No matter how good an ad you create, if it reaches the eyes or ears of people who aren’t interested in or capable of buying your offering your efforts are wasted. That’s why media selection is so essential to good real estate marketing.
For example, suppose that you have a listing for a home that has specially built wheel chair access, an elevator, and is on a golf course. There are only a very few people out there that are golfers who have the need for wheelchair accessibility and the assets required to buy a home with an elevator. If you place your ad in a publication that predominantly reaches 20-somethings who are starting new families, you can bank on little to no response to your efforts.
On the other hand, if you place your advertisement in golf publications, or if the golf course is private and you advertise in the monthly newsletter or send direct mailers to the membership list, your marketing message will immediate reach those in your target audience. Even better, if you learned of a magazine with that counts a good many handicapped golfers among its subscribers you could safely bet your advertising dollars on the publication to serve as an ideal vehicle for sharing the targeted benefits of your listed property with the perfect target audience for this home.
Real Estate Marketing Tip:
The key to effective media placements is to know:
- The profile of the target prospect you’re trying to reach, including the prospect’s geographic location, demographic facts (including age, gender, ethnicity, income level, education level, marital status, household size, and other facts), and lifestyle characteristics including personal interests and activities, behavioral patterns, and beliefs.
- How well the media vehicle you’re considering reaches your target audience. If you’re targeting families with young children with income levels of $75,000-plus, ask the media representation what percentage of the publication’s audience matches that description. The answer will help you determine the effectiveness of the ad buy.
Converting Ad Interest to Action
Your ads need to include a response mechanism. This is a fancy way to say that you need to tell people what to do next and how to do it. Every single communication – whether through an ad, a mailer, a Web site visit, an open house, or any other outreach effort – needs to include a call to action that motivates prospects to take the next step by providing you with an e-mail address, home or work mailing address, phone number, or some other way that you can be in contact.
To generate responses and harvest prospect information consider the following ideas:
- Invite ad respondents to call or go online to request free reports on such attention-getting topics as “Ten Mistakes Sellers Make When Selling a Home” or “Ten Tips for Buying Property Under Market Value.” You’ll gain names and mailing addresses as a result.
- Use call capture technology to harvest information on prospects requesting information about properties you have listed or are featuring in your marketing. Call capture allows you to promote a toll-free number that prospects can call for pre-recorded information on a property. When they do, the technology grabs the caller’s phone number and sends it to you within minutes so you can call them back. It’s truly a brilliant innovation for lead generation.
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