Newspaper 15

Collier Swecker video blogs about how traditional Newspaper Advertising is DEAD when it comes to real estate marketing in Birmingham, AL. We are asked frequently by Sellers, why our team has chosen not to advertise in the local newspaper. Our answer is simple, Newspaper Advertising is DEAD and the overall reach of these newspapers is not what it was 5 years ago. What is really funny is that only about a 25% of the folks that ask that question, actually read it or subscribe to the newspaper themselves! (I know that because I ask them if they do in response to the newspaper advertising question.) The Internet and all of the portable internet devices (like cell phones, laptops, etc) have made it so easy to access news and information that people are no longer subscribing to the local paper or picking it up from the newsstand and as a result there are very few eyes looking at the marketing ads. The newspapers are trying to create websites that are as informational as their regular newspaper in hopes that small businesses like Realtors will advertise, but their attempts have not brought readers to their website like they thought that they would. In my experience they are charging nearly the same price as one could take out a Google AdWords campaign which can target over 1000 keywords with potential viewers exponentially more than on the newspaper sites. I think that Realtors need to put their marketing dollar where the most potential buyers are actually looking for homes. At …