geographic farming

Will the REAL Neighborhood Expert Please Stand Up?

Dec 23, 2021

It takes more than a statement on your website or business card to truly be considered a neighborhood expert.

There are many agents using this title as a marketing tool, while not doing the necessary work to make the title a reality.

Let’s consider some ways to prove to potential clients that you are what you say you are.

1. Prove it in your marketing materials

True neighborhood experts, by and large, market to farm areas.

Whether that is a condo community, a specific zip code, or by subdivision, focusing on a smaller pool of homeowners is a brilliant way to become known as the expert in a community.

The best way to reach these homeowners or tenants or whomever you are targeting is via direct mail. It’s quick, it’s inexpensive and it works.

Shown above, FARM, Get More Listings postcard campaign. Learn more, **HERE**

Geographic Farm marketing

Here’s an idea of what to send to your chosen neighborhood: the Get More Listings postcard campaign.

Be sure to include on the back of the postcards an offer for a free “local market stats” report, that details home listings and sales in that area.

It shows them that you know your stuff and are on top of what’s happening in their area.

And, when homeowners reach out for this report, ensure that your explanation is in plain English. Unless you explain the meaning, avoid insider jargon, such as:

“absorption rate”
“months’ supply of real estate inventory” (what does months’ supply and “inventory” mean?),
“the median price range” (explain median vs. average)
“time on market” or “days on market” (why is this important to the average homeowner thinking of selling?)

We found lots of other examples online of what to AVOID in your Market Stats or CMA reports, such as:

“During this quarter, sales dollar volume increased year over year by 3% to $599,080,374. New listings rose 22% to 2,820, active listings increased 21% to 5,840 and pending sales increased 11% to 2,452. Monthly housing inventory increased by 0.4 months to 2.3 months.”

“Sales dollar volume” is meaningless to a homeowner. We would reword the paragraph to read more like a narrative than a dry list of statistics:

During this quarter, 22 percent more homeowners put their homes on the market here in Any town than in October. As quickly as they’re listed, however, buyers snap them up. One indication of that is the increase in pending sales, which were up 11 percent more than pending sales during the previous quarter of 2021.”

Since potential home sellers are your primary audience when farming, leave out the increase in inventory unless it’s significant (0.4 months isn’t). And, if you must express inventory in “months,” do the readers a solid and explain what that means.

Additional effective farming pieces include:

Just listed and just sold postcards (even if you haven’t sold or listed the property, if the agent in question has chosen not to announce this news, use their loss as your gain and send these postcards out).
A Just Sold Follow Up Campaign
The Market Dominator, an automated mega-newsletter that’s sent to an exclusive carrier route monthly through the use of EDDM.

2. Prove your neighborhood expertise on your website

Your website provides the ideal platform to strut your neighborhood expertise. Start by ensuring it’s localized.

So many agents pay the big bucks for a professional website and fail to remove or change the template text that comes with it.

Add your market area everywhere possible, starting with the above-the-fold area on your home page. Don’t make visitors wonder where on earth you sell real estate.

Create a neighborhoods section on your site and fill it with valuable, hyper-local content. In-depth neighborhood descriptions, quotes from folks who live in the neighborhood about why they love it, links to listings, and lots of photos are the bare necessities for neighborhood pages.

Finally, if you don’t have a blog, start one. It’s the ideal place to post local content and, if promoted across your social media platforms, it will help drive traffic back to your site.

3. Prove it in person

Get your face known around your chosen neighborhood(s). There are many ways to accomplish creating visibility. Here are a few:

Hold home seller seminars in the area.
Join the PTA.
Sponsor a community sports team and, in exchange, ask that your banner be displayed at games. And, do attend the games.
Join the neighborhood YMCA or gym.
Attend the HOA meetings.
Host a monthly coffee-and-pastry or happy hour event at the neighborhood café or watering hole.
Patronize neighborhood merchants and introduce yourself. Become a repeat customer.

Your aim is for people to think that they see you everywhere they go. Talk to folks, hand out your business card.

If you are truly the neighborhood expert, you need to prove it. It’s a brilliant way to stand out among the pretenders.

Ready to prove You’re the REAL DEAL When it Comes to Neighborhood Expertise?

Get Started by Creating Your Geographic Farm Prospects List While They’re on Sale 15% 0ff!

Why Build Your Geographic Farm List Now?

Because You Want The Following Things to Happen in 2022?

Strategic focus – Centralized sales in one area. No more driving across town for a listing.
To become a neighborhood expert – You’re committed to a specific neighborhood where you will become known as the expert.
Increased growth – You’re building toward the future instead of “just getting by” working on whatever comes your way.
A branded business – You’re branding yourself and your business within a community and building relationships over time with the people who live there.
Increased demand for your service – Sellers and buyers want to work with real estate agents who are experts in the community where they are buying and selling, and that’s YOU.

Build a geographic farm list (from a desktop or laptop computer) using the MapMyMail tool.

Hit the “CLICK HERE” link, below (from a desktop or laptop computer) and choose the MapMyMail listing building tool.

USE PROMO CODE: FARM15 to get 15% off of your geographic farm list.

Get started building your geographic farm list now, CLICK HERE!

For Help Creating Your Geographic Farm List, Watch This Video Below.

This sale expires on 12/25/21. Please reach out to our support team at 866.405.3638 with questions or if there is anything we can do to help you with your success.

PLUS: When you have time…below are some helpful tools to support your success.

1. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here

2. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for this year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals. – Click Here

3. The Automated Way to Become a Neighborhood Brand

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

4. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

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The Real Estate Mailing List Guide outlines the top tools for generating targeted prospecting lists including Baby Boomers, Empty Nesters, Investors, Lifestyle Interests, High-Income Renters, Move-Up Markets, and more. The Guide also defines done-for-you marketing campaigns to match these markets. –Click Here

5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

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Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

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Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! –Click Here

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

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The “Crush It” Guide includes easy steps to launching an effective direct mail marketing campaign, how to create a targeted prospect list, the perfect way to layout marketing materials for success, seven opportunities available to target in your area right now. –Click Here

While you’re online scheduling your Holiday postcards to go out, consider launching an annual Holiday scheduled campaign.

Make 2022 the Year you Narrow Your Focus

Dec 14, 2021

Sure, you can continue to throw stuff against the wall to see what sticks. It’s a common practice among real estate agents.

If you want to make more money, however, consider narrowing your focus to owning a specific real estate market or niche.

A real estate niche can be plucked from a number of categories. Take home type for example. According to a study by the folks at McKissock, a real estate education and professional development firm, agents who specialize in luxury homes are among the highest earners in the industry.

Aside from property type, there’s the location niche, type-of-client niche (first-time buyers, veterans, etc.), and others.

There are a lot of specialties from which to choose. Let’s take a look at the potential of older Americans, aka “empty nesters & baby boomers.”

Especially if you list and sell real estate in an area popular for retirees (Georgia, the Carolinas, and Florida, for instance), read on.

Empty Nest Campaign shown above. See more under FARM Campaigns, HERE

Why empty nesters & baby boomers?

Age 58 to 76 in 2022, older Americans spent much of the past two years reevaluating their priorities.

“We’re now seeing the ‘Great Retirement,’ a tsunami of Baby Boomers leaving the workforce,” according to Jack Kelly, the senior contributor at Forbes.com.

In fact, “3.2 million more of them retired in the third quarter of 2020 than did in the same quarter of 2019,” said Kathy Gurchiek with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

Most who want to sell, want to remain in close proximity to their adult children, but not necessarily in the same, large home in which they raised them.

Another reason to consider older Americans is they currently hold the most real estate wealth, owning 44% of homes in the U.S.

But, are they ready to sell?

Not all of them. Some became so freaked out over the inventory shortage that they decided to keep the home, renovate it, and age in place.

But, overall, those “… aged 65 to 73 … sold their homes at a higher rate than any other age group in 2020,” according to Natalie Campisi, a member of the Forbes Advisory staff.

And your association agrees. The 2021 National Association of REALTORS® “Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report” finds that baby boomers and empty-nesters make up the largest share of home sellers and second-largest share of buyers.

Millennials once again took the top spot in the buyers’ category.

Another area to give your attention is geographic farming

If you haven’t chosen a geographic farm to concentrate on yet, here are a few reasons to get started now,

Provides strategic marketing – You’re centralizing your sales into one area. No more driving across town for a listing.
Creates focus – You’re committing to becoming the neighborhood expert in a specific area.
Contributes to future growth – You’re building toward the future instead of “just getting by” working on whatever comes your way.
Brands you within a community – You’re branding yourself within a community and building relationships over time with the people who live there.
Increases demand for your service – Sellers and buyers want to work with real estate agents who are experts in the community where they are buying and selling.

And, right now, Farm Campaigns are on sale 10% off the first month!

Shown above: Get More Listings postcard campaign, available in the FARM Campaign section. Learn More, **HERE**.

To Launch a Farm Campaign Hit the “CLICK HERE” link, below (from a desktop or laptop computer).

USE PROMO CODE: FARM10 to get 10% off the first month of a FARM Campaign.

Start now, CLICK HERE!

Details: Take 10% off the first month of a FARM Campaign for a limited time (excluding tax, postage, data, EDDM. Sale ends at midnight Saturday, 12/18/21).

Please reach out to our support team at 866.405.3638 with questions or if there is anything we can do to help you with your success.

PLUS: When you have time…below are some helpful tools to support your success.

1. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

2. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

3. The Automated Way to Become a Neighborhood Brand

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

4. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

While you’re online scheduling your Holiday postcards to go out, consider launching an annual Holiday scheduled campaign.

Real Estate Circle Prospecting: It’s Geographic Farming on Steroids

Aug 17, 2020

Goals. We all have them, some of us have more than others. Reaching them is the true challenge in any business.

ChicagoAgentMagazine.com recently published the results of a survey of agents asking about their lead generation goals through the end of 2020.

One of the questions asked was how much money they plan to spend on marketing this year. Nearly half of the agent respondents said they will spend between $0 and $150 a month. Sadly, of these agents, 23% will spend between $0 and $75 a month.

Naturally, the cheapest lead generation and marketing methods were the most popular. For instance, 65% of respondents plan on “making better use of social media.”

Then, 62% will be organizing their CRM to become more efficient in their marketing. Third on the list was “spending more time with family and friends.”

Hey, if you spend only $75 a month marketing your business, you’ll have loads of time to spend with family and friends.

Increase that amount just a smidge, however, and you may just need to pencil-in that “time with family and friends.” And, that’s a good thing, at least for your bank account.

Americans, by and large, are staying home a lot more.

Some states are “pulling back on re-openings,” according to Paul Davidson at USAToday.com.

There is a bright spot for real estate agents. Millions of people are spending lots of time at home, and direct mail has become one of the best means of communicating with them.

Choose a neighborhood

Yup, it’s time to start focusing on farming, if you haven’t already. Well, farming with a twist, circle prospecting to be precise.

Circle prospecting is an amazing way to get your name and branding in front of consumers without violating safety protocols.

With this type of prospecting you aren’t obviously fishing for leads, but spreading some news – homes in the neighborhood (or nearby) that have been listed for sale, are under contract, have sold or are being held open.

You’re offering something of value.

The first step in the process is to choose the area in which you’ll prospect. If you currently have a listing, or someone in your brokerage does (let’s hope so!), choose that neighborhood and, perhaps, those adjacent to it. Then, create a targeted mailing list.

There’s more than one way to circle prospect

Some agents are actually comfortable and successful with door-knocking around listings.

More agents, however, are more comfortable with direct mail. And, with social distancing mandates in place, this method of circle prospecting is the most responsible.

The bonus is that, right now, direct mail is the method most likely to meet with success, and for a number of reasons:

1. Many agents have cut their marketing budgets, while some have stopped spending on marketing. With the pool of competition all but drained in this regard, your chances of success increase exponentially.

2. Those agents who are still marketing are gravitating to free marketing, such as promoting themselves to their friends, family and followers on social media. Others are going heavy on email marketing. Again, this lessens the mail arriving at consumers’ homes, heightening the chance that your mailed pieces will get the eyes on them.

3. “Checking the mail” is something most of us can do without exposing ourselves to the virus. It also gives us something to do while we’re stuck at home. For instance, how many catalogs have you leafed through that you would’ve otherwise thrown away?

4. Then, there are the facts about the effectiveness of direct mail:

92% of consumers say they prefer direct mail over digital when making shopping decisions
70% of them prefer USPS-delivered mail, according to William Boynton at Postalytics.com, citing a report from the National Association of Advertisers (ANA).
Nearly 15% of millennials surveyed feel that print messages are more trustworthy than those that are digitally delivered, according to a report from the USPS.

What’s next?

Now that you have your list and your strategy (prospecting around listings, solds or open houses), it’s time to round up the resources you’ll need to kick off and maintain your circle prospecting campaigns.

Naturally, we recommend checking out the brilliant array of targeted postcards offered here. From Get More Listings postcards to the Mega-sized, Market Dominator (with 100% impression rate) you’ll find what you need to get your campaign going and keep it going.

Send the More Inventory postcard from the Get More Listings Series to an area where you want more listings.

Need help targeting a specific niche of buyers or sellers? Use our Demographic Search Tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy). Or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

PLUS: When you have time…here are some helpful resources we’ve made available to support your success.

1. Become a Neighborhood Brand

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

2. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

3. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 2020-Planner-3D-999x1024.jpg

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Get More Listings, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence. –Click Here

4. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

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Treat your business like a business it is vital to long-term success in this industry. Some agents may put together elaborate business plans, yet there’s something powerful about keeping it simple. Check out our one page Online Real Estate Business Plan. – Click Here

5. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

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