With the newspaper ad model, results are fairly straightforward. You pay your money up front and you get exposure. The newspaper doesn't take any responsibility for your ads. It is your job as the advertiser to attracting consumers away from your competitors through ad size and placement. The hook of your ad is up to you, and that is determined by the writing and design skills of your advertising team and your business model. This is where branding matters, along with other variables such as how much you want to spend on your ads to consistently get premium positioning.
If you want to spend less money, you can simply pay by the word for a classified ad.
Either way, you are paying for exposure. There is no expectation that the paper will provide qualified leads, and real estate advertisers don't expect more than the paper says it can do -- which is to provide exposure.
So how is getting exposure different on the Internet?
The Internet is a relatively new medium that the real estate industry is still trying to get its arms around. It has two distinct differences from print advertising. With more robust ways to promote people and properties than the flat print medium offers, the pressure to build costlier attention-getting lead generation visuals is high. Tools such as websites, virtual tours for listings and professional e-mail programs are now considered by most marketing experts to be entry-level.
And, unlike newspapers which dominate local advertising choices as the only game in town, the Internet has numerous ways to advertise real estate professionals and listings:
Search engines: Website placement in search engines used to be free, but now search engine companies are learning that top positions are worth money. Google has just made changes in its algorithms to return ever-changing "relevant" results, making it more difficult for brokers and agents to be found among the top positions. It appears that the strategy is to frequently change the algorithms in order to stimulate more ad sales from companies that have grown dependent on the traffic. Most search engines today have a bidding model for placement in top positions, or for "sponsor" positions.
Banner ads: Banner ads can be banners, blocks, spotlights, inner-article ads or whatever you want to call them, but they are generally templates on a webpage that can be purchased for a given period and price. They convey a brief amount of information about a company designed to generate a consumer click-through to the company's website and/or special promotion pages.
Classified ads: Companies such as Classified Ventures and Yahoo! sell classified ad space for real estate listings.
Listings sites: The classified ad model charges Realtors for placing their ads, but online companies such as Realtor.com will post the listings on their websites free of charge. Local MLSs may also post members' listings on the MLS's public website as a means of advertising. Agents can also agree to share listings via their MLSs using Internet Data Exchange, or for MLSs which are already enabled, through MLS data download into virtual office websites.
Market Conditions Reports: Realty Times has a patent on putting Realtors in front of consumers using its news service. Market Conditions Reports turn Realtors into local correspondents to report to consumers what local buying/selling conditions are.
With so many choices, it's easy to see why agents are trying out a number of Internet advertising solutions, but they all boil down to the same principles as advertising in the newspaper -- all of the above methods promise exposure, not leads. In most cases, generating the leads through superior ad design, content and value proposition, among other criteria, is up to you.
Published: December 9, 2003
Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
 Blanche Evans is the award-winning senior editor of Realty Times, the Internet's leading independent real estate news service. She is featured daily on the Realty Times Video Network in the "Realty Viewpoint" segment.
Blanche has been named one of the "25 Most Influential People In Real Estate" by REALTOR Magazine, and has been twice recognized as a "notable." In 2005, she was named "Top Reporter Covering the NAR" by Delahaye-Bacon's.
Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68.
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In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.
 
Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans.
Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR
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