Real Estate Pros Rethinking Spending Priorities, Survey Shows

Technology is creating new marketing opportunities for real estate professionals, but it’s also creating more work and confusion about the effectiveness of those efforts, a new survey says. VHT Inc., a Des Plaines, IL-based provider of visual marketing services, surveyed 1,300 real estate agents and brokers about their marketing activities. VHT, whose clients include both commercial and residential real estate firms, says the survey provides a national, multi-tiered look at how real estate professionals divide marketing dollars for print, television, direct mail and online marketing activities.

Brian Balduf, CEO of VHT, says clients are “trying to find a benchmark for their marketing budgets.” They want to tap new opportunities, but they also want to keep track of the competition, he says. A majority still share most of their budgets on brochures, postcards, newspaper ads and TV ads, even though only 20.4% think newspapers are “effective.”

Nearly half–49%–rate online ads as “very effective,” specifically citing Realtor.com, Craigslist.com and Google.