Hey guys/gals -

I am trying to come up with some low cost, effective methods of offline advertising. I think I have the internet part covered for now, 1 website and 2 blogs - but really need to amp up the offline advertising to compliment and help drive traffic towards the online part.

From what I have heard mass mailing is ineffective and costly, newspaper is ineffective these days, so I would like some ideas if you care to share with me!

Thanks!

Our local newspaper is basically worthless, but we get a lot of calls from our ads in American Classifieds, and their rates are quite reasonable.

Just run small ads for free buyer reports and/or free foreclosure list. Point it to your website, but always put the state required crap. Get them to sign up for free daily email list and farm them that way. Do the same thing on craigslist. Low cost way of getting buyers leads and some seller leads will naturally come out of it. BigC

I use a free local real estate magazine that is put on by our local newspaper. Its costly though, at around $360 a month for a full page. But, I do get at least get a call or two everyday from it with buyers looking to buy now.

Just ran an ad in American Classifieds trying to catch some holiday travelers and managed to keep it to ten words. Had readers send a text to a (FREE) text on demand system for info on a listing. Might have been more successful had I spelled the keyword correctly (duh - $50 p*ssed away). I'll be trying again a few weeks closer to Christmas because there's been a lot of discussion on classified ads and I'm willing to give it a try.

I also have ink pens advertising my down payment assistance blog that are left at schools and businesses near apartment complexes, but can't measure their return on investment yet. Next step will be to place a $100 ad in a newspaper that goes directly into the school mailboxes of nearly all of the public school teachers in Gwinnett County about "Why Now May be the Right Time to Buy." Teachers here within certain HH incomes can get $7,500 - $10K in a zero interest, zero monthly payment second mortgage to pay their down payment and closing costs.

Spending a few bucks from a recent closing so let's see how it goes.

Thanks for the ideas guys, keep em coming.

A few months ago I did a Sunday newspaper ad, advertising "Free Buyers Agent" directing people to my website. I only got 7 hits to the website Sunday so I did not feel that it was effective. Part of my problem is that I try something once, and if I dont seen any results I dismiss it and move on. I dont want to waste money on something ineffective, but am afraid that I am dismissing things to quick.

"Off-Line Advertising" reminds me that almost 20 Years ago, we ran some cheap classified ads in Yankee Magazine, Mother Earth News and some other "keeper" type magazines. These were generic ads for Mini Farms or Back-to-Nature hippie type, or "minimalist" opportunities . . . . not for specific properties. Maybe it takes 15 years for these people to save up their money for a purchase? We continued to get periodic calls 12 or 15 years later. People don't throw those publications away.

in the case of newspaper ads, I think it's money down the toilet.

online is where everything is. rather than spend money on newspapers you should spend money on ppc ads.

Thanks Perky, I always like to hear from you as I am somewhat taking your online approach to advertising - increasing online presence through multiple websites and blogs. Whats the saying? Imitation is the best form of flattery....or something?

Anywho, I am definitely going to focus most of my $$ into the online aspect, tweaking website to be interesting and informational, and developing a better SEO strategy. I just want to round out the whole pie so to speak, and get a good ground game going to compliment my online one.

That all depends on what your keyword cost are in your area. If you run ads, make sure they're a benefit to the readers or your response rate will be bad. Example- Free List of Foreclosed Homes in "Hometown Alabama" emailed to you daily! Log in to "Yoursite.com" and request your list, no obligation. Run it in the residential real estate for sale section. Also works wonders in ppc like perky-perk said IF IT'S COST EFFECTIVE. Also have it stamped on the back of your business cards. I get 2 to 3 a day signing up from a little $20 ad and craigslist. The majority of the buyers will not buy a foreclosure but will switch to another home once you find out what they are really looking for. Hope this helps. BigC

actually one of the more successful agents I know doesn't even do PPC - she has spent a lot of time and money learning and implementing good SEO = she said she hasn't done Adwords in over 3 years.

I leave my business cards on the window sill at the supermarket with other cards. I try to make mine stand out and not look like the crowd's cards. I'm going to be switching them out soon, I can get them so cheap from overnightprints.com I may get a set of winter ones.

The cheapest thing to do is commit to handing out x amount of business cards per day. Also see where else you can post flyers, leave cards behind, etc.

One of the agents in my area got a plum deal with a local bank who lets her showcase a home every week in their lobby FOR FREE and the bank has the mortgage payments calculated and other info there. Of course on the flyer for the home, the agent has her website.

Consider asking some of these places. In fact, I'm thinking of doing this myself...

Great discussion so far.

With all of the technology everywhere we sometimes forget that we need to always remember what works regardless of the marketing medium whether it be online or offline.

Here is something that worked for me last year and anybody can do it for very low cost:

Here is a little system that anyone can implement very easily into their business. This little system accounted for 3 transactions for me last year for a total of $16,324 in commissions, not bad for just a few minutes of work. In addition to the commissions, I also generated several very good leads in the process.

I went to the owner of a full service car wash, one of those that have the guys with the towels at the very end hand drying every last drop of water off of your car. The kind you regularly see some of the nicest cars in the area pulling out of. Now, I went to the one in my market where I spend a lot of money and have met the owner on several occasions while my car was being washed, but you can do this with any car wash.

I asked the owner if he would be interested in doing a joint venture that would be a win-win for both of our businesses. If he would have his guys at the end of the car wash place my fliers on the dashboard as they were wiping it off, I would give away whatever he would like to my customers at closings, open houses, on website offers, etc. He quickly agreed to give me these wooden tokens for a free car wash, a whole bucket of them!

Not only did I hand them out, my customers and clients loved me for giving them a free car wash and my friend, the car wash owner loved me because he could see the influx of people choosing his car wash and a large percentage of them weren't taking the standard car wash but upgrading to a higher dollar wash for 3-6 more dollars.

And the icing on the cake, after doing this for less than 1 year, I have closed 3 transactions as a result for a total of $16,324 in commissions. Imagine if I had just 3 or 4 other car washes doing this as well which I am going to work on!!

Try it!!

I remember you telling us about that before. Too bad we don't have one of those around here.

Happy Thanksgiving,

I think that there are two ways to go about doing off-line advertising; one way is to put your ads in newspapers and magazines or to give out flyers and business cards within your targeted area. This method can give you some short-term results, but you need to repeat it often in order to catch the attention of all the new people who enter the market. Another way is to do ads that have a more long-term effect which are probably going to be more expensive, but might be worth it if it helps people remember you when they need real estate services later on. You might consider renting some billboards around your town or start an ad campaign with your local radio and TV stations, you could also make some promotional items like key chains, pens, magnetic buttons, or even small calculators that have your name and website address printed on them and pass them around within your community. If you are targeting certain groups like teachers or hospital workers then you might want to make a nice poster and ask the person in charge in your local school or hospital (or any other large establishments in your town) to put them in their glass covered bulletin boards so that they will stay there for a long time.


Irregardless of what method of advertising you choose or whether you do it online or off-line you still want to make sure that you have a good web address (domain name) that you can use in your ads or on your business cards. Nowadays domain names are as important (or maybe even more important) than the way you dress or the kind of car you drive. I hate to say this, but I have noticed that a lot of agents don’t put too much importance on their web address, a domain name is like a store sign and is usually the first thing that people notice before they meet you in person. You want to make sure you choose a domain name that is easy to remember and that is considered by people to be the logical choice for what they are searching for as far as being related to your field and the area that you cover. A good domain name can give your website a sense of authority and will be easier to promote especially if it includes the name of your town (example: CityName+NewHomes).

IMO


(This post is not meant as professional or legal advice)

Kalli, I'm with you, I try something once or twice and if it doesn't work, I abandon that. No patience for wasting money.

I did stick with the local free classified paper for awhile, I only got a handful of calls from that. I think people read the little ads and not the big ones, so maybe a little 'services' ad would be more effective than advertising listings.

I wouldn't do a mass mailing, the contact rate is abyssmal. I know an agent who even bought the folding machine and spent a bunch of $$$ on mailings. He's hanging it up at the end of the year.

One thing a friend does that I will do is put a tip schedule on the back of your business card, people would be more likely to hang on to it if there was something useful on it.

There is a local Realtor that put some "important numbers" on the back of their card, but how often does someone call the garbage pick up guys?

As far as the newspaper goes, my local fish wrapper is claiming success with banner ads on their site. Subscriptions are down, but online membership is rolling up quickly.

I don't agree with leaving your cards on business window sills and such, that seems like littering to me and that isn't the impression I want to give.

Those insurance company ads about doing the right thing have had my thinking lately. everyday, we have the opportunity to catch people doing something good, how about rewarding them for it? I don't know what the "prize" is going to be yet, but a few thoughts, a candy bar, a scratch it lottery ticket, a coupon to a coffee place - something - with your business card attached. Hand that to someone doing a good deed, think they won't remember you? I know I would. That could be pretty inexpensive.

Of course, nothing replaces face to face interaction.

"Of course, nothing replaces face to face interaction."

I spend about 40 bucks a month with a direct mail campaign.I target mainly commercial and land listings.So I drive around and find the best listings that were not marketed correctly or the timing has just become right to sell whereas before the surrounding projects were not built up yet to a point for the seller to get there price yet.

This is one of the key components to listing land is TIMING.Some broker might here a whisper of a Publix going in and want to list land around it.The inexperienced broker doesn't know that developers,principals,and investors will not want to buy surrounding land for full value and will only want to LANDBANK at a reduced value and hold.Until the development for Publix for instance has been passed through any annexation and zoning issues,plans have been approved,and Publix has signed a committment letter for the project,and the sign has went up and ground has been broken then the value is not realized until that point where surrounding sellers will get top dollar.

I do mailings and people return phonecalls.The listings are usually great for me because they are on main road frontage and my signs get anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 possible vehicle impressions daily.

I started in residential years ago but with my business background I couldn't stand the residential side,weird hours,and PITA sellers.I love commercial as it's all about negotiation and numbers and emotions play a very small factor.

Super makes some good points, as commercial is a different breed of cat.

i.e. the leaving cards on window sills - the store allows it and lots of people do it. If the store didn't want them there they'd throw them out.

I'm trying an experiment. I bought magnet calendars, the kind you put your business card on. Cute calendars, full of home-owner tips and investor tips. Ran an ad in a local realty magazine with coupon for free calendar on request. I'll see if I get any results from this. Calendars cost about 50 cents each, and all my prior buyers and sellers will get one as well. I've noticed the retention rate for these magnet calendars is really great...people put them on their refrigerators and keep them all year. I think it's money well spent.

Hmm - interesting idea, neudot -

have you considered going door to door and handing out the calendars (and making note of the name and address of each one that accepts?)

I'll be curious to hear what your response rate is.

Giving away calendars is a great idea, but promotional items like disposable pens or cheap magnetic calendars work best only if you give them away to a lot of people (1000+). If you are going to do it in a more targeted campaign through coupons then you probably need to give away more expensive and better quality calendars otherwise they might get disappointed after going through the trouble of sending in the coupons. IMO



(not meant as professional or legal advice)

Oh, don't forget that Old Republic (ORHP.com) and other companies offer free promotional stuff for agents. Old Republic has door hangers, preprinted newsletters that can be modified to include your contact info and other stuff.

Also, there's Lowes REALTOR® Benefits with free stuff and REALTOR.org has a number of affordable toolkits for us. Free or affordable is what I'm looking for.