The Ingredients Of A Good Ad

"Don’t Be A Secret Agent"

Ads are written to make the phone ring, but many salespeople answering those calls forget that people don’t "invest" in real estate over the phone. The purpose of your ad is to get you face-to-face with that caller. You can’t make a sale unless you meet him or her. You can’t make people call unless you spark an interest, you can’t spark interest without getting people’s attention.

So, how do you get the attention of the people who are looking to purchase a home? You run an ad. Everyone in real estate advertises; the secret lies in who places the ads that will spark the most interest. The more interest you generate, the more prospects you’ll get a face-to-face meeting with, and the better the chances are for getting a final agreement. The more your ads pull, the more likely your owner or manager is to run them.

MAKE THAT PHONE RING

Let me give you a few successful advertising ingredients to make that telephone ring.

1.) Attention
The first thing an ad must do is attract attention. You must know that people will not read every word of every ad. People scan when they’re looking through the paper. That’s why professional ad writers use eye-catching headings. You must stop the reader’s eye when he gets to your ad.

2.) Interest
Once you’ve gotten their attention, you must build their interest. This has to be done in the first two lines because now they are scanning your ad. Interest must be built at this point to get you to the next step.

3.) Desire
The desire to see a property is created in the body text of the ad. This is where you must get the buyer emotionally involved.

4.) Action
You need to encourage a "call for action" on the reader’s part at the end of the ad, in your closing line.

MOTIVATION TO CALL

These are the components of what motivates a person to call.

o They see a heading that catches their eye;
o Their interest has been built;
o They have a real desire to see this home;
o They pick up the phone and they call you.

Now, remember, all of this is wasted unless you meet the caller.
I can’t tell you what properties make the best ads; you must be the expert in your area. Do some research, find out what the current selling trend is and then write the ad to get the readers to call you.

LEARN FROM THE PROS

One thing I can tell you is when you should write an ad. You see, the more your ads pull, the more likely your manager is going to run them. The more they’re run, the better your percentage of getting calls, showings and sales.

So when should you write your ad? At a pre-determined time away from everyone. Professionals have an ad-writing appointment with themselves in their time-planning device. They set an appointment with themselves to get the job done -- and get it done long before deadline.

The average salesperson writes an ad ten minutes before deadline, then wonders why their manager didn’t run it. Or maybe the ad was run, but it didn’t receive any calls. Both scenarios create the same result. No calls.

So, what happens when the phone does ring? The average salesperson, when they do get a call, gives out enough information so the caller doesn’t need to see the home. Most callers will be trying to find out everything you know about the property and they will try to give you nothing in return.
Give as little information as possible over the phone. Try to get an appointment with the caller or, at the very least, a phone number. Think of it as a sort of contest. Remember, sometimes the caller is better at this contest than the salesperson!

GET THAT PERSON-TO-PERSON MEETING

Keep in mind, though, that not all your callers are qualified. The toughest calls are from the qualified callers. Unqualified people with no money and no credit have all the time in the world to look at homes. They’re not in any hurry and not particular about the area the home is in. It’s the qualified ones--the ones with both money and credit -- that are the difficult ones. In fact, the more qualified they are, the tougher they are.

Which type of people would you prefer to work with -- unqualified or qualified? Qualified, of course! And, you can’t know which type the callers are until you meet them.
Remember to do the most productive thing at that moment -- get an appointment to meet that caller.

– Tom Hopkins