The Dinosaurs are Dying... The Dinosaurs are Dying....

The posts of others here at Active Rain often trigger comments from me that end up becoming posts in their own right on my own blog. This is one of those : )

The Dinosaurs are Dying....

No - the sky is not falling. However, there are "hallowed" marketing techniques in the real estate world that are dying out - along with the agents who have not migrated to electronic marketing.

I just read a really great AR blog about the power of the sign (and brochure box) in real estate marketing.

I hate to say it but the days of planting a sign and rolling in buyer calls are diminishing fast and may go the way of the dinosaur - SOON.

It used to be that a sign call was the golden moment. But this happens less and less often today. Realtors who have survived until now using OLD SCHOOL marketing are not likely to make it through the next few years.

Why? Because today's buyer has been online for A YEAR OR TWO, exposing their email address to Realtors who want their business. Oh well, maybe they were only registering their house hunt, and signing up for automated home searches, and ordering free reports (and ending up on drip email with web marketing savvy agents).

Today's buyer has been educated - DON'T CALL THE SELLERS AGENT... YOU NEED YOUR OWN AGENT...

So TODAY, the only buyer making a sign call is one who has not yet met a Realtor they like. And this kind of buyer is becoming an extinct species.

Now about that brochure box... I suppose trees are a renewable resource, more or less, but it still costs fossil fuel to deliver those tree based flyers to those petrochemical based boxes... Follow?

I vote for electronic marketing - every time!

If you are a broker, teach your agents how to do this. If you don't know how, call a speaker, trainer, coach, or consultant (raising hand).

If you are an agent, don't put it off any longer. Learn more about electronic marketing. Start today. I have helped agents increase web traffic visitor count from less than 10 a day to over 100 visitors a day. What do you think that does to lead counts?

If you are a seller, choose an agent who understands.