5 Must-Dos to Prepare for a Successful New Year in Real Estate

1. Set S.M.A.R.T Real Estate Goals

Goals are part of the roadmap to your success as a real estate agent. They give you purpose and keep you moving in the right direction.

Every agent has the same overarching goals, of course — get clients and sell homes. But every agent needs to set smaller, more specific goals in order to reach those big ones.

Enter S.M.A.R.T goals.

S.M.A.R.T goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. S.M.A.R.T real estate goals are much more strategic than general real estate goals because they are so well-defined. And that makes them easier to achieve.

Set these goals now to help keep you focused on your path to success in the new year. Here are some examples of S.M.A.R.T real estate goals to get you brainstorming:

• Attend three local community events per month 
• Get 20 new newsletter subscribers per week
• Boost website traffic by 20% by the end of 2024
• Grow Instagram following by 15% by June 1
• Have 100% of clients provide Google reviews in 2024
• Consistently publish two Instagram Reels per week by March 1
• Increase lead generation by 10% by April 1 and by an additional 5% each month for the remainder of the year

2. Identify Target Demographics

While most real estate agents would welcome business from any kind of client, focusing on specific buyer or seller segments is really helpful for tailoring your marketing efforts and thereby making them more successful.

Broad, general marketing content is easier to overlook and less likely to convert.

Marketing content that’s been tailored for a specific audience is much more likely to cut through the noise for someone belonging to that audience.

Identifying those target demographics is key for a successful new year in real estate.

Think about the types of buyers and sellers you could create specialized marketing content (blog posts, Instagram Reels, pay-per-click ads, and etcetera) for. Pick the segments you want to focus on this year. 

Next, create client personas for them (here’s how to do it). Doing this helps you understand your targets on a deeper level — what they’re after, what they need and what resonates with them — which helps make your marketing content even stronger.

3. Pick Your Essential Platforms and Tools

There are so many tools, apps, software and platforms competing for attention these days, each one claiming to be essential. 

The right suite of tools can help you run your business better. But less is usually more. 

Employing too many tools and platforms can lead to dysfunction and inefficiency rather than improved function and increased efficiency. 

Busy real estate agents need to hone in on what’s essential for their unique business and specific goals. With the right selection of tools, you’re setting yourself up for real estate success in the new year.

If you’re maintaining a real estate agent website, creating content for social media, running online ads, creating print marketing, and sending marketing emails, your essential platforms and tools list might look like this:

• A real estate website builder. Like myRealPage, which offers professionally designed, customizable real estate agent websites equipped with MLS® Listing Search and all the bells and whistles needed to generate and convert leads.
  
• An Instagram business account. For access to specific tools, features and insights that help you grow your following and get leads.
• CapCut. For creating and editing Instagram Reels and other videos.
• Canva. For designing anything from real estate postcards to invitations to social media icons. (Or go even further with myRealPage’s brandApp, included free with every myRealPage real estate website. It offers professionally designed social media templates that can pull content directly from your listings.)
• Mailchimp. For creating, deploying and analyzing newsletters and other email marketing.
• A digital accounting tool. For tracking your income, expenses and receipts.
  
• Google Drive and Google Docs. For creating, sharing, editing, organizing and collaborating on spreadsheets, forms, slideshows, documents and more.

4. Build a Content Calendar

Coming up with ideas for blog posts, newsletters and social media posts takes a lot of energy. Then you’ve got to create them.

It’s easy to get off track and fail to create the quantity and quality of content marketing material that you hoped to (and that your business would benefit from). Not how you want to start off a new year in real estate!

The key is to build and maintain a real estate content calendar to plan and organize your content. 

You can have a real estate social media content calendar, a real estate blog content calendar or one central calendar that covers all your content marketing plans, including newsletters.

Content calendars help you to:

• Brainstorm content in batches 
• Strategize better content
• Work ahead 
• Develop series, branding and a consistent voice, tone and style
• Schedule posts so you can “set it and forget it”

5. Create Habits to Stay Motivated and Productive

For a successful new year in real estate, you want to start off on the right foot with new practices and habits that ensure you’ll not just survive the year, but thrive.

Consider these tips and tricks to help you improve productivity and time management and protect your wellbeing:

• 15 Productivity Tips For REALTORS® To Save Time And Work Less
• 5 Powerful Morning Routine Tips For REALTORS® To Increase Productivity And Sales
• How Real Estate Agents Can Use AI To Boost Productivity And Efficiency
• How To Deal With Realtor Burnout