How To Use Offline Print Marketing Tools That Can Help To Sell Your House
You’ve finally decided to sell your house! It’s an exciting time, but just because you’ve decided to do so doesn’t mean you’re ready to take the next steps, especially if you’ve chosen to sell your house on your own. If you’re like most people, you likely know how to create an advert online. You may even know how to post it to a few different property websites and on various social media platforms. What you may not know, though, is that if you want to reach more buyers, you’ll need to do some print marketing too. Wondering why? It pays to have signs here and there or one in the front yard of your home. That can lead to the most powerful type of marketing available today – word-of-mouth! Print marketing will help get people talking about the home you have for sale. If you’re not sure where to start, though, don’t worry! This guide can help you create great print ads for your home.
Start With A Great Sign
One of the best places to start your print marketing efforts is with a sign in your front yard. This is the single best way to spread the news that your house is for sale to everyone in your neighbourhood. While they may not necessarily be interested in buying your house, the simple reality is that each one of them may tell someone they know who is looking for a home that your house is for sale. They’ll likely testify to how great the neighbourhood is and how nice it would be to own that house. What’s more, though, is that any random traffic that comes through your neighbourhood is likely to notice the sign as well, and that could mean that you have a chance with others contacting you about the house too! It’s a perfect way to catch the attention of many and persuade them to give you a call.
There are lots of companies that print for-sale signs in the UK for homes just like yours. All you need on the sign itself is the property is for sale and the number they can contact to enquire about it. You can add other information, too, though, like the number of bedrooms and bathrooms to help people know as much as possible about your property before they make the call.
Consider Posters
You’ll also want to consider some posters you can hang in various places like local shops. If you’ve never created a poster before, you’ll want to be careful with this, as the visual appeal will help encourage people to call you. Begin with the right idea. Think about the various posters for homes you’ve seen in the past, and visualise what you want your poster to look like. It may help to create a sketch of the poster you have in mind before you ever get started.
Once you’ve done that, it’s time to get some good pictures of your home. You may want to hire a real estate photographer for this step. Hiring a professional photographer can be a valuable investment when selling your house for several different reasons. Keep in mind that the first impression of your property is often made through the photographs people see of your home. High-quality, professional photographs can capture the best features of your home, making it more visually appealing to potential buyers. In a competitive real estate market, eye-catching photographs can help your property stand out among other listings, especially in your print advertisements. Professional photographers know how to capture the essence and unique selling points of your home, making it more memorable to buyers, which is exactly what you want to do in your marketing materials. Moreover, though, professional photographers have experience in framing shots and using lighting techniques to accentuate the best features of your property. They can showcase the layout, size, and key selling points of each room, as well as the exterior and outdoor spaces. That could help people connect as they see your signs and posters. Maybe best of all, though, is the fact that a professional photographer can evoke an emotional response from potential buyers with their photos because they know how to help potential buyers envision themselves living in the space. Professional photographers have the skills to create inviting and aspirational images that can appeal to buyers’ emotions, which is a huge plus for you with your posters. You can even use their photos in all of your other marketing efforts.
Whether you choose to hire a professional photographer or not, you’ll want to be sure you clean up the house (both inside and out) before the pictures are taken. After all, you want the best possible appearance for your home in the photos.
If you choose to handle the photos on your own, you can use your phone for this step, but it may be better to use an actual camera. Take some photos from the side, from the ground up, and from a few different angles so you have several to present to a potential buyer. If you’d like, consider adding some photos from inside the house too, as that will help convince potential buyers to give you a call. Choose the best photos to add to your poster.
Once you have great photos, it’s time to design the poster. You’ll likely want to use an online design tool that will help you centre everything nicely and give you a large array of fonts to consider. Start by choosing one or two fonts for your poster. You don’t want to use more fonts than that, though, Choosing too many fonts for a poster can have some real consequences. If you make too many font changes on your poster, you’ll distract potential buyers from seeing what you want them to notice about the poster, so stick with just a couple.
Once you’ve chosen your fonts, it’s time to think about the colours you want on your poster. Colours matter because they help draw a person’s eyes toward the poster itself. They can even create an emotional connection with a potential buyer. As with the fonts, you’ll only want to choose one or two colours to add to your poster. Coordinate the colours in the pictures with the colours you choose to use on the poster to help make it look like it flows well together. Some mixes just don’t work (for example, green and blue don’t tend to work well side by side). A good understanding of which colours work well together would go a long way toward designing a stronger poster.
Don’t overlook including the necessary information as you begin your design. You’ll want your contact details and address. You’ll also want to include some details about the property like the number of bedrooms and bathrooms and the price. All of that information can help persuade people to give you a call. The key here, though, is that you don’t want too much information in the layout of your poster. In most cases, you just want an attention-grabbing headline, descriptive text that helps highlight the best features of the property and a brief description. Your goal is to use positive language throughout that helps build a potential buyer’s curiosity and encourages them to take action about the property. You want them to give you a call, so be sure you state that on the flyer. It may even help to have this bit of text professionally written so you can get the best possible results.
The last step is to have your posters professionally printed. You’ll want to find someone who can print several for a good price as well as someone who offers you high-quality prints delivered to your door.
Once you have your posters in hand, place them on various public notice bulletin boards near your home. You may even be able to rent ad space at a couple of places to help spread the word about your home.
Consider Flyers
Your poster is a great marketing tool, but flyers are another step you may want to take. Flyers can be fairly inexpensive, especially if you order several of them at once. You’ll want to follow much the same process you did to create your poster to build flyers that will catch people’s attention. Be sure you use an online design tool to come up with the most beautiful flyers possible. You may even be able to use the same printer you did for your poster to get a further price break.
Once you have your flyers, you can hand them out to people in your neighbourhood. You could also talk to shops and other businesses in the area to see if they will allow you to leave flyers in their shop. That’s a great strategy to help ensure someone sees your hard work!
Be Ready For A Response
Once you create all of this material, the next step is to wait for someone to give you a call. Be ready to talk about the benefits of your property to everyone you meet, too! You never know when you might stumble upon the perfect buyer for your home.
