As an Agent for Coldwell Banker Gundaker one of our major points of differentiation has been the large amount of print advertising that we have each week. We have had major advertising in the St. Louis Post Dispatch. A double page spread of color homes ads in the middle of the real estate section of the Sunday paper, the back page on the real estate section had color pictures of our more expensive listings, and the front 2 pages had a list of all of our open houses for that day.
Unfortunately due to the continued rising costs of the advertising, even as the circulation numbers go down and recent unfounded and biased attacks against full service real estate companies by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Coldwell Banker Gundaker has decided to greatly reduce the advertising. No more lists of all the open houses, ads only 3 weeks a month, and most ads Black and White instead of color.
One of the explanations given to the agents about this reduction is that 80% of advertising budget was going to print advertising, a medium that is producing less and less results compared to internet advertising. I do have to agree, I usually had a home listed in the coor post ad every week and I almost never received a call from this ad. On the other hand, I receive lots of calls from my listings on the internet.
The main purpose for the Ads in my opinion was to show them to sellers and make them feel good. This is with out a doubt what I used the color Ads for. My sellers loved to see them and they felt that they were getting a service that other companies in our area did not offer. I will greatly miss these ads and I feel that it will hurt my listing presentation, but I do understand why our industry is moving away from these incredibly expensive print ads that are exposed to less and less people, and are less and less effective.
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