Marketing Plan in 30 Days: Day 2

Back to Day 1

One of the most difficult things about working in commercial real estate is the fierce competition.  Establishing an edge over competition is a necessary part of the branding process.  Simply knowing what your competitors are offering and what they don’t isn’t enough.  You’ll have to dig a little deeper.

1. Identify your top competitors.  Depending on your market, this could be anywhere from 10 brokerages to one or two people.  No matter the number, the goal is to identify them.  Know them by name, specialty, and client list.  Use tools like D&B Hoovers to check out their credit ratings, annual income. Check out PR Newswire and search for articles featuring competitor names or companies.  And a simple Google search can turn up all kinds of news, websites, and social media accounts.

2. Analyze competitors.  Once you’ve identified the “usual suspects” begin checking their content.  Do they offer blog articles, ebooks, videos, webinars, podcasts, news, case studies, social media, etc.?  Once you’ve located the content, judge the quality of the content.  Is it likely they are paying for content – full of inaccuracies, meandering wording, and/or no English fluency?  This will give you some great ideas on where you can surpass their marketing efforts.

3. Analyze online presence.  A company’s online presence is becoming increasingly important every day and each agent and brokerage is utilizing platforms differently.  Social media is a great way to build trust, websites are an excellent way to offer content and generate leads online.  E-Newsletters are excellent ways to keep in touch with former, potential and current clients.

Determine how your competitors are using social media and integrating it into their marketing and website activities.  Do they have an active LinkedIn account but their website is ten years old?  Do they have multiple social media accounts listed on the website but all their posts are from a year ago?

Use this information to build your own marketing plan.  Where they fail, you should succeed.

4. Identify areas for improvement.  After performing a competitive analysis, you will have a clear idea of what your competitors are doing and what they struggle with.

Take all the information gathered about each competitor and identify areas that need improvement. You’ll have a laundry list of “things to do” on your plate.

Not only will you be able to identify key areas that you can improve upon, but you can also help establish your company’s presence with potential customers, blog readers/subscribers, and social media users.

5. Implement ideas.  Keep it simple when getting started on a plan.  If your goal is to increase social media awareness, get a HootSuite account to make things easier.  Want to start doing videos?  Find an easy online editor to get started editing and producing videos for YouTube or Vimeo.  The important thing is to get started, even if you’re not 100% perfect right away. With practice will come refinement.  Give it a shot and let yourself become an expert over time!

 

Day 3: Targeting your Market in 6 Steps