In order to successfully sell real estate or find a tenant, you must be present where customers spend the most time – on the web. The explosive development of technology has become a big part of our lifestyle. The development of the Internet and social media has created unlimited opportunities for brokers and developers to share their real estate offers.
The goal of digital marketing is to generate contacts for brokers, to create an emotion in your potential client, to imagine themselves as the owner of a new, soon-to-be-completed apartment. In order to reach the target group or potential customer, it is important to do digital marketing as planned. Without a plan, there is a high probability that the money will simply be wasted and not reach a large enough number of customers. According to surveys, as many as 92% of customers found their dream home online. Therefore, digital marketing is an important tool for selling new developments in order to find and attract potential customers from billions of people on the web.
Advantages of Digital Marketing Compared to Traditional Advertising:
- Lower costs: Traditional advertising (print and outdoor media, TV and radio) is much more expensive than online advertising. With digital advertising, you can adjust your campaigns on an ongoing basis, which saves you money to reach your target audience.
- Reaching the target group: Compared to traditional advertising, where it is difficult to determine who the ad reaches, digital marketing can target your ad precisely to the target audience: geographical location, age, sex, income, interests, etc. This way you can be sure that the advertisement will definitely reach a potential customer.
- Opportunity to analyse: A big advantage of digital marketing is the ability to collect data and then analyse your course of action. By analysing the advertisement, it is possible to see how many people the advertisement reached and how effective it was, through which channels people reach the website and how many people contact the broker. This gives a good overview of the investment and provides an opportunity to make appropriate adjustments and changes. In the case of print and outdoor advertising, radio and television, it is more difficult, if not impossible, to gather information and make corrections.
The Most Effective Digital Marketing Channels for Real Estate:
- Social media (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn)
- Youtube
- Real estate portals
- Blogs
How to Get Started?
Creating a marketing strategy for real estate development starts with mapping a potential customer and analysing the project:
- Who is a potential customer of new development?
- What our potential client values when purchasing real estate?
- What are the strengths of the project that could be important to the potential client (architecture, location, additional benefits)
- Through which channels do we reach the customer?
- How to present your project to people to generate maximum interest?
It is always wise to take a look at competitors too, to analyse their activities and what they could do differently or better themselves.
Branding and Design
For branding and design, it is important to create a holistic visual identity that is reflected in the name, logo, website, social media accounts, and content. We must also not forget online advertising and publications. When creating a design, you need to think about the image of the development and your target group. It is important to identify with the potential client and present the repetitive strengths of the project.
3D Visualizations
Today, it has become the standard that most apartments have found an owner before starting the construction of a new development. This is an important aspect that banks value when financing development. When selling real estate, it is important to grab attention, create emotion, and create an emotional connection. It is good to use warm and light tones to convey positive emotions, to depict a family having a picnic or a mother playing with a child in a photo.
3D images and animations are an important tool for selling real estate to find customers, because they arouse interest in the client and create a clear idea of the end result when the project is still in the early design process.
Animations, virtual tours and 360-degree panoramas have been used more and more recently. Animations and virtual tours make it possible to make flights through buildings, they provide an opportunity to discover and involve a potential customer. The observer is like in a movie where he parks a car, goes to play with child on the playground and then goes home to have a dinner. 360-degree panoramas perfectly convey the spaciousness of the apartment and its interior solutions. They gained popularity during the Covid-19 crisis, when brokers did not have the opportunity to show apartments or organize open days. Since people like to make choices while sitting on the couch at home, this is definitely the direction we are going in today’s digital age.
Website
In today’s digital age, one of the most important tools for sales and marketing is definitely a website. A good website is what creates emotions and makes people interested in getting more information. The website needs a lot of attention because it is the main channel that connects the broker and the potential client. In order to generate interest, the website must have a holistic overall impression and it has to reflect the identity of the project. High-quality visualizations, interactive apartment plans and price tables are important to create emotion. The website must be easy and convenient to use. We must not forget that the website must be mobile-friendly!
If the goal of the website is to generate interest in a potential customer, then the goal of online advertising and website optimization is to direct people to your website.
Website Optimization: Search Engine Optimization
Most people click on results on the first page of Google, and 99% of people don’t visit the following pages. You’ve probably heard of the algorithms used by social media platforms. Google has also developed algorithms that evaluate each website and rank the search results. The goal of SEO is to create the preconditions for organic rise in Google. Website optimization starts with choosing the right keywords, for example Google Trends are a good tool. In addition, SEO makes it possible to obtain data to make marketing corrections.
