Struggling with fresh, eye-catching ads?

Question - I struggle each week to come up with fresh, eye-catching ads, particularly for properties that have been on the market for a while. Of course our marketing budget is lean and our principal wants us to keep costs down.

I don't blame your principal! Advertising is the most expensive way to generate leads. Do you need fresh, eye- catching ads? This might come as a surprise but…NO! If your ad is working and makes the phone ring - don't change it. Run the same ad over and over again. Believe me, your prospects are NOT tired of it.

Every week there is a new pool of buyers looking for properties and they didn't see your previous ads - so they will not know that it is the same ad no matter how many times it has run. And of course, each week some people who saw your ad previously but didn't call will finally get interested enough to pick up the phone.

You may be concerned that some people will recognize that it is the same ad. Don't worry about it! The idea is not to impress people with your creativity, and it surely isn't to make the same prospects call you again and again. The idea is to compel them to call you once so that you can follow up. Are you measuring your results to know which of your ads are effective and which are not? Make sure you track results, so that you can repeat the most successful ads.

Advertising is a science - if it's done right it can bring a predictable number of leads week after week. To do it right you need to learn how to write and create offers, so that people not only see and read your advertisement, but also are willing to call you in response. You need to know how to make your ad stand out and how to compel people who read it to answer right away. Without that knowledge, money spend on advertising is wasted.

Interestingly, the most effective real estate ads are not the ones that advertise a specific property or real estate company.