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Director
of Marketing, Avo Mavilian, chimes in this month on his observations,
thoughts and tips on how to make your web site ring.
While
on a business trip this past weekend, I happened to pick up
a copy of the local Saturday newspaper and turned to the real
estate section. The back page of the section was a 4-color,
full page ad of about 50 homes being offered for sale through
a local brokerage company. Scanning the matchbook-sized ads,
I chuckled at a few of the more catchier captions like, "Instantly
Appealing Interior", and "Cozy, Without Confining".
An impressive-looking ad, and one that no doubt costs the
broker a pretty penny each week. But I was struck more by
what the ad lacked - no web site address (URL) to "visit
www.abcrealty.com for more information".
A
few catchy captions, small curb shot photos, and the office
phone number might have been adequate to generate calls in
the '90s. But advertising in 2005 demands that you give maximum
information upfront, while Profit-Making In the 21st Century
compels us to do it for minimum cost. The impressive, fancy
4-color, expensive ad failed to meet either target.
I
admit it. When I read print ads today, in the paper, magazines,
or on the side of a 3-block-long city bus, or watch commercials
on my brother-in-law's new "guess-what-we-have-and-you-don't"
48" Plasma TV, I look for, and expect to find a web site
address for the advertised product or business. Making it
easy for me to find it online is something I've really come
to expect and appreciate. Even if the advertiser doesn't supply
a web site address in the ad, I'm likely to "google"
the business or product name to see what I can find before
I'd pick up the phone and call #1-800-any-thing" to get
more information.
As
you may already know from previous columns, your BIRDVIEW
software automatically generates a unique URL (Uniform Resource
Locator for those of you who must know!) otherwise known as
a web address, for each listing. Example: www.abcrealty.com/listingnumber.ad.
This feature furnishes you with the capability to enhance
the effectiveness of your advertising by placing the URL in
every print ad, allowing the consumer to go directly to that
page of your web site and find the specific information about
that listing.
It's
also a great idea to put the URL of your virtual tours in
all our print ads. (You are using virtual tours on every listing,
aren't you? If you aren't, you should be.) Tying your print
advertising to your web site functions and features strengthens
the effectiveness of both marketing tools.
Internet
shoppers are swarming the web for everything from soup to
super-sonic airplanes. Studies have shown that a significant
majority of them STARTED their quest for information by seeing
a print or TV ad with a web address. Be creative, get your
web site address the attention it deserves and watch your
business go up, up and up. There's no such thing as being
too creative. Go at it. Good selling!
P.S.
Be sure to review the results of last month's poll. The results
are quite striking.
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