I'm going through the motions of throwing together four 1/2 page color ads for the local newspaper to run while I'm out of town for the next month. We spend almost $1000 a month for newspaper because our sellers think it will get their home sold. If truth be told I'm lucky if I get one call or e-mail a week from our newspaper ads.

The web on the other hand up until recently was almost free for me. I did my own sites and had hosting for $4.00 a month. It was good for 20 - 40 calls and e-mails a day.

My ads look great but don't say much. Is there anything I can say in my ads other than

"Here is my phone number, web address and the 5 homes I am featuring this week"?

I usually also add any info on open houses that we will be holding that week.

It certainly seems like a waste of time and money.

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If you use a shot gun approach to marketing your product the newspaper may work for you but I find you can do a better job of targeting your audience using a rifle approach on the web

Newspapers alone will not work for you.

Same is true about any advertising/marketing.

What does your marketing plan say about this? What is the way that you get the majority of your leads? Why aren't you spending more money there?

These are just some simple questions to ask yourself when doing any advertising.


Aaron

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Yes, there is in fact quite a few different things you can do. I was in the mortgage industry for longer than I care to admit, and one of my main passions of study at the time was marketing on a budget.

in other words, my primary way to generate leads for myself as a loan officer, was to learn how to generate home buyer and seller leads than any of the real estate agents I worked with, and then instruct them on how to do the same... It paid off in a much bigger way than I ever imagined.

Here are a few pointers:

Newspaper marketing worked best with the small 2 line text classifieds instead of the large 1/2 page+ ads: "Great ranch home on pretty tree lined street, 2 fireplaces, finished basement, 3 car garage. Call for more info 800-000-0000" worked far better than any full page ads we put out there.

The reason is that first and foremost, we could choose target counties (I had the agents I worked with choose only the hottest counties statistically) to run the ad in, and pay less for the ad, and second, the ads were $50 - $90 each, so we could run 5 or 6 of them all targeting different niche markets.

The results were minimal if you're looking at it from a volume standpoint. But the 10 - 15 calls we would get off each ad were very interested prospects. I mean, they'd have to be to browse through the boring old text only classifieds right? We ran the ads on Wed and Sat/Sun.

Now, on to the next topic... The internet.... I showed the agents in my area how to really kick Craigslist ads into overdrive. It's free, it's simple, and if you master syndication tools, you can have your ad appearing on dozens of sites in mere hours... The bottom line is you must look at the buying habits of your target market... Where are they going to fins their homes?

Statistically, over 84% of all individuals who bought a home last year used the internet to help find that home. I'm sure you were already aware of this, but most individuals have not mastered the art of targeting their niche just yet.

I am curious though, once you know where to go to find your buyers and sellers, do you have a reason for them to call you? Are you using call capture lines? Calls to action? Is there any particular reason why they should call you over your competition? I hope I covered some useful points.

Chad Weber - Lead Movers

Why use the newspaper when you can have a much more targeted campaign on line?