Traditional vs Online advertising
Discussion
I have been giving a lot of thought recently to minimising my local advertising spend in regional papers and dedicating the saved money to increasing my online exposure and would be very interested to hear of anyone's thoughts on that.
More specifically, when related to estate agency.
Currently we advertise extensively across three regional papers, two of which are cheaper papers and I don't mind continually having a local presence at that cost. One paper is very expensive and always has been - it is covering an area of an older but wealthy demographic than the average town.
At the moment I take 2/3 pages a week in that paper, costing circa £800/1200 per week. My belief is I sell very few houses via leads from the paper, but what I do keep is presence in the town. If I reduced my paper coverage I think there would be a suspicion that we aren't doing very well as in some peoples eyes we have cut our spending.
So, in summary I only advertise in that paper the keep presence and also appear strong when people decide to sell their home. An instruction winner, not a house seller.
The flip side is...
I reduce my local paper coverage to one page a week (£400) and increase my spend on the portals (Rightmove). For the £30,000 I would save in paper advertising I could absolutely cover rightmove in my agencies banners and advertising generating brand awareness, valuation leads etc.
Rightmove have lots of data relating to the number of times a potential seller uses their site prior to instructing an agent and it is months of browsing before deciding on an agent. I could also offer a lot more online exposure to the houses we are selling through featured properties etc.
The name of my town is searched for 90,000 times a month on Rightmove and increasing. The readership of the local paper is 24,000 readers and falling but for some reason I have a fear of reducing coverage in the paper.
The 90,000 searches on rightmove are more fluid and targeted as people actively interested in property/buying/selling. The readership of the local paper is the same every week.
TL;DR - Do I reduce paper advertising and take a hit in perceived confidence of the business, but re-invest the money in more targeted advertising online?
More specifically, when related to estate agency.
Currently we advertise extensively across three regional papers, two of which are cheaper papers and I don't mind continually having a local presence at that cost. One paper is very expensive and always has been - it is covering an area of an older but wealthy demographic than the average town.
At the moment I take 2/3 pages a week in that paper, costing circa £800/1200 per week. My belief is I sell very few houses via leads from the paper, but what I do keep is presence in the town. If I reduced my paper coverage I think there would be a suspicion that we aren't doing very well as in some peoples eyes we have cut our spending.
So, in summary I only advertise in that paper the keep presence and also appear strong when people decide to sell their home. An instruction winner, not a house seller.
The flip side is...
I reduce my local paper coverage to one page a week (£400) and increase my spend on the portals (Rightmove). For the £30,000 I would save in paper advertising I could absolutely cover rightmove in my agencies banners and advertising generating brand awareness, valuation leads etc.
Rightmove have lots of data relating to the number of times a potential seller uses their site prior to instructing an agent and it is months of browsing before deciding on an agent. I could also offer a lot more online exposure to the houses we are selling through featured properties etc.
The name of my town is searched for 90,000 times a month on Rightmove and increasing. The readership of the local paper is 24,000 readers and falling but for some reason I have a fear of reducing coverage in the paper.
The 90,000 searches on rightmove are more fluid and targeted as people actively interested in property/buying/selling. The readership of the local paper is the same every week.
TL;DR - Do I reduce paper advertising and take a hit in perceived confidence of the business, but re-invest the money in more targeted advertising online?
Edited by FrankAbagnale on Monday 26th September 10:39
Zoon said:
FrankAbagnale said:
TL;DR - Do I reduce paper advertising and take a hit in perceived confidence of the business, but re-invest the money in more targeted advertising online?
YesMy gut feeling is also "yes" - but I need to make myself comfortable that the reduction in paper advertisig (a weakness) could be offset by the investment online.
Other agents would shout from the rooftops we have reduced advertising when we are competing for business.
Ste1987 said:
If you spend the same amount on Facebook advertising you could reach twice as many people, maybe more, per week
It's an interesting point and if I was targeting a demographic in say Reading, I would do that. The town I am in is small and has a far higher "older" population than the average and as such I am not sure how effective facebook would be compared to rightmove. Another side of the coin, but we don't use Facebook/Insta/Twitter at all as I do not have the resources to manage a social media campaign properly and my perception is it is better not to do it at all than do it badly. But, that is a convo for another time!
Below are some figures - I am a little confused as to whether the readership is 9,000 (top line) or 24,947?
FrankAbagnale said:
Below are some figures - I am a little confused as to whether the readership is 9,000 (top line) or 24,947?
They usually work out their 'circulation' on the basis of around 3x the actual copies sold.Which would tally with the numbers there except they're labelled differently.
Without seeing the adverts you're using it's impossible to say which or where you should spend your money. Quality of message varies wildly.
Of course the other solution would be to get a better deal with the paper, so you save money but maintain the coverage. We save clients a lot of money on their media spend, especially print.
Akiraprise said:
I'd spend that saving and invest in a good social media company to run a good social media presence for you alongside the rightmove advertising.
Might be something to look at, but i'd have to increase advertising budget as pretty much all saving from paper would be reinvested in rightmove to get the package I want.I don't even know what a social media platform run by an exterior agency would look like.
My only issue with that is that the OP mentioned an older, wealthy consumer. And they don't tend to be active on social media. Certainly not the way younger folk are.
My parents are probably his ideal target, 70, nice area, several properties etc. Neither have FB, never mind use it. And as for Twitter, Insta etc, he'd be as well writing his ads in Chinese.
They'll always read the local rag though.
My parents are probably his ideal target, 70, nice area, several properties etc. Neither have FB, never mind use it. And as for Twitter, Insta etc, he'd be as well writing his ads in Chinese.
They'll always read the local rag though.
Where exactly do you want to advertise online? Do people really turn to facebook and google when they want to buy a house? My impression is that estate agents are still a fairly "old school" when it comes to advertising. Surely the only thing worth doing online is Rightmove etc which you must already be heavily into?
If you are concerned about losing your local presence by reducing your press ads maybe something on the side of bus would make sure your competitors couldn't suggest you were on the decline.
Right move is so vital for any estate agents but don't discard traditional media totally, just look at Compare The Market. They are the leaders in the insurance game and have enjoyed figures as startling as 400% increases when they introduced us to the meerkats but lets not forget that we all met the meerkats on traditional media, encouraging us to find them online.
Right move is so vital for any estate agents but don't discard traditional media totally, just look at Compare The Market. They are the leaders in the insurance game and have enjoyed figures as startling as 400% increases when they introduced us to the meerkats but lets not forget that we all met the meerkats on traditional media, encouraging us to find them online.
Im pretty much exclusively talking about reallocating any paper spend to rightmove advertising.
1 Page instead of 2/3 in the paper - £400-800 per week saving and use that to put my brand on the search page, results page, featured agent parts of rightmove and also highlights the properties I upload.
It is more to win instructions than sell houses. The paper doesn't sell houses really, it mainly maintains a presence and a show of strength.
The trade off is business lost by reducing paper spend vs business gained by increasing rightmove spend.
1 Page instead of 2/3 in the paper - £400-800 per week saving and use that to put my brand on the search page, results page, featured agent parts of rightmove and also highlights the properties I upload.
It is more to win instructions than sell houses. The paper doesn't sell houses really, it mainly maintains a presence and a show of strength.
The trade off is business lost by reducing paper spend vs business gained by increasing rightmove spend.
the prescotts said:
If you are concerned about losing your local presence by reducing your press ads maybe something on the side of bus would make sure your competitors couldn't suggest you were on the decline.
Right move is so vital for any estate agents but don't discard traditional media totally, just look at Compare The Market. They are the leaders in the insurance game and have enjoyed figures as startling as 400% increases when they introduced us to the meerkats but lets not forget that we all met the meerkats on traditional media, encouraging us to find them online.
I think my local market place and target demographic wouldn't see bus advertising as "classy". Houses £1m to £15m. I think buses, petrol pumps, beer mats, receipts etc would not be the best way to promote ourselves.Right move is so vital for any estate agents but don't discard traditional media totally, just look at Compare The Market. They are the leaders in the insurance game and have enjoyed figures as startling as 400% increases when they introduced us to the meerkats but lets not forget that we all met the meerkats on traditional media, encouraging us to find them online.
Do your marketing research.
You know what you're selling so ask buyers and sellers what they used and think about your proposals. And as you say, it doesn't have to be one or the other. As you adjust where you spend, monitor impact. If you don't like what you see then simply readjust until you're happy again.
Good luck!
You know what you're selling so ask buyers and sellers what they used and think about your proposals. And as you say, it doesn't have to be one or the other. As you adjust where you spend, monitor impact. If you don't like what you see then simply readjust until you're happy again.
Good luck!
rog007 said:
Do your marketing research.
You know what you're selling so ask buyers and sellers what they used and think about your proposals. And as you say, it doesn't have to be one or the other. As you adjust where you spend, monitor impact. If you don't like what you see then simply readjust until you're happy again.
This. Hunches are great but don't guess or take the views of non-customers.You know what you're selling so ask buyers and sellers what they used and think about your proposals. And as you say, it doesn't have to be one or the other. As you adjust where you spend, monitor impact. If you don't like what you see then simply readjust until you're happy again.
Where i'm based its only now that the big agents are starting to reduce their paper spend, its always been with the "if we are not in it then the others will tell vendors" attitude, nobody buys through the paper, its just branding (and with where we are willy waving: "We've got 8 pages to their 6 pages" type of stuff.
Why not price up your own "paper", delivered to the people you want to target once a month, A3 folded, printed on nice paper with articles as well as "house of the month etc", what are property prices doing in the area? would you like a valuation? its "small village" fayre this weekend dont forget etc etc.
Have that delivered on a solo basis to the postcodes you want to target,
Why not price up your own "paper", delivered to the people you want to target once a month, A3 folded, printed on nice paper with articles as well as "house of the month etc", what are property prices doing in the area? would you like a valuation? its "small village" fayre this weekend dont forget etc etc.
Have that delivered on a solo basis to the postcodes you want to target,
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