Category Archives: Advertising

Your Direct Marketing Testing Checklist

In my last post, I discussed why you should test your marketing materials and how you shouldn’t presume to know what your market wants - you should let them tell you. In this post, I’ll talk about the many parts of your ad you can test to improve response rates.

Advertising, Direct Response

A Real Estate Agent’s #1 Marketing Mistake: Not Testing

Many real estate agents are marketing dabblers. They try something (put up a website, send out postcards, advertise in the local paper, run a tv or radio spot, send a newsletter, etc), see it doesn’t work as well as they’d like, then move onto something else. They never stick with it, nor do they ever […]

Advertising, Direct Response

The 4 Types of Direct Marketing Offers

In my last post, I outlined what an offer is and some common mistakes real estate agents make when crafting their offer. In this post, I’ll talk more about the four types of offers: soft, hard, negative and deferred.

Advertising, Direct Response

Why Offers are Key to Your Direct Marketing Success

You’ve probably gotten mailings that tell you things like:

“You may have already won $10 million.”
“Buy one - get one free.”
“Free personal organizer when you subscribe to our magazine.”
“Call today for your free cd.”
“Bring in this coupon and save $25 on purchases of $75.”

Advertising, Direct Response

What is Direct Response Advertising?

In my last article, I described how most people advertise and some of the problems with it. In this article, I’ll talk more about the components of direct response advertising.
The entire point of direct response advertising is to get the prospects that are most likely to buy your services to take a desired action. Here’s […]

Advertising, Direct Response

Why Isn’t Your Advertising Working?

With this post, I’m going to start a series on direct response advertising and why it is superior to traditional advertising (aka image advertising or institutional advertising). Direct response is a concept that you can apply to your advertising, mailings, website and virtually every promotion you do that is specific and measurable.

Advertising, Direct Response

Position Yourself As the Real Estate Agent of Choice

The biggest reason most real estate advertising fails is because the agents don’t do their research first. Rather, they look at what all the other agents in the market are doing and try to copy them. In advertising, the person who’s first has the advantage. Everyone else - all the “me too’s” - has to […]

Advertising, Branding/Positioning

Which Is Better: Image or Direct Response Advertising?

It’s no secret that real estate agents rely on advertising and mailings for much of their promotions. Yet few agents have a strategy for their advertising and mailings. They simply want to get their name out there and hope and pray that someone, somewhere will respond to their promotion.
There are two basic types of […]

Advertising, Direct Response, Lead Generation

Do You Have A Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?

“Why should I choose you?” It’s the question in the minds of each prospect that talks with you. How do you differ from other real estate agents and why will that difference help your prospect buy or sell a home? This is what marketers call a Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

Advertising, Marketing

What Is the Difference Between Features and Benefits?

You’ll often hear marketers tell you to focus on benefits not features when describing your services. This is because people don’t buy or value features. They value how those features can enhance their lives - or the benefits.
Features are the characteristics or attributes that physically describe your service. In real estate, the […]

Advertising, Marketing