With the pandemic causing so many changes including less physical viewing of property, digital marketing is the emerging trend for real estate in 2020.
However, you will still require the expertise, guidance and advice of an experienced real estate agent to run you through the process of deciding and acquiring property.
And who would be more qualified than estate agents and letting agents?
Digital marketing has become essential for estate agents, not only by offering virtual viewing of property but with many other perks as well.
Article Chapters
Chatbots
Available 24/7 to clarify all queries and to provide additional information.
The advantages of chatbots are:
- Immediate Responses: Your questions are answered immediately, which is saving on the essential time factor.
- Relevant Offers: Chatbots put forward questions to clients, the answers to which provide them with the type of property that is being sought, leading them to personalise offers to suit their requirements.
- Automated Scheduling: Once a client shows interest, a home tour can be organised with automated scheduling.
- Follow-Ups: Chatbots can send follow-ups to potential customers using any medium they choose, including email, messengers, social media or SMS.
Augmented Reality
Instead of physical viewing of the property, the addition of augmented reality to digital marketing enables 3D virtual tours of properties, including what a construction project will look like on completion.
Majority of the agents, including the estate agents in Coventry, rely on virtual viewings now.
Virtual touring allows the clients to feel what it would be like to physically be there and live in the property with the surrounding neighbourhood as well.
Updated toolkits are offering augmented reality more benefits, making it more customer-friendly.
Bespoke Marketing
A layered strategy to marketing which is custom-made to the client’s requirements.
It enables the agent to choose options that will specifically suit the needs of the client, giving him/her the benefit of the right home in the right place.
It lends a personal touch, anticipating what is best for the client and thereby improves client relationships.
Lead Generation
This is an integral part of building a customer base.
The leverage technology informs the agents of leads in the property market, to follow up with.
Systems are designed to increase customer quality time so that agents make the most of their clients’ time and can respond directly to their queries.
Demographics
Provide statistics of the composition of a population – age, gender, race, income, migration patterns which, though seemingly unimportant, can affect the real estate price and property market.
For instance, with the demographics data available, answers to the following questions can be provided to the investor:
- As more people face retirement, how would this affect the demand for second homes in popular holiday areas?
- If incomes are smaller and children have moved out, how would it affect the demand for larger homes?
Target Marketing
With the facility of target marketing technology, agents can collect data and identify the highlights of investment properties so that the client will be provided with the most desirable and economical offers, based on their requirements.
Blockchain Technology
This is a way of recording transactions, tracking assets and building trust in an immutable manner.
In real estate, it offers a process in which a property owner can provide digital tokens that represent a share of the property.
Using a blockchain to track the investments, with minute details, helps delete the risk of fraud.
In this way, a property can have “micro shares”, with numerous co-owners with a stake in the returns.
More blockchain platforms in real estate investment are being developed.
This helps in cutting costs in the investment of real estate as well as saving costs with some service charges.
Geofencing
This technology allows real estate agents to advertise their properties on the market by creating virtual boundaries around those areas, so that interested buyers are aware of them.
When a mobile device enters the area, the geofence can trigger the advertisement.
However, caution needs to be taken to ensure the geofencing is accurate.
Social Media
This has always been a reliable avenue for marketing.
Advanced social projects using a variety of strategies offer one of the best ways for ROI (return on investment) in the real estate market.
Social media profiles can impact SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) standing and an effective social media strategy is a must.
Video & Influencer Marketing
Real estate being such a visual commodity, the effects of this type of marketing are widespread.
People want to know about authentic experiences, and client reviews provide just that aspect.
Purchasing property is a large investment and testimonials of satisfaction, by way of videos on social media, can influence the decision-making.
Video marketing can highlight the strength of various housing markets and explain reasons impacting housing costs.
AI (Artificial Intelligence)
The use of artificial intelligence improves the efficiency of operational tasks, increasing the speed of the transaction and reducing the effort of searching.
Future scenarios can be foreseen by recognising and examining the patterns in data sets.
Self-service portals offer completion of administrative documentation without the client being physically present.
Conclusion
Real estate agents are required continuously to upgrade their digital marketing performance as this is essential.
Only then will they be able to provide you, the client, with the latest technology in arriving at the best decision.