makes certain it will happen. If you don’t have a process for making sure deals happen, you don’t yet understand the importance of having a marketing plan.

The sad fact is that even after all their training, less than one percent of all real estate entrepreneurs and investors actually have a marketing plan. Even though it’s very simple, don’t underestimate its power.

The Most Important Thing About Marketing is to Have a Marketing Plan!

1) It’s a concrete result you put out for your mind to seize on and strive to achieve.

2) It allows you to clarify exactly what you want to achieve in the coming 30 days.

3) It allows you map out the activities needed to achieve that plan.

4) It allows you to plan in advance to delegate off the lower paying activities, so you don’t end up doing them.

5) It allows you set time deadlines, to hold others accountable so everything gets DONE!

6) It results in you being free to concentrate on your highest payoff activity: Making Offers on Great Deals!

7) You have a business that operates consciously, not by accident.

More people fail in real estate because they simply do not have a plan or goals. You should have a detailed marketing plan of what you want to accomplish and how you are going to accomplish it.

And, don’t be vague, either. Things like, I want to make more money than I can ever spend, and I want to be rich, and I want to make $10,000 a month, are not plans. They are too vague, and they won’t help you get there. Be as specific as you can possibly be.

In planning for monthly revenue, try to put your money goals in cash income, not gross revenue. I know gross revenue is what you’re used to thinking in, but cash is obviously more important. It’s what you take to the bank, and it’s what pays bills.

First, examine your current numbers. More than 80 percent of all real estate entrepreneurs know how many houses they are buying each month, but they don’t know where those houses came from and how many leads they had to process to develop them into the single deal. And, this is a deadly sin.

You Simply Must Know How You Are Currently Doing

You should know:

1) The total leads that call each month (each week is more manageable),

2) Where those leads come from,

3) How many “qualified” seller prospects (i.e. those that you are willing to invest follow-up in if they don’t sell now; they have motivation, you are interested in the house.) you get each
month,

4) The ratio of total to qualified,

5) The number of deals you close,

6) The ratio of closed deals to qualified leads – for each lead source

7) How much you make from each seller,

Cool How much it cost you to acquire a new seller.

With this information you can look at your current resources, look ahead, and then plan out what you want to have happen. The number of deals you want to do, the amount of money you want to make.

For example, let’s say you are bringing in around $10,000 a month and your average deal gives you $5,000. Yes, I know that’s low, but for the sake of example. That’s two deals a month. These are cash proceeds and after expenses you net 50 percent of your gross or $5,000 a month. And let’s say that you want to double your net income next month.

You will have to get twice as many deals to double your business. Goal? Four deals a month, or one a week.

Let’s say you currently get one deal a month from a classified ad, and one deal a month for mailing expired listings. But, you get ten qualified calls a month from his classified ad and 10 qualified prospects calling a month as a result of mailing expired listings. So, you currently close ten percent of your prospects.

First, you can improve on this situation by improving that twenty percent closing ratio. By improving your closing ratio by things like more precise targeting, the present lead-flow would stay the same, you’ll get your same twenty real prospects and achieve your goal of doing four deals next month.

But assuming that’s not something you have control over right now, the other way to double your income in the next month is to double the number of qualified prospects you talk to and make offers to. So instead of getting 20 qualified leads to call, you would need 40.

Your plan to get forty qualified prospects would need 10 to come from expired listing mailings, 16 to come from flyers in target neighborhoods, 4 from business cards handed out everywhere, 6 to come from signs placed in the ground at high traffic count intersections, 10 to com from classified ads that drive people to the website. Total: 46 prospects. Cool! That’s six to spare.

With this number of leads coming in you have what is needed closed four deals and reach your goal of doubling your net income. Actually, it’s more than doubling because your fixed expenses don’t increase with the income.

You should have a monthly plan. Schedule thirty or forty minutes out of one day to make up your monthly plan and see how you did last month. Schedule this time and keep to it. Don’t do any work or take any calls during this time. Keep it strictly for planning. If you do this and you allow yourself to get into the whole spirit of planning, and making things happen on purpose, you will easily double your income in twelve months.

Your Monthly Plan Should Include The Following

1) A goal for total net income.
2) A goal for number of deals signed up
3) A goal for number of appointments made.
4) A goal for number of qualified, interested sellers.
5) A goal for total number of leads.
6) Average net income from each deal.
7) The number of prospects you have to generate to reach your goal.

A detailed plan to generate the number of prospects you need. Your plan doesn’t have to be typed out or put into a computer. It can be handwritten on paper. It doesn’t have to be pretty.

Scratch pad plans are good enough. The important part is that you do a plan every single week and keep on top of things.

This is a simple thing to do, but it is just as easy to not do. Blowing it off is the equivalent of you absolving yourself of responsibility for your business. On the other hand, taking the time to think through your goals each month, both for income, and marketing activity, then committing them to paper will make things start happening by plan and put you in control of your business.

__________________

Anita
******************************************
TWITTER - anitarny / FACEBOOK - anitarny

"FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION"


Anita

I know this post is old, but I want toknow how your marketing plan is working and did your banker give you a business line based on your plan.

__________________

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re: Dante

Yes they did and I continue to use a marketing plan for each project I work on.

__________________

Anita
******************************************
TWITTER - anitarny / FACEBOOK - anitarny

"FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION"


MY my my

This is VERY detailed and just what I need right now. Thanks for sharing

__________________

I deserve success...PERIOD! Reggie Peoples-


Moving Up in Priority on Search Engines for Website

Any tips/advice on how to market your DG website? How do you even get the search engines to pull it up & recognize it when you type in the website domain name that you register? I can't even get it to come up when I type in key words?
I must be computer illiterate because I am stumped? David B. Holwell

Google:

www.aaarepropertyinvestors.buyforeclosing.com


Thank you

This is the key to this business. I couldn't put my finger on it because I'm to close to the trees to see the forrest. I eat sleep and dream about RE but haven't written down the numbers of people I need to contact and by what forms of media I will use.
Thank you
Adam


Garage and Moving Sales!!

With the Garage and moving sales in full swing, it's time to market to these potential deals. Every week there are new garage and moving sale ads in my local newspaper. Do you have to drive to everyone of them to introduce yourself? Postcards are much cheaper and take very little time to produce....


New begining.

Hello. I am new to this site.
It is very helpful to read all different conversations
going around. i read 2 of Dean's books.
Feel overwhelmed, so much information.
Looking forward to read more success stories.
Thank You all for the information You share.
Jane.


Is it possible...

Would it be asking too much for the marketing plan you use? I would just like to see your #'s so I can have something to go off of. I have not done a deal yet so I don't know yet how many calls or ads etc. And is there a way to bookmark a post... I hate losing track of the valuable info I read.

__________________

Set a goal to achieve something that is so big, so exhilarating that it excites you and scares you at the same time. It must be a goal that is so appealing, so much in line with your spiritual core that you can't get it out of your mind. If you do not get chills when you set a goal, you're not setting big enough goals." (BO Sundberg)

Vicky Diaz


if at all possible...

if it is at all possible to also get a copy of what a marketing plan should look like. that would be much apreciated.

thank you


Samples of Plans

Wondering if anyone ever responded to BryanSr.'s request for the location of sample Marketing Plans (-and Business Plans). Couldn't find a response within these posts, and it seems a very common and important request for folks who don't have an MBA and haven't taken business courses.

Like contracts, it seems real important that a Business Plan and Marketing Plan are professionally-drafted, clear and concise documents... (not just someone's first-stab at organizing thoughts and steps - especially those just beginning down this road who are already having problems sifting all the info to clarity).

So Anita, could you (or perhaps some of your seasoned REI Allstar colleagues) please let us know where we can find very professional samples of Marketing and Business Plans,
either:
1) within our resources on DG's website?
or
2) a free website
Thanks very much.
Bridge

And, by the way, it is wonderful having you out there!


To those who've gone before...

Here I come. Thanks for the signposts and directionals.

I have obtained more brass tacks mentoring from the time spent here today than I have in some of the expensive seminars out there. I am grateful to you for taking the time to leave these jewels for me to find at my right time.

Bridge, Bryan, Sr., and Vicki: your requests sent me searching the web for a sample REI marketing plan. Google gave me this very thread as the first answer. The second was DG as well.

I hope you are still here, because the fact is your answer was here all along. As Anita said, the most important things about a marketing plan is to have one. I would add this: you will benefit mightily from the process of working thru the points Anita ticked off and determining the actions you will take to market your business. Working thru your business plan will make your vision for its future more real to you. You will grow as a person and an investor via the birthing process of creating these documents. If you are overwhelmed at the idea, keep it simple. Treat the points Anita and Charpie recount as questions from a sixth grader. Then, answer the questions so a sixth grader could understand the answers. If you do this, you will have an excellent rough draft of each. Now, take your answers and find a template to which you may apply them. Good Luck.

BTW, I just accepted my response as a homework assignment. Isn't that the way of it?+)

Peace, health and wealth to y'all.

D

__________________

Dana w/ Crossroads Solutions LLC
http://www.DanaLeigh209.com
http://www.DanaLeigh209.net
http://www.ULostThis.com
---
I am direct to the VP of a $100 million dollar open-ended debt and equity fund which actively writes checks to fund businesses with an EBITDA of at least $1 million a year. We fund also have access to up to $500,000,000 for the purchase of distressed real estate, specially commercial $7,500,000 and up.


Newbie

I am new to all of this so any samples would be GREAT


Great thread

this is one of the many great 'old threads'

thank you Anita- very helpful info!

__________________

Valerie

“And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed!” ― Dr. Seuss

"I believe in angels, the kind that heaven sends; I am surrounded by angels, but I call them friends" - Unknown

My journal: http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/investing-journals/59110/...


Great post on creating a

Great post on creating a marketing plan. Very good suggestions and much appreciated.

__________________

Chris

"Faith is the eternal elixir which gives life, power, and action to the impulse of thought.

"Faith is the starting point of all accumulation of riches!"

- Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich


Marketing Plan

I really appreciate this reminder, and the detail you've put into it.

I know that marketing plans do work. So, I'll now cater one to my real estate goals.

Thanks.


Marketing Plan updates?

Hi Anita, Thank you for your article. Great suggestions. Do you have any updates since 2008? Thanks again...Ron T.

__________________

Ron Taitano


Total Inspiration '

Special Thanks to Anita, for sharing her expertise and all of you guys for adding your inspirational input. This keeps me so fired up to see others members thinking sharing and doing. Thanks again.. Wmcdo


Valuable Info

Thank you Anita for your valuable information. The market has changed since your original post and I was wondering if you have had to change the way you do business? Do you still do a lot of flips? Or has your strategy changed? I'm in Cali as well. Any of your sage advice and feedback would be greatly appreciated. Happy Holidays!


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