There’s no university or college course on writing effective real estate ads. But with some ad writing insight and lots of practice, you’ll write ads, feature sheets, listing presentation materials, website pages and other marketing materials your target market will find irresistible. My rule of thumb for marketing materials is writing them as if you’re having a casual conversation with a friend over a drink or coffee. Here are more insights into writing advertising that sells:

1. Understand Ad Writing Principles

When you understand ad writing principles, it’s so much easier to write great ads. For those of you who have seen the classic real estate sales movie Glengarry Glen Ross, you’ll remember the Alec Baldwin character cruelly exhorting his sales reps to use the A.I.D.A selling system. That is, you need to write ads that will:

1. Attract Attention – make your ad stand out from the crowd

2. Arouse Interest – really make them care about what you’re offering

3. Make Them Desire To Take Action – (in Glengarry it’s the Decision to act or not act)

4. Take Action – what do you want prospects to do if they’re interested? Call you? Visit your website? Make what you want them to do clear!

2. Copywriting Books

Though there aren’t courses on writing great ads, there’s lots of great education out there nonetheless. I recommend the following books “Magic Words That Bring You Riches” by Ted Nicholas and “Tested Advertising Methods” by John Caples. The more money you spend on advertising, the more worthwhile you’ll find these books.

3. Find Great Ads

Many corporations give millions of dollars to advertising agencies to come up with dynamo ad campaigns. They don’t pay rookies that kind of money. So learn from the best. When I need to write new ads, I always go out and buy several different types of current magazines just to see the advertisements and get ideas. In popular magazines you may find a slogan or phrase that’s perfect for your ads or your personal branding. This will really get your creative juices flowing!

4. Practice

Most real estate professionals write their ads in 5 minutes or less, often under threat of a deadline from their manager/broker. You can read all the books you want on marketing writing, but you’ll never master the art of writing copy unless you spend time practicing it. The next time an ad needs to be written, look over your most successful ads and try to re-create that magic. Don’t stop writing and re-writing until it’s letter perfect. Alternatively, offer to help a new real estate professional in your office with writing one of their ads.

You can get lots more insight into how to shine in the real estate profession by taking my course Excelling In The Real Estate Profession. This course has been approved by the Registrar, REBBA 2002 to qualify for 9 credits.