What's Happening to all of the Real Estate Guides?
Info on Advertising DIFFERENTLY in Print Media!
This is a tad lengthy, but is well worth the read!
This evening, I was pulling into a local Giant food, here in Severna Park, MD, and I noticed the new "The Real Estate Guide" of Anne Arundel County. I picked it up and headed out to the car. I grab the guide monthly from Anne Arundel as well as a few other counties in MD, as well as at my house in North Carolina. Today though when I picked up the guide I noticed something very different. The guide was about half the thickness as it usually is. Glancing through I noticed the regular heavy hitters in the area were advertising: Scott Smolen & The Smolen Team, Team Surlis, several other large Re/Max Producers, The Pat Hiban Group, Dee Dee Miller, as well as a few other noticeable producing agents. What was missing though, were some advertisers that have been in that book for years-top producing agents, that you could guarantee would be in the book...not this month! The majority of the smaller agents that have been advertising over the last few months or years also appear to have stopped advertising.
My question is, did these agents stop advertising because of the cost involved? Not a high Return on Investment? Or was it because they were revaluating where they spend their marketing $$$ ? Anne Arundel was not the only book looking a little thin, I also noticed some other MD counties that were missing a few regulars, as well as my books in North Carolina.
Now, as the owner of a marketing company (web design, and print media) I know that the majority of home buyers and sellers use the internet as their primary search method for a home, but I also know that The Real Estate Book, The Real Estate Guide, and other print media are still popular with buyers & sellers, as well as agents for advertising?
I personally think that the Books can work, if you advertise differently than the other agents in the book. Think about it! Why would a buyer or seller pick you as the agent if you had the same style page as everyone else (other than the fact that you may be the #1 or #2 agent in the area with large name recognition, or the fact that they may like a home you have advertised) Why would they pick you. If you had a page with your name, maybe a logo, 12 different listings, a web address in small font as well as your aol email address and your phone number, you would in essence have the same style page as almost every other agent in that book-it's the default style. So basically it would be a lottery of agents-maybe you get the luck of the draw this time...or maybe not.
What to do? Take a test! Pick up your local copy of that book, glance at each ad, and mark each page that stands out to you. You probably only have a handful of ad's (if that) that stand out. Now look carefully at each ad...what about it makes it stand out? Is it the background? The images? The fonts?
The Layout? The format I use for a lot of my agents who currently (or have previously) advertised in the book, is to do something different! The majority of my clients advertising in the book, are my marketing clients, whom we have designed logos, and themes for. We incorporate the theme of their advertising into the book...using the same fonts, logos, colors and more on every print & online ad. We also highlight say 3-6 listings, providing more details about those listings than most agents. Then we take a portion of that ad page, and advertise the agent. For a lot of our agents, they have just launched a new website with us, so we will take a snapshot of their website, put it on the ad, and list details about the site, and put in bold and large: http://www.gaylastrickland.com/ or something to that effect, or put SEARCH ALL HOMES ON OUR NEWLY DESIGNED WEBSITE or RESEARCH REAL ESTATE ON OUR CUSTOM DESIGNED WEBSITE. Something that is bold and will catch attention-unlike most normal ad's in the book... We make sure that the ad's make people stop flipping pages and READ! We have had a lot of success with the books with our agents who use our marketing plans.
So.... Basically, even though the books might be thinning out, it still might be a good time to advertise in them...IF you do it differently!
Final Thought... Thinking of differently, if you live in the Raleigh/Durham area, then you are more than familiar with the new Johnson Automotive Badger Commercials! This is an excellent example of doing something different than your competition! For those not familiar with the Badger commercials, let me explain: Everybody is familiar with the regular car commercial: Come on down to Big Johns new lexus dealership-we have thousands marked below invoice...blah blah blah! It's the same thing, every dealership, in every state! Well not in Central North Carolina. Johnson Automotive is doing something very unique in car dealership advertising. They have this lively badger who is dressed in an used car salesman's suit, who to say the least has an attitude, and is worried about nothing than getting you to buy a car-the typical car salesman basically...the ones we hate, who are pushy and rude and just won't give up. At the end of the commercial, the announcer says: Great Deals, Great Service, No Badgers!
Excellent, Excellent, Excellent advertising! It is done by the same company who does the geico gecko commercials. No longer does the consumer click the fast forward button on the TIVO or switch channels when this commercial comes on, but they watch, laugh, and best of all tell their friends (like I am doing now-oh and I am not looking at their website-I am giving you all of this info from the top of my head!) Its advertising that sticks! Just take a look...here is a link to a list of their commercials-watch a few, laugh & LEARN! I guarantee you will watch all of them.
What are your thoughts or idea's on What's happening with the Books? Please leave comments below or contact us directly!
David Fox,
The Real Estate Tech Desk
http://www.defpc.net/
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