The Dos and Don'ts of Advertising

The Dos And Don’ts of Advertising

By The Investor Today

“I have always believed that writing advertisements is the second most profitable form of writing. The first, of course, is ransom notes.”
~Philip Dusenberry

Take a short look at craigslist or any other online classified site and you'll see that not many people truly get advertising. How many of those ads make you want to actually open them to read more?

If you're going to be a successful real estate investor, you really need to be thinking of yourself a real estate marketer. If other people knew how to market their homes effectively and how to write a creative contract, they just wouldn't need you. The reality is that probably over 95% of people who advertise don't advertise effectively. While some huge companies can still sell their products anyways despite this, in real estate it is the core of our business.

The first thing you ought to know is that if you don't have an attention grabbing headline, no one will ever see your ad no matter how well it is written.

If we have a home that we need sold fast, which one of these headlines do you think will generate us more interest to get the home sold?

"123 ABC Road - Lots of Amenities" or "Home Marked Down $40k Below Market - Must Sell Fast"

How about these two when you need to generate an investor database?

"123 ABC Road - Needs TLC" or "Investor Rehab Special - 22% off Market Value - Won't Last"

Marketing allows us leverage our time since we need better results without having to spend all our time on generating business. If you don't have an attention grabbing headline, don't bother making the ad.

Some people are so passionate about their business, they often forget to look at things from the reader’s perspective. Although they may have the 100 greatest products and services available, not everyone is interested in what that company thinks they need. It's simply because people have the motivation but lack the knowledge to make their marketing accomplish meaningful results.

I know I use these companies frequently as examples but it's because they help me make my point. Coca Cola and McDonalds are leaders in their respective fields. Few people would say that either of these companies are their favourite beverage or their favourite hamburger. That doesn't matter, they still sell the most in their respective fields though. It is not to say they make poor products but rather that the key to their success is great marketing. If you have a good business in every aspect but have poor marketing, then you don’t have a business at all.

Marketing will be one of the single biggest determining factors in the success of your business. That's why when you learn to be a successful real estate marketer, you'll pretty much be able to be successful with most businesses even without financial knowledge or detailed knowledge of the business.

Your business is like a tropical island where marketing builds the bridges, roads and airports that enable people to discover your island. Without that, your island doesn't exist. With this in mind, here are some of the things you should and shouldn’t do within your advertisements. The vast majority of these may be obvious but look at various advertisements and you will see that although they are obvious, they are often not adhered to.

Do	Don't
List an enticing offer	List all 100 services you offer. It is you that cares and not your customer.
Make sure the first thing they see on your advertisement gets their attention.	Design your ad so that they must see the whole ad to understand the offer.
Be Willing To Try Non-Traditional Ways of Generating Customers.	Advertise using the same mediums that everyone else uses.
Target your specific product for a specific audience.	Try and appeal to everyone all at once. You will fail using this more than any other method.
Be Straight Forward and Do Not Be Deceptive With Your Advertisement	Have fine print or subject to offers. This only works for corporations like utilities that have monopolies or minimal competition over the marketplace.
Advertise even when you don't need the business. You'll keep creating demand for your product. We have waiting lists for everything.	Advertise only during the slow periods of your business.
Be unique and catchy with your advertisement. Be identifiable where others are not.	Look to everyone else for what they do other than to learn. Most businesses are terrible at marketing, are you going to copy that?
Provide incentives for customers to join with or refer your company.	Provide negatives consequences for customers to leave your business.
Have joint ventures and partnerships with outside businesses that provide useful services to your clients.	Take on the world yourself. You can only accomplish so much by yourself.
Test your marketing strategies in small niche markets before spending large sums to launch a large scale campaign.	Spend your advertising budget on something big before testing it to see that it works.
Get input from your employees to get valuable ideas before putting the advertisement out.	Decide you know what's best and don't consider other opinions on your ideas.
Promote what you're willing to do for your customers. Make yourself the obvious choice.	Slander the competition as a means to provide an alternative. Politicians do this and none of them are perceived to be any good. This is not coincidence.
Have specific goals for what you plan to accomplish with your advertisements.	Put your ads out there and see what happens. You will not adapt quickly enough to promote the flow of business.
Make your ad simple enough to leave the customer with some curiosity about your company and its products/services.	Figuratively, show all the cards you have so that they can make a purchasing decision without meeting you.
Demonstrate why your service is the best.	State that your product is the best without demonstrating it. You will come across as insincere.
Continually commit efforts to marketing your product successfully.	Try it a few times and see if you get a response. It takes work to put together a really good campaign.
Provide a thank you to past customers. It is word of mouth marketing gold.	Forget to market to your already existing customer database.

If you’re going to be the marketing leader in your field, you’re going to have to stop copying what everyone else does. If anything you must look to their ideas and further build on them. It’s going to take real effective thought on your part and consistent effort. You cannot have a successful business without having successful marketing. The two ideas simply must co-exist.

Develop some marketing goals and see to it that one way or another you meet them. Remember, this is meant as a guide to build on some things you know but it is not supposed to be the 10 commandments of advertising. In real life, you make your own marketing rules and you set the guidelines.

If you’re willing to be a master marketer, it’s nearly impossible for your business to fail.

May the force be with you.

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Matthew David Signature

Matthew David

"The Investor Today"