Why Every Real Estate Agent Needs a 10-Year Realtor Marketing Plan

As a real estate agent, you need a 10-year realtor marketing plan in order to be your last home buyer’s next agent too.

Since the Great Recession, average tenure of home sellers has stretched from 6 to 10 years. If you’re a real estate agent who is building their business based on relationships, a 10-year marketing plan can help you stay in front of clients so that the next time they are ready to sell – or buy – a new home, even if that’s 10 years down the road, you’re the one they’ll turn to. And in the meantime, this 10-year realtor marketing plan will help you land referrals and build brand awareness.

A 10-Year Realtor Marketing Plan for Repeat Home Buyer, Seller Business and Referrals

Year 1: You helped someone buy or sell their home – now what?

Your 10-year realtor marketing plan starts by capturing the momentum from helping someone buy or sell their home.

Get a review. Online reviews are the new word of mouth for referrals and to help people decide between more than one option. Get happy clients to leave your agency 5-star reviews on Facebook, Google, Yelp, Zillow and other sites to tell other people why they should work with you.

Ask for referrals. While people are in home buying and home selling mode they are more likely to be aware of friends, family and colleagues who are planning to do the same.

Answer questions. Do your clients have questions about the home they purchased? The neighborhood, schools or shopping? 30 days after closing, check in by email and ask whether they have any questions for you.

After helping a buyer or seller ,add their contact information to your list and send email updates to all of your contacts (previous clients, current clients and prospects) every month (see email content ideas at the end of this article).

Year 2: Get your client’s expert opinion

Touch base with clients a year after their home sale (or purchase) with a personal email in addition to your monthly email newsletters. This time, get them to contribute a 2-3 sentence (or longer) statement about what advice they would give to home buyers (or home sellers) to include in an upcoming article/email newsletter. You can also use this information to refine aspects of your realtor marketing plan, such as improving your calls to action or writing articles about things that are important to home buyers and sellers.

Share their comment (or, better yet, the article you include their comment in) on social media and tag them. Often they’ll be gratified with the shout out and share this mention with their own social networks, extending your reach even further.

Year 3: Ask for a referral

Touch base with clients a year after their home sale (or purchase) with a personal email in addition to your monthly email newsletters. Extend a referral reward offer; such as a $50 Amazon gift card for any referrals that convert (buy, list (or sell) a new home with your agency) within the next 6 months. Other types of referral rewards could be sports tickets, concert tickets, etc. Use something you know will appeal to your client demographics.

Year 4: Send up a trial balloon

10 years may be the average tenure of home sellers, but as you know the average does not represent the whole. First time home buyers may be ready to move up. Move up buyers might be ready to empty nest. A home owner’s physical needs or household make up may have changed.

This year, in addition to your monthly newsletters send a personal email to previous clients asking whether any of these types of factors mean they are ready to test the waters in the housing market or make a move. Invite them to a free, no-obligation buying or selling workshop for more information, even if they aren’t ready to make a move right now; reward them if they come and bring a friend.

Year 5: List new home trends

In the 5 years after someone has made a move trends may have shifted dramatically. In addition to monthly newsletters that go to your whole contact list, send a personal email to previous clients. Call out major trends in home design and décor and include a list of new home communities in your area that you’d like to show them. Finish with a call to action that says, “Even if you’re not sure you’re ready to buy, we’d love to show you what’s on the market right now…”

You might also like: 9 Ways to Spend Your Real Estate Marketing Budget

Year 6: List reasons to buy or sell now

Is it a hot seller’s market? Do buyers have incentives like low interest rates or high inventory? In addition to monthly newsletters, send a personal email to clients who purchased six years ago with top reasons to buy a new home and/or sell their current home. Include a call to action with some type of incentive; such as:

• free (or discounted) home buyer’s appraisal
• $$ toward purchase of new appliances or furniture
• $$ toward curb appeal renovation/landscape package

Or something else for anyone who works with you to buy or sell a home within the next 3 (or 6) months.

Year 7: Send a neighborhood-specific call to action

If your former client lives in a highly-desired neighborhood, send a personal email this year in addition to the monthly emails that go to all your contacts that is neighborhood-specific. Car dealers do this all the time – you know, they send you a postcard or letter stating that your car/year/model is in high demand, offering top dollar on a trade in for a new car.

In your case, this might mean calling out recent neighborhood comps so that you can show that homes in their neighborhood are getting top dollar in the marketplace with an invitation to let you give them a free, no-risk consultation about selling their home. If your former clients aren’t ready to make a move, some of their neighbors might be, so consider extending a referral reward as well.

Year 8: Invite them to a workshop

Your previous client hasn’t bought or sold a home in the last 8 years and the marketplace and industry have changed in major ways. Invite your previous clients to a free home buyer – home seller workshop and hold it somewhere with social appeal, such as a tasting event held at a local winery or brewery.

Year 9: Repeat home buyer or home seller rewards

In addition to the emails you send to all of your contacts every month, this year send a personal email to previous clients focused on the thank you rewards or gifts you give whenever a former client refers someone who ends up buying or selling a home through your agency. Invite them to send the email on to friends and family members who may be interested with a special offer that the person referred will also receive a thank you or reward when they sell or buy a new home with your real estate agency.

Year 10: Call out their tenure

If a previous client has been in their home for 10 years, well done you. You obviously helped them buy a house that was exactly right for them and has served their needs well. In your personal email call to action this year, note that they’ve exceeded the average tenure of most home owners and invite them to request a free, no-risk consultation from you if they’re ready to buy a home that will meet their needs for the next 10 years.

10-Year Realtor Marketing Plan – Email Ideas for Your Monthly Newsletter

Share helpful articles and resources in email updates to past clients every month to keep your agency’s brand top of mind; such as:

• What to expect as a home owner
• Prepping (winterizing, summerizing, etc.) your home for the season
• Regional plants for ground cover and landscaping
• A list of preferred vendors for landscaping, tree trimming, handyman or renovation projects, house cleaning, dog walking or grooming, and so on.
• ## Quick Tips for Personalizing a New Home (whether “new” new or resale – making a home your own)
• ## Places to
  • Shop for summer (tools, plants, landscaping, patio furniture, etc.)
  • Shop for Back to school clothes
  • Do Holiday shopping or attend community events
  • Enjoy local wine walks/tasting
  • Visit community street fairs and farmers markets
• ## ways to add value before selling a home
• Color trends for home exterior and interior rooms
• ## ideas for curb appeal, living room, family room, kitchen, home office, bathroom, master bedroom, etc.
• ## reasons to meet with your realtor every year – even if you’re not buying or selling
• New schools in the area
• Local school achievements and awards
• Major community announcements, such as retail or residential development projects
• Chamber of commerce announcements for new business grand openings
• Any referral or repeat buyer rewards you offer
• Open house events, buyer/seller workshops

If you can write some of these articles up for your own blog – EVEN BETTER! This type of content will bring other local residents, home buyers and sellers to your agency’s website. These types of articles also make great social shares.