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Print is a valuable component of any real estate marketing campaign. High quality brochures, newsletters and letterbox drops command attention, lend a personal touch, create an aura of prestige and give your marketing a tactile edge that can’t be replicated on digital platforms.

OK: as a printing company, 

we have a vested interest in pushing that particular barrel. 

We’re not alone; plenty of agents recognise the important role of print in the real estate marketing mix. 

Just last week The Newspaper Works launched a new campaign publicising the benefits of print advertising – namely, that property campaigns which combine print and digital see homes sell for more, faster. We’ve discussed this phenomenon in detail before.

But like any other marketing tool, print’s usefulness is limited when used in isolation. Agents are being increasingly clever in developing campaigns that leverage the benefits of both print and digital media to truly engage potential vendors, increase brand awareness and build their databases.

Digital vs print: which is more effective?

It was once assumed that digital advertising would be far cheaper for brands than print, but this isn’t necessarily the case. You only have to look at the hefty fees charged by the major property portals to see that listing a property online is no more cost-effective than newspapers once were.

Likewise, social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn have gone from being free to sometimes very expensive, requiring not only a decent budget but enormous amounts of time and thought to craft successful campaigns. 

Social media advertising gives brands a lot of bases to cover since few people use more than one or two platforms on a regular basis (and some don’t use any at all, even in 2015). In addition, tactics like Google Adwords and Facebook advertising can be easily ignored by users who have become adept at screening out the thousands of commercial messages that bombard them each day. Unless someone is already actively searching for you and your services, it’s difficult for a single digital ad to cut through the online clutter.

That’s where print comes in.

Lately, we’ve noticed a trend among our clients of using print to drive engagement in their farm areas.

Here are some examples:

• A letterbox drop that directs potential vendors to a website. Once there, they can enter their contact details and receive a free brochure filled with useful advice on preparing their home for sale. 
• A coffee coaster is dropped in the agent’s farm area, offering the homeowner a free coffee at a local cafe. To redeem, all they need to do is leave their details with the cafe staff, which the agent than adds to their database.
• Following up a newsletter or mailout with a personal phone call to ensure the message was received and answer any questions.

Instead of simply treating letterbox drops, blog posts, newsletters and other marketing tools as one-off events, they are being used in tandem with other marketing pieces, forcing them to work much harder and deliver real value to agents and brands by increasing brand awareness and bolstering databases.

Does your business combine print and digital marketing? If so, what are the benefits?