Creating a Multi-Tier Marketing Plan (Tier 1)

Marketing a luxury home can seem like a difficult and daunting task. There are many variables a luxury real estate professional, and the buyer or seller has to consider when trying to decide the best way to target his buyers. With every client and situation being different, there is no exact formula for success in the real estate world. As an agent, your goal is to find what best fits your clientele and each individual situation and market accordingly.

When creating a three-tier marketing plan, there are several steps to ensuring it is successful. With each tier of your multi-level plan comes various marketing options. The key is to find which avenues work best for your business and your client.

The Plan Before the Plan

According to industry professionals at the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, if you are looking to market a home, thinking outside of the box and beyond your budget is the perfect way to start your beginning brainstorming sessions. Don’t limit yourself to a specific budget which could also limit your creativity. Write down everything you would do if you had an unlimited budget. After you have a “wish list” you can narrow down the ideas that should be priority and that make sense for the current circumstance.

First Tier Marketing

After brainstorming and prioritizing, it is now time to plan exactly how you will market and how much it will cost. The pre-plan is your time to go wild with ideas but now you will be more specific and nail down your strategy.

Depending on budget, the levels of marketing have been separated into your more affordable, lower investments options and continues to rise in the second and third tiers. The first tier services are priced at what you consider your full fee. Second tier services are full fee plus one percent and third-tier services are full fee plus two percent. You may want to “package” the three tiers by giving them names. 

In the first tier, the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing created a list to showcase many of the different avenues or directions you could choose when buying or selling a home. Some of these options include:

• Add property listing on www.Realtor.com
• Place a brochure box on property (if appropriate) stuffed with nicely done information sheets
• Create a “property positioning statement” to help identify target prospect groups
• Host a “broker open” event for area agents
• Work with seller to create a room-by-room showing guide
• Offer twice monthly reports on market activity in the relevant area and price point
• Implement additional customized marketing initiatives for the property
• Realtor or Realtor’s representative will attend closing

With many of these services, an additional fee is required. You can typically add an additional percent professional fee, this can be for the selling brokerage firm/agent or to cover marketing costs or the listing brokerage firm and the agent for professional services etc. This is a negotiable part of the payment and can be anywhere from 5-10% percent. 

A creative multi-level plan allows sellers and buyers to pick and choose just how far they want to go to market their homes. It better helps the agent to understand exactly what their buyer or seller needs and how to better assist them.

For more information and assistance in setting up your marketing plan, visit the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing website and resources. For tier two of the multi-tiered marketing plan, visit back on our blog in the next few days for more marketing tips and tricks.