Long Term vs. Short Term, You Choose

A while ago I was talking with a realtor about advertising in our publication, Coffee News. It's a weekly paper people read in restaurants and it's designed to deliver low impact, high repetition exposure for its advertisers.

This realtor made a great comment on how he could use advertising like this. He said it would be an easy way to put himself all over town so he could (virtually) stay in touch with people who knew him, so they would be reminded that he was still around and still selling real estate in their community.

This is a guy who understands how to grow his business.

As a professional selling a high value service that most people only use every 5-10 years, he understands his marketing needs. His marketing goal is not to get an immediate and direct response, like a tanning salon or drycleaner might.

His outlook is long term. He builds his business by building awareness of himself in his community, by letting a lot of people know who he is and what he can do for them. Then he continues to deliver his message again and again so people think about him when they need a realtor.

This is not something you accomplish in a couple weeks or months. This timeline is measured in years.

This particular realtor has been in business for close to 20 years by the way and he's doing very well.

Is there a lesson here?