When it comes to using direct response style marketing I often hear a common complaint.
That complaint is that the ads or promotional materials look unprofessional.
With all of the slick Madison Avenue style advertising that we are smothered with every day many people believe that all advertising should look like this.
They neglect to remember than many of the most successful ads ever produced were just words on paper.
Instead of designing my advertising to boost my ego I would much rather base my decisions about advertising based on actual results.
I don't really care if my advertising impresses my friends or relatives.
All I really care about is whether it builds my bank account or not.
I want to be able to track the effectiveness of my advertising and be able to measure the results every time.
In fact, I won't spend the money if I can't track and measure the results of my advertising.
In most cases, you should not look to what the big international companies are doing for your marketing strategies.
These large monolithic companies are usually more interested in brand awareness and recognizability then in immediately trackable results.
They have million dollar advertising budgets and all the time in the world to spend it.
They are also normally marketing to the masses with products that are available everywhere and that have mass appeal.
As a real estate agent in a local market you have a completely different type of business to run.
It is unlikely that you have millions to spend on advertising and time to wait for business to come in the door.
Fortunately, because your business is a different type of business you don't need this.
You have a small geographical area to focus on and ways to communicate to the specific people in that market that will be your best prospects using direct response techniques.
Every time you do a promotion you can track it and get a measurable response because of this.
So remember that the only reason each element of your advertising is there is to get a response.
If it doesn't improve response rates it shouldn't be there.
You should ignore any criticism of your promotions that isn't based on hard cold measurements of response no matter whom they come from.