Got Plan?

(Much as I was tempted by the delectable Olsen twins’ Got Milk ad, this one was more fun)

Not as silly a question as you may think. Be honest. Many marketers (and this is not limited to the real estate field) enter the market without a clear plan or goal. Other than to sell something. At certain times, and with certain products, this tactic may in fact work perfectly well. But at other times, will fall by the wayside. Particularly when the market shifts downwards.

It can be as complex as or a simple as –

Who answers your phone?

Do you answer the phone yourself, or have you gone to the trouble of investing in a highly-complicated, incredibly-annoying machine to do it for you? That may have worked in the era when it was extremely exiting and fun to have the phone answered by a machine. But – as far as I am concerned, that era lasted roughly three telephone calls. It got old real fast. It still is old, and I personally am extremely unlikely to wish to have anything to do with a company that tells me “My call is important to them,” by delegating the duty of answering it to a tape recorder and a menu of buttons to push.

Some companies get it right, some wrong, but without a plan and a goal, how do you know if you got it right or wrong?

A few suggestions as to where to look for help formulating a plan in the first place.  

Business week has some interesting views on marketing luxury homes to the buyer who wishes to remain anonymous.

The Institute of Luxury Home Marketing has a sample of their muti-tier marketing plan available to members.

Seth Godin enjoys telling you how not to do it (at least for free.)

Joel Burslem over at the Inman blog takes a long hard look at real estate marketing both there and his own blog. He also likes Cadbury Creme Eggs, which automatically endears him to me.