Stop Wasting your Ad Money..
The Secret Factor to make ads work for you!

It’s interesting to see how many expensive full-page real estate ads featuring homes and agents there are in any newspaper that fully miss the golden opportunity really make the medium work to prospect for future business.  Few ads are designed to engage the reader by offering additional information or services to maximize the marketing medium. By inserting a simple line of copy that offers an option for information, the effectiveness of the same ad would yield stronger response and leverage the effectiveness of the advertising dollars.

                                                                                                                               

Major franchises spend thousands of dollars on full color pages featuring the photos of agents, their successes, and feature some self-promoting banners of volume.  Occasionally the ad is sprinkled with a few select housing opportunities.  The cost of these huge print media extravaganzas has continued to be expensive and remain difficult to track direct business. This traditional format probably will not end anytime soon; however, the effectiveness and profitability factors would SOAR if there was a way to capture the interest of a prospect, even if they weren’t presently interested in buying or selling. 

 

The main reason prospects use the ad is to get information about properties for sale. After this first initial step, the next goal is to offer a way to engage, attract and interact with that prospect. This is done by offering a myriad of valuable ideas, guidelines and strategies that support the home buying and home selling process.  You can design a much more effective ad by considering the following strategies:

 

Here are a few secrets on how to get more for you ad dollar: 

 

• Offer a line of copy that initiates a COMPELLING REASON to go to your website or to make the prospect call or contact you.    Today’s Internet Empowered Consumer is SEEKING information on THEIR OWN TERMS, and when they want it, to get truly valuable information specifically related to what they actually need at the moment
• Offer the information in a safe environment. Use words like RISK FREE, No Obligation, No Hassle Reports available
• Make the information EASY to get. Offer the information through electronic channels, like an Auto-Responder on the web or by traditional means using a fax, and as a final option, hard copies
• Offer reports on issues that deal with all phases of property ownership.  Reports can include subjects like, “The 5 top ways to improve your property”, or “The 6 Steps to increasing value through home improvements”.  These reports should appeal to a spectrum of viewers, even if at that moment they were not in the immediate market to buy or sell, thus offering an opportunity to BUILD the value in the relationship prior to the actual need for professional real estate services.
• Follow up immediately on any responses to offer additional services and information when applicable
• Use electronic “drip-systems” to supply the information they request, like updates on properties for sale, specific areas of investment, etc. Combine the electronic service delivery with regular personal phone calls to keep the prospect informed and serviced until they are ready to buy or sell.

 

  By incorporating this special offering of unique information that virtually anyone would find interesting in your display advertising, you expand the capture power of a printed ad, classified or other direct marketing piece.  Companies will continue to utilize traditional marketing, formats of both classified and display advertising to “please” our customers and clients. By integrating the Web delivery system you help span the service gap between those individuals more comfortable using the Web and those that still default to a newspaper or magazine.  The KEY is to offer extend your marketing power beyond a Sunday newspaper display ad with service options that present the prospect or viewer with more choices that suit their need for whatever level they are in regarding the  decision making process. 

 

If your goal is to advertise, be sure that you maximize your investment and provide options multiple all levels of interest to initiate and serve customers early in the prospecting process. 

 

Terri Murphy is one of the industry’s leading consultants on the integration of traditional marketing and communication with today’s Web and Internet tools.  Her latest book “E-Listing & E-Selling Secrets” published by Dearborn offers insight on how agents and their companies can develop and practice standards of excellence in the sales and communication fields with new levels of consumer services.  She has 24+ year career in the real estate industry and holds the GRI, CRS, LTG & CREC designations. She is the CIO for U.S. Learning, Inc. and a frequent spokesperson for sales industries nationwide. For more information, contact her at: Terri@TerriMurphy.com or 901-767-0000.