How to create the right property marketing campaign

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19 Jul

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Laying the right foundations for a successful property marketing campaign

Whether you’re building a city-centre commercial project or a leafy development of family homes, you need people to know about you in order to sell or let your properties.

The right property marketing strategy will elevate your development from “yet another tower block” to the hottest place to live.

Here are our top tips on making sure your property marketing campaign hits the right mark.

Get the fundamentals right

Before launching into busy marketing activities it’s always essential to consider four things – the basic tenets of every marketing strategy. Only then will you know what actions need to be included in your property marketing campaign.

The four “P”s are:

PRODUCT (WHAT YOU’RE SELLING)
PLACE (WHERE IT IS)
PRICE (WHAT IT WILL COST YOUR CUSTOMER)
PROMOTION (HOW YOU’RE TAKING IT TO MARKET)

Armed with your answers to these four pillars and what you know about your audience, you can make an informed decision about what kind of property marketing campaign you’re going to run.

What should your property marketing campaign look like?

Objectives

Every good marketing campaign starts with objectives.

And yes, just like your personal development review at work, these need to be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based).

We start with the basics (revenue, profit, brand and audience) and build on that.

Revenue – how much money do we need to generate with this campaign, where’s it going to come from, and by when?

Profit – how profitable does the revenue generated by this campaign need to be? Your answer here will give the sales team the focus they need.

Brand – we want to be positioned like this and generate this kind of reputation, and we’ll know it’s working because of these results.

Audience – we want these people to do this.

For example, in the next 12 months we want to:

generate £2m revenue
achieve 15% profit
be named in Architects’ Journal as one to watch
be the number one accommodation choice for international students in Manchester.

Core messages

Next, you need to clarify your core messages.

What do you want to say? What does your audience want to hear?
What questions do your clients need answering?
What benefits are you delivering?

Tactics

Now that you know what objective you’re delivering, who you’re talking to, and what you want to say, you can work out your tactics.

The top ten marketing channels used in property marketing campaigns are:

Visuals (video!)
Website
Social channels
Place
People
Email
PR (news, awards, editorials)
Advertising
Events
Sales promotions

“Your employees are your most powerful brand ambassadors. Give them the words they need to talk about your project enthusiastically.”

Below, we’ll summarise a few of the most important channels for success.

Create excellent visuals

Before shouting too loudly about your new place, it’s absolutely key to create excellent visuals that sell it well.

Computer-generated images (CGIs), whether they are 2D or 3D, static or moving, bring a new build property development to life and help prospective investors, tenants or purchasers to appreciate the scale and appearance of the end product before it’s finished. Coupled with the use of drone footage to capture inspiring aerial views of your site, it’s important to show what a building or area will look like once the diggers and cranes have gone.

Beyond the buildings themselves, video can also capture a sense of the lifestyle that you’re selling.

Build a website

You may already have a website for your company, but a website specifically about the new development will help to reinforce its identity and help prospective residents and visitors get to know your place.

It functions as a virtual brochure, helping buyers and investors scope out the development before making further enquiries.

What sort of accommodation is being built? What facilities will be on offer? Will the building meet higher standards for the environment (BREEAM) or wellness (WELL Building Standard)?

Use it to show off your videos of the lifestyle you are selling.

Your website is also a great platform to capture some organic traffic via SEO. Recently, we spoke about the key to great SEO for construction companies. While the application is a little different here, the same principles apply. Optimising your website with keywords about the kind of development you’re building, the location and the target market could give you the little marketing boost you need.

Use social media

Armed with your core messages, gorgeous visuals and dynamic website, get out there are tell people about it!

Choose your social media platform carefully.

Trying to attract international students or young people? Instagram.
Speaking to business owners looking for their next office? LinkedIn.
Families buying their dream home in the suburbs? Facebook.

As with any conversation, you have to go to where your audience is.

Good social media needs the right mix of timing, content, messages and engagement. We highly recommend getting a professional team on board to manage it for you – they have plenty of tools to automate, measure and manage every social media platform. Don’t try and do it yourself (or ask your teenagers to do it for you).

Make your place work for you

Your site is your greatest asset. People can see it from a distance, walk or drive past it, and if they’re interested in it, they’ll arrange a visit. The worst thing you can do is block it off using 10ft blank hoardings. Use your street presence to your advantage.

Branded Hoardings are your friends. But also… use them as a shop window to showcase what you’re doing, create an air of anticipation and enhance the streetscape from the outset.

You can connect the real and the virtual worlds here with digital totems that give passers-by access to your website, your CGIs and even your community engagement.

And no site sits alone. You have neighbours and stakeholders to interact with. Your site exists within a place, whether that’s a city centre, an industrial park or a village. By keeping your neighbours happy through good site hygiene and proactive communication, everyone wins.

Time to deliver your property marketing campaign

Once you’ve made all the decisions, it’s time to crack on and deliver the plan.

But, if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by the whole thing here’s an idea. Hire a property marketing specialist who’s done it before.

Here at Luma we can get on with the marketing campaign leaving you free to do the things you do best.

Get in touch with Luma today to make sure your campaign hits the right mark.