A recent conversation about online marketing with Mark stirred up a continuing discussion that I had in a previous life while at Prudential - Chicago. This same topic also got thrown around during one of the breakout sessions at the Executive Luncheon of the New Castle Board, which I attended yesterday.
Before I begin, keep this tucked in the back of your mind; When is the last time you really saw that ad at the top of your web-based email and it caused a call-to-action for you?
In my strong, yet humble, opinion, I feel that by the time a consumer gets to a place that they can search for properties (classifieds, aggregator, portal, etc) the opportunity for effective marketing has diminished. Simply because they have already found a place to search. Unless your marketing piece can prove to them that your search is better, they are going to stay where they landed. They are in search mode, probably not ‘pick an agent’ mode, Yet. Also, lets face it - the general internet user has almost grown numb to banner ads on a site, especially when they have already deemed a site to meet their current needs (flashback: web-email question), in this case searching for properties.
Mark made a metaphor that you can hang your hat on (paraphrased due to RAM allocation), ‘That would be like driving down REALTOR® Row and being faced with a dozen agents jumping up and down to get your attention.’ There is no tell-tale way to stand out at that point, its sensory overload created by a large amount of energy (budget) expenditure. So, if that isn’t the most efficitve place to advertise, where does one advertise?
Keeping in the vein of the metaphor, you would then advertise at the corner of Main and REALTOR® Row. This would cause a two fold effect. First, those people that are already thinking about turning down REALTOR® Row will have a little seed planted about you already. This way, as they are plowing through the hysteria of marketing spam and congestion, they have you as a beacon of light. Second, there are many people that were going to stroll right passed REALTOR® Row, maybe your ad will have them take that turn, and head down towards you to find more. In other words, get them before they know they have been gotten - the same way I get suckered to buy a lot of ’stuff’ at the grocery store - end-cap advertising and product placement in other medium.
The concept is simple; advertise on the fringe, or the peripheral. Think about it as fishing upstream, before the fish have been diluted. You need to get yourself in front of the others, think creatively, use your marketing budget wisely - and prosper.
So if I were to layout some places for my advertising dollars, where would it be? Well, I would isolate places where people are one or two degrees away from their home search, or even better the thought of a home search. In Chicago, this would be places like The Chicago Reader or Chicago.com. Are there local sites that do any ratings for events and other weekend activities? Are there other home upgrade sites that are local to your service area? Where else?
Homework: Think about this peripheral marketing. Where can you jump in front of other search vehicles and get the consumer to come to you first?
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