The decline in mass media investment has occurred at an almost alarming pace, reports the Swanepoel TRENDS Report in its annual Report detailing the top 15 trends impacting the real estate industry. The Report predicts that as a result, newspaper “dailies” are shifting their approach and are now directly supporting target marketing and consumer direct marketing in an effort to recoup the loss of advertising revenue.
Internet advertising revenue in the US exceeded $9.6 billion in 2004 and according to recent studies, the revenue curves for both online media and traditional advertising venues will actually cross by 2010. The transition from a mass-medium business model to an online niche model will be a difficult one for most newspapers to make, but they have learned from the recruitment advertising debacle and have worked to shore up their online real estate programming and website acquisition strategies.
Last year the Union-Tribune in San Diego, CA, wrote, “In an attempt to maintain readership of its classified advertising in the face of competition from growing websites, The San Diego Union-Tribune will begin offering free classified ads to individuals … seldom has a new medium come along and completely killed another.” This trend is affirmed by McKinsey & Co. reporting that online advertising has grown approximately seven times as fast as newspaper print advertising over the last eight years.
The ongoing questions for brokers and agents therefore increasingly become: “Where and how do I spend my dollars and time to market my products?” Everyone knows that the best marketing plan is an integrated media strategy that leverages your position in your specific market place – but the question is what the mix should be between print, signs, telemarketing and online. The Report provides numerous numbers, examples and surveys that will help in this decision making process.
Many surveys show that Internet marketing has already been accepted by real estate agents, but probably not yet in large enough numbers. The Swanepoel TRENDS Report recommends that real estate professionals aggressively shift more advertising dollars to more efficient online marketing solutions, and that they increasingly focus on online brand building to increase their “value proposition” for online consumers. For more specific details and numerous other recommendations on 15 key business and real estate trends affecting your productivity in 2006/7 you would be wise to read the most influential Report in the real estate industry today. You can get your copy online at www.realestatebooks.org. |
