Ways Media Directories Can Build Your Real Estate Business
By Lisa Wells

Property Managers and Real Estate Agents: online marketing is an incredible vehicle to drive new traffic to your real estate business, but don't forget the traditional tools that land on your target audience's doorstep every morning!  Media directories [i.e. newspaper contact lists] are a great resource for building your real estate business - here's why they are so valuable to you.

Pitch Your Property Expertise Over Sunday Morning Coffee

Let's face it, nowadays just about everyone hops online to check out the finer points of property that they're considering, as pictures tell the story better than a classified ad ever could. BUT KEEP IN MIND - your prospective buyer is usually lured online by something that peaks their interest, and nine times out of ten it's raised by something they read.  The Sunday morning newspaper's home insert fuels countless Sunday afternoon drives through neighborhoods where your property is listed.  Sure, your home visitors went online to get map directions to the property, and to check out specifics before the drive-by, but the effort may have been sparked by their daily or weekly newspaper.

More importantly, newspapers provide a excellent avenue to establish yourself as a community expert. Have you ever considered positioning yourself with your media outlets as a quotable authority on real estate, home financing, leasing options, landscaping or whatever property-related service you provide? A simple press release to papers in your region could help you gain excellent visibility and business referrals from a news article that includes your quote - and press endorsements are ten times more influential than any ad you could buy.

Promote Educational Events Within Your Local Community

Speaking of opportunities, newspapers are the perfect place to share information about your next homebuyer seminar, [held free for the community of course], on topics like obtaining financing or getting your home ready to put on the market. Most of the time, newspapers will publish your event information for free, but you might be surprised to learn that many also welcome your story suggestions and contributions on topics that appeal to their local audience.

Advertise Specialty Property  Services to Out-Of-State Audiences

Are you marketing vacation rentals or retirement communities? How about property locating services for transferring employees?  There are free places online like Craigslist where you can easily advertise in another city or state, but the biggest challenge of marketing is being in the right place at the right time with your message. For example, I wrote a blog on my dream of one day buying a home in Salt Lake City, even though I live on the other side of the country.  Can you imagine how excited I would be to find an ad for Salt Lake City ski property in my hometown paper?! 

If you are promoting property in heavy tourist or retirement areas like Florida or Hilton Head or the mountains, get the word out in the newspapers where your visitors are coming from. [Your local Convention and Visitors Bureau probably has a good idea where most of your tourism originates from if you need some help in targeting the right markets.] Differentiate yourself from the competition by being front and center for your prospects BEFORE they leave home in search of real estate.

Recruit Talent For Your Business

Growing your business doesn't only mean increasing your prospects. If you're doing a great job at that, eventually you'll need additional help. If your company is participating in a job fair, recruiting interns or posting open positions, reach out to newspapers at Universities and in smaller, nearby markets - consider weekly newspapers again as great alternatives with lower ad rates than daily papers in major metropolitan areas. A well-placed ad can translate into new talent that takes your business to new levels!

Media Directory Resources

"All right, Lisa! You've convinced me! So what's the best way to get in touch with newspapers across the country?"

Thought you'd never ask. J  You can find newspaper contact information free online by using just about any search engine, like my favorite, Google. A bunch of free websites also list newspapers by state like www.thepaperboy.com.  Free sites work great if you're contacting a small number of newspapers and you only need to look up four or five email addresses or fax numbers. Heck, you could even use the Yellow Pages.

But if you're planning a press release campaign, or if you're looking for papers outside of your local area, save yourself the time and headache in seeking them online - simply purchase a media directory that contains the Newspaper Name, Address, City, State, Zip, Phone, Fax, Email and Website information. Some even offer Circulation details as well, and that's a nice plus.

Here's a few downloadable newspaper lists to consider:

http://www.usnpl.com/ - US Newspaper List offers contact information on mailing labels that they will send to you or you can download their entire directory of 3300 newspapers for $124.95. College newspapers are not included. Their website also has direct links to individual newspaper websites in case you just want to go straight to the source.

http://us.cision.com/ - Most people in the media industry know Bacon's Directories as a household name, except now they've been acquired by CISION. The big momma of newspaper directories, Bacon's Newspaper and Magazine Directory contains information on every daily newspaper in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, all community newspapers in the U.S. and Canada, including over 18,000 trade and consumer magazines, newsletters and journals.  And you can have it all for $495.

http://www.mynewspaperdirectory.com - this one's the best bargain of the bunch. Their directories include daily, weekly, Spanish, University, Ethnic, Business and Religious newspapers. For only $39.99, you can download a list of more than 6600 newspapers from across the country. Or, you can pay as little as $7.99 for a state-specific list. They offer a secure check-out process using Paypal.

You can load these directories into your favorite email or fax-blast tool, or CRM system, or consult the list via Excel to pull out the ones you want to target with a specific announcement, ad request or press release.

Final Thought

Remember the old joke -internet listings have taken over the world, but newspapers truly are black and white and read all over .... The better you are at getting the word out about your real estate business and the property you represent, using both new and traditional media, the better sales results you'll have.

Best of luck in your sales success!

As always, information in this article is not intended to be used, and should not be used, as legal, tax or accounting advice.