FIND Tip #4 – Choosing Promotional Items For Your Farm

This is the 4th post in our series Farming Isn’t Dead.

So after our last three lessons of choosing a farm, making a plot, and finally introducing yourself personally to your farm, now you’re ready for the fun part: choosing promotional items and materials for your real estate farm! Below we’ve listed 75 creative promotional thoughts you can use for real estate farming, though there are many other things you could do that aren’t included on our list!

The things you choose to give away to your real estate farm are very vital. It’s okay to be a small creative in this, as the more creative you are, the more likely you will stand out to your farm. Here are some guidelines on what to send to your real estate farm:
1. Price: While price alone shouldn’t be your only factor in choosing what to send to your farm, it is vital that you choose materials that stay within budget. Most of the creative promotional real estate items we’ve listed are available for less than $2.
2. Usefulness: You need to give your farm something that is useful or appreciated. The promotional item has to be nice enough or useful enough that they won’t throw it out and may even pass along to a friend.
3. Target Market Appeal: You’ll need to learn a small more about your residents in your farm to give them the right kind of promotional real estate materials while farming. While some people might delight in a potholder or a mouse pad, others might not have any use for them. So before you start spending tons of money, choose generic “one size fits all” kind of promotional items until you learn the needs and tastes of your neighborhood better.

Now that we’ve set up some basic farming guidelines, here is a long list of 75 real estate farming thoughts you can use as promotional items. There are plenty of websites and companies available that can offer these items personalized and with a bulk rate discount:

1. Calendars
2. Sports Schedules
3. Coffee Mugs
4. Flower Seeds
5. Single flower such as carnations, tulips, or roses
6. Frisbees
7. Local Coupon Book (You can be creative and make this yourself through your local printer and contacting area businesses if they want to advertise)
8. Neighborhood Directory of names, phone numbers, & leisure activities/interests/services. (Compiling this for your farm can also help you with your market research efforts of targeting them better!)
9. Rubber Duckies
10. Wind-Up Chattering Teeth (okay, so maybe that’s not really useful, but it sure is creative!)
11. Compile a neighborhood recipe book.
12. Yo-Yo’s with your information on them.
13. Whistles
14. Puzzles
15. Stress Balls (Don’t let the real estate market stress you out – Call Me!)
16. Playing Cards
17. Piggy Bank
18. Notepads or Post-It Notes
19. Mini screwdriver or other tools on a keychain
20. Bottle Opener
21. Tape Measure
22. Gourmet Tea Bags, Hot Chocolate, Or Coffee
23. Coupon vouchers for free meals at a local restaurant
24. Calculator
25. Keychain Flashlight
26. An Ice Scraper if you live in a cold climate
27. Flip-top mirror
28. Cool glow ice cubes
29. Beach balls
30. Pocket First Aid Kits
31. DVDs or CDs (You can have them manufactured cheaply in bulk – can make a CD of relaxing music or a DVD with a video of “how to stage your home to sell” for example.
32. Mini Fans
33. Chapstick
34. Band-Aids
35. Pizza cutter
36. Chip clips (aka “Bag Clips”)
37. Wipes (Like those ones they give you when your order wings)
38. Remember their pets: Dog collars, dog bowls, dog treats, etc. etc.
39. Candles
40. Mints
41. Golf Tees
42. Magnets
43. Photo Frame
44. Ruler
45. Paper Clip holders
46. Pencil Sharpener
47. Watercolor set
48. Colored Pencils
49. Tape dispensers
50. Socks
51. Coloring Books
52. Golf Balls
53. Teddy Bears
54. Rubik Cubes
55. Magic Eight Balls
56. Bubbles
57. Tire Gauge
58. Sewing Kits
59. Nightlights
60. Light bulbs
61. Bar of soap
62. Air fresheners
63. Rain gauge
64. Thermometer
65. Gardening Rake/Shovel
66. Hand sanitizer
67. Keyboard Brush
68. Balloons
69. Batteries
70. Memo Boards
71. Corkscrews
72. Erasers
73. Umbrella
74. Toys for kids
75. One dollar (or a quarter, dime, nickel, etc) (Let me show you how to place more money in your pocket when selling a home!)

Now that you have some thoughts, you’ll be able to plot accordingly how often you will walk your farm (once a month is excellent, once every 4 months should be the bare minimum). Be sure in addition to giving out these promotional materials you also follow up by sending them a monthly newsletter/neighborhood market report) and any “Just Sold” or “Just Listed” postcards. If you’re a new agent, you can just send them open house invitations if you sit an open house for another agent.

Next week we’ll talk about ways to use these promotional items as the sunlight and water and to keep your farm producing profits year after year. Feel free to leave any comments below or subscribe to our feed by email to make sure you don’t miss our future real estate tips by having them directly sent to your inbox.