7 Things Every Property Marketer Should Know and Do

1. Know the sales target of your builder or developer partners 

Let’s say your project has a display village and there are 20 homes from 7 different builders. Each builder will have a sales target per home to ensure their investment is viable. So, if the sales target per home is 10 per annum, then within your village there are 200 sales up for grabs. For marketers working within a building company, the developer’s sales target might be 300. The question is, how can you help the builders or developer achieve their sales target? 

2. Have a signage hierarchy plan 

Signage is a huge investment and takes a large chunk out of your marketing budget. A signage hierarchy plan will ensure your large investment is being optimised and not going to waste. A signage hierarchy plan outlines the role of different types of signs.  For example, billboards on a major road are seen by many eyes, but they’re driving over 80km per hour. Use it to build your brand and have one call to action. Don’t think that a driver can remember a phone number, your website, where you want them or turn and why, or read a range of developer and project marketer’s logos. It’s valuable space – don’t waste it. To find out more about signage, read our blog about The ABC’s of Great Signage. 

3. Own the customer experience 

The customer experience is very much the responsibility of the marketing manager. Do you know what goes on in the sales space, what the sales team are saying to prospects, what information is being handed out or emailed? Many marketers love the creative process and spend hours on the look of the brochure, the sales centre fit-out and the theme of the launch event. These are all important, but don’t leave the customer experience to others. Work with the sales team to ensure all the features and benefits that you have laboured over for inclusion in the brochure are being communicated in person and via email. 

4. Value data 

Data integrity. Data integrity. Data integrity. I sound like a broken record, but I won’t stop until the penny drops. Why spend thousands of dollars on generating leads only to find that you can’t make a single marketing decision based on the information in your database? Go to the top of your influence sphere and explain to them how important this is to your ability to use the company’s money wisely. If it’s important to the GM or the Project Director, it should be important to the sales team. I’d go as far as to say that any property business should be prepared to hire and fire based on data integrity.

5. Dismiss leads from social sources at your peril 

Leads from social media are being labelled as ‘crap’. Really? Social leads may not be ready to buy today as they are often at the beginning of their homebuying journey. But why would you advertise on social media and then ignore their interest? The solution: nurture these leads in a different sequence and give them options to engage. 

6. Don’t write-off cold leads 

Over 12 months ago, I conducted a workshop with a project team. The objective was to collaboratively devise a marketing and sales plan to deliver the very large number of sales required. One of the first questions I asked of the Sales Manager was, “How many prospects do you have on the database?” Him (proudly): “7,000” Me: “And on average, what is your conversion rate?” Him (proudly): “10%” Me: “So, based on those numbers, if we spent no money on generating new enquiry this year, we could achieve the sales target by nurturing the database?” Him (now more pissed off than proud): “No. We’ve exhausted the database.” And herein lies a big problem. How much money have you spent generating new leads only to be told one (or more) of the following? 

1. Leads generated through social media are terrible. 

2. They heard about us through signage. 

3. They heard about us from a builder so we should give the builder consultant $5,000 for their referral. 

4. We need more (insert anything that allegedly makes a person come to the sales office rather than enquire online). 

7. Equip yourself with the right tools before organising your next event 

The coffee cart is booked, and the balloons are sorted. Your radio ads are running, and RSVPs have started to come through. Having an event is great for generating interest and demonstrating the strength of your brand and customer focus. They can also be very expensive if no-one turns up. Marketers are expected to be experts in strategy, communication, digital, social, virtual reality, creative, events….and the list goes on. Event management is a special skill and ensuring the success of any event is the responsibility of the whole team, not just the marketing manager.