My previous blog on website logs and statistics has generated some interesting discussion at our office.  It seems that I may have inadvertently overlooked some methods to generate feedback to assist in the determination of the effectiveness of real estate print advertising. 

These suggestions may seem simplistic but they do offer the advertisee a chance to determine where a phone call, email or website visit originated from.  I am assuming that a real estate advertisement is placed in hopes that the ad will inspire the reader to place a phone call, send an email or visit a website.  My first suggestion >> Use unique phone numbers, email addresses and websites for each publication that is advertised in. 

For example, if you have an ad in Westender Magazine, set up an email address that identifies the origin.  By using wemag@realtorwebsite.ca in the contact info specifically for WE Magazine ads only, this will allow you to “count” the number of emails that were generated by ads in that particular magazine.  The same method can be applied to phone numbers and websites.  Getting an additional phone number is as simple as signing up for another cell phone or setting up a distinct ring for a second phone number on any land line.  At first, this may seem like an unreasonable solution but the reality is that the costs of these services should amount to less than $20 per month, a small price to pay to determine the effectiveness of your advertising dollars. 

Many realtors also have more than 1 domain name.  Though they may have a specific website that is the focus of their marketing efforts, any additional website addresses could be used for advertising on specific publications.  Again, the costs of aquiring additional domain names are minimal in comparison to the price of advertising.  By using unique contact information for each publication, it becomes possible to determine the origin of each contact.

A second approach is to offer an incentive or special offer to determine which publication they may have been exposed to.  For example, by mentioning this ad, you will receive a free home evaluation or $1000 when I sell your house.  The challenge using this scenario is to determine the effectiveness of the ad in comparison to the strength of the incentive. 

Unlike web stats, the accuracy of the results are somewhat suspect due to the simplistic approach to this unique problem.  The irony of trying to measure the effectiveness of print ads is that the collection of those results actually employ the technology that is making print-based advertising obsolete.