Imagine what your real estate career would look like if you made 30 new friends in your local farm area? Think of the possible new contacts and referral business those relationships might lead to. If every single new person gave you one referral, that would instantly double your number of new contacts, wouldn’t it?
Promote local businesses to build new relationships
There are tonnes of lead generation tools and tactics you could invest in. You can sink thousands of dollars into online advertising, billboards and yard signs. But the fact remains, buyers and sellers, tend to choose an agent based on referrals.
Strong brand recognition in your farm can give you an edge over competitors, but it can’t take the place of relationship-building. There is no shortcut when it comes to cultivating trust with buyers and sellers.
Show the residents in your community that you’re willing to invest in them first, and you’ll open doors that were once closed. Act like a thought-leader, and become an advocate for the local businesses in your farm.
By promoting them to local residents you’ll earn their gratitude, support, and their referrals.
How To Promote 30 Business Owners In Your Farm
If you’re fired up thinking about it, we’ve got a plan to actually make it happen:
- Research the businesses and demographics in your farm
- Select 30 business owners in your farm.
- Book a 30mn. interview with each business owner.
- Feature the interview on your blog or website
- Share the interview on your social media
- send a press release to local publications.
Sounds simple enough, right?
So why haven’t you done it already? Follow our detailed steps below and good luck!
Step #1) Research your audience.
Be strategic and thoughtful in your approach. If you plan on promoting the businesses to the local market, research the key demographics in your farm. Use this insight to shape your approach to the interviews.
If, for example, your farm has a high population of millennials, you should target local businesses that would be of interest to their demographic. A community dominated by retirees, on the other hand, will have very different needs.
Step #2) Create a shortlist of 30 local business owners.
Next, research online and create a short list of as many relevant local businesses as you can find. Aim for a variety. Do your best to focus on small business owners who will value the additional exposure your interview will bring.
Here are just a few ideas for local business owners you can interview:
- Hairdressers/barbers
- Nail salons/aestheticians
- Coffee shop
- Homeowners’ Association
- Bakery
- Hardware/repair shop
- Specialty goods (sporting wear, equipment
- Rental service (formalwear, boats, cars, RV’s)
- Book Clubs
- Running club/group
- Yoga studio
- Non-profit youth program instructors
- Recreational leagues (soccer, baseball, chess)
When you research the business, be sure to check their social media as well. Business owners who lack a strong website or social media presence may be more challenging to promote effectively. Still, you can offer them advice on how to strengthen their online presence.
Share your knowledge to empower and encourage local business owners in any way you can. In doing so, you’ll cultivate reciprocal gratitude, build relationships, and uncover valuable leads right in your farm.
Step #3) Plan your interview.
Your interview with each business owner should strive to be helpful and engaging for viewers. Your interview needs to strike the right balance of entertainment and marketing.
Just like a television drama series, you need to build anticipation, curiosity, and interest in your interviews. How can you appeal to the audience in a way that compels them to watch, listen, or read your interview?
In other words, what’s in it for the audience? Find some way to reward the audience by empowering them.
There are four essential ways your interviews can promote the local businesses in your farm and empower your audience:
- Educational: Share facts, research, that educate viewers seeking more knowledge about a topic
- Informative: Inform the audience regarding the details of a relevant event or cause they may not have been aware of
- Instructional: demonstrate the steps/technique required to achieve a result, perform an action
- Inspirational: Motivate or inspire your audience towards the pursuit of their goals
With a clear objective in mind, you can approach business owners strategically and impress them with your marketing savvy. You can plan a release schedule for your interviews and coordinate with other business owners to capitalize on local trends in a timely manner.
For example, if you’re interviewing the owner of a hardware store, ask the business owner to share 5 home repair tips for local homeowners. Have the business owner show you the tools required or videotape them at work, demonstrating their solution.
Watch Youtube videos similar in content to yours. Take note of how the story is developed, angles used, and audio clarity.
Real estate agent Victor Quiroz, for example, shares 10 tips for buying a home in a simple, home made video with over 13,000 views:
Your interview will stand a higher chance of being shared by peers if the content is useful. Review the comments for feedback and even referrals. Visitors who discover your interview may decide to subscribe to your newsletter or YouTube channel because they see value in your content.
Step #4) Book the interview.
Contact the business owners in your community by phone or in person. Introduce yourself and let them know you would like to book them for an interview. Share your reasons for promoting them, as well as your strategy for getting interest online (ie social media, blog, website).
Encourage each business owner to create a unique and compelling offer exclusive to local residents. Consult with them on the best time to release the article and commit to a release date.
Step #5) Conduct the interview.
Prepare your interview questions and format in advance. Keep the interview as short as possible, but productive as well.
During your interview, be prepared to keep the discussion on topic. Stay focused on your objective and provide the business owner with guidance.
Step #6) Publish the interview.
Long before you book your first interview, you’ll want to consider the format you’d like to work in. While there are a number of options, they each have their pros and cons. The good news is that most digital medium require little initial investment, other than hardware. Most smartphones and iPhones, in fact, carry the basic tools you need to produce professional looking content suitable for YouTube, Facebook, or a blog.
Interview formats to consider:
Podcast
Apps and software are available for both Mac and PC users that make recording a podcast simple even for a novice. If you have experience with public speaking, a podcast might be right for you. Consider doing some research on possible online sources to share your podcast as well.
Video
Creating video of your interviews is not as hard as you might think. Video content is consumed more than any other format online. From Netflix to Youtube, Vevo to Facebook, people prefer video over text. If you can manage video production and you love being in front of the camera, start a YouTube channel of your own.
Livestream
There’s nothing like a live, captive audience to get word-of-mouth going in your community! Facebook Live is easy to use and extremely popular.
Advertise each interview in advance on Facebook, setting an appropriate budget and time for each. Since your interview will be focused on local business owners, your ad reach will be limited but highly targeted. You’ll find Facebook Lead Ads are your best option.
Blog Article
A blog can be a powerful marketing tool that drives organic traffic from search engines as well as social media. You can instantly share your interview as a blog post with online followers on social media. You can also launch a monthly community newsletter from your blog to attract local subscribers.
Focus the content of your blog on topics relevant to your geographic farm, using keywords that would attract interest from local users. As the content of your blog grows, your visibility in search results will increase, beating out competitors and building brand recognition with locals!
Slideshow
Slideshow for Mac users, Windows DVD Maker, Powerpoint, Google Slides, Adobe Spark…there are so many slide creators available! You can create slides directly on your iPhone or Android as well.
While a slideshow might not be suitable for every interview, it could be ideal for sharing products that are a must-see. Clothing, novelty items, and collectibles could be showcased with a series of slides that you include with the interview. Readers can read the interview and flip through the slides for more detailed images of a product.
Step #7) Promote the interview.
Distribution is one of the most important and most neglected steps when it comes to building relationships with the business owners in your farm.
If you can’t effectively generate interest in their business, how will you convince them that you can sell their home?
Tips For Promoting Your Interviews
Keywords: Use keywords to make it easy for search engines to discover your article. Implement keywords into your metadata, including the header title that local residents are likely to use.
While the business name might seem obvious, how many local residents are searching for the business by name? If you’re promoting businesses that are seeking exposure, you’ll need to use keywords that a user might use to research the business, its products or services.
Consider these examples of titles that would perform well with search engines:
- “Home Repair Tips From Local Home hardware Expert John Smith”
- “6 ways to Stay Active in X Community”
- “The Best Eco-friendly Gardening Products In X Community”
- “Tax Advice For Homeowners in X From Your Local Tax Expert”
Poor examples of a title for your interview:
- “Meet Bob and Jane Newman of X Business”
- “My interview with a local business owner Jane Doe”
- “Local residents: meet local bar owner John X”
None of the above examples contain keywords familiar or popular with your audience. Search engines will have a difficult time analyzing the topic and content of your article because there are no strong keywords to indicate what it’s about and why it would be relevant to a search.
Call To Action: Lastly, remember to include a call to action at the end of each interview. Your call to action should direct online readers to a landing page where the discount coupon or reward can easily be redeemed.
- Claim your discount coupon now!
- Visit us online now!
- Register for our class today!
- Get your free appraisal!
Be sure to display the business owner’s contact information visibly, as well as your image and contact information.
Press Release: If you can afford a national or statewide press release, it’s an option well worth considering. Depending on the quality of your interview and its relevance, your interviews could be newsworthy content.
You can write a press release of your own using a free online template, or hire a local publicist. Online PR distribution services such as Newswire and Marketwired provide reasonable options and distribution by region of your choice.
Targeting your local audience will make your press release much more affordable. Focus your press release on local bloggers and print publications. Take note of those you see in local coffee shops. Reach out to local writers by email directly and send them your press release.
Summary
A relationship-based business is the best way to build your real estate career for the long term. Use your marketing expertise and knowledge of your community to promote the businesses Draw on your existing strengths, resources, and contacts to build relationships that generate word-of-mouth for you and those you serve.
Be creative, thoughtful, and plan your strategy for attracting online interest. When you invest in the local businesses, they will want to reciprocate by investing in you.
Do this repeatedly, and you’ll establish yourself as an influential community leader, not just another real estate agent.
Got any ideas for building relationships in your farm that you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you!