RISMEDIA, Feb. 26, 2007-Where are brokers spending their marketing and ad dollars in today's market? RISMedia recently sat down with Jose Dos Ramos, a broker from Prudential California Realty in Burlinggame, California to find out.
In terms of advertising and marketing dollars, how are you allocating that money to get the best return on your investment?
Jose Dos Ramos: Traditional advertising in newspapers is not generating what it used to and consumers going to the Internet to capture leads. While you can't discount traditional advertising in newspapers completely, we certainly are not putting our dollars there to the degree that we used to. We want to pursue consumers with bigger dollars in Internet exposure.
We have five offices-three traditional, one is fine homes and one is dedicated to the Hispanic sector in Redwood City, California-so we are reaching out to three different niches, which makes marketing and outreach is very unique to each. That's why the Internet is so vital for us.
With our traditional offices, it's a much wider net. With my position as the PruLatino director of membership, along with our local (www.prucal.com), regional (prudentialproperties.com) and national (www.prudential.com/realestate and Yahoo!) Web presence, we are bringing in lots of leads. That said, we also still have a great presence with the San Francisco Chronicle as well. So, as you can see, we incorporate several different layers into our marketing.
Fine homes is certainly a different demographic all together. Our Web sites have a fine homes' space, and on a national level, we can drill down just to fine homes' agents or offices. We also have relationships with The Wall Street Journal, duPont Registry and The New York Times, just to name a few. It's a nice mix of luxury market penetration.
In our region, there is also great demand for bilingual agents and service. We have a Web site dedicated specifically to that niche, www.prulatino.com. That said, our outreach is more on the field level-door knocking, a mix of radio and newspaper advertising. With the Web site, it gives Latinos in the area a one-stop shop and the resources and education in one place. But really, we started this marketing on a grassroots level.
As our market continues to evolve, we have to now cater to different demographics and niches. The old traditional ways of newspaper advertising and cold calling is not the way it used to be. We've all heard the NAR stats that say that some 80% of consumers look online first. While it is a broad statement, it is a reality.
Ultimately, consumers want to establish a relationship with an agent who will guide them from start to finish. We are distributing our dollars so we can give our clients just that.
-Stephanie Andre
