Larson Educational Services is the premier education provider in SW Florida. We are a Real Estate, CAM and Mortgage Loan Originator School. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples and Online.
To learn more about LarsonEd's Florida real estate and Florida insurance courses, visit LarsonEd.com or give us a call at 239-344-7510.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 40 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online. We are an approved Florida Real Estate School (License #ZH1002299), Florida CAM School (License #PRE31), Florida Insurance School (License # 370501) and NMLS Approved Course Provider.
No matter how far along you are in your career—whether you’re a real estate newbie or a seasoned veteran—you won’t succeed without a well thought out plan.
And when we talk about a marketing plan, we’re not talking about your ideas to write a blog whenever inspiration hits, or to create videos when you have time (if your plans are only in your head, they are little more than pipe dreams).
We're talking about a detailed plan to jumpstart your business through specific actions.
A marketing plan is:
a document that details you or your company’s marketing goals for a specific timeline, including a detailed step-by-step framework for achieving those goals.
Think of it as the blueprint you’ll use to guide the construction of your real estate career—your process for promoting your services.
Some quick tips for getting started:
Allot a significant amount of time preparing the plan
All goals within the plan should be reachable (with specific steps for reaching them)
Keep it easily accessible for reference
Share with the necessary people who can help enact the plan
Refer to it regularly (say every quarter)
Be willing to adjust it
How to Create Your Marketing Plan
Without clearly defined goals, your time and money with both be spent inefficiently.
Whether you're an agent, home inspector, mortgage loan originator, appraiser, or notary public, just joining a team or setting up your office is not enough to attract customers.
You need to find them through marketing.
Although the details of marketing plans may vary, there are still some universal elements that every plan needs.
1. Clearly define your goals
Every subsequent step is based on this one, so it must be right. Maybe you have one specific goal or several—whether it's driving more traffic to your website, increasing your number of clients, or reaching a higher revenue point—you won’t accomplish any of it without writing it down first.
2. Find your niche
What separates you from your competitors?
The answer to this question will help guide you to discovering your niche in the market.
Once you discover your niche, that knowledge will drive the tone of your marketing plan.
3. Find your target market
You cannot reach everybody.
Trying to reach every person is the same as attempting to reach nobody. Because time and money and effort are finite resources, you must necessarily exclude some potential customers in your marketing plan in order to more directly reach your target clients. (This comment is called "Hiding in Infinity." Read more about it here.)
4. What’s your message?
Here’s where you get to have a little more fun.
What do you want to say to your audience and how do you want to say it?
Are your marketing materials going to be playful, professional—maybe a little bit of both?
Without a game plan going into it, your tone will be inconsistent.
Take a mountaintop view of your marketing plan and imagine how your brand will appear across various mediums and social media platforms.
5. What's your budget?
How much are you going to spend on your marketing plan every month, quarter, or year?
It’s possible that the amount you spend could be zero—it’s possible (at least as far as money is concerned). However...
Remember that your budget includes time, as well.
Defining a budget helps you cap expenditures before you get ahead of yourself trying to reach goals that may not be within reach yet given your revenue.
You may hate crunching the numbers, but it's a necessary step, otherwise you may find yourself with a plan that has no financial backing.
What about traditional marketing like magazine and newspaper ads, direct mail, and perhaps even billboards?
You don’t necessarily need to be everywhere, but you do need to think of the best channels through which to reach your audience.
Where do your potential clients?
Where do they spend their time?
You need to be right there with them.
7. Cultivate a content expertise
Try adding a blog to your website to share and post original content. Contribute to other real estate websites. Stay consistent and, over time, if you are adding value to people's lives, you will be seen as a market expert.
People will begin to trust you.
Google will begin to trust you.
Your website and related content will rise in Google’s search results.
More clients will come to you.
8. Delegate
Your team (if you have one) needs to know about your marketing plan in order for it to come to fruition.
Get their buy-in from the beginning and set the plan into motion.
To sign up for classes with Larson Educational Services, visit our website, LarsonEd.com, or give us a call at 239-344-7510.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 40 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online. We are an approved Florida Real Estate School (License #ZH1002299), Florida CAM School (License #PRE31), Florida Insurance School (License # 370501) and NMLS Approved Course Provider.
Found these dusty old bad boys in the archives today. You could probably trade both of these for a Babe Ruth rookie card. #TBT#ThrowbackThursday
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 40 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online. We are an approved Florida Real Estate School (License #ZH1002299), Florida CAM School (License #PRE31), Florida Insurance School (License # 370501) and NMLS Approved Course Provider.
Happy 47th anniversary to Mom and Dad (Rick and Rose).
Congratulations!
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 40 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online. We are an approved Florida Real Estate School (License #ZH1002299), Florida CAM School (License #PRE31), Florida Insurance School (License # 370501) and NMLS Approved Course Provider.
To learn more about LarsonEd's Florida real estate and Florida insurance courses, visit LarsonEd.com or give us a call at 239-344-7510.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 40 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online. We are an approved Florida Real Estate School (License #ZH1002299), Florida CAM School (License #PRE31), Florida Insurance School (License # 370501) and NMLS Approved Course Provider.
Understanding the needs of your clients is the first step to better serving them.
The next step is understanding their fears.
Why did your client choose now to obtain life insurance?
What obstacles stand in the way of them making the decision to get coverage?
What are their desired outcomes from their plan?
The answers to these questions could put you on the road to providing the best service possible for your clients.
Income Replacement
In general, when a client is obtaining a new life insurance policy or trying to change their current coverage, you'll use their current income as the starting point to decide the right amount of coverage for them.
However, there is often a serious disconnect between reality and perception when it comes to client benefits.
For example, according to LIMRA’s 2016 Insurance Barometer Study about 60 percent of life insurance clients see their policy as a potential replacement for lost income when they pass away (see page 20 of the study).
These consumers are often under the impression that their benefits will be paid out in a lump sum upon death.
Thus, they may see a lump sum payment as a deterrent, especially if they have a family that will need payments in regular intervals.
Let these consumers know that most policies can be arranged to pay out at regular intervals, thus quelling your clients' fears about lost income.
Given the prevalence of the assumption that policies only pay in lump sums, you can attract and keep more clients if you offer options that pay at regular intervals after they’ve passed.
Flexibility Over Time
Another deterrent for consumers acquiring a policy is the fear that they will be locked in to the same policy for years, even if their needs change.
Flexibility will win.
A younger family getting coverage might be better served by being over-covered rather than being under-covered, given the possibility that their net worth and income might increase before they reach retirement age. (Plus, they might prefer this option as opposed to coming into your office every 5 years to change their coverage.)
Over-coverage is not a problem as long as you are flexible with your clients and communicate openly.
According to that same LIMRA study, about 30 percent of consumers are interested in changing their policies over time.
By being open about your flexibility, and by offering products that have many possibilities, you are more likely to retain clients.
Remember: you're trying to provide for these people for the long term—you want clients for life. The more willing you are to meet them in the middle and be open and honest with them, the better served they will be and the more business you’ll attract.
To sign up for LarsonEd insurance courses, visit our website, LarsonEd.com, or give us a call at 239-344-7510.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 40 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online. We are an approved Florida Real Estate School (License #ZH1002299), Florida CAM School (License #PRE31), Florida Insurance School (License # 370501) and NMLS Approved Course Provider.
To learn more about LarsonEd's Florida real estate and Florida insurance courses, visit LarsonEd.com or give us a call at 239-344-7510.
About Larson Educational Services:
Utilizing 40 years of real estate training and professional education experience, Florida real estate school Larson Educational Services is the premier provider of Florida real estate licensing, exam preparation, post-licensing, CAM licensing, mortgage loan originator licensing, and continuing education in Southwest Florida. Classes are available in Fort Myers, Naples, Sarasota, and online. We are an approved Florida Real Estate School (License #ZH1002299), Florida CAM School (License #PRE31), Florida Insurance School (License # 370501) and NMLS Approved Course Provider.
