»
Between the soft housing market and tight budgets, U.S. real estate agents and brokers are facing tougher choices when they divide up their ad dollars - especially when media choices have proliferated - according to a new study of real estate ad spend trends, writes sister site MarketingCharts.
Less than half - 47 percent - of the realtors surveyed said they are spending more for advertising and marketing this year than they did last year, the study conducted by Classified Intelligence and RealtyTimes.com found. That proportion was 58 percent in the previous year’s survey.
And despite their complaints about newspaper advertising, realtors continue to choose print over what is an almost overwhelming number of media-placement options, according to the report, “Real Estate Advertising - Print Fading But Realtors Still Use It.”
Although just 15 percent of respondents said they still advertise in print, respondents voted newspapers third out of 11 categories for producing qualified leads.
Moreover, half of the surveyed realtors said the results from national websites are below their expectations - simply not generating enough leads.
Some 39 percent of respondents said they’re overwhelmed by the number of advertising options; just 5 percent said they felt they have the decision-making process down to a science (see chart).
The study found that the shaky real estate outlook is compelling agents and brokers to use fewer dollars in more productive places, forcing them to reassess their media choices.
Some are turning online: Whereas a year earlier the number of realtors involved in blogging and social networking was insignificant, some 21 percent of respondents now say they have their own blog and 25 percent say they participate on at least one social-networking site.
“Real estate professionals are in a tough spot,” said Peter M. Zollman, founding principal of CI. “The economic considerations in an unsure market are pressuring ad performances to do more, for less. At the same time, choices for those advertising dollars have exploded, causing confusion on where to best spend their budgets.”
About the study: The report was based on responses from 344 real estate professionals, who reported they were everywhere from “overwhelmed” to “scientifically buttoned-down” about their advertising expenditures. The report also reviews companies providing technology to real estate ad publishers, leading European and Asian real estate advertising media, and an overview of the latest innovations in real estate ad technology.
Comcast is hoping to enlighten media buyers on the ways of young men ages 18-34 with its new “field guide,” titled Hunting with Lightsabers, that has been in the works for a year and is now available.
The guide provides…
The Atlantic magazine is launching a campaign with ads in unexpected places - on muffin displays in corner stores, on restaurant menu boards and on the shampoo shelves at drugstores - in an effort to reach media buyers in New…
Kraft and General Mills have launched word-of-mouth networks in the hopes of harnessing the positive force of chatter during a time when food prices are soaring and consumers are tightening their hold on purse strings.
General Mills has launched an…
The New York Attorney General said on Friday that he would file suit against Arbitron to halt the commercialization of its new measurement system; Arbitron was given five days to respond.
Arbitron’s response came almost immediately: the company moved its…
Companies are struggling with how to adapt to serve a new wave of consumers from the Millennial Generation (or Gen Y) - born between 1982 and 2001 - according to a global survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit and Alcatel-Lucent company Genesys, reports Retailer…
More than one in three holiday shoppers - or 62.3 million adult consumers - report they begin holiday shopping before Thanksgiving, according to (pdf) new data from Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI), reports Retailer Daily.
Just under 36 percent of holiday shoppers say…
