Without a marketing plan, many real estate agents find themselves stuck on the “hamster wheel”—constantly chasing deals without a clear sense of direction.
As Luke Acree from ReminderMedia explained, “A marketing budget, a marketing plan will help solve this problem for you…It will guide you to where the next opportunity really is.”
A solid plan allows you to:
- Stay financially on track.
- Allocate resources to effective strategies.
- Measure and track your performance over time.
- Set benchmarks for realistic, achievable goals.
ReminderMedia’s Josh Stike and BAM’s The Broke Agent joined Acree for a recent BAM webinar, breaking down everything agents need to create a marketing plan for 2025.
This webinar covered so much, it would be impossible to do the whole thing justice with one blog. So, while we’re sharing some highlights here, we encourage you, if you weren’t able to attend, to watch the full replay on BAMx.
Not a BAMx member yet? We’re giving you early access to our Black Friday deal! Use the code BLACKFRIDAY to get 40% off your first month or year of membership.
Now, let’s get into seven steps to help you create a solid marketing plan for 2025.
Step 1: Start with Your Why
The foundation of any marketing plan is understanding why you’re doing it. What are your business goals for 2025? Are you aiming to grow your market share, increase revenue, or build a stronger personal brand?
Knowing your “why” is critical—because if you don’t know why you are doing something, your motivation will quickly run out.
“You have your purpose, which is the most important. Your ‘why’ gets you up every day. Then you have your goal, which is the income you want to make and how many deals you’ve got to get to be there.”
Step 2: Set Realistic and Achievable Goals
It’s tempting to go big with your goals, but setting unrealistic targets can backfire. Instead, aim for goals that stretch you without becoming unattainable. For example:
- If you closed 20 transactions in 2024, aim for 25 in 2025—not 100.
- Use the SMART Goals framework: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
When you set a realistic goal that stretches you, you build confidence in your business because you do what you say you’re going to do.
Step 3: Budget Your Marketing Spend
“Here’s the truth with marketing: you got to spend money to make money. And so when it comes to a marketing budget…53% of agents out right now spend less than $5,000 on their marketing…But this stat is pretty crazy: 52% of agents with a GCI over $300K spent more than $20,000 on their marketing for the year, and the top 20% of those spent more than $80,000 on their marketing for the year.”
This doesn’t mean you should just throw $80,000 at your marketing without a second thought. Your marketing budget should be a percentage of your gross commission income (GCI). Here’s a general guideline:
- Maintenance mode: 5–10% of GCI
- Hyper-growth mode: 15–30% of GCI
For example, if your goal is $250,000 GCI in 2025 and you’re in growth mode, plan to allocate $37,500–$75,000 toward marketing. This includes spending on:
- Sphere of influence (SOI) marketing
- Paid advertising on platforms like Facebook and Instagram
- Geographic farming
To help create your marketing budget, use this revenue calculator from ReminderMedia.
Step 4: Reverse Engineer Your Goals
Next, you need to break down your goals into actionable steps. Start by calculating the number of transactions needed to hit your income target, then determine how many leads and activities are required to achieve those transactions.
For instance:
- If your average commission is $12,000, and you want to take home $100,000 after expenses, you’ll need to close about 21 transactions in 2025.
- Divide these transactions among different lead sources, based on how many deals you did in each this year: SOI, paid ads, and farming.
Step 5: Focus on Three Core Marketing Pillars
Instead of trying to do everything, concentrate on three key marketing strategies that align with your business goals:
- Sphere of Influence (SOI): Stay top of mind with clients, prospects and referrals through consistent communication, like quarterly calls, client events, and mailers.
- Geographic Farming: Target specific neighborhoods with mailers and outreach to establish yourself as the local expert.
- Paid Advertising: Use Facebook and Instagram ads to generate new leads. Acree recently shared a Facebook ad that is currently outperforming all others—steal it now.
Step 6: Allocate Your Time Effectively
One of the most common mistakes agents make is underestimating the time required to execute their marketing plan. Block time in your calendar for:
- Prospecting calls
- Creating social media content
- Following up with leads
Remember, your time is your biggest component. As Stike pointed out, to generate Facebook deals, for example, you have to make 12 calls per lead.
Step 7: Track Your Progress and Adjust
A successful marketing plan isn’t set in stone. Track your results throughout the year and adjust your strategies based on what’s working. Use tools like CRMs or analytics dashboards to monitor:
- Lead conversion rates
- Return on ad spend (ROAS)
- Engagement on social media posts
As Luke emphasized, “You cannot measure what you don’t track, and you can’t improve what you don’t measure.”
Remember, the key to success is aligning your daily activities with your long-term goals, staying consistent, and regularly evaluating your progress.
That way, you can double down on what’s working, and get rid of what’s not working for you.
