How to Write Ads That Make the Phone Ring... Real Estate

"You ought not be surprised that I know how to make phones ring. What should surprise you is that I’m willing to tell you… for free." - Roy H. Williams

Enter Wizard Academy

At Wizard of Ads we teach techniques and principles, not rules. So when reading this post and all our others, look at the big picture. Think how the principles and techniques we describe can be used in your industry, and your country.

Now it's over to Roy H. Williams.

Here’s how to Make Magic in real estate:

1. Ask the Realtor to show you an unusual house.  More often than not, you’ll want the house to be in the price range an average person could afford.

2. What makes this house quirky or weird or memorable isn’t really important. What matters is that it has something distinctive about it.

3. Visit the house. Ponder the distinctive feature until it triggers the memory of a cultural icon.

4. Pull the icon into your ad copy. Radio works best, but this technique also works well in newspaper classifieds.

5. Always mention the price of the house.

6. Never mention the square footage, the number of bedrooms, or the address.

Let’s say it’s a white, frame house with a front porch, the kind that blanketed America during the first half of the 20th century. Older parts of every town are littered with these. The only thing this house has going for it is a giant tree in the front yard.

ANNOUNCER: Telling your friends how to find your new house will be easy.
   
FEMALE ON PHONE:  “We’re the house with the giant tree in the yard. You can’t miss us.”
   
ANNOUNCER: That big tree is begging for a tire swing. Will yours be the family that finally hangs one from that massive branch? Add a white picket fence and it’s the house of Tom Sawyer. Here comes Becky Thatcher down the sidewalk. This is the house of a Norman Rockwell image. In a minute you’ll see Andy and Barney cruise past in the patrol car. Aunt Bee is making a pie in the kitchen. This is a house for celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas. A home to come home to. And just two hundred and nine thousand dollars makes it yours. Want to see it? Call Kathryn Nelson at 555-5555. She’s not one of those big hair, lots-of-jewelry realtors. She’s regular people.
   
REALTOR: Kathryn Nelson. Small hair, modest jewelry. 555-5555

Okay, that was easy. Let’s try again. This time it’s a house begging for a remodel. The appliances are a weird color, the sinks and bathtubs are pink porcelain and the bathroom tile is checkerboard black and white. The light fixtures are strange.

ANNOUNCER: Did you ever see Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s? Distinctive. Avant-guarde. Sophisticated. Straight out of The New Yorker magazine. This is the house of Holly Golightly. Ridiculously retro. Definitely not for everyone. But absolutely adorable. And it has a driveway built for a sportscar. There’s only one and this is it. Two hundred and twenty-nine thousand. And the shrubbery! I’m not even going to try to describe it. Listed by Harvey Rich Realtors, of course. Harvey Rich has all the interesting houses.
   
REALTOR: Boring houses are for boring people. Harvey Rich has interesting houses. And I’d love to show you this one. 555-5555 Harvey Rich.

Now let me make this clear: The goal is to make the phone ring. Whether or not the caller buys the advertised house is unimportant. The realtor just wants to meet folks who are thinking of moving.  He or she wants a shot at listing their current home. If the respondent doesn’t like the home you featured, the realtor will happily drive them to see some other ones.

NOTE: If you yield to temptation and add any of the typical “3 bedroom, two bath” real estate language, it’ll kill response deader than a bag of hammers.

The Cognoscenti will recognize this technique as a variation of Being Perfectly Robert Frank:

Robert Frank: This writing style is accurate but selective in its inclusion of detail. It approaches a subject from an unusual angle (remember: Surprise Broca). Put the known underwater. Why state the obvious? Edit or delete information you assume the listener already knows (remember: Don’t Bore Broca). Most people write about the seven-eighths already underwater. Write about the one-eighth above water. (Robert Frank is generally regarded as one of the greatest photographers the world has ever seen.)

Frank style summary:
1. Selected Details.
2. Interesting Angle.
3. What to Leave Out.

This is a Wizard of Ads signature technique. Consequently, it requires an advertiser bold enough to believe that every other realtor is doing it wrong. These people are harder to find than you think.

Most advertisers secretly believe in conformity to the norm.

Are you an advertiser prepared to kick the norm?