By Ian Grace
All too often, I see Realtors with totally different ads for the same property, in different media – they don’t even look like each other. Either that or they are too ordinary, showing yet another front of a house, with nothing memorable about it for prospects to remember.
In this case, it means that each ad must start from scratch with the prospective audience/buyers, rather than having an accumulative effect to get the best results.
Once you understand how campaign advertising taps into your prospects’ conscious and subconscious minds, to give your properties “top-of-mind awareness”, you will see how obvious and simple it is – and how amazingly powerful.
Advertising experts talk about “reach and frequency” aimed at as many OTS (“opportunities to see”) as possible for the best possible outcome. Realtors mostly just talk about writing their ad, mostly in a rush if an advertising deadline is due, or alternatively in some kind of mad rush, just to get the property on the Internet.
They would rather have a rushed, bad ad there quickly, than devoting the time necessary to put together a powerful advertising campaign. If that was done, then they would harvest the synergistic effect of getting all the media employed, to work with and complement each other, rather than having them working in isolation.
In any advertising campaign, the media planner – in this case the Realtor – selects their media by establishing how many potential prospects the particular media they are using will reach. The more specific the media the better. For example, while the Internet is available to all, in some circumstances there are luxury property Internet sites designed to attract those who have the buying power for those types of property.
Certain magazines are designed to reach only affluent readers or areas and are therefore a good media choice for a high-priced property. Realtors are fortunate because there have always been specific real estate categories in newspapers or magazines, or standalone media, unlike those available to most other products or services.
A media planner will now gauge how many times (the frequency) the prospective buyer can see the same ad, the same message. A good campaign will reach as many of the right kind of prospects as many times as possible to give them the most OTS.
Why is this important? Research over the years shows us that people need to see the same ad, the same message at least three times or more on average, before they will react to it. That’s why a carefully planned campaign will give prospects the opportunity to see the same ad (and react to the same message) as many times as possible – even 10 times or more – to catch those at the top end of the average.
A media mix advertising campaign just means a mix of different media, working with each other to give them as many opportunities as possible to see a memorable positive message that will remain in their minds. When that message is identical across different media, each time the buyer sees it, the brain remembers and immediately ties them together, giving a powerful accumulative effect to the advertising.
For example, you are sitting at home watching television and on comes a TV ad about a four-wheel- drive vehicle. If you can see the driver, you can pretty well guarantee it won’t be an 80-year-old. If the car manufacturer and their advertising agency have determined their prime market is in the 38-year age group, for example, they will go to the model agency and book a 38-year-old model, put them behind the wheel of a vehicle and away they go.
Then the ad will be repeated time and time again – there’s your frequency.
The next day when you are out driving your car, on comes a radio commercial, which is the audio part of the TV commercial you’ve seen the night before. Your brain will do an instant match and immediately recall the TV ad from the night before, showing the 38-year-old model driving and enjoying the vehicle.
The ad will be repeated time and time again – more frequency.
Next, you pick up a newspaper, magazine or perhaps flyer or direct mail. Guess what the main photograph will be? Yes, the main visual from the TV commercial that is already filed in the prospect’s brain. The minute you see the ad, your brain will bring up the TV commercial you have already seen. See how the media work together?
If the ad in the newspaper, instead of showing the visual from the TV special the night before, showed the same vehicle with a front-on shot, displaying the engine, would that have worked? I’m sure your answer will be no. It just doesn’t make sense because there is no match for the brain to recognize.
Some might argue that the ad and photograph is still aimed at selling the same vehicle. However, it may now be talking to a different audience that is more technically minded and interested in specifications. Sadly, this means that all the money invested in the TV commercial and radio commercial has now gone straight down the drain because there is no match, no recall.
Realtors have the greatest opportunity – the biggest media mix campaigns of all.
Most professional campaigns selling us products or services on a day-to-day basis have a mix of around three to four media maximum. How many media do Realtors have at their disposal? Depending on where you are you could have:
* As many as 4 different Internet sites
* Craigslist
* 1 X database e-mail
* 1 X flyer
* 1 X newspaper ad
* 1 X real estate magazine
* 1 X window display
* 1 X photo signboard
* Plus, maybe TV and/or radio
* Social media
* The list goes on…How many is that? 10, 12, 15 or more!
Imagine the power if you can harness all of those media to work with and complement each other, giving a huge amount of OTS with your campaign, with a memorable message that shows a clear picture of what living there, in that property, will do for them. Every time the prospective buyer sees the message again, it will be matched with what is already in their brain. They will become more familiar with it and it immediately gives them top-of-mind awareness of the property you are advertising.
Now you can harness the power of a media mix advertising campaign with every property you list from now on – and win every listing when sellers see you as the advertising expert in their area.
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
