It's just another day as I walk to the mail box and grab a fistful of mail to sort through before dinner. Interspersed between the bills, magazines and catalogs is some junk mail. I feel a slight twinge, however, as I notice that several of the junk pieces were sent by well meaning Realtors, just like I used to do.

I remember not having the budget to send those postcards, but did anyway hoping to build a "brand" in my farm and attract more business. But in today's market, just sending postcards is a whole lot less effective than it used to be, and yet the waste goes on.

Although direct mail is showing statistically that the rate of response is better than classified or display ads, today's agents must design more effective marketing plans using emotional response marketing strategies and embedding tracking to ascertain effectiveness. But, indications are they just don't get it.

Today's consumer is smarter, more well-informed and a whole lot less interested in you or your business than ever. They are totally interested in themselves and what they want, and when they want it. Why, then, do so many agents continue to publish self-serving ads and postcards without any measurements in place to gauge response or differentiate themselves from the 1.4 million other competitors out there?

As large franchise companies pull back on classified and display advertising, consider using some of the latest marketing tools that build brand and cost much less than traditional print advertising.

Blogs

According to Chris Bubny, Director of Community Management of Blogging Systems Group (www.bloggingsystems.com), a company that specializes in providing blog marketing solutions to the real estate industry, blogs have become one of the most powerful mediums for business marketing communications today. "Blogging is a great way to reach the community for a whole lot less money than printing costly marketing pieces, and they offer real-time evidence that the direct interaction between a real estate blogger and her readers is visible "proof' that such responses help to build brand and increase exposure," says Bubny.

Podcasts

Podcasting is another great way to create strong differentiation and offer a unique approach to marketing on your website. RealProSystems.com offers a complete full web marketing solution including stealth sites that also offers a podcasting element for under $50 a month. The agent doesn't have to do much except record from a pre-written script containing a national perspective on real estate as well as local information about their market. The balance of the podcast addresses engaging tips for buyers and sellers.

In terms of its benefit, just having a podcast helps distinguish the services offered by the Realtor and provides yet another option in their marketing strategy to separate themselves from competitors.

From personal speaking engagements, as well as in coaching agents and loan originators, it's been my experience they stubbornly cling to outdated, outmoded, expensive marketing techniques in hopes it will "keep working like the old days." Yet, according to NAR statistics, the average home buyer is 36.4 years old and, for a large part of their adulthood, has used electronic communication devices. The average Realtor is over the age of 50 and is still not fired up about using those same technologies, despite the obvious need to do so.

In today's highly competitive "want it now" culture, it might serve us well to get "with it" and check out the myriad of easy-to-use, affordable new technologies we can employ to define our special brand and demonstrate our expertise in the marketplace.