A few months ago I was approached by a state Realtor association - New York, maybe. Well, it wasn't actually the association; it was the marketing firm for the association, trying to sell me ad space in their magazine.
The nice man with the heavy New Yawk accent threw out a bunch of numbers and statistics and options, trying to entice me to spend several thousand dollars advertising in the magazine. Readership, distribution and such. Oh, several thousand dollars is out of your budget? Okay, well, we also offer very effective classified ads for a fraction of the cost (but still several hundred for a 3-line ad or something like that).
Okay, well... I've spent a lot of money on advertising in my life and I can honestly say that NONE of it has worked for me. In fact, it's rare that it even pays for itself, much less generates a profit. But, hey, I'm open to new venues for business, so I made this proposal to Mr. New Yawker:
"Sir (okay, I didn't really call him sir), I'd be happy to give your magazine a try, but I don't have that kind of budget to risk and in my experience, print advertising is a waste of money. But if you're sure that an investment in your magazine will pay off for me, how about you run an ad for me for a few months and if it generates business for me, I'll be delighted to pay for it. And, obviously, if it's producing results, I'll continue paying for it."
Well, as you can imagine, that didn't fly. Didn't expect it to, but thought I'd give it a shot.
I guess when you work in an industry where you only get paid if you perform; you're much less excited to pay upfront for something that might NOT perform. And, since so much advertising simply doesn't work, I'd love to see the marketing/advertising industry adopt a policy of showing US the money before asking for ours...
Crazy? Maybe. But I'm from Missouri - the Show Me State!
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It's amazing the calls we are getting for print medium, Internet you name it advertising! I have found advertising is very important in establishing name recognition and validity of my services but I am selective in where I choose to spend my advertising dollars!
Jennifer,
I love your response. When I was much younger, and a real estate developer, someone cold-called my office with the sales pitch "This will absolutely pay for itself!" "Sir," I said, "That's good to hear. I'll tell you what. When it's paid for itself, bring it right over."
Mike in Tucson
Mike - Exactly!! It's funny how these guys claim that advertising in their magazine, on their website, whatever will change my business, but they aren't willing to risk THEIR precious ad space proving it to me. And believe me, if it works, I'll buy me some more of it!! I'm not stupid...
Dorie - I'm learning that being "selective" pretty much means Just Saying No!
Thanks for the information in your post. I look forward to reading tomorrow's content
Hey Jennifer, couldn't agree with you more, in fact, we have done what you proposed with the same response! Funny....
There are any number of ways that people try to get Realtors to pony up with our hard earned dollars. It's as though we make so much that we just don't know were to give it first. Your response is definitely something I will use in the future. Thanks Jennifer
Love your response to him. And if you never saw any results from local advertising, why would you expect to see results from advertising in NY? I thought the mass exodus out of NY was 7-8 years ago (I know they all headed to Jersey around then).
I've been tempted to consider doing some advertising once I get some money, but the agents in my area that are doing the most business rarely advertise, and the ones that do advertise are struggling. It's almost like the busy agents don't have the time to sit down with an ad guy and come up with an ad, while the slow agents have all of the time in the world to waste desiging page ads and having their pictures plastered all over the place.
Oh, the thought of my face on a billboard *shudder*!
I'm with you all the way here. These calls can be very conscending at times.
Yesterday, Realtor.com called me AGAIN. His attitude this time is NOT GREAT. You could almost tell he didn't want to be there.
Your post has inspired a post for a Friday rambling.
I LOVE that come back! I may use it next time some one tries to "sell" me!
Gee...WE operate like that...why can't they do it too???
We list homes and put in time and money for Open Houses, etc......
THEN when and if the home comes to closing...we get paid....
Ya think they would understand that....
hehehehehe..
;-)
Come'on... "its how we've always done it.".... not. These ads are not for selling real estate... they are for generating money from Realtors. And so many of them will do this purely for vanity reasons or "monkey see, monkey do" marketing plans that have no realy understanding of business, marketing or customers.
Now... if he had been a quick thinker with some authority and a product he really knew would change your business, he could have done it contigent....
$X per month now OR....
Free for 2 months but Double $X per month for every month after that.
Like a Realtor, he could take the early risk but for a deferred hight potential return later!
Peace!
I like your response, ha! Print advertising has not worked for me either, I think it's a waste of money. I think more agents carelessly spent their money on print advertising in the past but now that the market is tougher, agents are paying more attention to their ROI and where their money is going.
I find no ROI in print advertising. Many agents in my office are stuck on it simply because they don't want to take the time to educate themselves or their clients about where the buyers are looking. Now what about the guys who keep calling wanting me to pony up $75 a month to put my on the first page of Google? or the company that called me to tell me they would optimize my blog and the first six months was free. They simply wanted me to blog at least twice a week and post to my blog through them. The catch, if I didn't want to pay after six months, they would "sell" my blog to another agent and that meant my copy. And I would sign up why????? I will keep my $s and my blog content too!
I get those calls very frequently. I have also tried the commission line, I don't get paid unless and until the house gets sold - so how about you run the ad for me until the house gets sold and if it doesn't you don't get paid at all (just like me). That doesn't usually fly either, but it was worth a try!!.