Advertising Has No Future - You Do.
"Quality, value, style, service, convenience. Economy, savings, performance, low-rates, friendly, easy-terms.
Affordable prices, money-back guarantee, free admission, free installation, free alterations.
Free appraisal.
Free delivery, free estimates, free parking.
Don't forget to pick up your free gift - a luxury, classic, deluxe, custom-designed, prestige, quality pocket flashlight. Its our way of saying thank you.
Actually, it's our way of saying bend over just a little further...."
The late, great U.S.A comedian, George Carlin. As featured on episode 1 of the Electronic Propaganda Society podcast.
Young people, not to mention people of all ages, really, really don't like being annoyed. And ads, almost always, were annoying. There is nothing beautiful, let alone useful, not to mention authentic, about being distracted or annoyed by something you didn't choose to see."
Andrew Essex: - The End of Advertising.
And yet!
And yet!
Advertising, it seems, is all that estate agencies and realtors can come up with when they have anything to sell.
Especially themselves.
Facebook ads, retargeting, google ad words, pay per click, SEO, Instagram trivia, tiny headshots with tiny homes in the local press, billboards.
You name it. Expect less than 5% of your target audience to respond.
Even T.V ads, for goodness sake. Since when was real estate fit for mass market exposure?
If a million homeowners actually see your ad and none have any intention of ever moving, where's the sense in that?
Other than as a vanity project dreamt up by some marketing agency who will convince your agency that metrics such as brand awareness, GRP and Reach actually matter.
In this race for attention, estate agencies mostly overlook the very thing that is of interest to homeowners.
It's not competence, so much as character.
People buy from people.
People buy from people they know.
People buy from people they like.
And when like turns to trust, guess what?
People buy from no other.
So, the fact that your agency has spent thousands on targeted Facebook ads. Even bettered the anticipated response rate.
Means little.
Little, if those 'leads' (such an impersonal and speculative term) don't like what you say.
Or more importantly, don't like who you are.
Advertising is dying a slow death.
Kept on Life Support by agencies that have more money than sense.
The cost of customer acquisition in the USA for PurpleBricks (2018) has been estimated at over $15,000.
A $20 million advertising budget brought in a measly 1400 listings.
Advertising that simply offers consumers a choice.
Between some relatively expensive, conventional and abstruse realtor.
Or relatively cheaper, disruptive and yet still abstruse a newcomer.
My money's on the former.
If you tell them, they will come.
What's to replace advertising?
Quite simply.
You have value in simply being you.
Let that show.
Be genuine, be authentic. Show them who you really are.
That alone will set you apart.
From every other estate agent/realtor that believes competence is king.
"Brand the real you. Be brutally, authentically, honestly you and you will win the people that matter." - Tom Ferry
"the people that matter," That's the issue here.
Not being everything to everybody, but being specific to those that matter.
Building a reputation within your community for what it is that you offer, but more importantly, for who it is that you are.
Not just an estate agent or yet another realtor.
Advertising won't achieve that. Advertising doesn't build reputation.
For that, you need a message.
And there is no more powerful message than who you are and what you value and believe.
Here's the kicker.
It's nearly always, almost free.
A blog post. A video on YouTube. A podcast.
Loose change.
Bringing the audience to a media platform that you control and, if you're smart, one that you own.
Imagine if PurpleBricks, or Emoov (R.I.P) had spent their budget on building the personal brand of every 'expert' in the respective community?
Instead of the meaningless T.V advertising that stroked someone's ego and left the L.P.E's to fend for themselves.
Imagine if they owned that media? An appreciating asset rather than a drain on their cash.
Now that would be competition.
Instead, what we got was the joy of being able to fast forward the remote past those and other annoying adverts.
Advertising is dying a slow death.
Let no-one tell you different.
Your ability to create a Personal Brand will set you apart.
If you do it well, you won't have to compete.
Thanks, as always, for reading. If I can help, my advice is always free.
Drop me an email at:
Or, call for a chat on 07369251435
Chris.
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