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| March/April 2001 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Can you really write more-effective ads in less time? You bet. Just keep a few things in mind...like your audience and their emotions. |
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The simple
truth is that to create an ad, you eventually have to sit down and write it.
But some agents suffer stifling cases of writers block. Others simply
list the features of a property and consider the task accomplished.
If you fall into either of these categories, help is on the way. These five tips will help you get started writing powerful, appealing ads. |
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by Hal Douthit Can you really write more-effective ads in less time? You bet. Just keep a few things in mind...like your audience and their emotions. The simple truth is that to create an ad, you eventually have to sit down and write it. But some agents suffer stifling cases of writers block. Others simply list the features of a property and consider the task accomplished. If you fall into either of these categories, help is on the way. These five tips will help you get started writing powerful, appealing ads. For better than three decades, I have accepted anecdotal evidence that selling the property was not the primary reason agents advertised a home. Satisfying the sellers, getting other listings, and matching the competitionsurely these items topped the list for why agents advertise. But a recent nationwide survey completed by our companies involved in real estate publishing and advertising contradicted this widely held belief. Agents responded that selling the property was the main reason they advertise. Hurray! I have always believed that agents must advertise properties for the same reason Proctor and Gamble advertises Pringles: to tell people what they have to sell and why they should buy it. On the downside, and probably no revelation to you, was the overwhelming number of responses on the survey that complained about time stress and the spending of too much time for what an agent earns. Part of this stress comes from the three hours a week a typical agent spends writing ads. Its possible agents spend so much time because an ad that will help sell a property must be well-crafted, which takes time. Still, for many, writing ads is one of the worst parts of being a real estate agent. If youre like most of your peers, youre a verbalizer, not an essayist. Further, it costs about $200 a week of your time to prepare ads, not to mention the added stress of meeting ad deadlines, day after day, week after week. What to do?Appeal to the heart first, head secondBurn into your mind this simple fact: Writing successful ads begins and ends with emotions. Every good adwithout exceptionaddress first the right (emotional) brain and then the left (logical) brain. A few years ago, Texas A&M University published the results of a study they had done analyzing the effectiveness of headlines and first sentences in ads in major print publications. This research showed that much higher readership was paid to ads that used figurative language (metaphors, puns, analogies, etc.) rather than literal wording ("Just the facts, maam"). With that in mind, here are some tips for writing powerful ads without wasting time. Five ways to beat writers block and the ad clock
Status Comfort
Simply Tudor-iffic! Mais Oui! Superb Single-Story
A Feast of Fabulous
Features Delightfully Different
Owner Hates to Leave
View-Oriented Soft
Contemporary With these five ways (of course, there are others), you should be able to cut down on stress, save time and money, and write better ads that reach out and touch the right readers. Write to an audienceAsking questions like those outlined in this article provides you with an extra dividend. By thinking of properties in terms of comfort vs. status, styles, whats new, etc., you naturally think of the person or people who will be attracted to the home. With any kind of writingadvertising includedyou write more clearly and effectively when you write to a specific audience. At a seminar we held in Denver, we introduced agents to what we found out about different psychological types who buy homes. Our goal was to help agents write more- pointed, targeted ads. Later, I got a nice letter from an agent thanking menot for helping her write better ads, but for opening her eyes to the differences in buyers and how she should approach them. She cited three sales she had made to Californians, whom she previously hadnt understood. It works much the same way in person and in an ad. When you write a more targeted ad, you have the advantage of understanding something about the person who is turned on by the appeal to comfort (or status or Tudor). You connect, and when an ad connects, its doing its job. Another surprise from our survey came in responses to the question about why agents got into and stayed in the real estate business. Again, I always believed the anecdotal evidence that the number-one answer was to make money. Making money came in second, though. And again, I was surprised and delighted to learn that the top reason, agents told us, was to help others. This is indeed a praiseworthy goal, and it elevates being a real estate agent to the top rank of being a professional. Now, I dont know too many people who would argue that advertising contains similar humanitarian overtones, but, if in writing a good, targeted ad, you help someone find the perfect home, maybe its not such a stretch after all. However you want to look at your advertising efforts, a targeted, emotion-evoking ad beats a plain list of features every time. Hal Douthit is creator of Re/Ad, the computer ad-writing program for real estate, and is publisher of 19 Homes Illustrated magazines and 13 newspapers. Contact him at hal@adwriter.com or 419/621-2142, or visit www.adwriter.com. Photo illustration: © 2001 PhotoDisc.
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visit www.texasrealestate.com. |
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Make sure your ads comply with important rules and regulations |
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