There are many considerations when planning how to market a property effectively. Changing ‘digital savvy’ buyer behaviour, new technology and an avalanche of new channels to work on mean property marketing is now more challenging than ever.
With a clear multi-platform strategy (desktop, mobile, tablet) – and clever use of visuals, animations, content, search engine optimisation (SEO) and social media – the opportunities to deliver creative and effective property marketing campaigns has never been greater.
Essentials of an impactful property marketing campaign
1. Develop a strong brand for the property development
Some say the single most important role of marketing is creating differentiation – stand-out from the other hundreds or thousands of competitors vying for buyers attention. A strong brand does not just apply to a business either. Property development marketing (including commercial property developments) need specific marketing their own distinct brands that stem from the root of the property positioning right through the visual identity, brochure, outdoor, copywriting, imagery and merchandise.
2. Carry that brand throughout all marketing materials
Starting with the core values and positioning of your property, great care and attention must be taken to port the brand through each aspect of your campaign, across channels and through to the customer experience. That does not simply mean crop and resize for different mediums. If you property is ultra-luxurious, you will not want to have a cheap looking website, that doesn’t work on mobile/tablet and call it a done job simply because it has the brand logo on it. Each media/medium must be treated individually, and with as much care as your brochure.
3. Create a unique brochure with concise but sufficiently detailed information
You choice of property brochure says a great deal about your property. Before opening your brochure, even the type of paper you use conveys a message. A wooden cover, with a laser-carved logo (rustic/luxury) says something different from a clear cover with a minimal design (modern/clean). You brochure should fit with both the style of your property and go some way to communicating with your desired buyer. Quality, friendly, affordable, luxury, modern, city, country, architecturally designed… all could be conveyed in different ways by your brochure. How you treat your brochure directly affects your sales.
4. Create photo-realistic CGI’s of each house or apartment type
CGIs play an important role in property marketing due to the nature of the technology and the great flexibility it allows when designing your property marketing campaign across many platforms. CGIs provide the means to create multiple versions of your property even before building is complete, so you can begin marketing your property nice and early. Keeping in mind that many younger house buyers (Millennials) place importance on design and style, CGI also allows us to create variations of your property interiors that can be used to inspire and help buyers picture the possibilities for the new home.
Over the years of creating property CGIs we have built a large bank of furniture and interior CGIs that can be dropped into any property at the click of a mouse – (so ask us about our free CGI library for your next campaign).
5. Tastefully and succinctly illustrate floor plans, site plans and location maps
Floor plans are too often thought of as a purely functional item. Of course, they are a critical information piece, but the standard black and white 2D floor plan can be much more. Especially with brochures, it is foolish not to consider every item as an opportunity to sell the dream. Floor plans, location maps and site plans can be done uniquely and brilliantly, or, done in the standard way everyone else does it.
Take the opportunity to make your floor plans, site plans and location maps stand out using colour. Use 3D floor plans or creative design to annotate your graphics with stylish lines and fonts.
6. Highlight the best features of each property within all marketing collateral
As buyers quickly browse through many sources when researching their property purchase, it’s key to try and grab attention by showcasing your best features in an easy to consume and eye-catching way. This is where photography can sometimes limit you in your marketing. Too often a wide-shot of the exterior and a few different angles of the interior fail to show the hidden gems that are unique to your property.
Think about what your buyers value in the current market – what’s trendy, what’s cutting edge and how can you best pull those features out and maximise their impact across your marketing campaign. Perhaps you could use an animated property video of the kitchen, showcasing unique selling points, or show a flyover of the entire area and proximity to transport and local amenities.
7. Create site signage and hoarding to capture traffic on all sides of the property lands
Signage is your midfield-general, marshalling the rest of your campaign. When your site hoarding goes up, don’t miss the opportunity to start marketing immediately with visual CGIs of your property. Detailed architectural visualisations of your property can be created from architects plans even before you’ve laid the first brick. Beautiful hoarding may not be a phrase you think of when you’re in the thick of a new build, (that’s why we’re here), but cleaning up the boundaries of your site, and starting your marketing at the earliest stage will mean you can stoke up interest in your property early.
8. Create a mini development website to capture online traffic
Digital technology has changed the property hunt forever. Yes the old favourites (brochures, signage and merchandise) are still there, but the secret to building powerful sales and marketing property campaigns is combining traditional and digital techniques. Leveraging social media, search, mobile and content to capture and convert lookers to buyers. The convergence of traditional property marketing techniques with digital marketing will separate the winners from the also-rans.
9. Create useful content to drive website traffic
It’s one thing being where your buyers are, using YouTube or social media to publish great content and generate awareness of your property, but somewhere, somehow you need leads. Content designed specifically to meet buyers information needs at each point of their journey will help you attract attention, and crucially, convert your website visitors into leads. Your blog can be used to house short tips, guides and advice that help buyers – that talk about their needs, not your own. A solid batch of blog posts can be used then to power your updates on social media, and also to build visibility on Google, and in the press.
10. Create downloadable ‘premium’ content offers to capture visitor information online
Content offers as essentially pieces of content that the user must give their information to get. For example, download a guide to an area by completing a form on your website and providing their email address. You goal is to get email addresses or phone numbers (depending on whether you are an agent or a developer, you may pass these leads to the correct person to follow up with, or even use automated emails to communicate and nurture these leads).
Finally, how to choose your property marketing channels
Achieving success in property marketing is not just about having good illustrative media and visual representations for your developments. More importantly, it’s about connecting with your audience on the channels they are on, and at whatever stage of the buyer journey they are at. For younger first time buyers social media should be considered, for the mature buyer traditional forms of marketing such as the humble property brochure still stands the test of time. Whatever channels you choose, ensure you select them based on your target audience – not all channels are created equal.
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