A home is one of the biggest purchases people make in their lives. It requires a lot of thought and consideration, and the current climate in the property market means many people are being cautious when it comes to moving houseeasy-to-navigate. Some may choose to stay put for the time being, whilst others may not be visiting your property development because they don’t know it exists, they think it is out of their price range, or they aren’t sure about the location or area around the development.
While these reasons are valid, they can be overcome, and there is still a market for new homeowners and people looking to move out of their current homes. With this in mind, we have set out ways in which you can reach, engage, and get more people visiting your development.
Invest in your online presence:
Your website
Your website is your digital storefront and can be an incredibly powerful sales tool, provided it possesses two key qualities: it must be easy to find and easy to navigate.
To help people find your website, update it regularly. Include regular and up-to-date content on your site that shows you as a property expert, this can be achieved through a frequently updated blog section that includes case studies, area guides, news, and trends.
Having an easy to navigate website means people can easily find what they are looking for to help them take their next step, such as making an enquiry, downloading a brochure, or booking an appointment. Make sure your website is easy to use so that your visitors can find what they are looking for, make enquiries and do their business with you with limited barriers.
Your social media
According to CyberCrew’s 2022 findings, approximately 80% of the UK population are active social media users, with the average user spending nearly 2 hours a day on social media. Because of this, it is a vital communication channel for many industries, and property development is no different. With the extent to which consumers use social media; it is a fantastic opportunity to get your brand in front of your audience at a time which suits them.
From a business perspective, social media acts very similarly to word-of-mouth promotion and is a source of new leads. Much of social media is very visual and property development lends itself to that, either through the finished product of stunning properties or by showing the design and build processes or even the show home or artist’s impression of the development. Timelapse videos showing progress on-site, or video tours, are also great content for social media.
When posting to social media channels, make it easy for your prospects to visit your website by including your website URL in your profile bio. On individual posts, include specific links to your website where relevant, for example, if you are announcing a new development, include a link where people can pre-register their interest, or if you have shared a new blog, include a link directly to that blog article.
Use digital assets to help prospects view your developments online
Not only is this more convenient for your prospects, but it also means people will be able to view the property sooner. This behaviour had grown during the pandemic and more visitors will expect to see virtual tours to help them on their buyer journey to find their new home.
Being able to take a digital tour may be even more appealing for those who have barriers to visiting, such as mobility issues, those with young children who are unable to arrange childcare. those who currently live further away and would prefer not to travel, or those who work unsociable hours.
You may not always be able to take photos and videos of your property development at certain stages of its development; this is where you can bring in visualisation software. Showcasing models of how properties will look when they are finished and furnished can be very powerful. You don’t have to keep these illustrations and models confined to your website either, you can bring them into your advertising to make the most of them and entice prospects to register their interest.
An extra benefit of enabling potential customers to undertake a digital viewing is that, for this first round of viewings, they won’t take time away from your salespeople.
After your potential customer has viewed your development remotely, you can direct them to contact your sales team to book an in-person viewing or request further information. This way, the leads are qualifying themselves and your sales team won’t have to spend valuable time on uninterested parties.
You can choose to have everything available to all users or use a gated content approach where you require some information from users, such as name, contact details and perhaps a location or budget they may have in mind, before your website will allow them to view certain content.
Highlight the development itself
Make the development the focus of your promotions, rather than your brand name. Your brand name must of course still be present as it conveys the quality, trust, and values of your company, but it should be the development that takes centre stage.
Having development-specific marketing allows you to showcase what is truly exceptional about that development and help you to sell a lifestyle to the customer. This will often be tied to the location, such as located on the edge of woodland, ideal for families and active adults or its proximity to a major city.
People are increasingly buying into the experiences they can gain access to, so focusing on the life experiences your new homes can provide them with, over the premise of simply buying a unit, will resonate more with your audience.
Create buyer personas and target your prospects
When selling homes as selling access to life experiences, you need to identify the kind of person those homes and experiences are suited to. Are these homes more suited to young families, childless professionals, or those soon to be/recently retired? What is their household income, will they be multi-car homes, what do they do in their free time, how many generations will be under one roof, will they attend the local school?
Once you have built up detailed personas for the various offerings within your development, target them. The information about consumers made available through social media and online behavioural tracking means you can reach very specific groups of people with highly targeted messaging, through platforms such as Google and Facebook.
Offer Part Exchange
Some prospects may already be completely sold on your development and are raring to get moved in but are struggling with selling their current home. The ability to offer part exchange means you can provide a solution that doesn’t involve waiting for months whilst they find a buyer and complete their sale.
The benefit of working with a company like HBB Solutions is that, as a property developer, you don’t have to invest any capital into the scheme or take any risks in managing the reselling of stock. You’re free to focus on building and selling new houses and HBB Solutions will focus on buying existing stock quickly and simply.
Part exchange speeds up the completion process while protecting your balance sheet and growing your business. Get in touch today to find out how working with HBB Solutions can help you.