Newspapers remain (somewhat) dead

I have written about the ineffectiveness of print media time and time and time and time again.

Roberta wrote a nice post today about newspapers’ similarities to dead horses. Perhaps my favorite line:

I also agree with John’s premise that newspaper advertising is more about promotion of the real estate agent than bringing qualified buyers to see the home. Imagine the absurdity of telling a home seller, “I am going to advertise your home in our local newspaper with a grainy photo and five column lines of type.”

The story is particularly serendipitous, as next week I will be advertising in the local print media for the first time in well over a year, at the behest of a client and out of my own curiosity, to find out a simple question does it work? I’ll use a special email address to track the email leads as well as track the phone call I receive because of the ad, and, naturally, report the results here.

More than 80% of home buyers are using the web; it is far more efficient, cost effective and trackable to use internet marketing. Should one use print media, which is none of the above, to maybe reach that remaining ~20%?

And, my favorite comment from the 3Oceans article she referenced:

It’s sad to think that the second largest group of persons needing to read this won’t see it. Of the largest group - sellers - many will see it because savvy real estate agents like you, Kevin and other web 2.0 agents will show it to them.

The second largest group - traditional real estate.

Technorati Tags: 2.0, real estate, realtor, realtor.com

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or sign up for Email Alerts. This blog tracks the real estate market in the Charlottesville, Virginia region, local politics, technology and other matters impacting the local real estate market. Thanks for visiting!