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|  8-Step Personal Marketing Plan Elements of a Budget 3 Sample Marketing Plans 2 Marketing Plans: Made Even Better 8 Personal Marketing Mistakes to Avoid Becoming Your Own Brand Advanced tip Finding Your Niche Advanced tip Broker tip Getting the Word Out Personal Marketing in Print Advanced tip Advanced tip Personal Marketing Online Broker tip Gifts and Giveaways Personal Marketing in Person Measuring Your Marketing Advanced tip Quiz: Personal Marketing Bright Ideas: Personal Marketing More Resources: Personal Marketing Code of Ethics: Personal Marketing | 3 Sample Marketing Plans Plan 3: For an Already Successful Salesperson Who Wants to Become a Star This plan will take a sizable investment of $10,000 or more toward marketing and should be done over at least six months. It relies on a combination of newspaper and cable television spots. It would be possible to achieve similar results, but would require monthly mailings to approximately 8,000 homes a month. When mailing sizes exceed 4,000 pieces a month, newspaper and television offer a more cost-effective alternative for the bulk of your promotion. However, limited amounts of direct mail, e-mail farming, and a Web site are also essential components of this plan. Even though this plan focuses less on traditional direct mail, you will still want to have four-color personal promotion brochure and compatible stationery, envelopes, and business cards. To benefit fully from this plan, you need to have assistants in place to handle some parts of the transaction. Otherwise the larger volume generated by this level of promotion will be wasted because you will not have time to service your new clients adequately. Objective: To generate at least 200 transactions a year, which should result in between $20 and $30 million in gross annual sales. Month One 1. Select a designer and copywriter to assist you in developing a marketing approach for your advertising series. If you have a successful direct-mail identity program, use the same marketing line and logo in your advertising. See Plan One for a discussion about selecting a designer. 2. Locate a local newspaper or magazine that has a circulation of between 15,000 and 30,000 readers. 3. Review the media kit for the publication to ensure that the readers match your target market in terms of income and geography. 4. If you serve a high-end market, a business publication or a newspaper business section may be your best option. 5. If your business is mid-range or family-oriented, consider the lifestyle or home section. 6. Work with a designer to review and consider upgrading your Web site. One of the principal goals of your newspaper advertising is to drive prospects to your Web site, so be sure content is pertinent, complete, and current and that the graphic look reflects the logo and marketing theme of your direct mail and newspaper ads. 7. Develop a strong e-mail list to use in your farming efforts. Use free offers, your Web site, and contests to develop a list, which should ideally include everyone in your farm area. 8. Identify a local cable television station on which to run short commercials in support of your print advertising. Again, look at the media kit to be sure that the audience matches your target. Also consult with the station’s advertising manager on specific shows that would match your target market best. TIP: If there isn’t a local TV channel in your area, consider radio as an alternative. Month Two 1. Select a company to assist you in developing the copy and visuals for your commercials and in shooting those commercials. Sources: In many cases, the TV station has an in-house department that can assist you. Or they may recommend an outside vendor. Decide if you will do the commercials yourself or hire an actor. 2. Finalize the copy and design of a series of four newspaper ads. Remember that just like your direct-mail program, these are personal marketing ads that sell you, not your listings or your company. 3. The series should include one full-page ad, one half-page ad, and two quarter-page ads that include a coupon or other direct response device for prospect to receive a marketing report or other research of value to them. 4. Be sure you include tracking codes on your ads to help you pinpoint sources of response for analysis. 5. Work with your selected publication to set a six-month advertising schedule. You will want to run an ad every week. Be sure that you run your ads on the same day and in the same part of the paper every week. 6. Review and upgrade your prospect database to accommodate tracking information from these new sources. Be sure that your assistants know how to ask callers for the source of their call and to enter coded material. TIP: Hold a training session with your support staff to review the marketing program and outline their roles in achieving your team’s marketing goals. Solicit suggestions on new marketing ideas, and encourage them to ask callers for feedback. 7. Set a final six-month schedule for your TV advertising. You want to run between 10 and 20 spots of 30 seconds each, every other week. TIP: Research on TV commercials shows that viewers respond best and pay the most attention to materials they see between seven and 15 times per month. 8. Finalize the redesign of your Web site, and launch it. This site should be tested and in-place before you begin advertising. See Plan Two for more on Web site design. 9. Work with a designer and copywriter to develop an effective Prelisting Package . This tool will be valuable in quickly providing information to prospects. Most of the kit should be preprinted, standardized information—your credentials, statistics on the company, and general descriptions of the communities you service. 10. Design one to three pages that can be generated on your computer so that you can incorporate a recent competitive market analysis and a list of your most recent listings and sales. 11. Select a Web designer and create four-color e-mail formats for your farming promotions. Be sure that these designs use the same graphics and marketing theme as your other materials. 12. One format should be similar to a “Just Sold” postcard, with a place for the picture of the house. One format should be similar to a short newsletter, which allows for the sharing of information about you and the community. One format should be designed as a one-page promotional piece to offer free market research reports and other information of value to prospects in your farm area. Continued > | |