We have been getting increased interest in both West and North Vancouver for our services.  I would like to welcome all our new clients from the North Shore.  We wish you continued success in the New Year!

Robin Cameron, Sutton West Coast Realty
3430 Anne Macdonald Way > video – photos

Mark and Eric Rassmussen, Sutton Group West Coast Realty
990 Beaumont Drive > video – photos

Richard Lee, Amex Broadway West Realty
2566 Chairlift Road > video – photos

Rae Armour, RE/Max Crest Realty
737 East 13th Avenue > video – photos

Michael Nex, Sutton Group West Coast Realty
4507 Summerside Lane > video – photos

 

Honouring our commitment to customer service, we shot a condo for Stephen Burke of Sutton West Coast Realty on a Sunday afternoon a few weekends ago.  He had a special request for us.  Stephen needed the video to be linked to the mls website by Monday morning.  As the story goes, his clients had a conditional offer on another property, the condition being, selling their condo … within 7 days!

We submitted the link to the REBGV on Friday so that it would show up for the listing on Monday.  We spent Sunday night editting Stephens video and preparing pictures.  As promised, the video and photos were posted on Sunday night and ready for the mls on Monday morning.

Last week, we were shooting another listing for Stephen Burke.  He told us that his clients were extremely happy that everything had worked out in their favour.  They were able to sell their condo within the 7 day window.  He also eleborated on how he originally got the listing.  Stephen was the last realtor to give a listing presentation of 6 real estate agents that were being interviewed.  It seems that the clients had already made their decision before Stephen had an opportunity to make his pitch.  Stephen encouraged the owners to check out his website to see how he markets properties using video.  The owners must have seen something they liked because Stephen got the listing … and made the sale!

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. 

One of the challenges we face at Video Openhouse is getting agents to re-distribute their marketing and advertising dollars away from traditional mediums such as newspapers and magazines.  Despite all of the information that clearly shows increasing numbers of home-buyers are searching and finding homes online, realtors, through their continued use of print-based advertising, demonstrate that old habits die hard.  Agents are reluctant to stop using print-based advertising despite the diminishing returns.

One of the advantages of web-based marketing and advertising has over the print medium is the feedback that is revealed in web statistics and log files.  Most realtor websites allow the owner/administrator to access a series of tools that statistically analyse web traffic.  Essentially, the statistics will reveal to you how your visitors found you and how they interact with your website.  For example, the number of visitors, referring web address, country of origin, search engine phrases are all documented in nearly every website statistics package. 

For our clients, we can provide the number of times times a specific video or gallery has been viewed.  Interested in knowing how many viewers of a video came from the mls, realtylink or your website?  We can provide that information too.  I would argue that our Video Openhouse tours and professional photography services offer a more effective return on the advertising dollar … and we have the stats that prove it!