An ad either sticks or it doesn’t. Sadly, the ratio is usually in favor of the latter category.
It sucks.
You’ve invested time, money, resources, and talent into something that offers a punch in the gut at best.
You stand back up, shake it off, learn from your mistakes, and launch a new ad campaign. You do need new clients, don’t you?
What happens next?
Another punch. And another one. And another one.
How? Why? You’ve done everything by the book, found the right audience, split tested the campaigns, hired and fired several consultant agencies – you’ve done it all.
Where did you go wrong?
The odds are either your or your marketer chose the wrong advertising model.
Would you like to know a little professional secret about marketers? All of them are copycats by nature.
They see a creative Coke or Nike ad that hits all the sweet spots, find a dozen or so successful cases of it being used to skyrocket sales/lead generation/engagement rates by a million percent. Then they do the most rational thing – implement it.
Why wouldn’t they? There are people liking the ad. There’s the data supporting it. What are they missing? Oh, right, results.
They are missing results.
Persuasive Advertising
That Coke ad we’ve mentioned earlier was probably an example of persuasive advertising or if put more simply, an ad that relies heavily on an emotional response of the audience.
This Bic ad by Brilliant Ads is a prime example of persuasive advertising in action.
Is it creative? Yes.
Does it inspire a laugh AKA an emotional response? Yes.
Do hundreds of people see it on a daily basis? Yes.
Will it work for Bic? Definitely.
The math adds up. You definitely should do something of that sort for your real estate business. Implementing a concept like that digitally on your website or social media channels shouldn’t be too expensive. And with an ad like that your biggest worry an overblown database of contacts and some carrier lookup issues.
But it won’t. An ad like that won’t work for a real estate business due to the lack of resources. You won’t have the money to pull it off.
Hey, didn’t I just read that I can recreate the concept digitally, you ask?
Yes, you definitely can. But will people stop what they are doing, get out of the car, take a picture with your website and then share it with their friends and family on social media?
Yes, an ad like that is brilliant for Bic but, sadly, it does not take your business into consideration. Or, in simpler words, it won’t work for your real estate website.
Let’s take a look at a different, more down-to-earth example of an ad from the endlessly creative Brilliant Ads.
The visual is juicy, flavorful, and oh-so-hot. It’s also simple and fairly applicable in a digital space. We might even go as far as to say that this is one of the world’s best ketchup ads.
Its only downside in our case is that this is a ketchup ad. It is designed to generate an urge for spontaneous shopping. The mouthwatering design makes you want to buy the sauce right this instance.
Heck, it might even come up your mind then next time you’ll take a grocery shopping trip to Whole Foods.
Alas, it will hardly convince you to invest real estate.
There’s simply too much thinking behind buying, renting, or investing in a house. You, or your marketer, should consider your client’s thought process before planning the next ad campaign.
Persuasive Advertising in Real Estate
Does this mean that real estate businesses should shy away from using persuasive advertising?
Not unless you don’t want to persuade your clients.
But if you do, there are several tricks that can help!
Persuasive Adverting Tricks For Real Estate
- The carrot and the stick. It’s funny how different people tend to follow the same patterns. We are hardwired to urge for pleasure and shy away from danger. That’s why clever marketers tend to use the Carrot and Stick approach of Motivation in advertising.
Find a painkiller to your client’s pain, and use it as a carrot. Something like our background check service will save you the pain of hearing “No” from the landlord should do the trick.
Alternatively, you can use the stick of fear, with something like “Get our mayhem-proof insurance plan as part of the package”. Mayhem is scary. Who doesn’t want to be mayhem-proof? - Stick to a single message. It’s simply easier to reach for emotion with one clear, concise, and powerful line of text.
- Do it for the people. And don’t forget to address the people you are doing things for. Writing website copy in second person is much more powerful than you think.
- The Scarcity Principle. Why do iPhones sell so wheel despite being obsolete if compared to the competition with better and cheaper solutions? They are (or they really try to look like) something exclusive. Limitation and exclusivity give way for people to execute their phantasies of dominance. Also, they work like clockwork.
- Go wild with CTAs. What good is a Call to Action if clicking on it as boring as watching paint dry? What do you think would work better: “Call now” or “Call today and be the luckiest homeowner tomorrow?”
Informative Advertising
Informative advertising is the bread and butter of a real estate business nowadays. People always research properties and firms before making a big decision.
Ergo, providing them with as much data as humanly possible should be your primary mission.
Think about it this way – they wouldn’t leave your website and wonder into the endless depths of Google if they have everything they need here and now.
There’s only one downside to informative advertising in real estate that comes to mind – it is as exciting as watching grass grow.
People don’t like homework. They don’t like going through the numbers, adding things up. They are fed up with research as is. But they will force themselves into the chore given how much is at stake. Your clients simply don’t have a choice.
Or do they?
Informative Advertising in Real Estate
Nope, not really, no. Your clients don’t have a choice. Either they have to do their research, or they have to hire someone to do it for them.
The latter case is the simplest. You can ease their pain in the blink of an eye. All they have to do is hire your business to do the research for them. Feel free to offer a service like that as a carrot.
You can do so much more though.
Let’s imagine you don’t have a relatable researching service to offer. There’s still something you can do – you can ease your client’s pain by removing the “work” from their “homework”.
Make your informative ads more fun, emotional… Persuasive?
Take a look at this Miller Lite ad to know what we are talking about here.
All it has is raw stats.
But if we were to add more flavor and context to it, we would know that it is a response to a jab from Bud Light and their corn syrup Super Bowl ad.
Who came up on top? Miller.
Who spent more money on a Super Bowl advertisement? Bud Light.
This is but one of many stories where information was used as a powerful marketing weapon.
Would you like another one? How about this insane ad that raises the issues of poor sex ed in our schools?
Or how about this adorable depiction of Climate Change?
Then there are infographics. Everybody loves infographics, right? Just think about it:
- They are 30 times more likely to be read than text articles
- They allow for a 12% speed boost in traffic growth
- The word “infographic” is shared 547,000 times each month
The variety of tools available on the market only emphasizes this trend. There wouldn’t be as many without demand, right?
Speaking of tools, here’s a couple of really good ones:
- Mural. Sure, this app is designed as a collaboration tool for designers, but the amount of freedom for creativity and a vast array of features make it a powerful tool for clear, simple, and engaging designs. Perfect for getting your point across in as little words as possible.
- Visme. Presentations, marketing docs, sales pitches, and infographic design tools all in one box.
- Snappa. This is by far one of the simplest and most intuitive tools for infographic design.
- Canva. This infographic design behemoth climbed its way to the top for a series of reasons: it is simple, convenient, flexible and, most importantly, free!
Use them to create an aspiring educational infographic and don’t forget to check these ones out for inspiration in creative real estate design.
Conclusion
In any form of advertising that you do, you should think about your niche first, everything else comes second.
When it comes to creating ads for real estate businesses, informational advertising is undoubtedly king, as long as you remember to add a bit of creativity and plain old fun into the mix.
BIO
Eric is an sms marketing specialist at https://bsg.world/en/ who is always looking for the ways to improve his skills. He’s always traveling, when he’s not at the computer. He likes to share his thoughts and believes that his articles will help a great amount of people. Feel free to contact him on Twitter!
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