A Business Without a Sign is a Sign of No Business!

Flipping through September's REALTOR Magazine, my attention was drawn to a small box in the lower left hand corner of page 4 containing a Reader Poll.  This month's question:

"Have you cut back on marketing this year?"

Is now really the time to be cutting back? 

Maybe spending gobs of money on full page glossy ads in local print magazines isn't a great idea any more, but it probably wasn't a great idea or good use of marketing dollars to begin with, buddy.

There's lots of real estate marketing that can be done for no or low-cost.  One that jumps to the top of my head is blogging and social media (which happens to be the cover story for this month's REALTOR Magazine).  It doesn't cost much in terms of dollars, but does cost time.  Knocking on doors takes time too, but which is more effective?

This poll is a perfect illustration of the 80/20 rule at play once again.  Fully 80% of those REALTORS surveyed have already or plan to cut back on their marketing.  The other 20% haven't and won't.

Which group do you think will continue to have a prosperous real estate career?

It reminds me of the sign salesman at the Chamber of Commerce meetings I used to attend and what he always had to say:

A Business Without a Sign is a Sign of No Business!