Why is digital marketing important when selling your home?

Did you know that around 80% of all motivated home buyers are searching online?

This means that now, more than ever, digital is the most wide-reaching way to showcase your property to potential buyers.

This article explains what has changed with internet based property marketing in recent years, and why effective digital marketing is crucial to ensure you are getting the most out of every marketing dollar you invest when selling your home.

Selling your home in a ‘digital first’ era

When digital marketing for real estate first became popular, it was undoubtedly the biggest property marketing shift seen in decades. The internet provided the ability to present multiple property listings, with up-to-date information, and make them more easily available to a wide audience.

In the last decade, the use of internet based listings for the property market has exploded. In a market the size Auckland, we see literally thousands of properties available on the internet simultaneously.

So, in today’s crowded digital marketplace, the challenges is – how do you get your desired audience’s attention with your property listing when there is so much competition?

In marketing, we often break the process in to three parts:

• Attraction – How do you get your listing in front on potential buyers?

• Engagement – How do you engage potential buyers and get them interested in your property listing?

• Conversion – How do you get the buyers to take the next step, such as enquiring about the property, or visiting an open home?

Attraction: Getting your property listing in front of potential buyers

There’s an old adage in marketing which says “you can’t sell a secret”. If no one knows your property is for sale, it is not going to attract buyers. Quality marketing is essential to create awareness, and attract potential purchasers for your home.

While there are many digital channels that can be used, here are the two I believe will be most useful when selling your property:

• The Barfoot & Thompson network – Barfoot & Thompson have an extensive digital reach. When listing with Barfoot & Thompson, your listing is automatically added to our industry leading website which attracts over 300,000 users per month. The great user-experience on the website allows for potential buyers to search for properties using specific criteria. All of Barfoot & Thompson’s listings are also featured on realestate.co.nz, Hougarden (chinese property website), Nzrealtors.co.nz and international site LeadingRE.com (a global, member-only website – Barfoot & Thompson has exclusive membership to this network. We are the only real estate company in NZ that has been invited to join this global group). Barfoot & Thompson’s website is also strongly optimised for search engines, meaning they usually show up at the top of property searches on sites like Google.

• Social media – 2.5 million New Zealanders use Facebook every month. This massive network allows you to target your audience using specific location and demographic criteria and get your listing in front of them.

Barfoot & Thompson can also utilise a number of other digital channels such as advertising on top NZ websites such as TradeMe. Chinese & international audiences are also reached via luxuryportfolio.com (the luxury division of LeadingRE with approximately 250,000 visitors per month) and Juwai.com (the world’s largest Chinese property website, attracting 1.5million visitors per month).

We also have exclusive rights to the ‘Hot Properties’ carousel on the national news page of the NZ Herald website. This page alone attracts 5,087,248 ‘unique visitors’ per month, and on average each property placed on the carousel receives 543 click throughs to the full listing information on the Barfoot & Thompson website.

Engagement: Making your property listing stand out

Once you have attracted potential property buyers, how do you get them engaged and showcase your property to its full potential?

Almost all property listings on the internet have photos and a text description, but technology and high-speed internet now allow us to go beyond this and showcase your property listing in more engaging ways such as high-definition videos and colour floor plans (2D, 3D, and interactive).

Importantly, this isn’t just about making your marketing look better, it is about engaging more buyers and increasing the competition for your home. Greater competition leads to premium prices.

Here are a few statistics to consider:

• In 2011, Realstate.co.nz commissioned a survey (via Neilson Research) to find out which features viewers wanted to see on a property website. Interestingly, 89% of those surveyed said they would like to see a floor plan for every listing they viewed.

• In 2013, Rightmove, one of the largest web sites in the UK, found that there was a 30% increase in interest in homes with floorplans, over those that didn’t have one.

• Statistics released by domain.com.au and Forrester Research revealed that 80% of internet users recall watching a video ad on a website they visited in the past 30 days, and 46% of those users took some action after viewing it. They also found that video content increases the number of enquiries about a property by up to 4 times.

A moving image with sound is far more engaging than static images and text. A video presentation is a chance to get potential buyers excited about your property, guiding them through your home and pointing out the most attractive features before they’ve even set foot in the door.

With mobile devices so common today, and video content so easy to view on them, it makes sense to use the latest technology to your advantage.

I now utilise cost effective, high quality property video and floorplan features in almost every marketing campaign I manage. The response has been amazing, with visitors to my open homes regularly commenting on how they had viewed the video, and felt compelled to come and see the home. So, why not get the edge on your competition and include the latest digital marketing strategies to enhance your result?

Conversion: Getting people to take action

Once potential buyers are engaged, encouraging them to take the next step in the process is important.

This can be achieved through what digital marketers describe as a call-to-action. These can be subtle prompts that encourage people to add a property listing to their calendar, call the agent to enquire, or save the listing for later viewing.

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In today’s fast moving digital world, if your marketing is not keeping pace with the competition, it’s being left behind. If you would like to have a chat about the digital marketing options that could help achieve a great sale result for your property, please feel free to give me a call.

To see some examples of recent property videos I have provided to clients, please feel free to check out my Video Library Section.