How communication strategies have evolved for real estate in the Covid-19 era

By Ms. Hiral Sheth Gandhi, Director – Marketing, Sheth Creators

The Indian economy is gradually edging back towards normalcy.  Businesses are re-opening, although the market performances are still far distinct from the one experienced a few quarters ago. The current brand objective calls for effective communication strategies to achieve holistic results. For the industries like real estate which have always relied on in-person selling, navigating sales, and client retention, the ongoing crisis is likely to challenge functioning.

Face-to-face interactions have always been the mainstay of the realty segment, but consumers presently are counting on technology and digital platforms even more to connect with brands. Hence, the industry must connect with consumers where they are spending the most time. A shift in the business approaches is required to soften the sway of the pandemic as it upturns every facet of the business. Digital ways of consumer engagement like social media engagements, live streaming, live sessions on online podiums, and OTT platforms are helping brands to make sales remotely during these turbulent times. 

At the exact moment when digitalization has ripened in terms of reliability and ease of use, the below mentioned effective strategies are set to transform communication in the property sector: 

Staying digitally reachable with consumers: The pandemic has brought into focus how a digital-first approach is a must-have for an organization’s survival. In order to forge consumer connections, developers are focusing their marketing strategies on digital presentations, webinars, online press events and project launches, OTT podiums, wired partnerships, and live streaming sessions. Alongside these virtual platforms, VR, ML, and virtual site tours are equally effective communication and marketing strategies that have been invading the realty market. Various studies conducted in this area reveal that although there is limited data on the current use of VR in this industry, an estimated 1.4 million realtors will be using the technology by 2025. VR allows potential buyers to go through the property virtual tour alongside facilitating virtual staging. This technological shift is mutating real estate with its ability to allow future buyers to experience a space, even if that space is not yet built.

Connecting through engaging content: Offering structured content can enable businesses to engage with their customers in a meaningful way. The content needs to be a tailored strategy befitting every audience type. While catering to a larger audience cutting across demographics, organizations must ensure they are not lacking the bandwidth to produce captivating content. To materialize this, real estate brands can adopt strategies like enhancing content with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to help drive organic traffic to their website, using the power of social media to strengthen content, and partnering with a skilled service vendor to produce captivating content at scale. 

Rise of real estate influencer marketing: There’s no denying that social media marketing has a greater impact than traditional marketing does. The real estate influencer marketers are taking content creation to the next level, making them able to capture the attention of wholly new demographics of clients. The tool of influencer marketing can be a remarkable way. Enabling the brand to achieve the communication objectives by making use of the right platform followed by interesting content. Having on-board bloggers and lifestyle influencers, with massive followers with feeds merging lifestyle with real estate has the advantage of offering mass exposure. Influencers creating video content on social media are another major real estate marketing trend. The sharing of property tours to their stories is proving to be a better way to engage than standard imagery. The real-time element tagged with the video makes it appealing to the audience. Additionally, it helps developers to educate their followers on what they value and notice in a property they are planning to sell.

Although the pandemic has laid bare some of the business vulnerabilities, it has also presented organizations with untapped growth opportunities. Rather than procrastinating, now is the time to act in a thoughtful manner. For after withstanding this storm, real estate as an asset class shall emerge stronger.

source https://nrinews24x7.com/how-communication-strategies-have-evolved-for-real-estate-in-the-covid-19-era/

June 01, 2022