LoopNet Targets Your Pitch

Mass Market vs. Mini Market... Have you ever walked around a NASCAR infield before a race? It's hard not to buy a hat or shirt with your favorite driver's name and sponsor logo. But I resisted last Friday as I watched the qualifying for Sunday's NASCAR race in Sonoma, CA. (Flew to Dallas on race day for Realcomm.)

That's why one hundred of the Fortune 500 spend tens of millions of dollars mass marketing to NASCAR fans, according to CMO Magazine. Contrast this with Google's AdWords, which enable you to target customers searching for "key words" for just cents per click. But it's still a mass audience, so even Google AdWords don't work for commercial real estate brokers.

Now LoopNet has a solution. Priced from $.50 to $2 per day ($15 to $60 per month), you can display your logo or text ad on LoopNet's Search Results page for any county in the U.S. Tom Byrne, LoopNet's Chief Marketing Officer told me that this "Target Branding Ad" service is currently being pre-sold for a July release.

Here's the intriguing angle to me. Each month LoopNet receives over 550,000 unique visitors (2006 Q1) and describes its member base as "40% brokers, 45% owners/investors/tenants, 10% service providers and 5% other."

So if these unique visitors reflect its member base, a lot of principal investors will be looking at your Target Branding Ad. That's quite different than advertising in your local business journal or real estate trade publication.

Will real estate firms join the Home Depot, Budweiser and FedEx advertising league? No way. Mass marketing to consumers for brokers is a waste of money. But targeting potential buyers looking at multifamily (or retail or office) investments in my local market? Now you've got my attention.

Spread the Word... This Dispatch is a "Sponsor Profile" recognizing LoopNet as a major supporter to PikeNet. Thank you! For information on sponsorships, click here.

-- Peter Pike