Old School and back to the basics

The last few weeks we have been running free real estate seminars in different cities across the country.   To generate awareness and drive registrations we have been using print advertising in the local newspapers for each market we visit.  Throughout these weeks we have been discussing the effectiveness of the ads and whether or not they were 'old school' direct response enough for what we need the ads to do.  Part of the reason for these discussions is that Michael wants us to test different messages and harder hitting variations of the ads.  Nothing to disagree with here and great feedback to get.

Over the last week I found two direct response writers and designers who have worked in our industry.  These guys have sold everything you associate with direct response advertising (think infomercials) and have done a great job doing it in all forms of media.  The question for us is how 'old school' do we want our marketing to be or do we want to take a more upscale direct response approach.  The discussions have been great because it brings everyone back to the basics.  An ad's purpose is to create AIDA -

• Attention
• Interest
• Desire
• Action

If the ads don't do these four things we are wasting money.  Something our Chairman would not be happy about.

Part of my challenge is to create remarkable marketing that drives the results we require for success.  In this case we are going back to the basics to use techniques and methods that are proven successful.  If we are lucky we will get something remarkable in the process.

Stay tuned to see what happens with our new ads.

Josef Katz

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