Springtime in the real estate business brings a classic seasonal dilemma: as listings dramatically increase, there is little time for marketing, and memories of the slow times quickly fade away. So with business picking up, why not hold off on marketing until you need more business and have more time available?

 
WHY NOT TO WAIT
 
When swamped with work, it's hard to think about taking time for marketing to generate even more business. But here are three reasons to consider for why marketing during the busy springtime still makes sense.

 
Marketing Rule of 7: The 'Marketing Rule of 7' states that a prospect needs to see or hear your marketing message at least seven times before they take action and buy from you. By pursuing marketing activities even during the busy springtime, it gives you a head start on hitting times one through six.

 
Channel Positioning: Regardless of whether your marketing channels include email (eNewsletters), social media, web, advertising or others, backing off on marketing (or delaying getting started) allows your competitors to move into your vacuum. Keeping your position established in a marketing channel saves your 'place in line' for both consumer top-of-mind consciousness and marketing channel best positioning.

 
Pricing Increase: And for some businesses, the most important reason for continuing marketing activities during the busiest times is that generating more leads allows them to negotiate higher prices or commission rates in the face of the increased demand generated for their services.

 
WAYS TO MANAGE
 
There are only so many hours in the day. Squeezing in time for marketing when running at full capacity requires creative approaches to time management, and here are several to consider.

 
Time Boxing: A classic approach to managing conflicting time demands for high priority initiatives is a time-management technique called 'time boxing.' Time boxing involves assigning a fixed time period that is not sufficient to complete all the necessary tasks, but encourages progress on the most important elements of the initiative. So for example, a time box for marketing could be designating one hour every week to deal with marketing opportunities.

 
Marketing Automation: Utilizing marketing automation tools is a great way of continuing marketing activities even during very busy times. Interactive eNewsletters, automated social media postings, and automated BLOG widgets are all tools that can continue to keep you engaged with your marketing channels without your active involvement. And further, they allow your marketing time to be freed up for higher-value activities that require more direct interpersonal contacts.

 
Eye On The Prize: And lastly, whether your focus is on growing your business (increasing transactions) or growing your organization (adding agents), marketing is going to be a key element of your success. So keeping the priority of this clearly in mind can help motivate you for overcoming the challenges of managing your limited time.