Our industry has a lot of room for improvement when it comes to advertising. This story is so bizarre and the plan so horrible I just had to share it!

I have a good friend (and client) that called me in a bit of a frenzy over a piece of Realtor “marketing” that was “delivered” to his house. He lives in a prime Toronto neighborhood and is accustomed to being bombarded with junk mail from us Realtors. However this particular agent really set himself apart from the rest of the pack.

Rather than leaving a market report outlining area sales, or a postcard explaining why his marketing plan is da bomb – he went with the “toss a business card on the front porch, kinda near the door” approach. He then proceeded to walk around to the side of the house and toss another card near(ish) the side door. I’m serious.

Essentially his plan for a direct mail marketing campaign was to haphazardly toss his business cards in the general direction of people’s front and side doors. What was he thinking? People who were forced to bend down and pick up his business card would think, “Wow! This is the guy I want to sell my home!” Houses in this neighborhood start at $700k and are home to many professionals with a lot of contacts. And let’s face it, it’s not exactly hard to find a real estate agent in Toronto. The only thing this guy is accomplishing is irritating his supposed target market.

Needless to say my friend was not impressed. He even tried to call the Business Card Bandit’s cell number (as listed on his card) to tell him what he thought of his marketing efforts. Alas, there was no answer and the guy did not have voicemail. Simply amazing.

We do a good deal of print advertising. It’s actually my favourite medium; I like that it’s tangible and exists in the real world. We take it seriously, too. Everything is professionally designed, sent to a quality printer and printed on at least 14 point stock.

Why would anyone trust selling their home to someone who puts no thought, time or effort into marketing themselves? How could they ever properly market a house? Take a look at the quality of the marketing material at your door. The effort put into it will likely tell you a lot about the person behind the ad.