Agents must understand that geo farming functions like a steady, slow-burning flame—not a firebomb.

As a real estate agent, you have a ton of sophisticated marketing options available to you—AI-assisted outreach, social media, and Facebook ads, to name only a few. It’s enough to make you wonder, Does geo farming with real estate postcards still work? After all, in the face of modern technology, real estate postcards do seem a bit archaic.

For 20+ years, ReminderMedia has been helping agents grow their businesses. Our experience empathically tells us that yes, real estate postcards absolutely work! However, our experience also tells us that too many agents give up on them quickly because they don’t always have a clear sense of what ties together the cards they send, who to send them to, when to time their mailings, or even why do it at all. In short, they don’t have a solid campaign strategy. Consequently, they don’t get results they want, so they simply throw in the towel.

Rather than give up mailing real estate postcards, make sure you understand their intended purpose and support it with solid campaign strategy.

What agents need to know about real estate postcards

While real estate postcards do work, it’s important to understand that geo farming functions like a steady, slow-burning flame—not a firebomb. Sure, you might send out a mailing and get a lead right away, but the real purpose of an ongoing real estate postcard marketing campaign is to build a sustainable business by creating a flow of inbound leads.

Understanding this, it makes sense that well-crafted real estate farming postcards are especially effective at increasing brand recognition and awareness in a distinctive way while also generating the occasional warm lead. 

Real estate postcards function primarily to increase awareness and recognition of your brand.

Additionally, real estate agents should understand that the farm they select will directly affect how well their campaigns perform. You’ll want to investigate the different features and types of farms (we’ll get to this below) before you begin prospecting if you want your efforts to bear fruit.

Finally, if all an agent does is send out postcards that solicit business, they will severely limit the brand-building potential of their campaigns. Real estate is a relationship-based business, so in addition to seeking business, the best real estate postcards help establish you as the trusted agent in your community.

How to run effective real estate postcard campaigns

Beyond the basics of selecting top-tier postcards (ones with high-quality paper, attention-grabbing images, personal branding, etc.), there are five strategies that will help you elevate your real estate postcard campaigns to better ensure that your cards don’t end up in the trash.

1. Provide valuable content

I’ve already mentioned that lead generation is not the primary purpose of postcards, so if you’re only farming with ones featuring the typical Buying or selling? Call me! messages, you’re missing the point. Postcards of this type only work if they arrive when a recipient is looking to buy or sell—if not, into the trash they go because they offer no value to that person.

The best postcards for Realtors^® perform as well as they do because they either educate, entertain, or endear—helping to establish you as the agent of trust.

Postcards that educate

As a real estate agent, your educational postcards should offer information designed to specifically help homebuyers and sellers. Some great examples are ones that give tips for increasing a home’s value; provide a checklist of easy, seasonal home repairs; or inform sellers about the benefits of working with a real estate agent. 

 Postcards that entertain

Postcards that feature recipes are among the most popular ones that aim to entertain. Recipients interact with these cards by trying the recipes, hanging them on refrigerators, and saving and sharing them with friends. Similarly, postcards featuring the hometown sports team’s schedule are highly likely to be clearly displayed and frequently viewed.

The key is that these postcards aren’t about business, which helps prospects perceive you as more than just an agent whose only concern is looking for their next transaction.

Postcards that endear

Any postcard that encourages potential new clients to like and admire you falls into this category. Examples include funny real estate postcards, holiday real estate postcards, postcards in support of a charity or that promote the good work you or your team do in the community. Postcards like these work to generate goodwill and support.

Mailing a good mix of educational, entertaining, and endearing cards with a smaller percentage of ones promoting your business (the popular 80/20 ratio works well) will help ensure that your real estate postcards deliver value while encouraging prospects to keep you top of mind.

2. Offer a free item of value

Consider including a QR code on your postcards that prospects can scan to be brought to a landing page, where they can provide their contact information to receive a free item of value—we typically call them lead magnets. When choosing a lead magnet, keep in mind your ideal client and what they would eagerly download in exchange for their contact information.

For example, first-time homebuyers would appreciate a free guide that walks them through the homebuying process or an e-book on how to potentially improve their credit score. FSBO sellers would certainly click on an offer for a resource explaining the mistakes to avoid when selling their home. Meanwhile, those thinking about having to care for their elderly parents might appreciate knowing something about multigenerational homes.

If someone downloads a guide about the homebuying process, you can easily follow up with the assumption that they or someone they know is looking to buy. Likewise, if someone is attempting to sell their home on their own, it’s clear that they want to sell but are hesitant to use an agent. In this case, you can follow up to explain the advantages of using an agent and your unique skills.

At ReminderMedia, you can add a QR code to your postcards, which gives you a free landing page along with an irresistible lead magnet. Click here to learn more about lead magnets, or visit our Resource Library to download any of our free real estate lead magnets ideal for attracting homebuyers and sellers.

3. Select the most appropriate farms

In real estate, there are three popular types of farming: geo farming, demographic farming, and farming that relies on predictive analytics to identify people likely to buy or sell a home in the near future.

Geo farming

Geo farming involves targeting prospects within a particular geographic area. For example, you could select one or more zip codes, school districts, or apartment complexes. When evaluating a potential farm, consider the number of households in the area, demand for properties, turnover rate, and level of competition from other local agents.

We’ve created a free e-book that explains geo farming in-depth, including how you can find the information listed above. Check it out!

Demographic farming

Demographic farming (also known as niche farming) is ideal if you want to target a group of people who share certain interests or characteristics. A popular niche is first-time homebuyers, but you also can’t go wrong with other great options, including seniors, divorced parents, luxury homebuyers, and those looking to buy second homes.

Predictive farming

Predictive farming relies upon the application of algorithms to large quantities of publicly available data. These algorithms are a type of AI that predicts who is likely to buy or sell a home in the near future (typically within 6 to 12 months). Once identified, you have the opportunity to add these people to your real estate postcard campaign and be the first agent with their foot in the door.

I encourage you to listen to our Stay Paid podcast episode about farming. We explain predictive analytics in more detail and how ReminderMedia’s model works to help our clients’ be more efficient when following up with their clients.

4. Be consistent

Agents who attend our geo farming webinar always ask how often they should reach out to their farm. The short answer is, “Probably more often than you think.” If your budget allows, 26 touchpoints a year, or once every two weeks, is most effective. But at a minimum, we recommend once a month.

Gary Keller, author of The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, suggests that agents can expect one transaction from every 50 direct mailers, including postcards, they send. Think about using this number as a benchmark when setting your budget.

5. Follow up with recipients

It can’t be said enough: to get the biggest ROI from your postcard campaigns, you need to follow up with your recipients.

• If you don’t have a list, you can sign up with ReminderMedia and, in addition to giving you 25 free postcards, we’ll give you 1,000 addresses. We can then perform a reverse lookup on these addresses.
• If you have a list you already mail to but you’re missing some phone numbers, for a nominal fee, we can perform a reverse lookup to find them for you.

Once you’ve connected, you can begin to build rapport by referencing the content of the postcard they received.

• If you sent a recipe postcard, simply ask if they tried the recipe and whether they liked it. If you engage in a conversation, go with the flow.
• If you sent an educational postcard, ask if they have any questions or if you can provide them with additional help or information.
• And if you sent a postcard designed to spark an interest in buying or selling, see if you can work in some discovery questions to determine at what stage they may be.

If you’re not sure about what to say when you reach out, you can download these free call scripts and modify them to fit the situation and your style.

We make geo farming with real estate postcards easy

Sending postcards, especially if you implement these five strategies, is an especially effective real estate marketing strategy for increasing brand awareness, promoting brand recognition, and building a sustainable business. Real estate postcards deliver a higher ROI than most digital marketing strategies, and because they are relatively inexpensive, they won’t strain your budget.

When you call, be sure to ask about your 25 free postcards plus your free landing page!

With ReminderMedia, you can set up your postcard campaign in as little as five minutes. That’s because we have a number of different automated campaigns preloaded with postcards that have been strategically selected by our team of real estate marketing experts to achieve optimal results. (Of course, you still have the option to customize them to your liking.)

Book an appointment with one of our marketing advisors, who can help you determine what postcards and schedule best suit your needs—we’ll have your cards ready to mail in 24 hours!

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