Here in lies the marketing issue with newspapers and other print media advertising that was once home to an exclusive advertising venue in the real estate industry. Realtors, specifically brokers and large real estate groups such as Coldwell Banker and Century 21 are moving their advertising to online media forms, with plans of reducing the number of ads in local newspapers in the future.
In an article in Business Week, by: Timothy J. Mullaney, titled:
Real Estate Ads Move to the Internet
Real estate listings are moving online, and newspapers are racing to protect their classifieds market by following them
Most Sundays, Bob Peltier buys six ad pages in the two Twin Cities newspapers. But Labor Day weekend was a turning point for the president of Edina Realty, Minnesota's top real estate firm. Instead of pages of open-house listings, Edina ran one page in each paper: The ad had a picture of a computer, but no information about houses at all. Instead, it told buyers to see Edina's Web site for open houses. "This is the start," Peltier says. "In 2007, I'll spend 50 percent less on the newspaper."
Newspapers are attempting to follow suite by buying up some of the online real estate portals in order to try and bolster their position. However, this strategy may not work very well for the newspapers in the long run. As consumers continue to flock to the Internet in increasing numbers, newspapers will have a hard time battling for market share. Additionally, as individual Realtors continue to use the new technologies available to them for their own real estate Internet marketing websites; to have a list of the open houses, MLS searches in their area, and more virtual online tours of homes, consumers will continue to migrate to the Internet to gain up-to-the-minute information, along with automatic email alerts for properties, which will continue to put increased pressure on the newspaper industry.
The newspaper industry has already lost significant ground in other forms of classifieds. Job postings and articles for sale at websites like Craigslist have put a major dent into the advertising dollars received by newspapers. This may be a case of both cause and affect. The affect on circulation because of the Internet is overwhelming. Newspapers can no longer deny that online sources of information are not affecting their print subscribership. People want instantaneous everything. Why should the news be any different? Because print subscribership is down, newspapers have a harder time justifying their ad rates and thus have downward pressure of what can be charged for a print ad.
If you are a Realtor, or Broker reading this information and are not taking advantage of all the online tools available, then you need to take action now. Contact Professional Web Services for all your Internet marketing services, online advertising strategies, ethical Search Engine Optimization - SEO, real estate marketing blog, and web branding solutions today.
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