By Ian Grace
In my advertising sessions, both face-to-face and webinars, I’m often asked about using floor plans and photography in advertising.
When people are looking to buy a new home, floor plans are always provided, even when the homes are already built. These floor plans get the potential purchasers involved as they get a feeling for where their furniture might fit and, for example, where the study might be located compared to a bedroom or perhaps entertaining areas.
But the moment that property is sold and becomes a resale property, the floor plans tend to disappear in ads selling those properties. Why?
It would seem to make sense to include floor plans to sell those properties and get the potential purchasers involved – and many progressive agents and groups are doing just that. To get potential buyers really involved, you can use interactive floor plans, with little icons in the rooms and outside. Every time an icon is clicked, it pulls up a photo or video of that room. It’s great interaction.
When it comes to photography, should you hire a professional photographer or take the shots yourself?
If you have the budget, it makes sense to hire a pro. It should guarantee the quality of the photograph – and photographers are aware of things like shade and light and the angle of the sun at certain times of the day, which will make a difference.
However, with the cameras available these days, agents can take some excellent photographs themselves. Either way, the content of the photograph is more important than just the photographic quality.
All too often I see agents focusing on high-quality professional photography that makes their ads very pretty – but sadly, if you make bad advertising pretty, all you are left with is pretty bad advertising.
My advice is to focus on correct advertising procedure first, then look at the photographic quality. That means writing the ad first, then taking the photographs to match, All too often agents and their photographers are snapping away before the ad has been created.
As I teach, photos must match headlines (and also the text, in sequence), not the other waya round. If the photo doesn’t match the headline, while the photographic quality may be perfect, the advertising certainly isn’t.
Back to the original question about using a professional photographer. You’ll notice that most of the best agents always use professional photography to maintain consistency. There may be a lesson in there for you.
If you do decide to engage a professional photographer, include the cost in your seller advertising contribution proposal and you will always know that lighting/exposures/propping and staging are correct.
One more important thing to remember: Don’t just let your photographer take photos as they see fit. Just as is done in by advertising agency, direct them. Ensure they know which photograph you need to match your headline and then your body text.
Then, they can focus on the quality of each photograph and input their own ideas and creativity, knowing what it is they have to capture.
Known internationally as “Mr. Real Estate Advertising”, Australian born Ian Grace is acknowledged as one of the world’s leading authorities on real estate advertising. Since 1994, he has delivered his programs throughout Australia, New Zealand, U.S.A, Canada and the U.K. His articles about real estate advertising have been published around the world. www.iangrace.com
