While there’s never a bad time to revisit your marketing strategy, the end of the year is the perfect moment to set your direction with a roadmap for the year ahead.

The main benefit of having one? When things get busy, you’ve already mapped out what you need to do to reach your goals. A marketing strategy becomes a tangible guide that outlines how you’ll communicate through advertising, content creation, and social media campaigns. It gives your team clarity, keeps everyone aligned, and brings structure to your next marketing steps as a real estate business.

Let’s look at some practical steps to build that strategy, from assessing where you’ve been and determining where you want to go, to setting a solid framework for the year ahead.

Review what worked (and what didn’t) this past year

Before you look ahead, take stock of where you’ve been. That foundation gives you clarity and helps you avoid repeating mistakes.

Practical steps:

• Pull together your marketing metrics: leads generated, listings, closed clients, engagement on social media or email, and top referral sources.
• Identify your top-performing activities: What channels brought the best leads? Which posts, campaigns, or mailers got the most responses?
• Note what underperformed and why: Did a social channel feel off? Did a tactic take more time than it returned?
• Gather client and market feedback: Ask past clients what influenced them to work with you; check if your messaging matched how they found you.
• Use these insights to shape your year ahead: keep what’s working, cut what’s not, and build from what already has traction.

Set your goals and define your target audience

Once you’ve learned from the past year, decide where you want to go and who you need to speak to in order to get there.

Practical steps:

• Write down two to three measurable goals for the year (e.g., Generate 40 new seller leads, Close 20 buyer clients, Increase referral business by 25%).
• Revisit or create your ideal client personas: capture their life stage, motivations, pain points, and how you uniquely serve them.
• Align your goals with your audience: if you’re targeting luxury sellers but your marketing speaks mostly to first-time buyers, adjust accordingly.
• Set milestones: break annual goals into quarterly or monthly checkpoints to track progress and stay on course.

Review your brand, marketing toolkit, and content pillars

This is where you gather the assets and themes that will shape your ongoing marketing efforts including your content pillars, the consistent topics you’ll focus on throughout the year.

Practical steps:

• Review your visual branding: logo, colours, fonts, headshot, business cards, and social media covers to make sure that everything is in line with your brand. 
• While you’re at it, check your website too. Need updates or new content to match your strategy? The Blok team can help you update it so that it reflects any new goals.
• Update your marketing toolkit: store any new professional photos (of you, your team, neighbourhoods), client testimonials, and branded templates for social posts or print materials in an easy-to-find place.
• Refine your content pillars to align with your goals. These are your main content “buckets” that keep your message focused and consistent.
  Example content pillars for real estate agents:
  • Home-selling tips
  • Neighbourhood and community highlights
  • Market trends and insights
  • Client success stories and testimonials
  • Homeownership lifestyle and value-add ideas
    These help you stay consistent, audience-aligned, and avoid random, once-off content.
• Set up your systems: CRM for follow-up, email marketing for newsletters, social scheduling tools for consistency, and analytics for tracking results.

Choose your channels, map your tactics, and build your content calendar

With your toolkit and content pillars in place, it’s time to decide where you’ll show up, and how often.

Practical steps:

• List all possible channels (social platforms, email newsletters, print mailers, neighbourhood events, blog/website, paid ads) and ask: where is your audience most active?
• Pick 2–3 main channels to focus on (you can test others later).
• For each channel, align your content with your pillars. For example:
  • Market trends and insights: monthly email update + short video or blog post.
  • Neighbourhood highlights: bi-weekly Instagram carousel + community meet-up.
• Brainstorm tactics that support your goals:
  • “Quarterly neighbourhood mailer with recent sales + market snapshot.”
  • “Weekly Instagram Story behind the scenes at open houses.”
  • “Monthly blog post on home-preparation tips.”
• Create a simple content calendar: assign each week (or day) to a pillar so you always know what to post and when.
• Set your time and budget: how many hours per week will you dedicate to marketing? What’s your spend for paid ads or print?
• Define your lead-nurture process: when someone reaches out, what’s the next step? (e.g., send welcome email → schedule call → add to newsletter list).

Review regularly, refine, and stay consistent

A strategy isn’t “set and forget.” The most effective ones evolve.

Practical steps:

• Schedule monthly or quarterly reviews: track leads, engagement, listings, and referrals to see what’s working.
• Refine as you go: scale back what’s underperforming and double down on what delivers results.
• Keep your visuals and messaging fresh: update photos, check your tone, and make sure your story still resonates.
• Prioritise consistency: showing up regularly builds momentum, credibility, and trust even when business is slow.
• At each quarterly checkpoint, revisit your goals. Are you on track? Do you need to adjust targets, tactics, or timelines?

Need a hand?

If you’d like another set of eyes, or some help shaping your marketing strategy, our team at Blok is here to help. We offer brand strategy support to strengthen your positioning and story, along with a detailed brand audit that dives into your marketing efforts. You’ll see what’s working, where there’s room to grow, and new opportunities to explore.
Reach out to us at support@blok.co to learn more.