Month: July 2022

Gone are the days when real estate agents had to network around their locality by distributing flyers and posting real estate information on supermarket bulletin boards. Today, real estate marketing is more than just selling a building or a piece of land. It has become an open world, full of divergent opportunities.

Amongst all, the one thing that has forever changed the way we connect is the onset of social media. Social media platforms like Facebook are no longer helpful for just sharing posts with friends and family but also for digital, paid advertisements. While reaching a broad audience for your real estate business, Facebook never fails to offer great exposure with multiple possibilities for your business.

As a result, Real estate marketing agencies worldwide are now using Facebook to market their properties and are getting impressive results. Therefore, it’s a must to understand and implement Facebook marketing strategies as a real estate agent.

Here is the ultimate Facebook marketing strategy for real estate that will help you stay on top of your marketing game:

1.  Understand Location and Target the Right Audience

One of the many reasons behind Facebook’s popularity is its ability to advertise the right content to the right audience base. Therefore, before you start planning and get down to work, selecting your target audience is the first thing you must do. The whole process of advertising will get easier after this step as you’ll know what the target audience is in search of. 

In practice, there are some factors you have to keep in mind to find your target audience successfully.

• Start by targeting an audience based on location because this will help you get clients nearby.
• Apart from that, age targeting and demographic targeting will help you to work wonders.
• In the ‘Detailed Targeting’ option, you will find quite a few alternatives that will help you show your properties to the best clients. 

Following such a detailed flow will help you reach a targeted, large audience.

2. Utilize Video Content

Video content has brought a revolution to the world of marketing. Almost all industries swear by video marketing, and even real estate companies benefit from it. According to research, real estate companies with captivating video content attract more audiences than those without. 

Pictures can often be deceiving, but videos are unlikely to be the same. Videos help the prospects take a realistic look into real estate. A well-made video will increase reach, build trust, and thus help you gain more clients. Also, don’t forget to use the video specs recommended by Facebook Ad Manager before uploading the videos to get the best outcomes. 

3. Use Captivating Graphics

Good graphics are the key to success on social media platforms. As a  real estate marketing agency, you must ensure that you use your properties’ best images for advertisements. Images play a big part in building the overall impression of your company. 

Once you understand the aesthetics, you will start attracting clients like magnets. With images, you get around two seconds to grab your audience’s attention, so make sure that the graphics you incorporate are unique and captivating. 

4. Share Testimonials with Your Audience

Customer testimonials are the best way to convince more people to become your clients because they are genuine. Make videos of your old customers talking about their experiences with your company and share them with your audiences. You can also incorporate some of the detailed reviews in your advertisement copy for better outcomes.

5. Use Carousel Advertisements

Buying real estate is a big financial decision for clients; therefore, they must be presented with all the necessary details beforehand. Facebook has the perfect ad format for the real estate industry: the Carousel ad format.

Real estate is the kind of industry that has a visual appeal, and that’s what makes carousel advertisement an ideal pick. In this kind of ad, you can display pictures in the catalogue to allow the viewers to scroll through and see multiple listings. You can also add price, location, and other details in the carousel advertisements. 

Proptech ecosystems like BeyondWalls simplify buying real estate for clients using such advertisements.

6. Work on Your CTA

People will be more likely to click on your advertisements if you give them one ultimate reason to pick you. Call-to-action, popularly known as CTA, is a button that prompts your audiences to take action after watching a video or reading an article.

Some of the most used CTAs for real estate are:

• Search
• Next
• Read more
• How it works
• Schedule a visit
• Enquire Now
• Register Interest
• Request virtual tours and more

The presence of CTAs will drive traffic to your website and, therefore, will increase real estate sales.

7. Create Informative Website Landing Pages

Once you have created strong CTAs for the videos and images, it’s time to make the destination website strong so that the good impression about your company lasts longer. The landing page is the first thing that appears when a person visits your website. So, you must ensure that their website visit is pleasant. 

Incorporate good images of your real estate on the landing page, along with reviews and testimonials. This will make the visitors find what they are looking for and make their decisions quickly. Incorporating the video ads in the landing page is also a great idea as it makes the visitors stay on your website for longer.

8. Observe Your Competitors

Watch how the other real estate businesses are doing on social media. This doesn’t mean that you have to copy their actions. Instead, take inspiration from your competitors to improve your marketing game on social media. 

You might come up with new and unique ideas by observing your competitors. 

9. Run Different Sets of Ads and Observe Which Works

Not everything works for every company, and the situation is not different for the real estate industry. You can make various kinds of advertisements for your real estate business, but not all of them will result in the same amount of success.

The key is to keep tracking the reach and engagements and see which kinds of ads are being loved by people. Carousel ads, 360 videos, and testimonials generally succeed considerably. But if you see that some types of ads aren’t working well, it’s time to stop making them and start focusing on making the ones that have good responses. 

10. Keep an Eye on the Analytics

No matter which tools and tactics you apply for marketing, make sure you closely keep an eye on the analytics to understand the audience’s reaction. You can do it yourself or hire a professional who will keep looking at the numbers from time to time to determine the marketing strategies you use work in the long run.

11. Keep Your Relevance Score High

Not all your audience will understand your advertisements before clicking on them, and some of them will even click on them with no intention of making further steps. Such clicks affect your performance to an extent, and to take care of that, remember to keep the relevance score of your advertisements high. 

You’ll have to pay more CPC if your advertisement isn’t very relevant. Once you set your relevance score high, Facebook will reward your advertisement. 

Conclusion

Real estate is an industry that keeps changing at a faster pace compared to others. But that will not be a problem if you take the necessary actions based on the situation at the right time. By implementing the aforementioned Facebook marketing strategies for real estate, you will be able to handle any new challenges with ease. Reach out to the experts at Beyondwalls; if you are looking for a reliable PropTech ecosystem to take care of the Facebook marketing strategies of your business to ensure it scales rapidly in the long run. Contact us for further details!

The coronavirus pandemic has affected our lives and the world in every way possible. The entire economy was brought to a standstill, and it was a slow and steady journey for it to reach its earlier position. Commercial activities of every nature were affected by the pandemic, and the lockdowns that came with it. Once the threat gradually reduced, these commercial sectors revived themselves, but they are now different from their old self.

The Evolved Real Estate Sector

Real estate is a leading sector in the economy, and has had its share of impact. In the post-covid era, the sector has seen a lot of changes which are mainly due to changes in dynamic between its various stakeholders. Developers, channel partners and homebuyers are the key stakeholders in the industry, and their demands are inter-dependent on each other. They have to operate in a balanced network for the industry to thrive, and this balance has been altered by the pandemic.

The choices and demands of consumers from the real estate industry have been largely altered. This new behavior is aligned with the challenges and problems that the economy faced during, and after the virus outbreak. The uncertainty that was being felt in almost every aspect of life has made the attitude of homebuyers extremely cautious and selective. The reasons behind investing in a home have now shifted from being a mere sense of financial security, to being a feeling of control and convenience due to trends such as social distancing and work from home. Home ownership is hence preferred over tenancies, and people are willing to contribute to real estate sales. However, they want properties to meet all their expectations before making their purchase, and it is now more important than ever for developers to understand their requirements.

The following are some emerging trends in real estate that can provide valuable insights into the industry and market, and the altered behavior of its stakeholders:

Change in Consumer Sentiments:

Consumers are the driving force of the real estate market, and their sentiments shape the market. For the past two years, the lack of job stability has made people very cautious with their expenses. For a purchase as significant as real estate, most people have to take loans. For these loans, the rate of interest has been steadily rising which is further changing consumer sentiments towards the decision of property purchasing. Developers must be aware of these concerns of their consumers in terms of property pricing and should accordingly plan their projects.

Change in Consumer Awareness:

The new-age consumer is very aware of the market, and this awareness has led to increased levels of scrutiny for developers. With the digitization of real estate marketing, every information relating to a property and developer can be easily accessed by consumers. They can inspect the property and compare prices, read testimonials by other consumers and ensure that the property they are considering is a good and solid investment.

Rising Costs of Development:

A by-product of the pandemic and the stop in manufacturing caused by it has led to the prices of raw materials such as cement, steel etc. going up. These materials are crucial for the real estate industry. If their prices increase, developers are left with no alternative to earn profits from their business besides increasing the prices of properties. These higher costs affect homebuyers, which in turn disrupts the entire real estate sales cycle.

Increasing Role of Channel Partners:

Channel Partners operate as a link between developers and homebuyers. They are essential in the homebuying journey since consumers rely heavily on them to understand their property requirements, suggest suitable properties and help them buy it for the best price. In the current scenario, consumers have a lot of property information readily available, which makes the selection process more confusing. Hence, in the emerging new trend, brokers are heavily relied upon to accelerate the sales of real estate.

Improvements in Home Design:

The buyers of today are very aware of concepts such as automation, sustainability of resources etc. due to the awareness that is being generated about them. They expect these to be incorporated into home designs as well. Properties that have automation in their features, and those which are constructed in an environmentally conscious manner are more in demand. Developers who include these features in their projects should make sure to incorporate these in their real estate marketing plans so as to make their properties desirable.

These trends are the current direction in which the real estate industry is heading. These can be used to the advantage of all stakeholders if they know how to correctly exploit them. BeyondWalls – an Integrated PropTech Ecosystem in India is the ideal partner for end-to-end real estate sales and marketing. It can help to navigate the market trends and elevate the real estate experience.

Imagine a real estate sale happening a few decades ago- properties were marketed through newspapers, posters and hoardings, or by radio campaigns. For realtors, it involved a lot of manual efforts to convey information about the available properties. These efforts also did not have guaranteed success associated with them, because often homebuyers used to miss the information. There was no way to communicate with large numbers of people at one time, or for homebuyers to find easy solutions for their property-related queries. Real estate marketing services are today done in a very different way, where all these mediums have been taken over by technology and digitization.

Digitization in Real Estate

Technology has completely transformed the face of the real estate industry. It has streamlined the operations of the sector, and has made it highly efficient and convenient. Technology has impacted every aspect of the industry, right from marketing, to the automation of post-sale contracts. The most significant of this impact has been the change that technology has brought in the traditional marketing tactics used in real estate. Newspapers and hoardings have lesser preference than websites and social media posts, and gradually the industry is witnessing a shift towards digital marketing.

Digital Marketing for Real Estate in India

Digital marketing is the process of advertising and selling products through the internet, and other internet-based technologies such as social media or search engines. The internet is the most powerful tool currently, and people heavily rely on it for all their requirements. Real estate is no exception to the products that people search for online, thereby making the internet a good platform for real estate marketing. Statistics gathered by Properties Online Inc, a real estate software company, show that 92% of homebuyers search for properties online.

In India too, the trend of technology has taken over the real estate sector, and digital marketing has become a necessity for realtors to maximize their sales. It is a powerful communication medium if utilized well, and there are various ways in which good digital marketing can boost sales.

Strategic Digital Marketing Plan

Irrespective of whether the marketing is taking place online or offline, it is essential for a realtor to have a strategic marketing plan. If marketing is done in an unstructured way, the inventory tends to suffer because it is not being showcased to people in the best way possible. Before beginning digital marketing, a realtor must have a clear idea of the available inventory, the target audience for each different inventory, the type and frequency of content, whether videographic/blogs/static posts that should be uploaded for every inventory etc. The digital marketing plan must be backed by research regarding the best mediums for marketing content, and how the campaign can be optimized.

The Wonder of a Website

A website is the most fundamental element of digital marketing, but it also has the potential to make or break a marketing strategy. A website is the starting place for any online consumer, and hence it is essential to have a good and engaging website, which is user-friendly. From a real estate perspective, it is crucial that any website has a clear and concise property listing, since it is the basic reason that people visit the website. Besides this, the website should contain information which simplifies and breaks down the entire homebuying process, since most people are not aware of it. Certain other features that can help a real estate website will be to have links of ancillary services relevant to the industry such as lawyers, home loan professionals etc., and also including an automated system which can immediately reply to consumer’s queries. This will engage more traffic on the website and thereby help in real estate sales growth.

Strengthening SEO

Search Engine Optimization is the process by which a brand makes itself easily discoverable to potential consumers who are searching for products online. It works on the principle that if a brand includes content highly relevant to the particular product that it offers, it can be recognized easily by the algorithms of search engines, and will therefore be more visible to people. Having strong SEO can greatly increase the popularity and sales of a real estate realtor, since more potential consumers will be easily directed online to the realtor. One way that a realtor can ensure this is to have content rich with select keywords for the industry, such as ‘real estate’, ‘property’ etc. which are most likely to be searched for by potential consumers. A realtor must also focus on having content relevant to the area or locality in which their business operates.

The Power of Social Media, Influencer, and Email Marketing

Social Media is now no longer restricted to being a means of only entertainment, but it has also become a leading medium of digital marketing. Large numbers of people use various social media platforms, and they offer a ready base of potential consumers. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc. can be used individually and collectively for a brand to communicate information about itself and market the products. With the improvement in technology, social media platforms have evolved to also have options of running digital advertisement campaigns. If utilized well, social media can become a very effective channel of digital marketing.

Emails are a tried and tested mechanism for realtors to be able to nurture leads. Targeted content sent through email campaigns can be helpful in increasing sales.

Influencer marketing is the process of using social media influencers for the marketing and promotion of a product or service. For real estate sales, influencer marketing is very beneficial since it can be used to reach targeted audiences, and attract local following. This local following can greatly boost real estate sales, since specific and niched consumers can be made become aware of real estate businesses and inventory.

Creating Virtual Home Tours

The marvel of technology allows realtors to now create virtual home tours, and give homebuyers an experience of what actually living in the property would be like. These home tours can simultaneously also be used as visual content pieces in the digital marketing strategy. Including content such as this will make the property more desirable to people, and thereby make the marketing effective to generate more leads.

Digital marketing is a useful mechanism for realtors, but it has to be strategized and executed well to be effective. BeyondWalls – an Integrated PropTech Ecosystem can be a reliable partner for a realtor. BeyondWalls is not only a real estate marketing agency, but it also provides end-to-end project planning and sales services. BeyondWalls provides the best, go-to marketing strategies which are data-driven and can efficiently be used to reach target audiences. This becomes extremely crucial in areas like social media and influencer marketing, where it is essential to choose the right influencer or the right social media channel which can attract the local following of interested and potential consumers.

It aims to make real estate highly simplified and convenient for realtors, developers, as well as homebuyers.

The real estate industry looks unrecognisable compared to the last couple of years. The primary reason behind this change is the onset of the global coronavirus pandemic, which turned the world upside down overnight, and real estate was a part of that revolution too.

In this particular industry, where everything used to work on paper-based processes and real-time, physical meets, challenges came out to be tougher than thought. The adoption of real estate technology came in late, and the industry saw an uplift only as the pandemic started to fade away.

This change sparked a series of events where now the role of technology has increased significantly in the property industry. Automation, Online Collaboration, Digital Payments, and more as part of the integrated PropTech ecosystem have simplified real estate processes and are on the verge of transforming them completely.

So, whether it is the new ways of selling, marketing, forming partnerships, or bringing new experiences directly to the customers, the stakeholders must stay relevant to news, developments, and trends and be ready for any kind of unexpected changes that come forward in the industry.

And for the year 2022, we will take a look at some recent developments that have happened since the decline in the global coronavirus pandemic. Let’s start with the rise of PropTech.

The Rise of PropTech

PropTech, or Property Technology, rose in the aftermath of the global pandemic. Taking advantage of real estate technology, businesses simplified their operations while driving maximum productivity and efficiency.

PropTech is revolutionising the industry in terms of:

• Regulation & Governance- Government Schemes & RERA in favour of customers
• Digital infrastructure – Taking the lead in digitalisation
• Tech-savvy Talent – High-quality tech talents

All of this development translates into:

• Digital real estate search and transactions
• Virtual reality/augmented reality for virtual site visits
• Big data and analytics for making informed decisions
• Building & construction efficiencies.
• Home automation and smart buildings.
• IoT-based amenities & facilities

Ultimately, PropTech is paving the way for generating more revenue, saving on costs, & optimising the operations.

Preference for Co-working Spaces

Commercial real estate is also on the verge of witnessing a whole new trend. The balance of owning a dedicated place for work has now shifted to investing in a co-working space where businesses can hire space and make rooms as per their convenience. This change is also coming from the likes of having the support of integrated PropTech ecosystem.

Here’s why co-working spaces are witnessing a surge:

As the business doesn’t have to pay for the complete setup, they don’t have to pay for the same. Such smart investment turns to save a lot of money for companies

The convenience of running the business twenty-four by seven without restrictions

The presence of extra activities and refreshments for employees in a co-working setting. Such a setup contributes to employee satisfaction alongside delivering high productivity and efficiency from the business

A sharing platform with other businesses in the same space. Investment in co-working space can form collaboration, make new contacts, and forge new partnerships

The Rise in Pricing

The rising demand for homes, rising costs of materials, and developers looking to take a more significant portion of profit have resulted in a hike in the overall costs. As per the reports, the average price range across cities goes from 7% to 1% for the cities Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata, NCR, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, and Chennai.

From the perspective of developers, they have been reluctant to increase the pricing of their homes given the conditions of the global pandemic. However, as now the world is recovering to its original place, developers have been seen reviewing their pricing strategy and starting to increase their pricing.

Experts say that first-time homebuyers must take action now if they want to invest in real estate before the prices rise even more.

Government Schemes & Offers

The good news for homebuyers came in the form of this year’s 2021-22 Union Budget that involved extending the tax exemption benefit on interest on housing loans up to 1.5 Lakh. The Tax Holiday and affordable housing projects also received positive news in the Union Budget.

The government has also announced the establishment of the Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) at the National Housing Bank (NHB). The initial capital came to be Rs 10,000 crore to finance HFCs using priority sector loan shortfalls from banks and financial institutions.

Furthermore, the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana has received special attention, particularly in rural areas. This move recorded a Rs 48,000 Crore allotment for constructing 80 Lakh residential units across the country.

Another move from the government was directed towards digitalisation of land records that have been paper-based for so long. Such a powerful move will give a boost to real estate technology and also the whole integrated PropTech ecosystem development.

Increased Traction from Homebuyers

Besides all these major cities mentioned earlier, online research and ongoing trends highlight tier-II cities such as Surat, Jaipur, Patna, Lucknow, Coimbatore, etc, seem to be back on continuing remote working policies. The result of this ongoing movement will favour homebuyers as they will look forward to owning larger homes within a larger neighbourhood with better access to healthcare, safety, openness etc.

The Emergence of New Factors

With so much progress toward sustainable development, large-scale projects are opening new ways to pull large amounts of investments. The emergence of green initiatives such as electric vehicles, solar energy, water harvesting, and data centres are driving commercial and residential real estate despite convention and retail spaces taking a major hit in the pandemic.

BeyondWalls being a leading real estate marketing agency, has witnessed a surge in customers’ demands to advocate the use of technology and green initiatives.

The Stability of Affordable Homes

Tracing a decade back to today, the demand for real estate has undergone a structural transformation on both the demand as well as the supply side. However, this fluctuation has made the whole residential space buying relatively safe for the homebuyers. Especially the affordability part which has seen monumental improvements over the past seven years.

The price changes that have happened in the last 5-7 years have all led to better affordability of homes. At the same time, the rate of home loan interest has been a deciding factor in improving the state of affordable homes in the past couple of years.

The Indian housing sector has been facing a number of challenges with regards to increasing inventory levels, extremely high unsold housing stocks, buyers’ market sentiments, investors getting cautious and so on. However, the positive sentiment is slowly coming back into the market without any cues from external factors.

Emerging signs of a turnaround in sentiment, demand, pricing, and sales have all combined to suggest that it has been out of the woods. With a changing outlook for India, we can now look at the housing market with more optimism than ever before.

Real estate developers and brokers can stay up to date on the latest trends, real estate market & technology by following India’s best Integrated PropTech ecosystem — BeyondWalls.