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Getting out of newspaper advertising? Do agents and local businesses buy these ads any more?

Pete Flint, Real Estate Pro in San Francisco, CA
Written by Pete Flint, Real Estate Pro in San Francisco
September 9, 2008 7:08 AM Agent2Agent
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I wrote a blog post a few days ago on the changes in real estate advertising for newspapers and was asked for the same views for automotive and recruitment. It might be helpful to understand if some of the changes are economic or driven by changes in media consumption.
I've added them below - they show a dramatic change in advertising spend over the last decade.

Are you buying ads in newspapers any more? If so, what for and why?

(spend for automotive and recruitment is in thousands, format is different than in real estate above, ie around $600m spend per qtr for all three categories)

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Comments

By Tim Cohn,  Tue Sep 9 2008, 07:30
Wow... three chart troughs cannot be good news. Thanks.
By Fran and Rowena,  Tue Sep 9 2008, 07:36
Absolutely we are still buying ads in newspapers. Yes, readership is down. But, we feel it's the concept of "out of sight, out of mind". If you aren't advertising in newspapers, magazines, etc. then you are missing venues where the public expects to see you, and confirm that you are a working real estate agent.

And, if you don't have a property to advertise --- advertise yourself!
By Carlos,  Tue Sep 9 2008, 12:16
From my experience, for the amount of money needed to invest into newspaper ads, and for the response you actually get...I have noticed you can do 3 times as much online with 5 times more response.

Carlos
http://www.shortsalesforrealestateagents.com
By David Craig,  Tue Sep 9 2008, 14:56
Our office and me personally continue to advertise both in our community newspaper and the county-wide paper. My experience is that the return on investment for this advertising (as far as we can measure) is not sufficient to justify the cost. That said, we continue doing it mostly for the benefit of our sellers, who want to see tangible evidence of our marketing efforts. And, as was pointed out by Fran and Rowena, it does help to maintain a "presence." As for directly measurable results, not worth it.

By Kathy Murray,  Tue Sep 9 2008, 21:54
Newspapers are just branding opportunitiesl. People either find the neighborhood and then look on the internet or find the house then drive the neighborhood. Showcase your listings on the internet...spend your money on your local news online version.
By Pete Flint,  Sat Sep 13 2008, 09:40
Thanks everyone.
It was interesting to hear your comments.

Trulia launched a local real estate advertising product designed for professionals a few months ago to help deliver great return on investment on Internet advertising. You can find out more here: http://www.trulia.com/truliapro/ it's $29/month for an annual subscription. Agents and local businesses are using it to feature their listings and promote their personal brand via "spotlight" ads to the 5m monthly users of Trulia.

I would be interested in hearing any comments on the product. How does this stack up against other online and newspaper advertising options?
More here: http://www.trulia.com/truliapro

By Cindi Hagley, Windermere Welcome Home,  Sat Sep 13 2008, 21:40
Newspaper is dying a slow and painful death.....it provides great leads for sales people for other ineffective forms of advertising: glossy real estate magazines, yellow pages, etc....
By Daniel,  Wed Oct 1 2008, 12:38
The internet is now the king, there's so much wider exposure

http://www.seek4home.com
REAL ESTATE CLASSIFIEDS AND LISTINGS
By Daniel,  Wed Oct 1 2008, 12:38
Just look at Trulia.com as an example, beats newspaper classifieds out to a degree.
By Ruth @ Trulia,  Wed Oct 1 2008, 13:00
Hi Pete,

I had the pleasure of watching Matthew Ferrara give a dynamic presentation at last month's Coldwell Banker Michigan conference in Lansing. The first thing he did was ask the attendees to make a list of traditional real estate tactics they continue to practice although the tactics are not effective. Newspaper ads were at or near the top of every single list. He spent some time digging into the negative effects of spending time and money on ineffective marketing. Ultimately, he said agents should flat out refuse to list their sellers' homes in the newspaper.
By Wayne Auld,  Thu Oct 2 2008, 02:36
I recently spent $1,200AUD (ABOUT $1,000USD) on a two week half-page Agent Profile add in a widespread North Shore newspaper. The result? One phone call from another Agent with for the same Company, proof itself that newspaper advertising is terribly over rated!
By Perry Wong,  Wed Oct 8 2008, 01:36
Here in Silicon Valley so much information is available online, and everyone so tech-savy, the newspaper seems archaic. The only time I advertise in the local paper is in the open house guide. I poll open house guests as to how they found the open house and very few, if any, are from the open house guide - newspaper. Also, some of the major real estate companies have shifted their newspaper presence (from full page ad) over to the web.
By Jeff Konstant,  Wed Oct 8 2008, 05:30
I believe it all depend on the market you are in. I suspect that what most of you are saying is correct in the more traditional markets and in medium to large metro areas. I work in a rural area and just outside the entrance to a huge resort that averages more than a million cars coming through the entrance each month. Many of the vacationers are not coming wired and those that do are not spending their time looking for homes online while they are here. The local paper, real estate magazines and the resorts own publication remain a very important tool for us.

We also advertise in our local daily, the homes we have identified fit the bill for the first time buyer. Since our paper is not enormous, advertising does not get lost and people still read them. By design we try to capture the couple sipping their morning coffee, reading the paper before work or those reading it after work. Yes they also capture buyer leads.
By Jeanne Feenick - New Jersey,  Tue Oct 21 2008, 21:14
Yes, we continue to advertise in print - primarily Open House ads for our Sunday Open Houses. Having said that, we know that traffic to our listings and our Open Houses is not coming from those ads. In large part, we do it to satisfy the sellers who find it hard to accept not being advertised in print. I see it continuing to erode and as it does, internet advertising taking over. In realty, the internet has already taken over. I always ask Open House guest how they learned of the Open House and the response is consistently either (1) online; or, (2) by following the directional signs. It is rare, very rare, that a visitor will credit their awareness to the newspaper ad.
By John Smith,  Wed Oct 22 2008, 06:44
hmmm. Yes, we do advertise in the Newspaper, but we take a slightly different slant than most. We start out our strip ad, with a short, topical paragraph, a short classified blog, if you will. with comments on the market, the area, something humorous, THEN, short paragraphs about the properties and times. By doing the ads on-line, we avoid the annoying, timeconsuming back and forth with the undertrained staff at the newspaper. Then we cut out ALL the classified ads for the area, and do a local flyer, on colored paper, and hand them from our directional signs. This both attracts attention, and informs people of the opens. This only works in 'walking' neighborhoods of course. But it is so effective, that everyone knows our team brand.

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