How to Become the Thought Leader in Your Real Estate Farm Area

When we discuss postcard farming plans with agents, the concept of wanting to "dominate the farm area" often enters the conversation. This is a fantastic goal. After all, postcard farming is expensive, and you are spending your hard earned money to do it. Why on earth would you want any result short of total farm domination?

While this is a great plan for your real estate farming (and any other type of marketing you do), what often is lost in translation is how to actually achieve that. Do you artfully market yourself as part of the top 1% agents nationwide to homeowners? Do you teach homeowners how you are part of the President's Elite Club, or a Diamond Society Member? Do you drop variations of slogans detailing that you are the resident real estate expert in the area? The truth is, you do none of these things.

The fact is that homeowners cannot relate to any of the things described above. By nature, humans are a little bit selfish. Homeowners simply want to know what you can do for them. The "what's in it for me" factor is what drives their interest in you and your services.

So knowing that you need to tell the story of what you can do for homeowners, how do you do it? It's simple. You do it by educating them. The more you educate a homeowner, the more likely they are going to value you as a trusted source, making you the thought leader in your marketplace. Those perceived as the thought leaders are the ones that get called for listing appointments.

Here are 3 simple ways to become the thought leader in your real estate farm area.

Add calls-to-action on your postcards tied to downloadable content

One surefire way to educate people and establish yourself as a thought leader is blogging. Blogging allows you to use a long format to offer your thoughts, as well as best practices for the sale or purchase of a home. Blogging is an online medium, of course, and does not lend itself well to the postcard format.

With real estate postcards, you have just two to three seconds to grab a homeowner's attention. As a result, the message has to be clear and concise. One way though to pack in the same type of educational content a blog offers is through the use of capture codes tied to a downloadable item of value.

Turning your blog post into a downloadable e-book is the perfect way to grab the attention of homeowners and get them to think of you as a thought leader in real estate. I know there are limited hours in the day, and I know that as a practice, agents hate blogging. That doesn't mean you can't take advantage of this strategy, though.

Take our firm, for example. One thing we offer all our clients is a catalog of pre-written e-books that can be used as the items of value tied to the capture codes on their postcards. Our clients get the benefit of educating homeowners in their marketplace—just without having to actually do the heavy lifting of creating the content themselves.

Give homeowners market statistics, but actually explain them in terms anyone can understand

Market stats postcards are, by far, one of the most attention getting topics that an agent can send to their farm area. But keep in mind that the typical homeowner doesn't have a clear idea of what they are looking at when it comes to real estate Trends and statistics.

In order to establish yourself as the thought leader in your farm area, don't simply go online and download the latest market trend charts from your MLS system. You need to craft the card and your message so that you are actually explaining what the charts mean.

Not only that, you can go one step further by summarizing the charts AND explaining where you think the market is going in the coming months based on the trends you are seeing.

Remember, newspapers only preach doom and gloom. Use these cards to give people the truth about the marketplace and where it is going, and they will always look to you for advice and wisdom.

Teach homeowners what makes you different than other agents (and how that will benefit them)

One lesser used, but equally effective, method of establishing yourself as the thought leader in your farm area is teaching homeowners what makes you different from the competition. But do not only show them how you are different—draw direct lines to how those differences will translate into benefits for the homeowners if they choose to list their home with you.

The more distinctive the ways you can illustrate these differences and benefits, the more of a leader you are going to be perceived in your marketplace.

Establishing yourself as a thought leader in your farm area is not an overnight project. It is going to take some time to build good will and rapport with homeowners. It is time well spent, though, because once you get to that level in the minds of the homeowner, you were always that person. That is a powerful place to be.

To view the original article, visit the Leading Agent blog.