"I'm going home to do my marketing."

Have you ever heard an agent say this while walking out the office doors?

It's easy to get caught up in the passive marketing side of the real estate business. What is passive marketing? Passive marketing includes any activity or advertising not directly connected to actually making personal contact with your clients. This can be a dangerous and expensive path for many agents and this is especially true when we are talking about your sphere of influence.

Things like bulk mailings, e-mails, advertising campaigns, and thank you cards are a perfect example of passive marketing, and many times these are used as the sole source of contact with an agent's sphere of influence. While all of these marketing pieces are an important and essential part of any successful agents marketing mix, they can never replace the most important ingredient – YOU!

You are the most powerful marketing tool you own! Your clients don't send referrals to postcards, or e-mails, they send their friends and neighbors to you! Why? Because they think you have something special to offer - and you do! You are a terrific agent, you work hard, and you do a fantastic job!

Even though contacting each of your sphere of influence members will take time and no small amount of effort there will be nothing more powerful than you actually reconnecting with your past clients, friends, and neighbors. All of the mailings and passive contact in the world won't be as powerful or memorable as a two minute conversation with one of your sphere members.

There is another side benefit to active contact with your sphere of influence, one that I really like. It's free! Talking to people on the phone or in person costs you absolutely nothing! We spend to much money in real estate as it is, I always love to find something that is free!

Remember this key to becoming a marketing expert:

• Active Marketing is the most effective least expensive type of marketing.

• Passive Marketing is the most expensive least effective type of marketing.

Published: August 4, 2004

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Jim Remley is a speaker, author, and consultant. He is also an active real estate broker in Southern Oregon where he owns a network of six offices. Jim won the Rookie Instructor of the Year award in 2001 from Realty-U, the largest network of real estate educators in the nation. He was the winner of the 2002 Pacesetter Award, and nominated for the Real Estate Instructor of the Year Award during the first quarter of 2003. To learn more about Jim, please visit ProPerformer.com or e-mail him at .