Old Habits Die Hard -- Print Advertising (agent, Realtors, broker)

[Captain Bill]

For discussion purposes:

Here are the statistics from a survey in Real Estate Advertising 2007 titled Print Fading But Realtors Still Use It. This survey was published in a Business Broker newsletter.

• 17.2% advertising budget on their own web sites
• 14% on fliers, yard signs and billboards
• 12.5% on direct marketing
• 11.2% on print ads in local newspapers
• 9% on print ads in local niche publications
• 7% on local-search advertising
• 6.9% on ads and national regional online services.
• The remainder is on local online niche publicatons, online local newspapers and other ad media

If we look at the change in the way people find their homes, that I posted in a separate thread then it's showing that those who change their advertising methods to go with the way people are searching will be left behind.

My thought on this is that we must have a mix of internet and print media. The print media must be very selective and tested for results. If it's not producing results for the agent and his/her clients, then the marketing should be revised.

While I am quite heavily involved in internet marketing, I believe I have a long way to go to keep up with the changes in a cost effective manner.

[palmcoasting]

I think, in my area, that it's important to keep up, especially at this time, with the print advertising. I think you'll see the ratio turn more in your favor. With less and less people advertising in print, instead of there being hundreds of ads there are 100 and you get a lot more action out of it than in the past.