The importance of integrated marketing was recently reinforced by the real estate industry’s top trade group, The National Association of Realtors®, in a report about the various ways consumers search for their next home. NAR research found that while 90 percent of consumers use the Internet, as many as 53 percent of buyers cite “yard signs” as their method for finding a home. Smart real estate agents are finding ways to combine the two.
Signs With QR Codes
Some agents have incorporated QR codes into their signage as a way to draw traffic to their website. If you do, just be sure to design a dedicated mobile-friendly landing page for that property for your prospective customer.
Social Signage
Although the real estate industry wasn’t always considered technologically savvy, these days agents are often ahead of the tech curve when compared alongside other businesses, according to Broderick Perkins of Deadline News. And in the realm of social media, real estate professionals have leaped ahead in their use of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
But non-techie agents can take heart, knowing there are still opportunities to get more business by using traditional integrated marketing methods in new ways.
“When one considers how much business we get from that thing sticking in the front lawn of our listings,” writes Shannon O’Brien of Market Leader, “it’s amazing how we take them for granted. One phone call and the sign is installed to our specifications. Another one and it’s taken down and stored. Most agents never touch their signs unless it’s to re-attach a wind-blown rider.”
Creative Sign Riders
Around the time QR codes starting gaining popularity, sign riders began to fall out of favor with some agents, along with sign boxes for brochures. But don’t dismiss these tried and true vehicles as obsolete just yet. Sign riders are a natural place to promote your website URL, as well as your social media presence on Facebook or other networks.
Some agents have found that a little humor can take rider messages a long way. In fact, Canadian agent Jake Palmer discovered that his humorous rider signs, like “Indoor Plumbing!” and “Not Haunted,” generated so much interest that people would stop in front of the home to pose for photos next to the sign rider, taking his message viral.
Palmer’s marketing motto: “If we break the mold on what people expect, people will pay attention.”
