Real Estate Advertising - 3 Predictions for the Future
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - By: Brandon Cornett
For obvious professional reasons, I have been keeping close tabs on the real estate advertising scene for several years now. I also monitor general advancements in the real estate industry, especially as they pertain to real estate marketing and advertising. So I thought I might play Nostradamus and make a few predictions about the future of real estate advertising.
A word of clarification first. In the context of this article, "real estate advertising" refers to a real estate agent advertising his or her services. It does not refer to the advertising of a home or other property. With that out of the way, here are my real estate advertising predictions.
1. Print Advertising Will Fade Away
As consumers, we are becoming increasingly blind to traditional methods of advertising, and there is nothing more traditional than the magazine and newspaper ad. These types of publications have formed the backbone of real estate advertising in the past, but in the future I predict they will (continue to) fade away as response rates fall through the floor. Print publishers and advertising agencies will obviously dispute this, proclaiming that traditional advertising is "alive and well." But let's face it ... we have all learned how to "read around" print ads. Haven't we?
2. Direct Mail Advertising Will Plateau
Some real estate agents still get great results from their direct mail marketing programs. That's because these agents know how to use direct mail properly, by effectively combining creativity and good-old-fashioned incentives to generate a response.
But in my direct mail experience, these successful direct mail advertisers represent a minority of the real estate industry. I would go so far as stating that the majority of agents who use direct mail for real estate advertising do it far less effectively, relying on outdated tactics and weak offers. I've even written a book on real estate postcard marketing to show the ineffective majority how to join the successful minority.
There's still plenty of potential in direct mail advertising, but I see it staying where it is as a real estate advertising tool -- neither increasing nor decreasing in usage.
3. Selective Online Advertising Will Rise
Over the last 3 - 5 years, dozens of real estate search engines and self-help websites have emerged to dominate the media. You know their names -- Zillow, HouseValues, etc. These websites are run by smart individuals, and as a result they generate vast amounts of traffic. Their traffic is also clearly definable (home buyers and sellers).
As the Internet continues to grow, and it gets harder to achieve top search engine ranking, I believe more and more agents will engage in online advertising (and lead acquisition) opportunities with the big real estate sites.
I don't think these will be traditional banner ads though. At least I hope they're not, since banner ads have become invisible. I see this as a "featured agent" kind of tactic wisely based on geographical areas and other demographics.
So there you have them ... my two cents on the future of real estate advertising. I promise that if I turn out to be wrong down the road, I will publish a revised version of this article in which I honorably eat my words. But don't hold your breath.
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About the Author
Brandon Cornett is the publisher of ArmingYourFarming.com, the informative website with the funny name. For hundreds of tips on real estate lead generation, marketing and advertising, visit http://www.armingyourfarming.com
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