The Marketing Blender

Real Estate Marketing Madness

It's March on the outskirts of Toronto, which means my mailbox is crammed with marketing materials from local real estate agents trying to get my business in the busy Spring real estate market. I've received 10 flyers in the last week alone.

And like every year, I see examples of agents who have wasted their money on ineffective marketing tactics that simply aren't going to work.

A quick sidebar for our American readers -- the real estate agents here in Canada are still enjoying record years when it comes to the housing market. And while there are some spots in the US where real estate values are falling, the challenge facing agents are the same on many levels -- to convince those who are thinking of moving to list their home with you.

It's the "convincing" part where most agents fall short.

After sifting through the flyers, I've developed some thoughts that are specific to improving real estate marketing but would be applicable to any business where the client is being asked to make a significant, high dollar purchase:

Build Trust - If you're going to get 5% of the value of my home as a commission, I'll need to trust you first. And you don't build trust by telling me your trustworthy, or that you're good.

Own the Information Advantage - To build trust, one option is to own the expert position. Share information freely with the local market (and the local media) about where the market is headed, and whether it differs from the national picture. Anyone thinking of moving craves information - how much are other homes selling for, how long they've been on the market, and so on.

Any dollar spent on marketing that doesn't work towards building trust among potential buyers is a dollar wasted because it doesn't get you closer to a sale.

While we're at it, here are some phrases I'm tired of seeing in real estate ads, and that generally don't work:

A trusted professional. Trusted? By whom? Prove it.

I get results! Good for you! Show me.

Free Home Evaluation with this coupon - I'm sure some appointments are made thanks to the free evaluation premise, but can we lose the coupon idea? Don't cheapen the experience by pretending that the unaddressed piece of paper that EVERYONE got in the mail is actually required to get a home evaluation.

Marketing messages I'd like to see more of from real estate agents:

The choice for families - Parents often worry the most about moving their kids, and what the local schools are like, etc. If you could position yourself as an expert in this area through your marketing and the client experience, you'd build a huge advantage for yourself. (Build trust as a credible source of information for families, and you're on your way...)

Your Condo Market Expert -  Know everything there is to know about maintenance fees, the makeup of certain condo buildings (demographics, etc). Position yourself as the leader in this category. (Again, building trust through shared knowledge)

25 years of serving the community - Experience is perceived as an advantage in real estate, and if you can make a claim to a long service history in a particular community, you should.

In a wide open market like real estate, where there tend to be dozens or literally hundreds of competitors in each community, positioning is critical. And proving your position goes a long way towards building your profile in the market, and building trust among potential clients.

You Just Proved Blog Advertising Works!

You’ve probably seen a similar piece of advertising on benches and other outdoor advertising spaces in your community. It’s intended to be a “gotcha” – you look over at a bench or a bus shelter, and see a message that reads something like:

“You just proved outdoor advertising works!”

This is typically accompanied by a phone number to call to advertise your business in that same space.

Clever...but not true.

Looking at an ad doesn’t mean it “worked”. (Can you remember any of the ads you saw on TV last night – you saw ads on TV, didn’t you? How come they didn’t “work”?)

Getting an ad to “work” takes a lot more than catching a fleeting glance from a passerby. The ad itself would have to be memorable, well targeted, timely, and so on. It needs to be part of a meaningful market position and/or brand message.

There is some irony in these advertising messages. Those who own the advertising space on outdoor signs and benches need to sell it to businesses to make money. So they push the concept that simply owning advertising space for your business is the key to making your advertising work.

Of course once they’ve sold the space, they’ve cashed in their chips. Whether your advertising actually works or not has no bearing on the commission they’ll make from selling you the ads.

The even greater irony – the space where they placed that clever message was clearly unsold inventory – so instead of running an ad for a paying customer, they ran their own ad to attract a paying customer.

If the ad copy read “Nobody else saw the value in buying this space – how about putting your ad here?!” – do you think anyone would buy it?

Outdoor ads on benches and bus shelters may be useful for your business, but simply having ads in high traffic areas is no indication of whether your ad will “work” or not.

The Smallest, Fastest Ad on TV

One of the hottest advertising properties these days is advertising space on a NASCAR race car. A quick look at the cars that will line up for the Daytona 500 this weekend proves the point.

Given the soaring popularity of NASCAR over the last ten years or so, it’s no surprise that companies are lining up to promote their brands with a decal or sticker on the body of one of the brightly decorated stock cars that whip around in circles a few hundred times every weekend.

The association is obvious for some companies. Bud, Pepsi, Valvoline … all of these brands are long time NASCAR sponsors, drawing on its mass appeal to drive sales for their mass marketed brands. Even Viagra sponsors a car.

So here’s my question – how much did the company pay for the small red ad in front of the tire on this car (pictured below):

When the car flies past the camera, can you even seen this ad? I can't even see it in this still picture.

I wonder what the phone call between the brand manager who bought the ad and their boss would sound like.

“Yes, we can get our ad on the car…no, not the hood….no, not the roof…..yeah it’s sort of near the tire….you can see it clearly when the car is just sitting in the pits and the camera zooms in on the tire guy….”

Here’s how I look at sponsorship marketing:

• If you have the cash and it makes sense, go ahead and plaster your brand identity on an event/concept/race car, etc
• If you don’t have the cash, don’t settle for the equivalent of buying the ad by the tire. Be a big fish in a smaller pond – as an added bonus you might find that the smaller pond is also more narrowly targeted.

 

Radio Advertising for Small Business Owners – Part 3

If you didn't catch Parts 2 and 2 in this series, you can find them in the archives on the right hand side of the blog...

So you’ve committed to a multi-week radio advertising campaign. Now what?

You’ll need to create your ad. Most stations will put the ad together for you in house, and in many cases they’ll do it at no extra charge. But…you get what you pay for.

If you opt for an in house ad produced by the station, here are some guidelines to get the best ad for your money:

Use a Popular Station Personality – instead of a nameless announcer, try to line up one of the stations regular on-air personalities to record your ad. My local sports radio station runs an ad for a shoe store featuring the popular afternoon talk show host – and it’s one of the few ads I remember because of his distinctive voice and the implied endorsement.

Use your Own Voice – you can be the star of your own radio ads, and you don’t need a great booming radio voice – but you do need character. Your voice needs to be different, folksy, friendly, deep, etc.

Be in Charge of the Message – you can’t expect the local radio station to “get” your brand message after a 3 minute talk with you. Give them any marketing materials you can to give them further insight into your brand and your target market. If you have an idea, give it to them in explicit detail. This is not intended to knock those who create ads for radio stations – it’s more a recognition that they are put in a hopeless predicament and need as much info as possible to create an ad that you’d actually want your customers to hear.

Radio can be an affordable advertising option for small businesses -- following the tips in this series will help you get your campaign off on the right foot.

Radio Advertising for Small Business Owners – Part 2

In the first part of this series on radio advertising, I talked about some high level considerations for small business owners when getting into radio advertising.

If you think radio advertising is a good move for your small business, you’ll probably find yourself talking to a sales rep. Here’s what to expect, and some tips for getting the most for your money:

Radio is sold in Bulk – a 13 week campaign is fairly standard in radio. Your sales rep will tell you that you need at least 13 weeks to break through the clutter in the market, (and they are probably right). Buying a few radio ads here and there is largely a waste of your money – success depends on repetition.

The Price is Negotiable – unsold advertising time generates exactly $0 in revenue for the station. Don’t agree to anything right away and you may find that the price for your campaign magically drops as the potential start date draws closer. I’ve seen the price drop 10% to 40% depending on the station and the amount of business you are bringing to the table.

What you get is Negotiable – if you can’t get the rep to move on their price very much, get them to give you more air time for the same price. There’s a catch here – as I told you in Part 1 of this series, ads outside of the morning and evening drive times aren’t really worth much, so don’t be fooled when the rep tries to give you a boatload of “free” ads on Sunday morning. Those ads won’t add much value to your campaign.

It bears repeating that you must get as many ads as possible from your campaign in the morning and evening drive dayparts.

More tomorrow on putting your radio ad together…

Radio Advertising for Small Business Owners – Part 1

Radio is a popular choice for small business owners who are looking to make a splash in their local market, or for those who are making their first big venture into the world of paid advertising.

Radio advertising is much less expensive than TV, but still gives your business that “as seen on TV” credibility that many small business owners are looking for.

As someone who has been pitched by radio sales reps more than once, I thought I would share some tips with small business owners about radio advertising.

First, an overview of the keys to success in radio ads:

Targeting is Key – like any form of advertising, you must consider your target market when choosing a station as a potential advertising partner. If you contact a station and speak to one of their sales reps, they’ll probably try to find out who you are targeting, and then they’ll make a case for why their station would be a great choice to help you reach your target market (side note – in many larger cities, media conglomerates now own multiple stations, so don’t be surprised if a rep steers you towards a different station than the one you called about)

Ads only Count During Rush Hour – Radio is broken up into “dayparts” – and the only dayparts that really matter are morning drive and evening drive. That’s when everyone is in their car, caught in a traffic snarl, listening to the radio as they grind their way home. During the day people are busy at work, and even with the radio on in the background they aren’t paying much attention. The more ads you get in the right dayparts, the better off you are.

Act locally, Think Globally – Radio is naturally a local medium (well, not satellite radio but that’s another story). It will perform best for you if you are promoting something that is particularly relevant for a local audience. That’s why local retailers are typically the biggest radio advertisers – chances are you know where their store is, and if you don’t, you will after the ad is over. If you are thinking of radio ads to promote a website on financial advice that has nothing to do with the city you are advertising in, you may want to reconsider your choice of medium.

More in tomorrow’s post about having that first conversation with your local radio advertising sales rep.

Super Bowl Aftermath – The Best Tire Ever?

With the SuperBowl now a few days behind us, the buzz in the advertising industry is focused on who “won” the battle of the Super Bowl Ads.

On surprising entrant into the fray was a pair of ads from Bridgestone tires.

In case you didn’t see them:

The first Bridgestone Ad is here…

The second is here…

Funny stuff for sure. I laughed out loud at the second one.

But was it worth the $2.7 million it cost Bridgestone to run these two ads on TV’s biggest day?

They certainly received plently of exposure – Sunday’s game was the most watched SuperBowl ever. And these days, the ads get all kinds of buzz and YouTube hits in the days that follow the big game.

But….I am no closer to buying Bridgestone tires today after seeing these ads. Sure, the tires have great traction, but that’s been a common angle in tire ads for years.

Come to think of it, I don’t know what brand of tires I have on my cars right now. Do you?

Buying “exposure” isn’t the right approach for every brand. Bud buys exposure, but their brand and their category relies on constant reminders of the superiority of the Budweiser name. It’s an essential part of their brand identity. They are a good fit with the mass audience that a Super Bowl attracts.

Outside of Goodyear, I don’t think many other tire companies have established a strong brand identity. And I’m not sure two (funny) ads about traction and Richard Simmons are going to change that.

When the buzz settles, perhaps Bridgestone will wish they’d run a trade promotion instead.