One of the biggest struggles that agents have when it comes to farming is the marketing. They understand they need to niche down. They get excited about becoming the area expert. They can totally get on board with getting involved in the community. But then they choke when it comes to the marketing! Does this sound familiar to you? If you haven’t heard of the Scope Method it may!
In our last blog (What The Heck Is Geographic Farming) we talked about what farming is all about. The core of farming is spending your time and resources in one specific area and becoming the go-to agent. But how do you market to that audience without being annoying, and repetitive yet still getting your message to the right people and getting them to take action.
To understand what works with geographic farming marketing, you have to look at what matters to the community. They care that you are different than every other agent they see. They care that you are competent and trustworthy. They care that you are knowledgeable about the market. They care that you offer value. They care that you care about them!
So how do you accomplish all of that with your marketing efforts? You SCOPE it out…
The Scope Method is a strategy I designed to help agents create a more balanced approach in their marketing efforts and strategies. To ensure you make the biggest impact and reach the most people you can, you need to ensure you follow the Scope Method in your farm.
So what does the Scope Method stand for? Well, I’m glad you asked.
S.C.O.P.E.
Self-Promotion – Most traditional farming is based on this method. Does it work? Yes! Is it the only way to succeed in your farm? No. Can you build a farm just focusing on self-promotion? Yes! Are there more efficient methods to promote yourself in your farm in today’s market? YES!
Many agents have continued the long-standing tradition of sending out post cards and flyers in their farms. Why? Because it worked in the past. Because they were told it worked. Because they don’t know how else to promote themselves. You still want to promote yourself and your business, but it doesn’t need to be just about your name and face, how many homes you sell and how awesome of an agent you are. (We’ll be talking about how to self-promote yourself in future blogs so make sure you come back!)
Community – This is one of the critical components to having the biggest impact in your farm. Of all the agents who I’ve brainstormed with, coached and interviewed, the ones who make the community the central focus of their farm have had the best businesses and the biggest impact in the community. Rather than just being transactional and only thinking about your business, you need to incorporate the community into your marketing and your systems.
As we said earlier, the community cares that you care about the community. If you focus on them and build strong relationships in the community, your business will grow!
Online – Have you heard of this thing called the internet? Yeah, so has your farm! If you aren’t reaching your farm online, you are missing out on the biggest opportunity to engage and connect with them. You have to have a strong online presence in your farm or you will be missing out on a ton of potential business. Gone are the days of just mailing out post cards each month and becoming the go-to agent. You must develop a more balance approach and online strategies needs to be a key part of that!
Prospecting – You may not have realized it when you signed up for this career, but prospecting is a big part of the business. Can you build a farm without prospecting? Of course! But will you get the most market share? Probably not. You may not want to cold call your farm or door knock, but you are going to want to incorporate some form of prospecting into your business plan if you want to reach the most people possible. The great thing about prospecting is it generally doesn’t cost much money and can be done very effectively with the right approaches. Especially when you combine it with a well-balanced plan of attack.
Education – This is where most agents fail when it comes to their marketing plans in their farm. Many agents want to push how great they are and the sales they do and just listed and just solds but the reality is you have a huge opportunity to help you community with amazing educational based marketing. The right educational pieces can help position you as the expert while promoting yourself without coming off as salesy. It connects with your audience by providing them value and helps build trust. If you develop a strong educational marketing plan, you can begin to build a loyal fanbase in your community and position yourself as the ambassador for the community.
So when you are thinking about laying out your marketing plan in your farm (and your business in general) you want to ensure you are reaching your audience with a balanced approach and the Scope method can help you ensure you do just that. Have a look at your own approaches and do a self-audit. Which of these areas could you use a little more improvement in your business? Which areas are you crushing it in? What strategies can you implement that has cross over to blend these strategies? (I call that “Strategy Stacking” – more about that in future blog posts as well!)
Get out there and plant your crops! Your future self will thank you for your harvest!
Happy Farming!
Ryan Smith – Founder/Creator
Launch Your Farm
Be sure to check back on our blog and show to get awesome information about geographic farming!
Blog – http://www.LaunchYourFarm.com/Blog
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