When you’re in a sellers’ market and things are on fire like it has been for many of us over the last year, its easy to get excited about getting listings. Listings are gold! Especially when they are in your farm. Today we are going to show you how you can leverage listings
You’ve probably heard it before: “List To Last”. We all know that listings are the backbone of a healthy business. However, many agents are so excited about getting a listing that they forget to “work the listings” that they already have. They just want to sell the home and make some money. But if you want to grow a truly successful farm this is critical for getting the most out of your business.
If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you’ve probably hear me say “ I’d rather have 5 signs in 1 neighbourhood than 1 sign in 5 neighbourhoods!”
If you aren’t leveraging our listings in our farm, you are missing out on the opportunity for 5 signs, so we have to learn to work our listings in our farm to get the most from them. For some agents, this takes a new way of thinking about your listings and it takes a plan.
The secret to getting the most from your listings is having a structured marketing plan well in advance.
You must create a system that you can follow for every listing. Without this plan you are asking for failure. Or at least a very inefficient business.
It’s tempting to get excited about a new listing, get it on the market and sell it and then quickly move onto the next one. But the right plan will not only help you create more buzz for your listings, which is a win for your client, but it also will help you create more buzz for your brand.
Why You Must Leverage Listings
What do you need to do to get your listings to work for you? You have to take a step back and look at who you are trying to reach. There are two main focuses you need to think about when it comes to marketing in your farm. The first is the buyers looking in the area. And the second is the home owners living in the area.
When it comes to traditional farming, many agents focus their marketing on just the people living in the area. This narrow minded approach causes them to miss out on a lot of opportunities to capture more buyers and ultimately more sellers.
Many times, when you dig a little deeper into agents who have been farming for a while you will find that they get a lot of listings in the area but they do a terrible job with converting buyers in the area.
To be honest, sometimes it’s because they just don’t want to work with buyers and other times it’s because they just don’t want to work their listings.
When it comes to getting more from your listings, you must be willing to look at what you are doing to attract buyers to your listings. If you are just throwing it on your MLS and hoping a buyer finds the property, you are going to lose a ton of extra exposure for your sellers and your business. And as a result you are going to lose even more opportunities to convert more buyers.
So how can you get buyers from your listings? We are going to talk about 4 general ways you can do that, but be aware that there are a ton of different ways you can accomplish this.
Regardless of what strategies you choose to do, it starts with a solid listing marketing plan to ensure you capture as much business as you can.
Let’s dive into 4 ways you can get more from your listings.
Social Media
There are so many opportunities for you to leverage social media in your business and your farm. I’m not just talking about posting it on your personal accounts. That’s great, but that’s not enough. You should be promoting your listings on various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter and a number of other less popular ones.
You want to ensure you share your listings in hyper local groups, regional groups and international groups. You also want to make sure you post it in buy sell groups, running paid ads, creating contests and giveaways, sharing listing videos, sharing it with movers and shakers in the community, networking with other agents… And the list goes on and on.
If you want to reach a targeted audience, it’s imperative that you begin with a social media plan or risk leaving extra money on the table.
Content Marketing
Having a solid content marketing plan is crucial for success in your farm. The right content marketing plan can help you stand out in your farm as well as create a number of marketing opportunities that so many agents miss out on. Once you start creating content you need to stay consistent and ask yourself these questions:
Does your blog reflect your message?
Does your content align with your social media?
Do your videos reach both buyers and sellers?
Are you leveraging the media for additional exposure?
Well planned out content will not only increase your exposure in your farm and to buyers, it will also help you convert more listings when you can show your sellers what type of marketing you are doing and how it will help them sell their home.
Listing Distribution
Getting your listings on multiple sites very quickly is an important part of ensuring you get more exposure on your listings. The more eyeballs, the higher chance you have at selling your listings. That is where listing portals and distribution options come into play.
The great news is that there are a number of listing portals you can use to accomplish this. It’s important to note that If you decide to go this route, there are some paid options, some free options and some brokerage exclusive options.
When it comes to where you distribute your data, you must understand where the listing actually goes and who controls the data. Its great to get it on many different websites, but you must understand that you don’t always control the information and the leads if you use this strategy.
Extra exposure is great, but extra leads are even better!
Paid Ads
In today’s world, if you aren’t paying to promote your listings, you are missing out on one of your biggest opportunities for more business. The golden days of free online promotion are well behind us. Fortunately and unfortunately that ship has sailed.
As big tech companies grow, they need to keep making revenue. Most do that by charging businesses for ads. Some people don’t like that model, but the great thing is so many agents don’t want to take on the costs in their business, which creates a ton of opportunities for you from a hyper local marketing approach.
Spending a little money on the right paid ad platforms with the right approach can be HUGE for your business, but you have to learn the right strategies to maximize your return. Its easy to spend money online, but its not so easy to get a proper return from your marketing budget.
You may have to hire someone to do this for you, or you may dive into the world of paid ads yourself, which can be a great learning opportunity. Either way, if you apply this strategy (and I strongly suggest you do) you will have to pay with time or money, but it can be well worth it!
If you plan on adding a paid ads approach to your business, its important you set a healthy budget for each listing to ensure you reach the right audience and reach them consistently. This will help you stand out in your market and also create more future business for you.
Leverage Listings Conclusion
There are a ton of ways you can leverage your listings to further success in your farm, but you must start with a plan.
That plan should adapt and evolve over time, and you should be adding new and more efficient ways to grow your reach. If you don’t do it, another agent will. So, if you want to stay on top of your farming game, then you must ensure you have a plan to get the most out of every listings.
What are you waiting for? Start building your plan today!
Happy Farming!
Ryan Smith – Founder/Creator
Launch Your Farm
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