This week I was given a new duty at work. I’ve been put in charge of the ad listing for a local real estate guide. It’s a two page color ad featuring all new listings and old listings ( on a rotating basis). My experience has been solely based on online marketing to this point, so I’m excited to see what print advertising will be like. Since I’m young,
I often find myself running around trying to figure out things that older people can easily do and they are running around doing things that I can easily do. For example, I can barely send a fax because I never had to do it before and everyone else doesn’t know how to use email effectively because they never had to before. But like anything, I’m sure print advertising can be mastered.
So the first thing I did was I read through a couple old issues of the real estate guide. Picked out certain things I liked and certain things I didn’t. One thing that is not happening right now is symmetry between the online website and our print listings. Century 21 Canada offers the ability to link directly to the listing page of the property by using the property number. For example, http://www.century21.ca/100392482 Will take you to a page that will offer you the ability to see more pictures, information, directions etc.
This will allow for a short print description that is often squeezed too tightly with information. Right now nobody is using this listing feature in our office. But another local real estate company is doing it in their ads. Another thing I noticed was there were two sides of a duplex listed in the same guide in different ads. Why not just have one listing for the two of them. These are just some basic things I want to implement.
I know a lot of people say that Print Ads are dead but I think they will always have a place in real estate. If the consumer is not 100% sure in what you want, print offers a great way for introduction to your products. Once they know what they want, I believe you have to make it easy for them to access through the web. And that is what I am going to try and do. The print ad is not dead...yet.
I’ll keep you updated on how it goes.
Robert
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Good luck robert, and congrats on learning something new.
I have found it generally cost me $500 per call i recieve from print ads, and the fact the lowest quality of leads come from there as well. Not to say it can't work, it just has not for me and I avoid doing them like the plague.
Die already print ads!
Now that I think of it, I have not a bought a newspaper in over a year, maybe longer. I really can't remember.