Advertising Your Real Estate Business on Television

Most people think that television advertising is horrendously expensive, and for cable this might be true. But for your local stations, a television advertisement may be less expensive than a newspaper ad in a big city newspaper. No joke! This can really boost your real estate business and get qualified buyers without even trying.

Advertising on television for your real estate business requires two separate steps. The first is to find a company to create your commercial, and the second is to choose the station on which you’d like to buy airtime.

For the first step, I always recommend the ever-popular Commercial Creator. They have packages starting at $199.00, and they create the entire commercial from start to finish. This includes background music, voice-overs, mattes, photos, videos, titles, zooms and pans. The most expensive package they offer is $599.00, which is surprisingly low for what you receive in return.

When you decide to create a television commercial, remember that simple is always better. You don’t need flashy graphics or lots of movement; all you really need is a tasteful display of your real estate business. Using colorful pictures and good sales copy, you can make an entire commercial for less than five hundred bucks!

Creating the commercial is fairly easy because Commercial Creator (or whichever venue you choose) will do most of the work for you. They can take all of your information and put it together so that it is professional and tasteful.

The most important things to remember about television advertising are:

Ã?· Longer is not necessarily better. A quick, 30-second commercial will gain just as much response as a 60-second commercial, and you’ll be able to play it more often for less money.

�· Pictures should be clearly focused. There is nothing worse or more annoying for viewers than pictures that are poorly focused or irrelevant. Spend the money to hire a professional photographer to create pleasing and germane pictures.

�· Text should be large enough to read from a distance. Make sure you can reach viewers who sit on couches thirty feet away from the television!

�· Always include your phone number several times. This is the way prospects will contact you! Give them every opportunity to jot your phone number down.

Ã?· Give an incentive to call and inquire. My best advice is to offer something for free – access to your real estate listings, a free special report; something to get them on the phone.

�· Use uniform colors that go together well. Make sure that your commercial is pleasing to the eye.

Ã?· Include aesthetically pleasing images. Everyone wants to look at “pretty” things – give your viewers what they ask for!

The second part is trickier and will cost more money, but probably much less than you would expect.

Make a list of all the radio stations in your area, and give them a call to inquire about rates. They (like print publications) will probably want to arrange a meeting, which is up to you. Let them know that you’ve had a commercial created, and that you only want to talk about airtime. Let them know that you are in real estate.

Once you’ve obtained the rates for several stations, decide which one works best for you. The decision should be based not only on price, but on the times they are willing to show your advertisement and the amount of people that watch the station on any given day. Your goal is to reach as many people as possible.

After that, just watch your real estate business soar!