So what is "image advertising?"

Have you ever seen a commercial on TV for a hotel chain where the commercial is nothing but a beach scene filled with sounds of crashing waves? That's what you see for the first 20 seconds. Then at the end, the name of the hotel chain fades in the lower right hand corner of your screen before the commercial ends.

That's image advertising. It's what Madison avenue agencies are paid big bucks to create.

In the real estate marketing world, image advertising takes on a slightly different form.

Have you ever seen an ad like this? Here's the content:

Mr. Joe Realtor, Your Choice for ALL Your Real Estate Needs

Somewhere in the ad is a picture of Mr. Joe Realtor and then his company logo and contact information.

That's it. That's the ad.

What's the problem with it?

• It's expensive.
• It's boring (one of the worst marketing sins you can make).
• It makes you look just like everyone else.
• It totally ignores your market (by not talking about them).
• It doesn't work (by work I mean generate a ton of leads).

This type of real estate marketing rarely offers something unique, rarely mentions a benefit, is virtually untrackable, and is usually completely centered on the greatness of the advertiser and not on solving the problems of the advertiser's prospect.

The good part for you is that the vast majority of real estate professionals out there are throwing money hand-over-fist at this type of stuff... and then explaining away the lack of results by saying that advertising doesn't work.

It's happening on the internet and it's happening all over print advertising.

What's the alternative?

Fuel your real estate marketing with direct response advertising.

It works offline and it works really well online.

For advertising to be considered "direct response," a couple things have to be true:

• there must be an offer
• there must be a reason to respond immediately
• the ad must be trackable (by using a code or special phone number or website address)
• the only thing that matters is results

In direct response advertising, the buzzword "branding" is a not a goal. A RESPONSE is the goal.

By being able to track every ad you produce, you can make sure that your advertising is profitable. After all, it is supposed to make you money.

Here's how it should work:

For every $1 dollar you send out in ads you should get some multiple of that back as sales.

One of the best examples of direct response advertising is all of the "junk" mail you throw out everyday.

Have you ever wondered why companies pay so much money to send you all of this mail? The glossy envelopes... the "Respond by July 27 to get your free prize." envelope teasers...

They send it because it works. It makes them money.

It may not be too flashy - there probably won't be any cute taglines on it and some real estate professionals might even call it "unprofessional."

But one of the main points in being a successful marketer on the internet (and beyond) is realizing that YOUR vote about the ad doesn't count.

Results are all that matter. And your prospect is the only one that determines those results.

In a nutshell, direct response advertising is akin to putting the sales pitch you would deliver to a prospect face-to-face, on paper or on your website. It's called salesmanship in print and if it helps you sell more real estate or get more listings, do you really care what others think?

You can use direct response advertising everywhere online: on your website, in Google Adwords, in your email campaigns, your autoresponders... everywhere.

So take some time to start opening your junk mail... It's a free education coming right to your door and it will help your real estate marketing online and offline.

Jason Leister, the Real Estate Technology Guru (tm), is owner of Computer Super Guy, LLC, a Chicago-based technology firm that helps real estate professionals profit with technology.

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