When a developer takes extra steps to be relevant to customers at every opportunity, more often than not, there is a concrete positive correlation in conversion rates, event attendance, social media engagement and overall interest in the offering. But how might marketers connect with and create a healthy community of buyers before a project breaks ground? Let’s take a look at targeted marketing campaigns: what they are, how they work, and ways developers keep it strategic when speaking to potential homebuyers.
Targeting 101.
It’s important for developers to engage in a realistic dialogue with their current and future customers in order to know where the market is headed, and where they might be able to stand out. In a word, targeted marketing is the process of getting to know your potential customers through research and testing, in order to intelligently promote products and services in ways that are most likely to reach a desired audience. That means you can get as specific as marketing your available 2-bedroom residence to people who have viewed 2-bedroom residences in the $2M+ range in the DTLA area over the last 3 months.
Anyone who’s interested in purchasing real estate (or really any product or service), brings a variety of preferences to the table—informed by a lifetime of knowledge, experience and personal motivations. When creating a targeted campaign, marketers work diligently to identify these preferences so that they might speak more directly and effectively to a carefully curated audience of one. By combining powerful customer relationship management (CRM) platforms with marketing automation tools, it’s easier than ever to engage with smaller, more individualized audiences, resulting in more meaningful connections… and ultimately more relevance in the marketplace.
Buyer-centric campaigns.
Developers routinely offer a full suite of property types and prices to an open sea of prospective customers with the goal of casting the widest net possible. This style of marketing tends to take much longer to work, because it ignores information that buyers have volunteered about themselves. A buyer may have already indicated that they’re interested in a very specific type of residence, what their income range is and how likely they are to buy in the next 12 months. Using a combination of curated contact forms and targeted advertising, marketers can get to know these customers quickly, adjusting messaging and marketing as they go along. By listening carefully and tailoring the brand’s messaging to a more specific audience, luxury real estate marketers and their developer clients may find themselves pleasantly surprised by the positive, tangible outcomes that follow.
Timing is everything.
After all, who doesn’t like being heard? Targeted messaging works with extensive logic flows that allow marketers to craft intelligent, thoughtful responses for each touchpoint of a prospective homebuyer’s journey. While this may sound daunting, it’s best to map out a simple strategy of attack and build on each campaign’s complexity as more information becomes available. This allows for specificity and personal needs recognition in ways a larger, more broad brand campaign cannot. The objective is to create more personalized brand engagements and more effective sales center experiences—so that the right buyers find the right homes in the most efficient way possible. It’s a win, win.
HOT TIPS FOR TARGETING:
– Do your research! Existing data and forms can help you learn more about your buyers.
– Listen to your audience. Be authentic, focused and holistic in all communication.
– Make it a true campaign, and don’t be afraid to put some spend behind it.
– Make it trackable.
– Enjoy the success!
