I've noticed recently how in my marketplace, the Sunday real estate section of our newspaper has been shrinking ... the large company ads as well as the individual, classified ads.
It appears that more consumers are looking for properties online. (I saw a survey that said up to 8 out of 10 consumers go online searching for homes.) When many agents I've questioned ask open house prospects how they found the open house, most of them say that they found it through the Internet or by directional and for sale signs.
My questions are: Are newspaper and real estate magazine ads still working? Do you get calls? Are you tracking where your leads come from? If you're not getting calls from your ads, why are you still advertising in those places?
While the newspapers are getting fewer ads, the real estate magazine company still appear to be holding steady with the number of pages they fill in their magazines each month.
Are you only paying for classified ads in real estate magazines and newspapers, because sellers want you to?
Are sellers even asking you to do classified ads or are you still promoting it in your marketing
plan, because you just think sellers want that?
Maybe you do it, because you think your competition is still doing it. But is it an effective use of your resources?
Do you know at this moment how much you've spent this year on classified & magazine ads?
If it's not brought up in your presentation, do you need to discuss it? If you must do, yet you know it's ineffective, why not just promise to do it less frequently.
When the topic of classified advertising is brought up by a seller, I always ask them: If you were looking for a home today, would you read through little 2 or 3-line ads in the Sunday newspaper or would you prefer to go online and find photos and lots of details about different homes?
Practically, all of them say "The Internet".
To which I reply, then why would you want me to spend my marketing budget on newspaper classified ads?
Now, one reason agents may be continuing to advertise in the traditional locations is because they feel that they'll still get the occasional lead that way.
They may also be concerned that they aren't getting enough leads from their Internet presence. Well, what you need to realize is that consumers can now more easily "cloak" themselves behind their computer screens and they don't want you to know that they're there. The consumer will only 'raise their hand' if and when they need something from you.
Next week, I will talk about "Can your classified ads get you better results?"
It appears that more consumers are looking for properties online. (I saw a survey that said up to 8 out of 10 consumers go online searching for homes.) When many agents I've questioned ask open house prospects how they found the open house, most of them say that they found it through the Internet or by directional and for sale signs.
My questions are: Are newspaper and real estate magazine ads still working? Do you get calls? Are you tracking where your leads come from? If you're not getting calls from your ads, why are you still advertising in those places?
While the newspapers are getting fewer ads, the real estate magazine company still appear to be holding steady with the number of pages they fill in their magazines each month.
Are you only paying for classified ads in real estate magazines and newspapers, because sellers want you to?
Are sellers even asking you to do classified ads or are you still promoting it in your marketing
plan, because you just think sellers want that?
Maybe you do it, because you think your competition is still doing it. But is it an effective use of your resources?
Do you know at this moment how much you've spent this year on classified & magazine ads?
If it's not brought up in your presentation, do you need to discuss it? If you must do, yet you know it's ineffective, why not just promise to do it less frequently.
When the topic of classified advertising is brought up by a seller, I always ask them: If you were looking for a home today, would you read through little 2 or 3-line ads in the Sunday newspaper or would you prefer to go online and find photos and lots of details about different homes?
Practically, all of them say "The Internet".
To which I reply, then why would you want me to spend my marketing budget on newspaper classified ads?
Now, one reason agents may be continuing to advertise in the traditional locations is because they feel that they'll still get the occasional lead that way.
They may also be concerned that they aren't getting enough leads from their Internet presence. Well, what you need to realize is that consumers can now more easily "cloak" themselves behind their computer screens and they don't want you to know that they're there. The consumer will only 'raise their hand' if and when they need something from you.
Next week, I will talk about "Can your classified ads get you better results?"
If you have any questions about this topic, please e-mail me at dan@danweis.com.
To your success,
Dan
All content copyrighted © 2007 - Dan Weis, Agent Success Coach
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