Blowing the Budget, $100 at a Time
In this market, it is crucial that we spend our money very very carefully and only use avenues that bring results! This sounds so basic, yet it’s difficult to stick to the “rules” when you’re bombarded with great new marketing ideas every day, and new advertising opportunities. Everything they say is so enticing!
It’s just a 1/2 cent per customer per day (for a $995/mo digital billboard you share with 8 other businesses, for a six month contract…. $6000 invested!)! 53,000 people will read your ad on the convention program (yeah right, do you keep those things? go back to your hotel room and read the ads?)
So many agents say “it’s just…” $100 per team sponsorship, or $200 for custom notepads, or $50 per month for the web page upgrade.
Tracking what matters
Yet do you track the only thing that matters? WHAT BRINGS BUSINESS IN THE DOOR? It’s only $100 IS $100 thrown down the drain if it doesn’t do a darn thing to make the phone ring. And the $995 ad could be a bargain if you get a listing out of it! But the point is you will never know unless you track it.
It’s not that hard! Just ask everyone who contacts you, how did you find me? Then mark it in your calendar. I track all my advertising and marketing expenses, and each lead that comes in write down where they came from.
My calendar for last month reads like this:
- 5 inquiries from local print Real Estate Journal
- 11 emails from Craigslist postings
- 16 Trulia leads
- 35 referral from friend/relative/past clientDo you see where I need to spend the most money / time / energy?
This won’t be the same for all agents. But you need to track your money and efforts and somehow come up with a way to evaluate if they are working or not. An “expensive” $300/month program isn’t that expensive if it pulls in 3 listings a month, does it? And a “cheap” $100 ad that pulls zero actually is pretty expensive, isn’t it?
