Advertising Clutter – Are You Being Seen?

Advertising Clutter - Are You Being Seen

Five years ago, a customer had to be “touched” 6-7 times with your marketing before they would buy from you, trust you.

Today, with the monumental increase in advertising, a customer has to be touched 12-14 times before they make a buying decision.

What’s caused the huge increase? Naturally, the internet. Internet advertising alone has jumped 6,381% since 1997. More than 6,000 display ads were delivered to U.S. internet users during the 3rd quarter of 2010 and over 5 trillion ads per year.

As a business owner, what does this mean for you? In 1960, advertisers spent $107 per consumer. In 2009, that number increased to $1257 per consumer (a 1200% increase). Unfortunately, you’ll need to spend far more for your marketing while achieving much less for your efforts.

Consumers today are overwhelmed by the availability of products and services. In 1965, they recalled 34% of commercials they had seen. By 2007, consumers could barely name two ads they had seen in a day.

By the time a person today reaches 65, they have seen over 2 million commercials. That’s the equivalent of watching advertising 7 days a week, 8 hours a day for 6 straight years. (Time to turn off the TV..)

And.. some stats show that only 14% believe marketing, anyway.

So, is your marketing being seen? Or is it lost in the noise of advertising?

Are you believable?

What are you doing to stand out?

What is a QR Code and How do They Work?

You may have noticed these square boxes popping up everywhere. I’ve started using them on our marketing and, turns out, I love them. What are they and how do they work?

QR (quick response) codes are like barcodes for smartphones, full of useful information. If you have a smartphone device, simply download your very own QR reader. Anytime you see a QR code, hold your device over it, give it a few seconds to read the code, and a wealth of information about the product the QR code is used for will be displayed.

Have you used one yet?

 

Why Some Homes Sell Faster

Home Solar Power Discounts – One Block Off the Grid

What a great post. Thanks to One Block Off the Grid.

Single Moms as Tenants

Single Mom as Renter Chart

Among renters, single moms had the biggest growth among household types between 2000 and 2010, according to Census data analyzed by Property and Portfolio Research.

Most renters are middle aged, or between 35 and 64. “Middle age,” as you can tell by the range used here, comprises the largest share of all households.

Married couples (with and without children) make up 26% of all renters, although single moms and single women together comprise close to 40%.

Did you know 40% of all children are now born to single moms? Wow! I had no idea it was that high.

Single moms rent because of many factors including (1) the cost to buy and (2) renting comes with far fewer maintenance issues.

Which leads me back to my last post, Should You Be Marketing to Women? And, how would that change the marketing you do currently?

Should You Be Marketing to Women?

shopping lady

According to the State of the Nations 2009 Housing report, “social and economic trends have given women a more powerful presence in housing markets. Between 1980 and 2000, the number of households headed by unmarried women increased by almost 10 million.”

  • Interestingly, single female buyers accounted for nearly twice as large a share as single male buyers for both first-time buyers (24 and 12 percent) and repeat buyers (17 and 9 percent).
  • Twenty percent of recent home buyers were single females, and 10 percent were single males.

    • Read more…

Unique Ways to Sell a Home

Ferdinand Cheval Palace - France

In case you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of homes for sale right now. How are you going to get yours noticed? How are you going to get yours sold?

In today’s market, it will take more than painting the walls and trimming the bushes to get noticed, to stand out, to make your home memorable. Dropping the price is something everyone’s doing. What can you do that other sellers aren’t? What can you add that’s different?

Here are some ideas I’ve tried:

Read more…

Do Your Customers Trust Your Brand?

BMW

I’m off to pick up my new car. It’s 2000 miles away. I’m buying a used (2004) BMW sight unseen.

I asked my husband, “am I crazy? I haven’t seen it or driven it. Plus, it’s a convertible and I’ve never driven a convertible before.”

His answer was short and sweet, “you trust the brand.”

Yes, I do. I have a BMW that I absolutely love. I’ve driven it for eight years with no problems. Tune-ups and tires – that’s it. I definitely trust the brand.

Do your customers trust yours? It certainly got me thinking about our customers – our buyers, sellers and employees.

Who are your customers? What have you done for them lately? What do you do for them consistently?

Do your customers trust your brand? Do you give them reason to?

36 Ways to Find Leads

Meeting

Here’s a list we shared in a power point during one of our coaching trainings. What can you add?

Other Investors                            Mortgage Brokers
Real Estate Agents                       Private Money Lenders
Mentors                                          Newspaper Ads
Websites                                         Internet

Read more…

How Much Should You Spend on Marketing?

billboard

Anyone can open a business but, if you want customers, you’d better be marketing.

The million dollar questions are: how much should you be spending and what’s the most effective way to market?

How to market depends largely upon which audience you want to reach. The over 70 crowd may not be using the internet as much as you think and, if your target audience is 18-25, you’d better be on Twitter.

But for the majority in the middle, a “layered” approach is what we use. By “layered,” I mean that we use lots of different media. First, of course, we’re online. We have websites, I blog, I write online articles for ActiveRain and Ezine. These are what get you higher in Google rankings so clients find you when they search online.

Read more…

Cold Calling vs. Direct Mail Marketing

hamster wheel

Cold Calling

Cold calling is a marketing technique where you approach the client or prospect, usually on the phone or now through email, without them expecting to hear from you.

With cold calling, you get a lot of “no”s, you get hung up on, you’re interrupting people’s pattern and their day, they’re annoyed by you. Sometimes, you call that lonely person who wants to talk on and on about what’s going on in their life. It’s always good to be a help to others, but this may not be the highest and best use of your time.

Running in a  hamster wheel is a great comparison to cold calling. As long as you’re prospecting, making outbound phone calls, approaching prospects, you’re generating business. When you step off the wheel, your business stops.

Direct Mail Marketing

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