My appreciation to Damion Flynn and the Active Rain community for the vote of confidence in this post for the AR Carnival. And congrats to the Big Dog (Broker Bryant) for this piece selected for the Carnival of Real Estate.

I don't know of one real estate agent, Realtor or business person that advertises being untrustworthy, dishonest, unreliable, or the worst. Please send me the link if you find one.

So with that in mind, let’s return to ads, advertising, and branding. I noticed a couple of comments on my carnival post that supported placing ads with lots of features. This in spite of the “evidence,” the stats clearly show that ads targeting a specific house are ineffective. And that, to me, is the significant point – how much bang for the buck.

There is a place in all marketing campaigns for ads with features, but, in my opinion, there is never a place for an ad in our campaigns that only serves to satisfy any person’s misplaced need, ego, or misconceptions – including mine (make that primarily mine).

If you look at most real estate agents’ ads, websites, business cards what you normally see is - I’m the best, I’m the greatest, I love cats and dogs,… There’s usually a great shot of the agent also (why is it that so many of these were taken twenty years ago or appear to have been air-brushed?).

At this point, your prospects don’t care about you. They’re tuned into WIFM – What’s In It For Me. Ads and messages that all look the same and say the same thing are just part of the “white noise.” In this day of information overload and ad bombardment everyone, including you and your prospective clients, have their “shields” up. We are scanning to see what is broadcasting from WIFM.

When we have to place one of those display ads to satisfy a client’s misunderstanding, we always have it tuned to WIFM for the reader. The WIFM message needs to be caught in a nano-second scan by a mind that is moving at warp speed. This is not to say that there is not a legitimate need for image branding or slogans. It’s more a question of having clear objectives. Yes, advertise the house, but reach beyond that limited audience to a much larger one with your selling propositions (buyer & seller).

I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again – you are not selling a house – you are not selling you – You Are Selling What You Can Do for THE CLIENT. It’s about them, not us. We want to shoulder the load so our clients can kick back and relax.