WhatsOnTheMarket.com Expands Offline Advertising - More exposure for customers, Competitive advantage for WhatsOnTheMarket.com

WhatsOnTheMarket.com, a leading For Sale by Owner Marketing company in Chicagoland, now expands into print marketing through the leading Real Estate Magazine in the nation, Harmon Homes. WhatsOnTheMarket.com will use this new marketing tool to bring its customer success rate above the current 85% success rate.

WhatsOnTheMarket.com Expands Offline Advertising
(2/24/03)
More exposure for customers, competitive advantage for WhatsOnTheMarket.com

Increasing its value added advertising services to For Sale by Owners (FSBOs), WhatsOnTheMarket.com has decided to end its relationship with Save and Sell by Owner Magazine to utilize Harmon Homes Magazine as its primary print advertising source. This new print media focus will now allow WhatsOnTheMarket.com customers to achieve property exposure in the nation's leading real estate magazine, the same magazine used by many top selling real estate offices.

WhatsOnTheMarket.com launched its agreement with Save and Sell in February 2002. The Save and Sell Magazine provided WhatsOnTheMarket.com an opportunity to provide its customers with print advertising in conjunction with its Internet marketing program.

"Our goal never was, and is still not, to compete in the magazine environment.", stated Founder Keith Aichele. "The success rate of 85% for our customers in 2001 with no magazine in the marketplace indicates that the power in our system is the Internet. However, there are those that still do not have access to a computer or start their home search offline; so the venture with Save and Sell by Owner allowed us to see how much value a print magazine can provide to our customers."

After recognizing that there was some value in the Save and Sell by Owner magazine, WhatsOnTheMarket.com began looking for ways to enhance the exposure to offline home searchers. Base on several months of test marketing in the Harmon Homes magazine, WhatsOnTheMarket.com found this to be a much more powerful way to generate interest from offline home searchers.

"The key for home sellers is to get searchers into the home. The online virtual tours are the power tool that turns lookers into serious prospects. Therefore, we needed to find the right way to use print advertising to draw buyers into customer properties. It's not about selling magazine space, it's about providing the right tools, the right way, to help customers generate offers" said Aichele.

The Harmon Homes advertising launch planned by WhatsOnTheMarket.com will include a monthly distribution of over 120,000 issues, nearly doubling that of the ForSaleByOwner.com magazine, WhatsOnTheMarket.com's closest competitor. Additionally, several areas print weekly or bi-weekly, allowing customers to 'hit the streets' faster, rather than having to wait up to 3-4 weeks.

"We recognize that Harmon Homes is number one when it comes to magazine advertising. Rather than competing with them, we salute them. Leveraging their magazine provides us a true competitive advantage and allows our customers to receive the print exposure they deserve" states Aichele. "Our next job is to continue to evaluate the best format to use within our advertisement to bring these offline searchers into the home, either online or in person."

The last Save and Sell by Owner issue has already been printed and will be immediately replaced by the new advertising focus.

WhatsOnTheMarket.com is a leading For Sale by Owner marketing company and provides the most comprehensive source of For Sale by Owner information in Chicagoland. WhatsOnTheMarket.com operates out of Schaumburg, IL and services Chicagoland and the greater Rockford area.