Advertising is a crucial part of any business’ marketing strategy—without it, sales will dip and the entire business will suffer. Marketing trends are already tumultuous on a regular basis, but adding an economic problem due to a global disaster can overturn the ideas of even the brightest marketing specialists.
For those in the real estate industry, business is already difficult, to begin with, but the recent outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVI-19) has made it an even bigger challenge. Regular advertising campaigns have to take a back seat, as the social distancing protocol has affected even the basic marketing trends and strategies we are used to.
Adjusting Your Advertising Strategy
Real estate advertising often banks on the general area, the current state of the market, and the value of the house itself—but with such a trend breaking event such as COVID-19, what was once “basic” simply isn’t enough. While the basic idea is to simply churn out more advertisements, this could be a wasted effort if you don’t know how to shift along with your market.
Before you even start altering your advertising campaign, the primary step would be to take a step back and re-evaluate the current marketing trends. By taking stock of how well your current strategies are performing, you can gather enough useable data to get back in the game.
To help you in this regard, here are some basic steps you can take to get a grasp of your current advertising performance.
Take stock of your current strategies
Before scrapping all your current advertising campaigns, take stock of everything, and review them one-at-a-time. While there will definitely be some that won’t be useable for the time being—fliers, print ads, and open houses come to mind—these can still become useful later one when things start to settle down.
Reorganize your priorities and focus on the ones that are more viable at the moment. Boosting online visibility is one thing you can focus on at the moment, as online usage has increased since the pandemic hit. By doing so, you can minimize your losses on currently running campaigns, while maximizing those that actually hit targets.
Review the current trend data
This seems to be a basic step, after all before you can repurpose your advertising campaign, you have to view all the data first. Beyond this, however, look at the data trends under a new light—the current “norm” has shifted, so previous trend data might not move as you expect it to.
Keep an open mind to the trends and take note that these are only for the time being. These will shift more often during this period, but this can help you prepare for future calamities as well.
Consider the impact on the industry
COVID-19’s effect has hit the global economy as a whole, but that doesn’t mean that all industries are hit the same way. Each industry’s market has been affected in a big way, but the degree and extent are extremely variable.
Consider the state of the real estate market as it is now, and look at what people are searching for during this time of calamity. Are people still looking to invest on property lots? Are they looking for luxury homes to buy? Are people looking more for houses for sale, or for rent? By focusing on how it has impacted on your industry, you can adjust the entire advertising process accordingly.
Improving Your Advertisements
As the market trends have started shifting, so has the attention of your consumers. People’s purchasing decisions and prioritizations have changed, so in order for your business to stay afloat, you have to change the way people see you as well.
After having reviewed the performance of your advertising strategies and taking note of the trends, the next step is to start building on the current market. By shifting your advertising campaign to one more relatable to this situation, your product can be more marketable—even for a difficult industry such as real estate.
When creating your advertisements, keep these simple tips in mind to help guide you towards a more marketable view in such tumultuous times.
Visuals still matter
For online real estate sales listings on properties, the key is to use valuable, high-quality images. This is important now, more than ever, as your clients aren’t particularly too keen on going out to do a house visit at the moment.
Your best option to properly utilize your online advertising is to give them a complete view of what you’re selling. For the meticulous buyer, more pictures available makes for better visualization of what you’re selling.
Consider taking virtual house tours—this won’t only assure that your clients can properly view the houses you’re selling, but it can also help them immerse in the experience, as they would on a regular day.
Keep the key details in the forefront
One of the biggest failures of an online listing would be incomplete information. While it is never wise to bombard a customer with too much information at once, it’s still a good practice to provide the necessary details as a viewable clump in one glance.
Factors such as price, size, floor area, rooms available, and area are the basics—the rest can be added later on. Hiding this information within clumps of text make it difficult for your viewers, limiting an already dwindling market of real estate buyers at the moment.
Prioritize the basics over the additions
For the real estate market, people may not be as focused on finding the best house to live in or move to at the moment. With the current situation of our economy, it might be more viable to prioritize rental units—as more and more people are just looking for a place to stay until the lockdown blows over.
This would mean that the important marketing information won’t be in the additional amenities, but on how liveable a particular rental is. The prime points to focus here are security, safety, hygiene, and the general area—people fearing COVID-19 are looking more for nearby hospitals rather than the closest theme park.
Conclusion
For big calamities that affect the market, adjusting your advertising campaigns is the only way to keep business open. By properly reviewing your set-up and aligning them with the current trends, you can adjust your strategies enough to still remain relevant in such difficult times.
Unsure how to adjust your marketing strategy? Then our digital marketing agency in St. Louis is your best bet. Set a consultation with one of our specialists today to boost your online visibility!