News Paper Advertising REALLY?

“The last time I read a news paper I was cracking my buggy whip and looking for fresh ground to plant my claim flag.”

All kidding aside, one of the challenges I see today in the world of Real Estate is based on how we market and where we market. I was in a meeting not too long ago where we had Windermere Owners trying to figure out the spend in a local news paper and I asked the question why?  The response I got was “The sellers want it, it still helps us get listings.”  I understand that thinking on the surface but if we dig deeper why does the seller have this perception that advertising in a news paper helps to sell their home. In my opinion the dollars used for that spend could have such greater impact if used elsewhere.

So what is the solution, it starts with educating the messenger. That would be the Realtor, in this day and age you have to be able to articulate your marketing program and why you do what you do and why your program limits the amount of traditional marketing and focuses more on the Internet and social marketing.

Here are some graphs to better articulate what is happening to the eyeballs in the world of print.

As you can see from the data above the drop in readers and the increase in  Internet marketing is making the newspaper a tool of the past. I get it however it is hard to not use the paper if you do not have a good grasp of what your going to replace it with. You may want to read one of my older posts where I explain the power of craigslist and  how Windermere is shifting our thinking and doing more with listing syndication and less with print advertising. It is really up to you the agent to use tools that you have today like, Google Analytics, Ubadoo/Listing express reporting tools, to help your clients understand where the best placement of their listing should be. You also will find that your spend will be less but with much greater impact and the traffic is actually trackable.

Also please let me know where we can do a better job of helping you better understand how to use these tools in your business.