Getting the Most BANG For Your AD BUCK

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RISMEDIA-NRRE VOL 16-2 March 2000

Getting the Most BANG For Your AD BUCK

By Meredith Guinness

When you’re swimming with sharks, it pays to have a float.

That’s why volunteers from Irongate Inc. Realtors? build just that ? a float ? each year for the Labor Day parade in Dayton, Ohio.

“We’re fighting the big franchises and the larger regional independents,” says Steven Brown, an owner/broker with Irongate, the largest independent firm in the Dayton area. “About 500,000 people end up watching that parade. It’s covered on TV. You’re only on TV a few minutes, but what’s a few minutes of TV time cost? That’s a lot.”

And it’s just that kind of innovative approach to advertising that independents need to get their names out there in the sea of instantly recognizable franchises. It also helps franchises trade on the respect and trust associated with a major company, while carving a unique identity for themselves. And many say they’re getting some of their best results by using the great advertising equalizer, the Internet.

“I have had such luck with the Internet,” says Sarah Wishnia, an owner/broker with RE/MAX About Town Properties in the Miami area. ”From our Web site (www.southfloridahomes.com), a buyer can get information on all our homes as well as the information that’s pertinent to them: schools, mortgage rates, banking, information on the community, anything you really need to know about moving.”

In business 20 years, Wishnia says the key to using the Internet successfully lies in keeping up with technology and your e-mail. Since she’s unable to stay online all day to answer questions from potential buyers who surf onto her site, she often re-routes her e-mail to her fax machine.

That way, the messages reach her quickly and she can respond in minutes.

“I can’t stress enough how important it is to respond right away,” she says.

While her business has a Web site, Jenny Pruitt, owner of Jenny Pruitt & Associates Realtors of Atlanta, says she’s found another way to use the computer to her advantage. Using Powerpoint and iPIX.com, she creates personalized CD-ROMs for her clients, burning information on specific homes and other area data onto a disk and mailing it out.

“We can create beautiful graphic presentations,” says Pruitt. “We have a very active relocation market and what we can do is burn onto a CD information on 15 to 20 houses so the buyer gets a really good look at the homes he wants to see.”

If clients need more information, they can head to www.jennypruitt.com where Pruitt conveniently breaks down neighborhoods by their average selling price range and offers specific sections on estate and golf properties.

While some might see the newspaper classifieds as the bread and butter of advertising, owners say they’ve had to look at them in a new way for success in the modern market.

Twenty years ago, a client might be getting his or her first look at a house in the Sunday newspaper. Now, with the MLS available to anyone, clients aren’t turning to the papers for every last detail on a home, Brown says.

This year Irongate decided to reconsider the way it looked at the weekly listings, using only a few key details ? number of bedrooms, price, agent’s name ? and adding a code number to look up on the agency’s Web site, www.irongate-realtors.com. In the first four weeks, the firm’s Web traffic increased 40 percent.

“It’s a new format that pushes people to look at the Web site,” Brown says. “We hold everything down to three lines (in the newspaper ad) and that saves us a lot of money. And the word is out that it’s a great way to shop for a home. It saves the agent time, it saves the buyer time and it saves the seller time.”

With 250 agents in its stable, Irongate encourages its employees to market themselves by getting involved in their communities. Agents are volunteering in shelters and on community service boards across the region. They’re doing good work and they’re helping to boost their own profiles, Brown says.

He sits on the board of a charity that supports global co-op efforts. Last holiday season, he sent about 300 baskets full of candles, soup mixes and other unique gifts culled from battered women shelters, international co-ops and other programs to his clients.

About 70 percent of the people who received the baskets wrote a thank you note or let him know how much they appreciated it. Unlike a stack of calendars, pens or key chains agents used to dole out, the gifts showed Brown’s commitment to helping others, touched recipients’ hearts and helped keep Irongate in their minds for future referrals.

Of course, not every advertising scheme is a winner. Television got low marks for being too pricey for the average independent and is too slow-moving for today’s buyer. Radio doesn’t seem to work for agents, unless they’re promoting high-end properties on the local National Public Radio affiliate.

Pruitt gives the thumb’s down to hotline numbers added to lawn signs that clients can call for more information. Value-pricing, a fad of the mid-90s, seems almost laughable now, say owners. Who would offer to pay top dollar knowing the seller will settle for less? “Now there’s a gimmick that didn’t work,” says Brown.


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