To do digital marketing or not – that is the question for many real estate developers. Since you are here, chances are you are one of them. To help you out, let us ask you a question first: why do you market your projects on traditional mediums? Why do you choose print, radio and outdoor? Is it because these mediums put your projects right where your customers are looking? In that case, we would like to tell you the same logic applies to digital marketing for real estate. Simply because the internet is where your customers are searching for properties even before they come in contact with traditional media!

What makes digital marketing for real estate a must?

According to a research study, 92% of customers look for a home online. But what is more surprising is that 42% of homeowners choose the internet to begin their home-hunt! Though the statistics may seem striking at first, they would feel obvious when you know that there are about 635 million active internet users in India. Easy access to the internet has contributed to this number. Add to it the tendency of millennials—the new generation of homebuyers—to Google everything. With the changing digital landscape and consumer behaviour, the internet is emerging as the medium of choice for marketers. Ignore it, and you will have ignored an effective and efficient way to acquire customers.

What benefits does digital marketing offer over traditional mediums?

Digital marketing shouldn’t be a part of your strategy only because your consumers are using digital mediums. There are more benefits to it. First, digital marketing solves the challenges of traditional marketing mediums. Second, it fills the loopholes in traditional marketing. And lastly, it offers you more control over your marketing.

Here are some benefits that digital marketing offers you:

Low Costs It is a fact that traditional media is expensive. Newspaper ads and hoardings cost lakhs of rupees to make and publish. Digital marketing, on the other hand, is highly cost-effective. It can provide the same reach at a fraction of the price of traditional marketing.

Targeted Communication When you market your real estate project in a newspaper or hoardings, you showcase it to anybody who may view the communication. They may or may not be your target customer. Digital marketing gives you the power to showcase your ad specifically to your target audience. Each penny you spend works toward showing your communication to the right audience.

Deeper Analysis With traditional marketing mediums, there are limitations to gauging the performance of an ad. The only way you can find out if a consumer has interacted with your communication is if they call your number or visit a website. In contrast, digital marketing enables deeper analysis. It tells you whether a consumer has clicked on your ad, watched your video, filled up the registration form, engaged with our website and more.

More Flexibility Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing offers you the benefit of running multiple campaigns at the same time. Due to low costs, you can run separate campaigns in parallel, highlighting different aspects of your project. Moreover, if you aren’t aware which aspect of your project will appeal more to customers, you can A/B test your campaigns and let your consumers solve the puzzle for you!

Now that you have a clear idea of the importance and benefits of digital marketing, let’s move further. It is time to go from the ‘why’ of digital marketing to the ‘how’. The digital marketing experts at Tempest Advertising have listed effective strategies below.

8 strategies to make your real estate digital marketing successful

Set up paid campaigns for your projects To market your project online, you will have to set up digital marketing campaigns. Platforms like Google, Facebook and LinkedIn allow you to set up campaigns for digital platforms. By setting up paid campaigns, you can market your real estate projects on popular social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. Moreover, with campaigns on Google, you will also be able to market your project on a tonne of websites that showcase Google ads.

Create an impressive landing page Once you create paid campaigns, you will need a basket to collect all generated leads. This basket will be a landing page. It will be the web page where all your leads ‘land’ after clicking on your ads. Many real estate marketers make a rookie mistake when it comes to a landing page. They use the project page from the corporate website for a landing page. However, for best results, you should create a separate landing page that is responsive and optimised for UI/UX. It is not only easy to make but also enables an attractive representation of project benefits and allows for better tracking of leads.

Plan communication for lead nurturing Lead nurturing is another aspect that inexperienced digital marketers are not aware of. Lead nurturing is the method for engaging a lead from the time they come in contact until they become your customer. Lead nurturing helps ensure that your project stays on the top of your prospective consumer’s mind throughout the buying journey. Let us give an example to explain the importance of lead nurturing. A homebuyer is exposed to ads of multiple projects at any given time. They click on the ones they like and keep comparing and exploring further. In this process, there is a high chance that they may forget about your project. To prevent it from happening, you can nurture them with the help of emailers, remarketing ads, SMS and even WhatsApp messages. Lead nurturing not only helps customers remember your project but also increases the chances of conversion.

Invest in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Search engine optimisation is an effective tool for attracting users to your website. It helps you improve your ranking in the list of results on a search engine. For example, when a customer Googles “2 BHK flat in Baner Pune”, the quality of your SEO will determine how high you rank in the search results. There are three types of SEO: on-page SEO, off-page SEO and technical SEO. In simple terms, on-page SEO is plugging keywords (terms that consumers search your project with) on your webpages; off-page SEO is linking your webpage with other webpages with high domain authority; technical SEO is making your webpage fast, easy to browse and responsive.

Leverage social media pages Digital marketing isn’t all about getting new customers. It is also about engaging with existing customers. Because, well-engaged customers go on to become advocates of your brand and bring in new customers through referrals. Social media platforms are an effective channel to engage with your existing customers. You can create separate pages for all your projects. The pages will act as a digital forum for their respective communities. You can post project updates, make important announcements, run activities, solve grievances and do much more through your social media pages.

Tap into WhatsApp WhatsApp is one of the most used digital communication platforms in India. People of varying ages use WhatsApp on a daily basis. You can set up a business account on WhatsApp. This account can be used to send communications to prospective as well as existing customers. The best thing about WhatsApp is that it provides higher chances of your communication being viewed. A person may miss checking your email, they may not see your social media post, they may lose your SMS amid a bunch of other promotions messages, but they will probably check out your WhatsApp message.

Try influencer marketing Influencers are modern-day celebrities. But their edge over mass-market celebrities is their strong connection with a niche audience. Think of them as celebrities in their respective domains or geographies. Moreover, they do not charge a hefty fee like celebrities. These advantages make them a reasonable option to influence your target audience.

Generate engaging content With easy access to the internet, the consumption of content has grown exponentially over the last few years. You, too, can jump on the bandwagon and create engaging content for your consumers. Now you may ask, “what content can a real estate company generate”? Fret not; you can make content out of practically everything! You can shoot a series of customer testimonials; you can create an impressive video that showcases the lifestyle in the neighbourhoods your projects are located in; you can create videos of your engineers talking about the construction quality of your projects; you can create videos of festival celebrations in your completed projects. The list goes on. Remember, the goal is to give interesting content to your customers for consumption. So, anything that ticks the requirement works.

Types of videos Real estate developers can leverage

Video Marketing is one crucial aspect of digital marketing today. It offers multiple benefits for real estate. It helps showcase the project in detail, videos can be used on various platforms, customers can see the project from anywhere, and the list goes on. Owing to their multiple benefits, videos should be part of every real estate company's marketing mix. Take a look at the type of videos that you can use for your real estate brand:

Walk-Throughs or Virtual Tours Making walk-throughs and virtual tours gives customers a deep understanding of your project without the need to visit the location. You can create 60 to 120-second videos and upload them on your website or social media channels. Pro tip - add a voiceover and soothing music for a better experience.

Live Videos for Facebook & Instagram Live videos help have a healthy interaction with potential customers as they can ask questions and clarify their concerns in real time. Moreover, you can save a recording of the live video and use it as part of your social media content.

Educational Videos Creating videos not only for sales but to address the challenges of customers can be beneficial for your brand. The videos can be on different topics such as details about the home-loan process, answering common questions and addressing real-life problems that the customers face. It will help generate more leads and increase brand awareness.

Neighbourhood Video Guide Such videos give customers an idea of how the area around their new home looks like. Viewers get a glance at the facilities available, like transportation, shops, hospital, hotels, nightlife, shopping malls, theatres, landmarks, etc.

Testimonial Videos Inviting satisfied customers helps build credibility and trust among potential customers. The loyalty of satisfied customers toward your brand can make them an advocate of your brand and help you generate more leads, improve brand image and increase conversions.

Social Media Ads Creating social media video ads will take your brand marketing to another level. Make sure the videos are short and showcase all the details customers need. You can run video ads on various social media platforms like Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. However, it is important to note that each platform has a different set of audiences and different guidelines. You must create video adaptations based on parameters like target audience, aspect ratio, length, etc.

Video content marketing is one of the best ways to increase brand awareness, improve brand image, generate leads, and increase conversions. It is a boon for real estate brands in the digital era. So you must not shy away from using this medium and make the most of it.

Takeaway

Digital marketing offers many practical advantages for real estate. Owing to which, it should be a core part of your marketing strategy. Moreover, with digital mediums overshadowing traditional mediums in terms of consumption, it would be unwise to market your projects digitally.

The strategies provided above would help you create a robust digital marketing strategy. However, if you lack the resources to adopt digital marketing, you can always approach a digital marketing agency like Tempest.

At Tempest, we have years of experience in marketing real estate projects both traditionally and digitally. Our experts create an integrated strategy that ensures wider reach for your projects and improves the chances of conversion. Feel free to contact us to discuss digital marketing for your real estate projects.

Brands become top brands when a top advertising and digital marketing agency puts efforts into a planning strategy and deriving ideas that will flourish with time. Tempest assures the same and hence is regarded as the top advertising and digital marketing agency in Hyderabad, Pune and Bangalore.