Free Advertising that keeps on Giving and Giving During the Holidays and beyond!

In Nathan Cook's featured article "Newspapers-A Dying Breed: The Pony Express in Real Estate?" he stated that,

"We have all seen the 2007 stats from NAR that 84% of home buyers use the Internet in their search process. Is it time for our Real Estate industry to unsaddle our marketing dollars from the old Newspaper and mount the new power horse?   If so, "Goodbye, Mr. Newspaper" and "Welcome, Mr. Internet!"

While I whole heartedly agree with Nathan and place 90% of my marketing efforts into my online presence, I still find it useful to keep my name in the public eye via print media.  If you are at all like me, you want to make sure that you cover all the bases! I don't pay for newspaper ads but my name is constantly in our local newspaper.

In my 2 part series called 20 Tips: Fake it 'Til you MAKE it  my # 12 tip was to write articles - This is a great way to advertise for FREE! 

My husband and I don't buy or read the regional newspapers but we do tend to read our small community paper to keep in touch with what is going on in our town and surroundings, mostly because when we read it we generally know the people who the articles are about!  I also know that my friends are reading it because if they talk about something I have not yet heard I ask where they got their information and sure enough, more often than not, it is from the Baysider.

So here is an idea for you:

When you attend a real estate class, or are browsing online keep a separate piece of paper labeled "articles".  (I keep a sticky note right in Outlook that is titled "Articles".)  Write down a few topics that would interest today's consumers.  Do some additional research if necessary and start writing.  This will help you by reinforcing what you have learned as well as get your name in front of your local community. I try to have one article or market update once a week in our weekly community paper.  Sometimes upon completion of a real estate class they even provide you with a press release!  USE IT!

Think about it: 

My small local paper, The Baysider, has a circulation of 7000 per week to three towns in my market - Alton, New Durham, and Wolfeboro, NH.  I see this as a form of direct mail that would otherwise cost me $2970 a week!  Keep going!  Submit your article to multiple papers! This potentially saves you OVER $154,440 a YEAR!!!! 

Get great exposure out of your articles.  Submit them to the local paper, if appropriate to multiple papers, and then use the same article to post to consumers on your blog.  The same article will keep on giving and giving during the Holidays and beyond!

I am a proud member of the Institute of Luxury Home Marketing

Search Properties