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Here’s a pretty striking statistic:
Approximately 75% of real estate agents fail and leave the industry in their first year.
Why? There are a few major contributing factors:
- Inadequate and inconsistent marketing
- Limited knowledge of lead generation
- Neglecting lead follow-up
So, how can you be a part of the successful 25%?
There’s one thing that all successful real estate agents do to elevate their business for long-lasting results:
They “farm” for business leads in a specific area or market demographic.
Farming at a Higher Level
“Prospecting is hard but fundamental to building a solid foundation for your career,” Jennifer Short, Senior Sales Manager at Century 21 Scheetz, said in an article on Inman.com. “That’s what it is, a career. Get up, have a set schedule, stay consistent, and don’t give up.”
Geographic farming (or real estate farming) is a real estate marketing strategy that involves directly promoting yourself to a specific area. It’s an excellent strategy, because it helps you connect with a community and grow your business. A geo-farm might be an entire town, zip code or neighborhood.
Target Farming, though, is a far more advanced method that takes geographic farming to a higher level.
This method is unique to RSP USA, and it might be one of the best-kept secrets in real estate.
What is Target Farming?
Target Farming is an elevated geographic farming method for real estate that focuses on targeting highly qualified prospects at the zip code, neighborhood and street level. This method uses crucial targeting factors to determine the areas with the best potential return on investment (ROI).
We’re talking about hyper-local targeting.
The kind of targeting that builds data-driven mailing lists—based on individual streets, subsivisions and condos, rather than a simple radius—and utilizes MLS and tax roll records get your name and face in front of homeowners where they live.
Crucial Targeting Factors
- Historical Turnover Rate
- 5-Year Transaction History
- Market Share of Local Competitive Agents
What does all this mean? Target Farming allows you to pinpoint the homeowners who are most likely ready to sell.
And the mailings sent to the lists are designed with you in mind, portraying you as the local real estate expert.
It can be extremely challenging to become the leading agent in a neighborhood, especially if another agent has gained popularity there. That’s why, with Target Farming, the areas you choose are exclusively yours. Your farm will never be available to another agent in RSP USA’s program while you're mailing our reports.
Offer Consistent Value to Your Prospects
Just as important as where and whom you target is what you offer. It’s not enough to simply target the right homeowners; you need to make sure the message you’re sending them is effective.
Farming can incorporate one or several components of direct mail, postcards, email, door-knocking, and more. The objective is staying top-of-mind with prospects and generating quality leads on a consistent basis.
When comparing them, Target Farming Reports are proven more successful in achieving this objective than any generic geographic farming mailer.
The Reports provide local market information most valuable to the recipients.
Valuable Info Featured on Target Farming Reports
- Recent Local Sales (incl. list price, sale price, property specs, time on market, etc.)
- Featured Local Listings
- Home Value Estimator Map QR Code
- Personal Letter to The Homeowner
When you sign up for a Target Farming Report Campaign, RSP USA’s dedicated team makes sure your Reports are prepared and printed at the highest quality and mailed on your behalf on time every 60 days.
The consistency of the process alone keeps your brand in homeowners’ minds, building brand awareness and trust, all while saving you time and money.
Persistence is Key
Remember, a successful farming campaign focuses on a specific geographic area or group of people and regularly markets to it, branding the agent as the expert.
Successful agents use persistence to their advantage. This is what separates average agents from effective agents. Those leads you generate from your campaign are only as good as the follow-up process you stick with.
According to a study by Dartnell Corp….
A whopping 48% of salespeople give up on the prospect after the first contact. The first!
How do the rest do?
- 24% quit after the second contact
- 12% quit after the third contact
- 4% quit after the fourth contact
Only around 10% of salespeople make a fifth call, and approximately 80% of sales are made after that call, with up to 18 calls needed.
Knowing that only around 1-2% of people are looking to buy during the first call, a successful agent must have the discipline and persistence to make a half-dozen more phone calls afterward.
And this is why building relationships with prospective clients is so important. When you’re Target Farming an area, you have a real advantage: your leads are already familiar with you.
Pair the Modern and the Traditional
If you're only utilizing only one marketing method, you're leaving money on the table. When you can marry the modern and the traditional—innovative digital marketing and time-tested direct mail marketing—you're better able to propel yourself above your competition.
That's how Target Farming wins again.
The Home Value Estimator Map QR Code featured free on Target Farming Reports is proven to generate hot leads with a simple prompt. Prospects can scan their unique QR code at MyHomeEst.com to see an estimate of their home’s value. As soon as they do, you get an email with the lead information in real time!
By integrating these digital and direct mail approaches, you can harness the strengths of both methods to create a comprehensive and reliable marketing strategy.
Getting Started
Prior to exploring additional target farming tactics, contact everyone you know to inform them that you’re in the business. Why? Because, according to the National Association of REALTORS®, 66% of people who purchase a home will do it with an agent they’ve worked with before or who was referred to them.
The process of real estate farming has been prevalent for years. When done effectively, it can make your business flourish and bring in new and effective leads. Still, it’s easy to make mistakes and waste time and resources when not done correctly.
Trusting the right professionals guarantees both quality and quantity of new leads and makes farming easy. That’s why Target Farming with RSP USA remains the best kept secret in real estate marketing.
We’re writing more blog posts than ever to help agents like you achieve lasting success with both digital and print marketing. Check them out here — and be sure to bookmark the page to see what’s coming next!