Magazine advert review

Hi all,

If anyone can spare a couple of minutes to offer feedback on our standard quarter page advert from 2009, I would much appreciate it. We are looking at the first few months of marketing for 2010, so now's the perfect time to make improvements.

http://www.propertyadd.com/assets/propertyadd-qtr-page-advert.pdf

Thanks,

Martin

Like the punch concept Martin and that image. However I don't like the orangey-brown colour used for the "prices from" graphic and along the bottom etc. It reminds me of the colour of an newspaper from the 70's we found under the floorboards when we moved into our house - old and tired. A different colour there would improve it a lot for me. Maybe purple, green or even pink?!

seconded ... good ad though

Thanks for the feedback guys - nice to get positive comments about the ad format :)

Interesting point about the colour. Finding a second colour to go with our blue logo has been a challenge. Yellow is either too light or too bright in print work. Grey is too dull. Purple goes quite well, but is used by a competitor. Green goes ok with dark blue, but not our lighter shade. Red is no good for adverts. Enough to send one right around the bend!

Do you think a more orangey orange would do it? Or have any recommendations?

http://www.visibone.com/colorlab/big.html

We use an orange to white gradient for many of the smaller panels on our website (www.propertyadd.com), but I'm not convinced that would work well in print.

Martin

For those interested, I found this while looking for advice..

http://www.directcreative.com/blog/the-power-of-color-in-direct-marketing

Martin

Hi Martin,

To really give you any useful feedback might take a couple of goes around...

Where's the advert going to appear - i.e. is the readership all estate agents or a mix of estate agents, developers, investors, buyers, property managers, landlords etc?

I like the fact that you've gone for a headline that focuses on their problem, but I'd change the layout to put the headline at the top, a lot bigger so it really grabs the eye.

The logo is wasting valuable headline space and is in one of the most valuable places on the page, while doing nothing for you in terms of making the sale (unless you're famous by your logo like Coca Cola!). I'd move it right out of the way somewhere - bottom and small.

The punch is a play on words, but it's not clear to me how the punch relates to the product. It draws me in a little so it might grab attention.

Price is too soon - it's a detail that you'll be interested in only if the rest of the ad grabs your eye, so put it after the bulleted list.

The ad also lacks some kind of call to action that's really attractive. THink about the problems estate agents have with software and then make fixing that the basis of a free report. E.g. "How to sell houses 3 weeks fast and halve the admin" would probably get some real attention!, or "How to attract more houses than ever, even in this market". Both issues that estate agents have mentioned to me in the recession.

Make it a free report they can phone in and get or fill out a form on your website. Then you've got their details and can start marketing to them on a regular basis regardless of the magazine.

Your core strategy for marketing should look something like this:

Clear niche -> Strong offer -> Build database -> market to it continually

Most people make the mistake of trying to get a big sale in one go - most fish don't bite first time, they just nibble!

Having written all of that, it sounds like I'm having a real go at your ad - in fact, it's a lot better than 95% of all ads I've seen from small business. It's a lot more focused on the end user and for that you should be given a hearty pat on the back.

Lee

Hi Lee,

Thanks for the effort you've put into those comments, much appreciated. I don't know if some of these responses will light up any more bulbs for you?

The ad is a quarter page that we run in some of the estate agency magazines from time to time. Our primary market are independent agents with 5 branches or less, both on the sales and lettings side.

I appreciate your comments on element position and will see what we can do to improve that. The 'punch' is just a theme to grab attention, but also indicate that the software delivers that bit more oomph.

The 'how to ... in no time flat' style doesn't suit our company ethos or model of product I'm afraid - we're a high quality and respectable partner, in it for the long run and looking to build real relationships. The (online) software is a tool to allow agents to do the job of being an estate agent to a higher level with less admin effort. It's not a magic bullet or a get rich quick miracle :o)

I'll pass the compliment on with the feedback, thanks.

All other feedback still welcome :o)

Martin

Hi Martin,

If it's just estate agents reading, that's great news because you've got exactly the right people flicking through. The challenge for your ad is to grab their attention. Colours and pictures can get that for a split second, then it's the job of the words to hold and engage them so that they consume your message.

The idea of writing a report is not to tell them you can transform their business in 3 seconds flat (that was me being tongue in cheek, but obviously too subtle!), but to make sure there's something there that will make them want YOUR product, not your competitor's.

If no other competitor advertises their software in the magazine, that's fine. However, if you've got competition, what specifically are you going to do to start building a relationship with your potential customers?

This depends, of course, on your software actually being different and better in some way than your competitors. If it doesn't, then all you've got to sell on is colours and pictures. This all relates to USP and getting it across in your ads - you might find my post on unique selling point helpful - in it I explain how the dairy industry has managed to produce a good number of smart USPs despite being a commodity industry.

If your software has nothing really special and unique you can say about it, then your customers can only shop based on price - which means you have to be the cheapest, which is never a great strategy.

Sorry, got the laptop here while I watch a bit of early-evening TV to chill out, and got carried away there!

Lee

Hi Lee,

You're right, most estate agency software companies provide similar functions, of course. They all have a property database, CRM module, matching and marketing process and portal feeds. Some are older and a bit (or very!) outdated, others are less fully featured, but the basics are the same. The market is fairly evenly split between desktop products and web-based software.

We've got a number of differentiators though:

• We are genuinely flexible and friendly and the relationship comes first for us. We act more like consultants than software suppliers and customers can come to us with any issues they like for support. We quite happily end up offering advice on all manner of things!
• We do the configuration for agents so that they can be up and running with minimal fuss and we actively incorporate new developments based on feedback (our custom-built software engine allows us to do this more quickly than our competitors).
• We provide fully integrated sales and lettings functionality.
• Our website integration options are second to none. Real-time integration with search engine friendly content, hosted within their own domain. Plus applicant registration forms which create contact records directly within the software for you.
• We offer international functionality that allows estate agents and introduction agents to market property anywhere in the world, using multiple languages and currencies.
• We offer different variants of the software, so that people only pay for what they will use. Options include a very basic matching and marketing starter system for free, plus an entry level do-all-the-day-to-day product which we believe is the most competitively priced product in the market (thus why price is important on the advert, particularly for start-up agents).
• We run a "brain food" blog - www.modernestateagent.co.uk which promotes a pro-active and modern approach to estate agency.

This is quite a lot to say in a short advert, but writing it down certainly helps to show what we are not marketing correctly as yet!

Martin

PS. I had read the milk USP article a few days back - interesting, but hard to relate to my industry!

Hi Martin,

That helps a lot - from what you've written you've got an important decision to make about your advert if you want to improve the response - who is it for?

When I teach marketing, I use the metaphor of fishing...

What fish do you want to catch & what do they like to eat?

You can then choose the juiciest, most irresistable and enticing bait you can think of to get them hooked.

Make sense?

So your product will appeal to several different groups of estate agents, for different reasons...

• Startup agents wanting to keep costs to a minimum but run a professional outfit
• International sales estate agents
• Lettings agents

So can you get a small ad to appeal to all 3 groups in a powerful way? Not a hope in hell! You've got to decide which group is the most profitable and hungry and then go after them with a vengeance.

Once you've figured out which specific group to target, you need to think about their problems and pains, what drives them nuts that you can solve. That pain can lead to a great headline. E.g. "International Sales Bogged Down In Admin?" - not the most imaginative, but you get my drift. If they're the right kind of "fish", they'll pay attention.

The rest of the ad then focuses on what they get from your service. Don't say "we", use "you". When you start talking about "we do this best", what they hear is "me, me, me" or more likely "blah, blah blah". Just doesn't work.

Then an offer to send them a report all about "Process International Sales In Half The Time", or something, whatever it is that you do that your competitors don't, should secure the lead.

On the other hand, if it's the startup agents you're after, or the ones that struggle with sales, you major on low cost and cutting their overheads.

Back to the fishing story - different fish eat different foods and a hook baited with a bit of everything won't be attractive to any fish.

Right, that's enough on this one - if you fancy more, come and join my new Double Your Business Mastermind Group so I can help you properly!

Lee

All good points Lee - and we already have plans to mix up our more general marketing with other more targeted adverts for particular niches this year.

Appreciate the feedback. Good plug too!

Martin

Hi Martin,

Couldn't resist the plug, kind of felt appropriate! I'm a big fan of direct response marketing because it gets much better results and can be used to build brand at the same time. From experience, brand awareness type of advertising has little if any effect for us smaller businesses unless it's building on a direct response platform.

Was fun trying to help, would be fun to get you into my mastermind too

Lee