Real estate magazine use

[NealRM]

How many of you out there run ads in a real estate magazine? The one I'm talking about are the magazines and newspapers that can be picked up free at the grocery store.

If you do

1. What would prompt you to run more ads / pages.
2. How can the submiting of a magazine ad be made easier for the realtor

If you do not use magazines, what are the reasons why?

Thanks,

[coastal]

I don't personally run ads in local rags but my parent company sometimes does and often includes my listings. We have a full time marketing person take care of ad insertions and a local art department. It makes it VERY easy :-)

I do run my own 1/2 page color ads in the weekly newspaper. It's a pain to update the ad every week and upload it to the newspaper. I could spend an afternoon and do the ads for the next month if I knew exactly which homes would sell and which ones would not but my crystal ball has been a bit off lately.

[judyo]

I feel print advertising is a dying breed. I get less & less response to it then ever before. However, it's a tangible marketing tool that sellers still want, even when I explain the dismal response from the homes magazines or our local papers. Our office takes care of the submitting although I have to provide a write-up which isn't difficult.

[KarenR0823]

I no longer run 1/2 page or full page ads in the magazines. My company runs a 2 page ad every month and just to satisfy my clients I put their homes in the company ad. $20 is a lot cheaper than $500

Print advertising is all but worthless anymore. Most of my advertising dollars go into my website and internet advertising.

[kyle422]

I no longer run 1/2 page or full page ads in the magazines. My company runs a 2 page ad every month and just to satisfy my clients I put their homes in the company ad. $20 is a lot cheaper than $500

Print advertising is all but worthless anymore. Most of my advertising dollars go into my website and internet advertising.

That has been my business model for quite a while, but lately I'm trying to get more local recognition with print advertising. Internet buyers are great but I need more listings.

[NealRM]

Thank you for some very interesting responses. I agree that newspaper advertising has less value than in the past. Unfortunatly, many newpapers have not adjusted thier rates to reflect this. I do believe that real estate specific local magazine offer a much better choice.

How would your responces change if the rate for a full page ad in a real estate only magazine was only $80? The ads would not only promote the property but promote a website where additional listings could be found.

[Search Engine Book]

Judyo has a good point about print advertising. As the Internet becomes more and more a part of our lives, print ads get harder and harder to succeed with. You just don't have the "captive audience" you used to have.

I used to work with a major direct mail company that did a ton of magazine advertising (different audience, I know). I won't mention their name because I'm going to say something negative about the advertising ... responses were terrible. Just terrible. In my mind, we spent entirely too much on print ads, based on the meager responses we were getting.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you're going to use print advertising, make sure you research the visibility and reach of the publication you choose. Then, make sure you have a professionally created ad with a killer offer. Mediocre print ads are invisible.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

~Brandon

[NealRM]

I'm not sure I agree that print advertising is worthless. I may be biasis, (look at sig and you will see why). I do agree that news paper advertising is way overpriced. However, the public still wants and uses the free real estate magazines.

Based on the local market and reviews advertising studies, I beleive that a balanced approach is the best. That mean some internet, some TV, some radio and some print.

[ericbramlett]

We design & publish our own 12 page book - it sits in the shelves next to the real estate mags you're talking about. It's fantastic for branding, but the cost per lead is through the roof. As an agency, it's worth it. As an agent, I wouldn't buy even 1/2 page in the real estate mags. I would buy more if I saw more leads from the pubs.

[NealRM]

I can understand why the cost per lead is so high.

1. You are adsorbing 100% of the printing cost yourself. With more agencies you spread the set costs across more people.
2. The cost per page drops with more pages in the magazine and also with more magazine printed. This is easier to do with more agencies participating.
3. You are competing against another magazine that has more properties. So why would potential clients grap yours and not the thicker magazine? The less potential clients pickup your book the less leads you get.
4. Are your ads done by a pro or just someone in the office that happens to "know" how to use MS Publisher. Poorly designed ads generate no leads. This is a very common mistake among Realtors.

In short placing a 12 page flyer in a supermarket rack is a waste of time and money. The magazine cost need to be spread across thousands of magazines copies and around 100 realtors. The flyer may be good for in-house reference, but that is about it.

So lets look at the cost per view on a magazine ad.
Cost of ad - $200 per page (This varies a lot across the country)
magazine run - 6000 magazines (This also varies)
Cost per view = $200/6000 = $0.033

Min CPC in Google = $0.05