How to get attention in real estate marketing – light it up!

How long is the average person’s attention span?

This is what I found on Google:

How long is the average person’s attention span?
If your audience is still paying attention after the first 8 seconds, you have approximately 4 minutes and 52 seconds until their attention spans are exhausted. The average adult attention span has plummeted from 12 minutes a decade ago to just 5 minutes now, according to a Fortune.com article.

 

Wow, not long! And what has caused the plummet?

We could certainly take a wild guess. The (rising) influx of technology and tidal waves of services that are designed to make our lives easier are perhaps contributing factors. No one has any time any more.

From when we rise in the morning, until our heads hit the pillow at night, or even the early hours, we have information directed at us, choices to make and information to process.

It certainly is tiring.

When it comes to marketing, specifically real estate marketing, the key is standing out, while not demanding too much from weary home-seekers or investors.

My husband is an electrician. He has always said that lighting is everything. We’ve renovated numerous houses together and he has always done the lion’s share of the major changes, including lighting. I must say, his choices have been spot on.

Modern lighting has a way of evoking different vibes and moods, depending on the look you are going for. And is such a value-adder.

At The Property Writers, we just love fawning over a lot of the stunning lighting that we see in property photographs that come through our inboxes.

Indoor lighting, outdoor lighting – even candlelight! To be able to see anything, the first port of call for our eyeballs is processing light. Our eyes are drawn to light. It’s instinctive.

Perhaps one of the best examples of utilising lighting for advertising and marketing is Times Square in New York City. I remember I visited in 2006 (Ten years ago?! It’s been way too long between visits) and I felt just like a character in a movie. Cliche, but true. I was totally smitten as I took in the immense lit-up signs. I bet they’re even more spectacular ten years on.

Dazzling Times Square.

So it was only a matter of time until these mammoth, illuminated billboards trickled down into real estate/realty marketing.

I know they’ve been popping up all over the country lately and have been showcased at trade shows. But I must say it was a real treat to recently spot an illuminated sign at night, out the front of a property.

I spotted it whilst driving, around a week ago. It was a listing for Ray White, in Largs Bay, South Australia. And it looked magnificent!

This lit-up sign made me slow and pull in to the curb to read it.

The image and words were perfectly and crisply illuminated, the darkened street around it providing the ultimate shadowy backdrop, much like a stage.

These solar powered and otherwise real estate signboards are only going to become more prevalent and accessible – that’s our prediction.

Fast forward a year from now and I’m thinking they will be absolutely everywhere.

An image from "Digital Central", a company offering illuminated signboards. Copywright lies with Digital Central Real Estate Signage Company.
An image from “Digital Central”, a company offering illuminated signboards. Copyright lies with Digital Central Real Estate Signage Company.

It’s awesome to see the industry utilising such technology to stand out and do the absolute best for their vendors. It would be great to see costing eventually become accessible across a spectrum of price ranges.

I think these signs should capture up to the 4 minutes and 52 seconds allotted for average adult – plenty of time to note the name and number of the agent and phone them!

Does anyone else have any thoughts on these innovative signboards? Or are you a business who offers them as a service? Let us know on Instagram or Twitter.

Note: this post is NOT sponsored or endorsed by any company or business, it is our expressed view on a product and service.

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Tips for refreshing your work space in 2016

Who else is still struggling with the phrase “last year” when referring to 2015?

We welcomed 2016 with enthusiasm, cheer and a dedication to those kinds of goals that you just want to stay on track with. But it’s still a little hard to get our heads around it being 2016 just yet. We are giving ourselves until the end of January to not fumble over the phrase.

Even so, the New Year is HERE and we are thrilled when we look back on all that we achieved in 2015. One of our ‘resolutions’ is to be protective over our time, both work and leisure, this year.

More than ever we (and we know our clients are too) are feeling pulled in different directions when it comes to where we allocate our 24 hours. Everyone gets 24 hours a day, we know.

But with overwhelming, saturated inboxes with emails from every single product/service/company/brand you’ve ever shopped with, utilised or even glanced at, even sifting through emails can be a task that demands hours.

As well as the usual commitments to work/family/children/friends/exercise, people are feeling a little more frayed than ever.

And no one wants to start this year already feeling burnt out. A good remedy for not feeling overwhelmed could be as simple as a tidy-up of the space you spend most of your time in.

So, some ideas for maintaining a time-friendly office space, in no particular order:

Be rid of old technology:

cables awayWhether you work from home, on the go or in an external office, it’s important not to feel weighed down by technology. But with more and more devices and gadgets available to us, we know we are guilty of having a little build-up of things we no longer use or require. And these can add time, even if it is only minutes, to your daily life. Whether it’s having to sort through a jungle of cables that you no longer need, just to find the one charger you do require, or having to switch hard-drives, phones or tablets to access just one photo or file that you require, a build up of gadgets is draining.

So PURGE yourself of those no longer used devices and you will feel all the calmer for it.

For phones, how about helping the gorillas and recycle your no-longer-used mobile phone? Details are here: For computer technology, give this link a go for information.

Upgrade your work screen:

monitor upgradeAnother hot tip for the maximising time in the office (if you haven’t already done so) is considering adding a monitor to your desk, to plug your laptop into. Thereby, more than doubling your screen size and allowing you to expand your windows and horizons! We know, we know, this is a contradiction of the above advice to be rid of extra technology.

But consider this: Particularly when working in any industry which requires you to work with multiple programs at once, be it for bookkeeping, graphic design or our own familiar field of marketing, you spend so much time opening and closing windows and sliding across to review content. We know we do.

I picked up a second-hand monitor and cable from Gumtree (bless you, Gumtree) and now couldn’t be without it. It allows me to use my MacBook, yet also have mega-screen to keep open my work inbox, floor plan and property photos, relevant links and word processing open. ALL.AT.ONCE. Winning!

Be the boss of your snail mail:

 

MailboxDedicate just one day a week to being the absolutely-must-ensure-on-top-of-mail-day. Simple, but effective. You hear me? Piles of unopened envelopes not only cause physical clutter, but emotional clutter too.

You could allow yourself to sidestep and dance around the mail six days a week, if you are the ultimate procrastinator. But at least one day a week, go through it, file it, pay it, shred it, do whatever you must, but be rid of it from your space. You will feel total satisfaction once that last envelope is lifted. Make it a rule and give it a go.

Get the inspiration you need to create the space you want:

Office spaceOk, maybe it’s an excuse for a smidgen of retail therapy, but consider this. If your work space is a bit cluttered or lacklustre, there’s nothing like getting out of it and going and visiting glossy, clean, fresh home office displays. Whether they shame you into tidying yours out, or inspire you to go for a new look, it could be the best excursion you take all month!

A tidy office, with fresh, personal touches can make for a wonderful space in which you’ll be itching to get into and get productive in. Why not take advantage of all those fabulous back-to-school stationary sales that are on right now? Who said watermelon-shaped pens are just for school kids?

Or, of course, get thrifty and spend some time in opportunity-shops, or search online swap/second-hand sites. You know what they say about someone else’s trash…

Our own office rehauls have made us feel pretty fabulous. If you can’t half tell from our images above, we LOVE trawling through houzz.com.au for inspiration We hope you enjoy making yours happen.

*Note, this is NOT a sponsored post, but just contains our own ideas and recommended online spaces.

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