One industry that is targeting local advertising these days is real estate. It is no longer a matter of listing your house for sale in the local newspaper every day and twice on Sunday and typing a balloon on the yard sign. Instead, the local advertising blitz in the housing marketing is helping to bring more exposure to the many homes in the suffering housing market that needs as much local exposure as it can get.

One Austin real estate firm, for example, is jumping on the trend of local advertising in multiple genres. It caters to its potential customers with a guarantee of running ads for the home in the Austin Multiple Listing Service (MLS), local newspapers, creating color brochures and home buyers guides, an email marketing campaign and direct mail marketing. They are also listing locally on more than a dozen Internet marketing sites.

This has become a growing trend in both commercial and residential real estate. A sign in the yard and an MLS listing are no longer the norm, but the bare minimum. The residential real estate company, like many others, now routinely features open houses and stages virtual tours for those trying to sell their homes as quickly as possible. Because the housing market was suffering, the company was able to boost local sales by doing a full advertising campaign for each home. Now that things are picking up, the trend continues.