When it comes to marketing for real estate, property developers find themselves with an entirely different set of rules than traditional buy-and-sell agencies. This is because the property developers are selling homes that do not exist yet.
Traditional real estate agents have the advantage of bricks and mortar properties with existing home value and history of capital growth. They also have the ability to show buyers exactly what they are purchasing through open homes and inspections. Developers, on the other hand, are setting prices purely on forecasting what buyers will pay for the property in a chosen area. They must paint a picture of the potential for a vacant plot of land, and the developments are typically for townhouses, house and land packages, or brand new apartment buildings. Without tangible assets, developers are placing value on the brand reputation, trust, and quality work.
While there are clear differences in the approaches for traditional agencies and property developers, at the end of the day, real estate selling is all about selling homes – new or old. With buyers being able to search and find a dream home with the click of a button, developers can no longer rely on billboards and print to reach potential clients. Their planned developments and properties can be displayed to thousands of buyers – whether they are first home buyers, young couples, families, or investors – with the same set of tools as real estate agents.
Without actual properties, other than display units, developers must rely on experience-led marketing to help buyers visualise their new properties and future potential. Each facet of your property development marketing plan must be consistent and build trust in your brand and the quality of the constructions.
Before you can dive into your residential development marketing plan, start with your content and key information for buyers:
Property development content examples that were developed by Geonet include the branding and designs for Signature Dream Homes and Australian Property & Finance Group.
Once you have your tools assembled with your content needs, you can reach out to potential buyers to sell brand-new homes. In order to reach as many clients as possible and secure deposits for the new build, you will need a full-service, highly-targeted digital marketing strategy that includes the following:
See more: Real Estate Leads: A Case Study on generating 17,000 leads in a 6 month period
In today’s digital world, property agents don’t have to rely on the guesswork of billboards, TV ads, and newspapers, casting a wide net, hoping to catch the eyes of potential buyers. Ad dollars are best spent on smaller, highly-targeted audience
Geo-targeting. Location-based targeting is nothing new, helping advertisers reach social media users in their local markets. At Geonet, we use precise targeting to find the right audience at the right time in the buying cycle. With geo-targeting, we send ads directly to the mobile phones of the people entering a certain ‘geozone’ that we’ve created. For property developers, this could be display homes, open inspections, and promotional events. We know this audience is interested in buying a new home, which eliminates any guesswork for reaching the right demographics and potential customers.
The content mentioned above that you created for your brand and property development must be consistent and clear through all digital platforms. Further, for a digital marketing campaign to be successful, it must be omnipresent, covering all available tools where buyers are searching for new homes. This includes::
Consumers, including ourselves, are bombarded with advertisements on a daily, hourly, or even by-the-minute basis. Most of the ads we see are not relevant to us, at least not at that specific time, so many of us are used to scrolling through our feeds without stopping. However, some ads, especially if they are selling a product of particular interest, are able to catch the eyes of a keen, potential buyer. Video animation, clear messaging, innovative graphics, and stunning design help ads stand out in a crowd and generate leads of home buyers.
Your website may be the single most important marketing tool for your property development. It’s on an online billboard, but in this case, you can track how many people see it and take action. Not only must it provide useful information, but there are also a number of tools that should be incorporated for a website to be effective:
One of the best marketing tools real estate agents and property developers have is their network and database. Collecting leads and contacts is the goal of almost all campaigns, to reach out to them and convert them into sales. Tracking lead progress, reporting data, and saving all necessary information will be useful for your team and to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. Investment into a sales-driven CRM that can be integrated with your lead sources will prove to save you time and money the longer you use it.
If you are looking for an agency to provide all of the services above, with an in-house design team, digital experts, media analysts, and call centre support, contact us today. We specialise in real estate marketing and have worked with property developers across Australia. We’d be happy to provide a quote for our full-service marketing efforts