Comments on: The Newspaper Ad is Dead

By: Elaine Lomenzo

Elaine Lomenzo — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:05:43 +0000

We are a small “boutique” firm who opened our doors 3 1/2 years ago and immediately started adveritising in our local paper along side every one else. It didn’t take us long to figure out that our marketing dollars were better spent elsewhere. We now tell our prospective Sellers in our listing presentation that we would rather give the money to their favorite charity (where it will actually dosome good) than advertise in the newspaper. They usually get thepoint!

By: Matthew Ferrara

Matthew Ferrara — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:48:47 +0000

Hi Kitty:
Thanks for the comment – I appreciate it. I have a suggestion for you may help, I bet you’d agree that what sellers really want is to shop for agents who SELL more homes, not advertise them. So the next time you’re talking to a seller and they say, “Well, you don’t run as many ads as some-other-REALTOR,” just remind them who sells more (hopefully it’s you) and that since you can do it without running all those useless ads, you must be more effective than those other agents.

Then simply ask the seller if THEY are using the newspaper to find THEIR next home, and they’ll quickly understand how buyers (because sellers are really buyers) don’t bother with the paper at all.

Best of luck for 2009!
Matthew

By: Kitty B. Stockton

Kitty B. Stockton — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:42:54 +0000

I agree with Matthew regarding buyers; however, in my small town, folks still read the paper, and it is the sellers who are shopping for listing agents that still measure by ads in the paper (not the buyers). Just a thought.
Kitty Stockton, Prudential YSU, Chapel HIll, NC

By: Tony Sena

Tony Sena — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:25:08 +0000

I haven’t advertised in a newspaper in over 2 years. We generate all our business from the Internet. I have noticed the real estate classified section growing smaller and smaller every month. The real estate section of the Newspaper used to have a full section every Saturday and Sunday but now they only print on Saturday and it’s smaller than ever. I concur, The Newspaper Ad is Dead!!!

By: Doug Wolfe

Doug Wolfe — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:12:48 +0000

Thank you for this article Matthew. My company has brought in many an expert (one pair named Matthew and Amy) who have preached the same message, that print advertising is ineffective. Yet we continue to pay for these ads (albeit fewer ads per month now) in newspapers that are losing circulation for a litany of reasons (probably not enough clever real estate ads for one.)

In my own unscientific surveys of how open house visitors learned about the open house, the results were split 50/50 between signs and the internet.

Keep preaching it Matthew.

Doug Wolfe
Long and Foster Real Estate
Phoenix, MD

By: Jill Courville

Jill Courville — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:31:41 +0000

Cheers to you Matthew, the newpaper ad is dead. Heck I advertised my Open House on my Facebook page this week and got more response than I ever have from a newspaper ad. My Open House this past Sunday (shameless pitch at 20 Carl Rd in Walpole, MA http://www.20carlrd.com) did not have one single visitor from the newspaper. The attendees came from online sources and from personal invitations I sent to neighbors. Agents sell homes not newspaper ads. Take your money and invest in it other places. Its time to think out of the box and show our value as professional Realtors who truly know how to market our selves and our properties.

I sent my Sellers out to a bar to watch the football game with mini business cards to advertise their property and they handed them out there and I have already recived a call LOL!

I could list ten ideas that are FREE instead of a newspaper ad that would get more people in the door.

By: Jay Burnham

Jay Burnham — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 19:13:06 +0000

Hi Matt,

I loved your article and also Shorewest Realtors for taking their progressive stance. I have said for many years that the newspapers should erect a statue to the world’s most gullible marketer…the real estate industry.

We have been tracking where our Open House leads originate and close to 80% are from online sources…such as OpenHouse.com and others.

Now, if we could only get agents to embrace IM technology (applications like those provided by DriveBuy Technolgy and others) we could also do away with brochure boxes and the wasted paper and drive time invloved in keeping them full and up to date.

Thanks for sharing this article…I’ll be passing it along to my superiors.

Regards,

Jay Burnham
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage
Beverly, MA

By: Matthew Ferrara

Matthew Ferrara — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 14:10:36 +0000

Colleen:
Anything’s possible! Perhaps your particular market area or property type (like vacation homes) is still heavily oriented towards buyers who frequent the papers (like Baby Boomers). However, I would encourage you to remember the law of commodities performance:

“Past performance is no indicator of future returns” So keep up your good work but be ready when your particular marketplace is prepared to drop newspapers entirely and be the FIRST. And do your research: Track every call, email and walk-in (to office and open house) so you can monitor the trends of how people are really finding you.

One more thought: Try an Open House without marketing it in the paper; then ask people how they found you. Maybe all you need is SIGNS! And the newspaper ad could still be dead for you….

By: Colleen McConnell

Colleen McConnell — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:59:33 +0000

I’m a Realtor who holds open houses, advertises them online, in the paper and with signs. I ask all of the people who come how they heard about the open house. About half say they read it in the paper and the other half say they saw the signs. So far, no one has come because they saw the online ad. Maybe the newspaper ad isn’t dead yet.