The 2024 Reset You Need: Create a Real Estate Marketing Plan You’ll Actually LOVE

The best marketing plan is one that you’ll actually stick to. And for most real estate agents, this means you need to feel excited and energized about your marketing. 

Before I dive in, first I gotta say that I am definitely a proponent of your typical real estate marketing strategy: Analyze what did and didn’t work well the year before, set a goal for next year, make a plan, rinse and repeat. (That’s very, very oversimplified but you get the idea.) You’re tracking numbers and data, analyzing it, and developing your marketing plan based on facts (and probably a little guesswork). 

But what if this year… your plan wasn’t so rigid? 

What if you felt truly excited and energized about your marketing plan?  

Marketing and business planning for the year ahead can reveal a lot of baggage. It can be so daunting. I’ve been in many, many planning meetings where things can get very intense. You’re talking about the ups and downs from the past year, you’re likely exhausted, and you need to figure out how to do it all again next year.

What would it take for you to shift your mindset and feel excited and energized about your 2024 online marketing plan?

Imagine all of that joy, playfulness, passion, motivation, and vitality swirling around your business this year. 

Sounds like freedom. Sounds like magic!

Am I being a little dramatic? Well, maybe. But real estate is dramatic! It’s consequential; your job is a big deal. And one thing your marketing should do is reflect the things you love most about your job.

I’ve put together a list of my observations about how you can reset your perspective and create an online marketing plan you’ll actually love. I felt so energized writing all of these ideas down, and now I’m excited to share it with you! (Ha! See what I did there?!)

Here are my hard-earned tips for how to reset + create a marketing plan you’ll actually love: 

• Make concrete observations about the marketing you did last year and take some time to reflect. In fact, go all the way back to last year’s marketing plan. Take a look at it and see what got done or what didn’t. Ask yourself why something did or didn’t happen. Maybe your plan said that you’d send out one postcard per month to your sphere, and you completed that goal. (Turns out, you outsourced this to your office marketing assistant, and they helped you get it done!) Maybe your marketing plan said to create and post a series of 10 videos for Youtube/Facebook/Instagram/etc., but you never even found a videographer. (Turns out, you didn’t actually want to manage this project and it felt too big to take on.) Or, maybe you did create those 10 videos, but you hated every second of it. Spend some time observing what did and didn’t happen, and why. 

Of course, the numbers are important, too. You shouldn’t be doing marketing activities that don’t work. But right now, this is about making observations about your personal work and creative style. 

• Where do you actually enjoy spending time online? If you feel obligated to spend time on Instagram for your business but you don’t find yourself naturally opening the app very often, maybe it’s time to just get rid of that guilt.

  Maybe you actually don’t want to be on ANY social media at all. Give yourself permission to opt out of social media (and understand the drawbacks of doing this) and dedicate your energy to other marketing activities (in-person events, pop-bys, mailers, etc.).

  Now, on the other hand, if you find yourself spending more time on Facebook because you like staying connected to your community through Facebook groups, make note of that. (And while you’re at it, my blog post “Re-Discovering Why I Actually Love Social Media (& How You Can, Too)” is a must read!)

• Where is your ideal client spending time online? You might have to do a bit of sleuthing for this one. Write down the names of all of your (favorite) clients from the past few years. Now, go through the list one by one and try to figure out where each of them is “hanging out” online. And don’t just note if they have a Facebook, for example—try to note whether or not they’re very active. Do you notice any trends about who is spending time where?

  This might give you some insight as to where you might consider spending more time online, or it might serve as good motivation to lean into something you’re already doing. Or you might realize you were fretting about being on Facebook enough when it turns out your clients don’t even hang out there! 

• Look for ways to curate your own online experience. Part of joyfully showing up online again is creating an experience for yourself that you won’t hate—and might actually love! Yes, really. In this post, I share concrete ideas for how to curate your social media experience.

• Try a new type of marketing. Maybe you need a new platform to re-energize your marketing plan. Maybe you are loving TikTok, you already love getting on video, and you see an opportunity for your real estate business there. Or maybe it’s time to revisit sending postcards to your sphere.

  Set a measurable goal and see where it goes. But beware—it’s easy to get “shiny toy syndrome.” (Everyone’s on TikTok? Let’s jump on TikTok! Everyone’s moving over from Twitter to Threads? Let’s go!) Don’t try a new type of marketing until you’ve really thought it through. 

• Give yourself permission to show who you really are. And if someone unfollows you because of it, or decides to work with a different agent—then good! Now there’s room for the next potential client who DOES love what they’re seeing about you online. 

• Identify ways to leverage your time and consider what you can outsource. Think about the activities that you actually enjoy doing. Is there a part you can outsource to someone else to make sure it gets done AND to ensure you don’t burn precious energy on things you simply don’t like doing?

  Just keep in mind that with outsourcing, there needs to be balance and real benefit. You still need to be present and a part of all of your marketing, but there are likely aspects of it that you can delegate to someone else. 

• Observe what your creating style is. Does your mind come alive at night, after the sun goes down? Do you do your best thinking in the morning before you get hit by a barrage of emails? Or maybe you’re most productive when you have some accountability. Observe yourself and when you are at your best for the type of creating you want to do.

  Personally, I’ve observed that if I have an in-person meeting with clients and I get into “social” mode, it’s very hard for me to immediately go back home and focus on writing blog posts. My brain is not going to be ready to shift gears that quickly, so after that meeting, my time is much better spent running errands or doing chores around the house, for example.

  Make your life easier and identify what you need to thrive. 

• Find a work buddy. Finding someone else who is just as excited + energized as you are about your marketing plan is a huge bonus. You can hold each other accountable, work alongside each other, and feed off of each other’s creative energy. I write extensively about this topic in my blog “How to Have the Most Productive Content Batching Work Date Ever!”

If you aren’t quite feelin’ it yet, I hear ya. You might have some burnout going on, and there are no quick fixes for that. I am slowly but surely digging my way out of burnout and finding a new more joyful way to exist. And recently, I did some digging on what aspects of social media I enjoy. You might find my blog post “Rediscovering Why I Actually Love Social Media (& How You Can, Too)” useful in your own journey!

You might also be interested in a few of my other blog posts: