Edward De Valle is the global CEO of 3A Worldwide, a global public relations firm.

Every week, we ask a real estate professional for their Short List, a collection of tips and recommendations on an essential topic in real estate. This week, we talked with Edward De Valle II, the global chief executive officer of 3A Worldwide, shared five ways to create and effective marketing campaign. 

It is always an interesting read, having a hard look at the data being published about the Houston real estate market and who is buying.

For many real estate professionals who are farming for new leads or are actually trying to a create a business, the data published month after month can be confusing and even derail them from growing their business. That’s why relying on your own data and marketing plays a significant role for brokers, Realtors and developers.

To market effectively, you need to understand who your demographic is and where they are located. Your demographic is not always what is being published, and may be located in markets where your business has a significant handicap. For this reason, you need an effective marketing campaign.

Below you will find five ways to create an effective marking campaign; one that works for your business:

1. Determine what type of business you run. Are you a one man/one woman show, family owned and operated, socialite driven, a brick and mortar brokerage, or any other variation? The need to understand your operation’s reality is crucial, and only then should you draw a business map, detailing where you intend your business to go. From your map, you should determine what markets you would like reach. Avoid tackling six markets if you’re only one person and have little reach; it’ll lead to poor followup with prospects. And remember, email marketing is not an effective way to follow up!

2. Now that you have your business map, you should have a pretty good direction of what you want to do. You do it and do not divert from it – at least not for ninety days. The planning for your business and marketing efforts should be done in blocks of ninety days. Business changes quickly, and quarterly assessments of how your sales and marketing are performing is a necessity to grow or correct any issues in forthcoming quarters.

3. Marketing efforts should be focused on the key targets you have mapped out. Forget macro, most businesses – even big businesses – do not thrive using macro marketing tactics. We live in a content driven advertising environment, and that makes engagement key. Engagement can only happen when you’re messaging is targeted to a specific group of recipients. Make your messages target focused, and only send the recipient what you want them to know. Your messaging should always have a call to action, which is either present in the messaging or is placed as a call out to the advert. No call to action, no response!

4. For Realtors, brokers, and developers, I recommend constantly looking at who is purchasing your listings and move towards that beat. If you have a project that has sold 40 percent to Argentinians, then it is only logical to attend forums or events that allow your business to connect further with that market.

5. Budgets! Be smart and understand that your business sales are not all about you and or you brand. Even brands like Kodak have gone bankrupt, so my key recommendation is to get the YOU out of the picture and establish a new partner called MARKETING. A marketing budget for an established company can be anywhere between 4 and 6 percent of annual gross sales. Smaller businesses can work with 4 to 5 percent of their net earnings, and for start ups the needs depend on your immediate P&L revenue goals.

Edward De Valle II has been directing public relations companies for more than a decade, and has received a myriad of accolades for his efforts and accomplishments. Recently Edward was published in Forbes Latin America as the go to luxury marketing visionary, and has received numerous awards including Top Hispanic Award from Hispanic Target Magazine, Business Leader’s award for Top 300 Business in the Southern United States and Top 50 Entrepreneur.