Guest contributor Delta Media Group says:

What does marketing mean to you?

It's a simple question on the surface, but the answer can be a lot more complex than we think.

Marketing has changed drastically over the years—and perhaps more in the past few years than over the previous few decades.

At its core, marketing is the same as it always was. It's about promoting or selling your services. It's about getting a message to a consumer in such a way that it impacts them and makes them remember that you can provide that service better than your competitors.

Marketing has changed so drastically and so quickly because consumers take in information in many different ways than they used to.

Televisions are still good sources, but the DVR has allowed consumers to fast forward past commercials. Radios are nice, but an abundance of channels, the introduction of satellite radio, and radio controls built into the steering wheels of modern vehicles allow consumers to quickly change the station.

Billboards give an impression, but the gadgets in cars often keep drivers and passengers looking other places than the sides of highways. And how do you measure the impact of that oversized billboard? Does having your face near the road make you seem like a more knowledgeable real estate agent?

Many marketing messages are the same as they've always been. And that's just the problem. Consumers have better methods of tuning them out, and they're tired of being sold to. They want to buy when they want to buy, but many want to do their own homework before making any purchasing decisions.

Might it be a better method to stop selling and start educating? Might information on a subject people are searching for be better for placing your name in front of a consumer than an oversized billboard?

What if you could reach a larger audience with that message, and do so more intelligently, with a purpose, for a drastically lower cost and reciprocating value?

As soon as you stop paying that billboard, radio or TV commercial fee, you're replaced by the next chap who will. Your face is no longer present, and your service is all but forgotten.

Going Digital

Google has a longer memory. And the benefits of a valuable, timeless article that helps consumers who turn to the web to research their real estate market can actually grow over time. People will read the article, share it on social media channels, link to it, pass it along to friends and family, and bookmark it to return to when they're ready to look more closely at a topic.

But it doesn't just have to be an article. Helping consumers means providing good content, an easy method to search for homes and recent sales, pushing out new market trends and reports by email, and many, many more digital marketing functions.

The benefits of the "Digital REALTOR®" stretch far beyond the reach of the largest billboard on the busiest highway, or the loudest commercial on the most listened-to radio station. And they're less competitive in that few do it right.

A successful digital campaign takes the right REALTOR®, with the right mindset, using the right tools. Those tools should be created with purpose and tested so that you can utilize them to the best of your capabilities to deliver results.

That's something no billboard or commercial can do.

To view the original article, visit the Delta Media Group blog.