Marketing tips for real estate developers to foster revival in the sector
Adopting a collaborative approach by incorporating a judicious mix of digital tools and social media to develop a multi-pronged marketing plan in an attempt to shore up sales figures in challenging times.
The real estate sector is continuously evolving. With the inclusion of an omnichannel plan of marketing, sales, and promotion, it gets more elaborative and critical.
The number of opportunities that will be ushered with these advanced integrations are not just going to change the outlook of the sector from traditional to modern, but will push the sector towards experimentation.
Change is the need of the hour and ever since the virus has pervaded every aspect of our lives, there has been nothing more constant than the change that it has brought in its wake. While the lockdown taught us to be seekers in confinement, emerging out of it is guiding us to be patient yet competitive.
With industries gradually trying to get back to a semblance of normality, there still is a sizeable number of professionals operating remotely.
In such situations, coordination among all the stakeholders is of extreme importance.
Marketing plans prepared by developers have never been a single person’s job and now with the communication and planning teams being distanced and working in silos, the task becomes even more challenging.
It involves not just keen observance of the industry trends and insights, but various other crucial details to reach the target group. Here is a list of tips that will help the developers and their teams prepare an effective marketing plan for a product like real estate that has a long sales cycle:
1. Understand the platform
People are glued to their phones and laptop screens for more than 70% of their productive time. The tendency to be online and surf the web has also shot up. Looking to generate online leads and sales has become a priority for every product and service.
Amidst all this, it is extremely important to understand the USP of your product, for it will help you narrow down and identify the most appropriate platforms to market based on the PPC rates and the volume of user traffic it achieves.
Being a high-end product, real estate has a niche customer base. Direct your paid campaigns towards those niche users and disseminate content over social media to a broader audience for increasing the reach of your page.
2. Ample digital tools available, take a judicious call
Before COVID hit the world, real estate companies regulated their ad spends significantly on ATL options, but now the picture has changed. With limited outdoor movement and an option to measure the performance of your advertising strategies, digital tools have become the frontrunners.
Digital campaigns, SEO strategies, backlinking via Instagram/Facebook videos and polls, listings and banner ads on high-end product sites, Ask Me Anything sessions, live video meetings, webinars are some of the options available. Each option comes with a certain pattern of marketing.
Make sure to tap it accordingly. For example, polls should be something basic based on just a simple selection from a few options and not writing detailed answers. AMA sessions, on the other hand, can surprise you with the amount and kind of questions the buyer has. Prepare yourself accordingly and try addressing all queries received within 24 hours.
3. Promotion of delivered projects is also vital
An interactive AV showing the facilities present in your delivered projects, residents sharing their experiences of home-buying and delivery timelines. A buyer’s story highlights or an album depicting the way the owner has transformed his home after moving in is likely to strike a chord with the fence-sitters and people living in rentals to rethink their deferred property purchase decision.
A well-planned emailer campaign can also prove very effective for the promotion of such activities.
4. Legacy and collaboration strengthen credibility
When your page starts getting positive response and engagement from the followers, it is time you work on maintaining it. The database you have of the unique digital activity that every user displays while scrolling through your projects/social media page/website can help you create content that would reinforce his belief towards the project.
Tie-up with banks and HFCS for home loans, décor stores for interiors, retail chain groups for stores inside the premises, construction updates on tower completion, relief activities for workers and other such information can be posted on the official pages.
Apart from this, if your projects are spread across multiple locations, it makes sense to leverage your track record of building homes and satisfying the residents with your delivered work.
With the interplay of strategic planning, flexibility and knowledge about the utility of digital tools, marketing plans can be designed to achieve a greater degree of penetration in the end-users’ mind and propagated to garner numbers in sales.
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)