How to Win a Geographic Farming Marathon — Without Running!

You’ve probably heard the expression that working a geographic farm is a marathon, not a sprint. It many ways, that’s true. It takes consistent effort over time to become — and remain — established in an area as the go-to real estate agent.

But that word “marathon” can sometimes hold agents back from getting started. It sounds exhausting.

So, let’s reframe it.

Imagine you need to run a marathon, but instead of having to wear the soles off your running shoes, you can drive your car those 42.2 kms. Wouldn’t that make it less intimidating to start and a heck of a lot easier to do!

Of course, it would!

Well, you can metaphorically do just that to succeed with a geographic farm. You can drive rather than run.

To explain how, consider what needs to happen to generate real estate agent leads from a geographic farm.

The homeowners in that area need to come to know, like and trust you. They need to see you as the obvious choice when they’re ready to sell, or when a friend or neighbour asks, “Do you know a good real estate agent?”

To make that happen, you need to consistently stay in touch. And that doesn’t mean merely knocking on doors or shoving flyers into mailboxes. It means using real estate direct mail to make the kind of impact necessary to build familiarity and trust.

Ideally, you want your geographic farming newsletter to position you as the specialist in the area. It should be eye-catching in design, feature your picture and personal message, and contain helpful articles homeowners will read and value.

The ideal mailing frequency? To establish yourself as quickly as possible in a geographic farm: at least once a month. If you mail less often, you risk losing momentum and it may take longer for homeowners to see you as the best choice.

So, this sounds like a lot to accomplish. How do you do it all by driving instead of running?

It’s simple. Use a system.

A good geographic farming system that does most of the heavy lifting for you — design, writing, printing, mailing — makes the “marathon” a lot easier to finish. Even fun!

And the ultimate benefit, of course, is you end up establishing yourself in a fruitful farm that generates real estate agent leads and referrals, consistently, for years.

So don’t let the perceived work involved prevent you from getting started. If you have a geographic farm you dream of dominating, get in the car and start driving.