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10 Free & Low Cost Ways To Connect With New Niches

On Tuesday, I wrote about Niche Markets from A to Z...the first of 2 key elements of succeeding in niche marketing.

The second element is connecting with with the niche market.

Here are 10 ways of doing just that.

1. Conduct a survey in your niche from your market niche research of your market, select a topic of interest go door-to-door, one neighborhood at a time to 'interview residents' about their opinions abut this topic, using a standard questionnaire.

Ask residents if they would like a copy of your e-report. Collect the contact data data of thjose who say yes and add these people to your network of contacts.

2. Write an E-Report about your findings distribute copies of your E-Report to local media, business & community organizations and interested residents

3. Volunteer to help with a kids' sports team DO NOT act as umpire or referee...you are sure to annoy somebody.

4. Network with others who serve the same kinds of clients you do For help with your networking, click here.

networking 5. Establish a network of referral partners to learn more about referral partners, click here

6. Join & actively participate in a local business group for help with networking in this group

7. Join & actively participate in a local community group or organization for help with networking in this group or organization.

8. Join a local worship or religious organization join because if and only if you believe in and support the organization's beliefs. DO NOT actively promote yourself and your service

9. Write a community-focused blog do whatever you can to engage and connect with your readers

10. Develop a community website to learn more about community websites, click here. Invite the people with whom you have connected in items 1-9 to work with you on your community website

Posted by Larry Easto on 07/17/2009 06:20 AM

Comments (81)

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81 Comments on 10 Free & Low Cost Ways To Connect With New Niches

JUL

2009

Thanks for sharing these great tips. These are good ways to meet prospective buyers and sellers.

What a great list of tips. It has given me several ideas.

Excellent points, thanks for sharing them. I like the part of developing a community website. .

Just do something. Do it.

The days of sitting around waiting for buyers or sellers to come through the office door are over.

Get a good web presence and they'll come to you.

Those are all excellent ideas. One thing is sure, if we want people to come to us, we have to make it happen through consistent prospecting.

Hi Larry,

Without a doubt, you are definitely on point! Great information, very similar to what I teach and preach.

"Network Strong & Prosper!"(SM)

Coach K.C. aka The Prosperitor!™

"Changing the Marketing Paradigm One Mind At a Time!"(SM)

Larry,

Wonderful ideas I'll have to implement. Particularly happy to see you on the dashboard with your star, my friend!

All of these are great tips! Now I need to go check out the other blog on niches.

Nice list. I could definately see those being useful and I completely agree that you should never ever ever become a referee! One of my loan officers coached little league teams and he has received a lot of referrals from it.

Great list for us help us brainstorm. I think Lenn is right, at the end of the day, just DO SOMETHING!!!

Larry, Those are great ideas. Thanks for sharing with us!

Thanks for these ideas, I think it is always good for us to strategize our plans and think how we can contribute more through our blogs!

Great information, getting involved in your community any way you can is extremely important and will help you to network and grow your business!

Larry- Very good points for developing niches. You can't just sit around and get listings and buyers through osmosis. Katerina

These are all good ways to meet new people who will hopefully turn into future clients.

Larry - Great 10 recommendations to get involved in a niche market. We do a lot of blogging about our local neighborhods and communities.

Great tips, hey it is all about the networking.

Thanks for the great tips. It's always good to point someone in the right direction, and you've done just that with your advice.

Thanks Larry for the tips; several of these I am already doing but I will consider looking into the others.

Geez, I got lost in your website after clicking on some of your links. Lots of good ideas on your site, thank you. This may look like hard work to some but what else are you doing thats not working that you could substitute time for some of these ideas?

Really great tips...I'll be checking out all your links. Thanks for the post.

Great tips - though volunteering with a kids sports group could be disasterous for someone who can't walk 3 feet without acquiring 4 bruises - maybe they'll let me be the water girl ;-)

This is why I love Active rain!!

Thanks for the tips

I like point #1 ... do you think you would have to go door to door or could you do it online using Suvey Monkey or something like that?

Larry - Much appreciated tips. You have inspired me to try some new angles... thanks

Hey Tom

The survey is not so much about gathering information as it is about connecting with and engaging people in the niche market.

Conducting the survey door-to-door will take more time and effort...but also provides more opportunity to engage the home-owners in conversation.

The key is to prepare a short questionnaire that gathers information and can also engage the people who agree to be questioned. (I'd be happy to provide a sample questionnaire to anyone who is interested...please email through ActiveRain.)

Once the report is written, instead of simply emailing copies to interested residents, hand delivery of hard copy offers another opportunity to make contact.

Also, Report authors become experts in their markets...which makes them more attractive to prospective clients.

All in all, conducing a survey and writing a report on the results creates a huge win-win marketing opportunity.

Hey Larry from Toronto - excellent list of ideas of which we've got most if not all on hyper drive....except the survey idea. I'll check that one out. I like it!

Great Ideas Larry! Lenn again with her words of wisdom... Just do something. Do it! So very true!

Larry,

I'm a die-hard proponent of community engagement. Kids activities are great ways to network -- volunteer at your local Boys & Girls Club. It doesn't have to be about sports --- they always need volunteers! Get on a Board for a non-profit...you'll get your name in the paper for some free advertising.

It's all about face time, isn't it?

9 and 10 should be a part of any geographic farm effort. This is all very good common sense.

Great tips! My church has been a source of support for me over the last 5 years and I never have to mention real estate. They come to me.

Those are great niches to work on. You need to be many faceted in this market.

Great ideas for niche building. Thanks!!

Participate in the community... If you specialize in golf homes, you should be well known around the golf courses...

Larry,

It looks like you have a lot of great ideas for niche marketing. I'm off to go read you other post.

Larry.. these are some great ideas.. thanks for taking the time to share.

Larry - This is a great list of networking ideas.

By the way, I enjoy reading your articles in REM. For those of you who are not familiar with REM, it is also known as Real Estate Marketing and is a monthly Canadian real estate agent industry newspaper.

JUL

2009

Wow Larry! Great tips and awesome insight. I went back and bookmarked your A-Z Niche list, as options tend to look very appealing at this time of night :)

Looking forward to more of your posts and commetns...

Great Blog . I'm gonna save this one !

Wow! Thanks so much Larry; this is a great resource. As a new agent I am glad to hear that even seasoned agents have to work for business.

Hey Larry, Thanks so much for these wonderful tips! I do a few of these already but I especially like Tip #'s 1, 5 and 10!

Congratulations - This a "Featured Post" on "The LA Connection".

Howdy Neighbour,

I'm too shy to do the door knocking for the survey but have done many of the other tips you suggested. I love the part about not being a referee or umpire - or even coach. I used to sponsor my kids' teams and there would be 20 little Kotulaks on the ice or the ball diamond.

That was quite effective. Also a few other tips are to be the team mom. You will get to know the parents and have their addresses and phone numbers to put them on your data base.

I also used to be on the PTA at my kids's school. Great networking and these tips are good for agents with young children.

Another tip is to set up different neighbourhoods on your website and buy a domain name for them, then advertise that domain name in your flyers or ads. Promote the sales statistics on your site in those specific areas. ex. www.falgarwood.com.

Sorry Larry, I think I just wrote a blog post here. But you started something with the great tips. It's amazing just how many there are.

Excellent tips. Yes we must go out and make our presence known in the neighborhood, and on the computer. thanks for sharing!

I really like your ideas, great tips that go above and beyond the usual get out there and network theme. I REALLY like the survey idea and what you can then do with the information. . .

Great reminders. I often think that Practioners get to comfy behind our computer screens. We need to get out and be a part of the community that we serve.

Thanks for all your great links in your blog too! My best advertising tip is that I send out pictures of dogs or cats that need to be adopted from the Humane Society. I go to their site, right click the picture I want, save it and send it out as an email to my database and include a link to the Humane Society. Especially in these difficult times, there are dogs and cats that got put aside as people have moved on to other lives. People have appreciated this and some have even adopted! Win-Win and easy to do.

Great suggestions! Niche marketing is such a great tool in today's environment and these are some good ways to get started.

Larry - thank you for your generous tips! I like your survey idea. Your site is a great resource for us. Combining web presevce with door-to-door surveys promises to be a very effective tool. Thanks!

Super ideas. I am actually in the process of developing mini-websites for each of the communities I focus on. You can get a 5 page website at GoDaddy pretty inexpensively and they are pretty simple to put together. Once I have one done, I can simply cut and paste the text....add community specific information and I'm paying my 16 year old daughter to go out and take pictures of the neighborhoods!

This is a great checklist. No matter how much we ignore it, it just comes down to the basics "relationships".

It is all about community and our part in it... these days even more important thank you for such a well thought out post!

Thank you sooooooooooooo much for your thoughtful AND thought-provoking e-mail - what great ideas!

Will you require a referral fee for future business obtained via your terrific ideas! :0)

Regards,

Edith

Larry - Great list, it's definitely all about getting out there and putting yourself out there.

Good ideas. Go dor to door to conduct a survey???? Who would have thought? Nice ideas.

Larry, these are great tips. I am starting or rather restarting an old niche I did when I first began real estate. Thanks for the post.

Great ideas, Larry! The survey would certainly be an eye opener if the right questions are asked. Thanks and best success to you!!

JUL

2009

Excellent ideas. Being active and pro-active is what it's all about. Thank you!

As an Insurance Agent in NY, I am always looking for ways to generate new leads. Exclusive leads are always the best leads as they have a much higher closing ratio. In the insurance industry, an exclusive lead is one that is only comparing their current policy and rates to the quote you can provide. Referrals and personal networking are the best sources for exlusive leads, and getting involved with the local Chamber of Commerce is also a great way to develop personal connections with new potential clients. I am fortunate to have locked up this source in my town, but for some reason I have never seen a Real Estate Agent attempt to get involved with any of the Chamber activities. Is there a reason for this? Have any of you other Real Estate Professionals joined your local Chambers?

Great ideas!

Very useful. Thank you

Very focused and systematic approach to building client relationships and contact.

Great ideas, I like the idea of the surveys the best

JUL

2009

Timely post and excellent suggestions.

Can definitely use a few.

Thanks for your help.

Really like your suggestions! I do many of these already, but really like the idea of the survey and E-report. That may also lead to a website for the same group! Thanks for sharing.

Some good ideas. Every ideas helps when it comes to networking. Thanks.

I am still in the early learning process of blogging, but your tips are very helpful. I will do my best to follow up on these ideas, thank you!

Been thinking about a neighborhood web site. Thanks for the info.

Great points. You are so right about umpire/referee..haha! Thanks for posting such useful tips.

JUL

2009

Thank you for sharing the great ideas. I will try to use to grow my bussines to building client relationships and contact. Very good, thanks for your help.

JUL

2009

Door to door questionnaires are very effective. Try to use a method known as "bird-dogging". Go door-to-door letting folks know you're thinking about opening a new business in the area. Do not ask questions directly related to the individual, but more along the lines of "do you think the community could benefit from a new office?" etc.

Larry,

I love the idea of the survey! Not only could I make contacts WITHOUT trying to sell myself, but I could also gear the survey towards a topic that would help me get in the mindset of my prospects. Oh, and the free advertising if local media uses it!

Thank you so much- I'm getting started on that one A.S.A.P.!

JUL

2009

If you are a realtor and out of ideas, you are not on AR that is for sure. Thanks for adding some more to the arsenal.

JUL

2009

Excellent ideas. Three others I'd like to pass on:

1. Hand out 5-10 business cards a day to ppl you do not know. That means you have to get out there and open your mouth and present yourself.

2. When you sell a house, use the two/three rule. Let both side neighbors know that you've sold the house, then let the ppl directly across the street and on each side of that neighbor, intro. their new neighbors to them.

3. When youi get the house sold, make sure you get letters of reference from the Buyer/Seller which ever one you represent. Do not expect them to write them, do it for them, and have them ready to sign at closing.

JUL

2009

Thanks for the tip, I am a newer agent and every little bit helps!

Great ideas that are doable, thanks for sharing!

JUL

2009

Ning.com is a great site to start a community weebsite/ blog

JUL

2009

Great tips Larry. I will implement one or two that I have over looked.

AUG

2009

Hi Larry ....Good Advice for building a Niche market and Networking in your niche.

Bottom Line.... Get Out of your Office and Meet People.

Cheers, thanks for Sharing :O)

AUG

2009

This is a great way to increase your business and get better coverage in your market area. I like it so much I'm going to reblog it. Thanks.

AUG

2009

Thanks for sharing Larry. I have been thinking of ways to develop some niche marketing.

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Larry Easto

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