I Listed My House For Sale — And Immediately Started Receiving Brochures From Moving Companies
I Listed My House For Sale — And Immediately Started Receiving Brochures From Moving Companies

Targeted advertising in the real world

Photo by Ranurte on Unsplash

I recently listed my apartment for sale online.

After my realtor posted it through our local multiple listing service, it was re-posted across the local net by various eager real estate agents.

A few days later, I started receiving brochures in the mail from moving companies.

At first, I was confused. How the heck did they find out so fast that I was planning to move? I felt uncomfortable and spied upon.

And then it struck me — they track online real estate listings to identify warm leads. Of course! If you’re a moving company, wouldn’t you do the same?

If someone has listed a home for sale, chances are that they are planning to move. Even if the home is an investment property and occupied by renters, they may still need your services if the new owner asks them to vacate.

After my initial discomfort, I thought — this is genius! What a creative way to market your services.

Regardless of what business you’re in, the internet has made it remarkably easy to reach new customers.

The days of sending out mass-mailed brochures to an entire neighborhood are gone. This is not a very effective strategy anyway. Mass-mailed brochures are impersonal and most end up in the trash, sight unseen.

Instead of mass mailing, why not leverage the power of the internet to identify only the people that may need your services and reach out to them directly? Yes, it requires more effort, but your Return On Investment (ROI) would be much greater.

Websites like Google do it all the time through targeted online advertising. I’ve never searched for a cocktail dress online without being teased with ads for clothing retailers planted in every unrelated website I subsequently navigate to — days and sometimes weeks after.

Even smart home devices like Google Nest and Amazon Alexa do it. A friend was recently telling his wife he had a headache. Unbeknownst to him, the silent sentinel, his Google Nest, was listening. Soon after, he started receiving targeted advertising online for Advil, Tylenol, and Aleve.
['Hurriya Burney']
['Real Estate', 'Advertising', 'Business', 'Technology', 'Marketing']