Today we're going to talk about the ultimate marketing mix to launch or to take over an established Geographic Farm to dominate in your local real estate market. We all know the marketplace is and has been changing and when things change, people and agents change their approach. They hear words like I don't know recession or a forecasted reduction in the number of sales this year and they think oh no, I've got to brace myself for impact. it's kind of.

It's a time to protect my business in the Natural Instinct for so many agents is to turn the dial down on their marketing, their sales to start cost cutting as if that's a form of insulation and protection. But really what I would argue it's doing is it's creating an opening for you. If there is a specific Farm area, a neighborhood, a subdivision, some part of town where you thought I want to be the dominant agent there, but perhaps it's been occupied by an agent in post who's been the dominant agent and you're like that would take a lot of marketing muscle for me to be able to kind of compensate and overcome and start winning over mind share. But now there's a foothold.

There's an opportunity to get in there and start building consideration for your brand, your brand Under the Dome of that Marketplace And they see you everywhere and it creates familiarity. It creates relevance and consideration for you as a listing agent. as a buyer agent. There's an opportunity right now.

As agents all over the place are starting to turn that dial back, they're creating the opening for you. So whether you're looking to take over an established Farm or if you just want to start one because it's where you want to do business, today's video is for you. We're going to cover two things in particular. First, we're going to talk about the feasibility of should you or shouldn't you go after a specific Farm What makes sense? What doesn't make sense? What's the data that you need to analyze to make sure this is a viable decision to go after a farm.

Because a farm a geofarm is not a light flipping decision. You're making a commitment. Nobody sends postcards for like a month and thanks I'm done I Did it I Crushed it with Geofarming. No, no, this is a long-term commitment of building your brand in a specific area that you want to make a career out of.

and so you're going to want to make sure you know like what makes sense and what doesn't make sense. And then after that, we're going to talk about the ultimate marketing mix to establish your brand. Under the the Dome of that Marketplace So that they see you through multiple channels in a variety of ways and they're like, oh, you're that agent and it positions you as the dominant agent in the marketplace. So it's two things.

It's feasibility and then it's going to be your marketing mix. That's what's in store for you today on this week in marketing. So welcome to the show! My name is Jason Pantana I'm your host and I'm so glad you're here. If you're new here, it would be awesome if you'd hit that big red subscribe button and also tap the Bell right next to it so you get notified whenever we publish new videos just like this one.

designed to help you level up your business. And with that in mind, let's dive into our topic about starting or taking over a geographic. Farm Now the first thing to think about is should we be thinking about this because Geographic farming is a long-term commitment I Keep saying that, but I Want to reinforce it because it's true. The results will be found in the repetition of what you choose to do over and over again.

As you create familiarity for your business, you build trust. You create consideration for folks who are buyers and sellers opting to want to work with you because you've established a brand over time. This can't be a flippant decision. Therefore, you have to do a feasibility study.

What makes sense? Is this viable? Should we or should we be doing this? And I want to talk to you about four different aspects that we should be evaluating: accessibility, competition, performance of that specific market area, and then one called black swans and Wild Cards. Just some things for consideration. First, let's talk about competition. Is there a dominant agent in this defined geographic area? And if so, what would it take to overpower them? What would it take to start getting some of those opportunities from them? And it could be a lot of marketing muscle just depending upon how much of the production they're already doing.

So for example, if I'm in a typical coaching arrangement we would look for is somebody doing at least 30 percent or more of the production, and if they are, that's going to take a lot of force to overcome it, a lot of power to overcome it. Notwithstanding, my opening comments were talking about the idea of is there a dominant agent that's kind of pulled the dial back. They've stepped back their marketing and therefore they've created the opportunity for you to sort of insert yourself and become that Rising Star dominant agent in the marketplace. But you gotta take some analysis time to think through If there is a dominant agent.

what does it take to overcome them from a marketing standpoint? Now on the flip side of that, what if you come across a farm area where you see agents trying to be the dominant agent? In other words, they're farming their marketing. They're doing it, but it doesn't appear to be working. In fact, if you look at the production data and those types of areas, it's just onesie. Tuesday Sales scattered abroad, you have to question why is there a lack of loyalty to any certain agent And so I would encourage you to look at that and ask yourself himself what would be the reason why folks aren't choosing to work with this person or that person And maybe it's a flaw in their marketing and you believe you know my strategy is going to overcome that? Maybe not.

My point to you is you have to analyze the competitive environment before choosing to step into a geofarm. The next point of consideration is accessibility is the area gated are there no soliciting rules? Is it Rural and the the lots are enormous and spread out and so if you want to go door knocking for instance, you'd basically be doing cross country you have to think through like what kinds of marketing do I intend on doing and are there certain things in place or limitations in place that from an accessibility standpoint would stop my marketing from performing the way I wanted to perform. You should also think about how big of a farm area do I want to go after and that also depends on well, what kind of marketing are you planning to deploy as part of your marketing mix. So for example, we typically tell our coaching clients 500 to 1000 homes is a good starting point and that's really predicated on the idea that if you start with 10 000 homes, it's really hard to get networking involved.

The postcard bill will be extravagant and you want to think about what does your budget offer you to start with. But on the flip side of that, if you're going to do a heavy Facebook marketing budget whereby it's a lot of Facebook ads, well, then you're dealing with limitations like the special ad category that you can't Target more narrowly than a 15 mile radius. So my point to you from an accessibility standpoint, is: think through through how do you intend on marketing and farming a specific area and are there certain accessibility limitations in place that would stand in the way of you carrying out your marketing plan. Next, when it comes to feasibility, you got to look at your performance of the specific area.

What do I mean by that I mean turnover rate you should look at? well, how many homes are there total residence in my farm and how many homes sold this year, last year, the year before the year before. In fact, I Would recommend going five to ten years back and looking at a five to ten year yield. How does this? Marketplace Do are people staying here forever? Or do they sell with enough frequency that there's actually listings to be had? We typically encourage our clients to look for areas with roughly a six percent rate of turnover. So in other words, if there's a thousand homes, there's about six percent of them that sell every single year, meaning there's enough inventory to go around that your marketing becomes warranted.

I would also encourage you when you're looking at the analytics. really focus not on the price point as much you can look at the prices. are they trending up or down? Chances are they're going up because of the last several years of Market information, but it's really about units. If you want to determine if a farm is really worth investing in, it's about the units sold.

It's also really important to understand who is selling in a specific area. in other words, what's your seller profile so that your marketing aligns with what they need from you and ultimately creates consideration that when the time does come for them to list your top of mind and you're the agent with whom they want to work. So from a feasibility standpoint, you got to look at the competition. You have to look at the accessibility.

What can I and can't I do what makes sense in my budget. When choosing a farm, you have to look at the performance. Is any of this worth it? Is it going to add up to me generating more listings and more business in this specific area? And then last I Say you have to look out for what I call black swans and wild cards, extenuating circumstances or events that can have a profound impact on the overall health and performance of that Geographic farm. So for example, what if they say the school's moving or something like that Or they say hey, this major place of employment is relocate? Those could be frankly, devastating events that could change the landscape of that area.

Or maybe there's a large section of land that's going to be rezoned to have a thousand houses placed on it. The point is, you have to look at what are some of the events or happenings or circumstances that can have a major impact on the performance of your farm over time, because again, you're committed for the Long Haul Before you decide, you're going to go after a geographic. Farm You've got to conduct a feasibility study to make sure it makes good sense. And if it does make sense, make sure you stay tuned for this next section as we break down the ultimate marketing mix to dominate a geographic.

Farm Now the first channel to talk about today is sort of the staple. It's the signature Geographic Farming Channel And that is. Mailers could be postcards, could be letters, could be handwritten notes, could be all the above. Most people when they think about geographic farming, they somewhat interchange.

The idea of farming is sending out mailers not necessarily now. I Do believe that mailers are a massively valuable marketing Channel when it comes to your Geo Farm But they're not the be-all end-all necessarily. So if you're in a limited budget situation, you're like, how can I infiltrate a farm area where I've got limited budget? Maybe Don't think about mailers because they could be costly for you. Maybe keep listening to other channels and look for a combination of channels that I discuss here today that are a little bit less restrictive.

Cost wise notwithstanding, I'm not unselling mailers. I'm a massive fan of mailers. It's just they're what we expect when it comes to a farming strategy. So use them.

Don't use them. you're prerogative If you do use them. We typically recommend that for the first three months of starting up a farm, you do three mailers a month and then you downgrade it to two mailers a month thereafter just as a standard. Cadence One thing I Want to drive home to you is it's about frequency.

It's when folks see you again and again and again. We oftentimes talk about Direct Mail mailers aren't really. Direct Mail they're drip mail. Direct Mail is direct response marketing.

Yes, sometimes I may have a call to action on the mailer that's designed to get you to act on it. But really, what we're doing is casting a net and saying over here over here and we're creating consideration over time for your brand as an agent in that local. Marketplace I Want you to be remembered and the way you get remembered is again and again and again. It's the consistency component and the other thing I've been sort of suggesting, but want to really double down on is multi-channel marketing.

I am a massive believer in multi-channel marketing magic. so if you choose to only do mailers, for instance, you're making the mailers more expensive than they should be because what happens from the consumer standpoint, when they see your marketing across multiple fronts, they see it in this channel in that channel and that channel. Those channels almost work together whereby it creates an illusion that the consumer is seeing and experiencing your marketing more frequently than is actually the case because it's in multiple channels. So a couple of principles: I'm a major proponent for multi-channel marketing magic.

Don't just pick one of these things. You don't have to do all the channel, but don't pick just one of the channels. You want to have a multi-channel approach to how you conduct your farming efforts. Now another channel to potentially make a part of your farming plan.

And this is one that I would really suggest you consider is events and open houses being belly to belly with people events. So for example, maybe you do like an annual block party or a shredding event or some kind of a festival. or I've met agents who run softball leagues I've met agents who have some kind of an agreement with the local Winery and they do a tasting on a monthly basis. Leveraging events to build relationships is critical in terms of going deep and getting to know the folks who are part of that.

Community Where you're farming also open houses, open houses whereby you host neighbor only previews and you show yourself as a hard-working agent committed to getting home sold for the best possible terms that benefits all the community and that entire Geographic farming area. you should be seriously considering leveraging open houses and events. And as far as open houses go, I've met way too many agents who are fair weather about open houses I Don't do open houses because last weekend only two people came through and therefore all open houses are bad. I'm not going to try again for six years.

That is to me, a little bit of an overreaction. and I seriously think you should consider open houses? Why? Because literally they're the thing you're selling and people are walking into them. Because I Want to look around and think about this? It's a fabulous opportunity to meet prospective buyers, but also to shake hands and get to know the neighbors. Even when you're putting out the little directional signs and the neighbors drive by and wave at you, you're building your brand and establishing yourself as the agent who dominates that local.

Marketplace You might also think about signage in your farming area, so for example, this could just be as simple as the yard signs out in front of your listings. This could be as simple as those directional signs that I just referenced with open houses, but it could also be Billboards and posters and more strategic signage I bet agents who have Billboards because maybe there's a super a busy intersection and there's a strategic opportunity to kind of brand yourself on a billboard. Maybe maybe not. Maybe that's cost prohibitive.

I've also met agents who in their Farm they take out a sign at the local pool because everybody goes to the pool all the time and they have their sign there. Look for opportunities to put your brand everywhere and signage could be one of them. Another way to think about your farming activities could be through partnership opportunities or co-branding opportunities. For example, think about restaurants.

maybe you could sponsor I don't know a local Monday karaoke night or something like that. Or maybe there's co-branding opportunities where your business and somebody else's business lines up and you can be a champion of the community. Or it could be like you sponsor a school event or a local sports team or something like that. Look for ways to align with the community Through Partnerships And co-branding It's not just about ads, content, and video.

it's about building relationships that Foster Opportunities with buyers and sellers. Let the community know that you're their biggest. Advocate Look for opportunities to to do volunteerism work. So for example, getting involved at the school, getting involved in the HOA getting involved in a board of directors or whatever there may be opportunities for getting involved in the community.

It's more than just partnership and co-branding. It's also volunteerism. You've got to have a way to create relationships. It's also that sometimes marketing is like laying seeds and you need a mechanism for harvesting the crop and volunteerism.

And those relationships is where you can really cash in on a lot of the marketing and brand consideration. You need boots on the ground belly to belly opportunities in your farm to get to know the locals. and I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about prospecting as an absolutely essential aspect of your farming strategy. It's not just a marketing strategy, it's a prospecting strategy too.

That could include things like Circle dialing around listings or around open houses or door knocking or door dropping. even. It's going one by one by one through the community, whether on the phone or whether in person offering to be of service. You know, prospecting gets a bad reputation from a lot of folks because it makes them nervous, but I would say they couldn't be more wrong in that assessment.

He said to me, prospecting a it takes guts, but it really shows resolve and commitment to serving folks because you're literally saying I want to serve you like this? Are you open-minded to that? And it shows your hunger to help them achieve the goals they have in mind. Think about expired listings When an agent calls expired listings, what they're suggesting is I'm willing to call you when you're in the midst of not having succeeded because I believe I have a better plan to help move you forward. So I believe that prospecting is a must when it comes to your Geofarming because it shows your commitment to that community. And our last marketing channel is sort of a big marketing channel that's online marketing which I'll subdivide into three subcategories.

We'll talk about ads, we'll talk about social media, and first we'll talk about SEO What is Seo Seo from a local standpoint could include things like online profiles. So your Zillow profile your Realtor.com profile your Yelp profile your Google business profile. My goodness, that one's so Mission critical because what happens if the consumer looks you up to see? Hey, tell me more about this agent Google What are we getting into? Are they worth what they say? they're worth? What do the reviews say about them? You have to be well represented from a credibility standpoint online. and you do that through your website through your Google business profile.

through all the profiles that might populate when somebody runs that search, but it's also from a visibility standpoint. Are you getting found by customers who are looking for the best realtor in whatever neighborhood or area you service And the way you do that is by building better. SEO That means on your website, keywords and content should be all about your farm. You've got to be invested in being the advocate for your farm, not just offline online too.

Equally as important as SEO is your social media usage. This includes Facebook it includes Instagram and the content you're producing on social. But I also want to encourage you to think about social through the lens of maybe Facebook groups, maybe next door communities. What are the social networks that are hyper local to your farm area where you can establish yourself and build relationships with folks across social media? And then finally, as we talk about online marketing, we're talking about paid ads.

What are some of the paid ads that allow you to geo-target a specific area? As in saying I Want to show my ads on these platforms to people who live in this defined area? So as on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, maybe LinkedIn, maybe Tick, Tock, maybe Pinterest those all have the ability to Geo Target and so does Google And so does YouTube Tube. Most every major advertising portal gives you the ability to Target geographically. Now some of them have different restrictions. So for example, Facebook ads or meta ads which includes Facebook and Instagram have a 15 mile radius limitation which could be broader than your farm area.

However, these platforms also offer what's called a custom audience whereby you could literally use a tool like I don't know prop Stream or property radar or re-mine or coal realty resource and you could run a search for all the homeowner contact data in a specific area, download it, and then upload that contact data in what's called a custom audience whereby you could say to Facebook or to Instagram or one of these platforms I Want you to scan through this data set this spreadsheet of all this contact information of these folks and I want you to find whose contact info aligns with your population or your database of users on X platform or Y platform and then Target them on that platform with my ad. Now the ad that could be a home valuation offer or it could be just you retargeting your content at them I Don't want to get into that much detail here today. I Want to give you the ideas of what are the marketing channels that could be utilized as part of your marketing mix inside of your Geo farm. So whether you have the ability in these ad platforms to Target geographically like for example, YouTube and Google they can Target geographically.

In fact, YouTube and Google you can say Target This specific area and people who are homeowners, there's all kinds of advanced targeting options. platforms like Tick Tock still let you target with zip codes it's important to recognize. Okay, what are the most advantageous Platforms in terms of how I can Target and Market without violating any rules that I'm held to, but also which platforms make the most sense based upon the seller profile and who I'm ultimately trying to reach which ones make the most sense I would encourage you to think about Facebook to think about Instagram to think about YouTube in-stream ads those commercials that play before, during, and after videos and the targeting on those is insanely powerful. and I would encourage you to think a lot about Google Display Network ads Those are those little banner ads Square shaped rectangle shaped, long and skinny, tall and skinny.

You see them all over the web as you surf the Internet on various websites or even on the Footers of mobile apps. You see these little ads all over the place. those are actually called Google Display Network ads and they're another powerful medium to have your face your brand everywhere. Under The Dome of your Geographic Farm All I'm getting at is you Gotta go multi-channel There are so many opportunities for online ads.

social media SEO The space of online marketing is crazy powerful. but it's not just online marketing, it's offline marketing too. It's postcards. It's Partnerships and volunteerism and HOAs and whatever combination of marketing works best for you.

What you wield best in terms of your skill set and your Geographic Farm let me know which marketing channels you're most interested in making a part of your Geographic Farm in the comments. Thank you so much for watching Until next week! this is this week and laughs.