I do not think anyone can dispute the fact that the web is part of everyday life for just about every person in the U.S. these days. Checking email, finding out what our friends are doing on Facebook and Instagram, and even performing many of the daily requirements of our jobs, we are online.

With all these eyeballs, it is no surprise that there are literally an army of advertisers that want your attention as you surf through the web. If they grab you, they can track what your online interests are, and re-market to you in a contextually relevant manner, hopefully capturing your business. As I have written in prior articles about ad retargeting, this very affordable, very effective way of marketing is great!

So these are all great things right? Yes, but I see a problem in the way that some agents are using online advertising in their overall marketing campaigns, and it is hurting their business. Namely, they see the affordability, and the "techie feeling" of online marketing initiatives and decide that they can go without other forms of advertising that may be more expensive, essentially putting all their eggs in a single basket.

The Key to Life is Everything in Moderation

As the owner of a company that invests a great deal of money in online advertising and original content creation, I can without a doubt say that I am NOT telling you to ignore any sort of online marketing/advertising effort as part of your overall real estate marketing campaign. I am saying though, as I have many times, that there is no "magic pill" that will solve all your problems.

If you are only doing one type of marketing (e.g. online banner advertising), you are missing giant segments of your marketplace, and your exposure and brand are suffering because of it. To that end, you have to have other forms of marketing in play, or you are going to be doing yourself a disservice. While there are, of course, many forms of marketing out there, today I am going just going to focus on postcard marketing.

Postcards Are Still the Most Effective Way to Leverage and Track Real Estate Website Traffic

With technological advancements like capture marketing, real estate postcards continue to outperform other traditional forms of marketing like newspaper ads, magazine ads, digital advertising (e.g. an ad on a T.V. screen in a coffee shop), and things like shopping cart or bus bench ads. They not only outperform those other mediums, but they also integrate with your existing online marketing efforts in a MUCH more connected and automated fashion, making your marketing easy to perform and consistent in the eye of the consumer.

Some of the main reasons for this include:

1. Using capture marketing, you can not only lead someone back to your website, increasing your online traffic and online presence, BUT you can track EXACTLY who it was that came back to your site, giving you ample opportunities for follow up marketing.

2. Unlike a newspaper ad or an ad on a TV in a busy retail establishment, postcards are directed at a homeowner when they are by themselves at home, in a format that stands out by itself (it's not one of many ads in a newspaper, for instance. Your postcard can stick out beyond the size of the other envelopes in the mail, being noticed immediately).

3. Variable data print technology allows you to do with postcards what you CANNOT do with newspapers, magazines, or digital advertising. Basically, if the database you get from your title company or the database of a neighborhood you keep on your own has demographic information (e.g. length of residency, how many beds or baths, square footage, age of homeowner, etc.), you can tailor the graphics, message and any other content to THAT specific homeowner, giving them a truly unique marketing piece that is 100% contextually relevant to them. Obviously, this is impossible with magazines, newspapers other similar forms of marketing.

Don't Forget Rule #1!

Am I saying you should completely pitch your newspaper and magazine ads, or any other form of marketing that isn't online or postcard driven? NO I AM NOT! Remember, everything in moderation is the key to a successful marketing campaign. I agree that things are and will continue to move more and more online.

To those ends, whenever possible, you have to make sure that you are always using some sort of technology based call to action--or worst case, a basic, traditional call to action to guide people back to your online properties. Ideally, you want that homeowner to have a seamless experience, as if your website already knows who they are, before they type anything into your site. Things like capture marketing close the loop on this and make it possible.

I get it. Inexpensive things, or things that seem "new and techie," are very exciting. Trust me. I love the things that are going on in technology right now, and think it's a very exciting time. You can't get comfortable, though, and settle on a single, "easy thing to do." That kind of complacency leads to laziness. And as they say, "If you stop for lunch, you become lunch."

To view the original article, visit the Leading Agent blog.