As I was preparing my 2008 business plan and budget, I continue to be amazed that I was considering "throwing out" all print advertising. Some of the magazine ads that I have placed in the past have been fruitful (at best) but the newspaper has been a total disaster.
In the past year and a half, I have placed approximately 25 display ads and have received 0 calls. That's a 0 as in zero. Talk about a bad return on your marketing dollar. My basic theory when trying to sell houses is exposure creates demand and demand creates value. If the exposure is so minimal (newspapers), their cannot be any demand, no demand means no value.
My dilemna is not unique and because of this, I am hereby announcing that I do not plan on spending another nickel on newspaper advertising in 2008. The internet is just too powerful and in my estimation a better return on the precious investment dollar.
Here are several advantages that the internet has over any print media (specifically newspapers).
The internet is:
- world wide
- local (even targeted)
- less rigid/ more flexible
- perpetual (the same message can be seen over and over)
- more timely (especially with blogs) and less reliant on deadlines
- more colorful (assuming you have a color monitor)
- less bureacratic (you don't have to worry about editorial guidelines)
- more dynamic (RSS feeds will change the internet as we know it)
- more creative (newspapers have looked just about the same for the last 100 years)
- not going away
Wow! Looking at the bullets above just confirms my decision. The internet makes so much more sense and dollar for dollar is a much better value.
The latest stats from the National Association of Realtors are so compelling that I have no idea why so many real estate agents are not focusing their marketing on the internet. Did you know that over 92% of all active buyers start their search on the internet (source- NAR).
Goodbye newspapers!!!
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Print is dead. I like the look, feel and smell of newsprint, but I'm not going to spend any money on it for my business.