Sustainable Branding for Real Estate Business

• @kw
• 10 Apr 2020

This article emphasizes on the pressing need for a real estate business to grow despite of many ups and downs it faces due to several factors such as interest rates, economic conditions, environmental issues, political situation and market conditions.

Regardless of how market is drifting or fluctuating for both start ups and established companies there are many strategies that can be employed to achieve sustainable growth. This article will examine some key strategies to expand a real estate business considering housing is a pressing need and desire of all people in the society. However the society is divided into various segments depending upon their economic conditions, choices and preferences. We need to decide our target audience before strategizing.

Investigate Your Target Market

To remain truly successful as a real estate company or an agent identifying target market is the most important strategy. Builders who invest a lion share into the business need to know how the project should work under the local conditions. If the expected buyers belong to economically middle class, there is no point to target luxury segment and vice versa is also true. It is also true to understand what is driving the target market is headed in short and long term. Lot depends on the development projects that are underway. There are certain pockets where unprecedented rise in demand for properties in envisaged, it may be advisable to assess the future market and design the project accordingly. This is called the right fit. Any miss interpretation and calculations may cause trouble for the real estate company.

Target Marketing

Understanding the importance of Target Market we now probe into Target Marketing.

Target marketing is researching and understanding your prospective customers’ interests, hobbies, and needs so that you can focus your message and your marketing budget on the specific segment of the market that is most likely to purchase your product or service.

Knowing Your Customers

Probing into target market is a part of business planning. This is an ongoing process and not just one time affair. So long one is in business it should be a conscious effort to better understands needs of ideal prospective customers. The first question that should strike your mind is why customer should buy your product. Who will buy your product, what do they actually want and how they shall buy. These are the multiple question that can be researched through various marketing research methods i.e. questionnaire, interview, online reviews on website are some of the commonly used methods. 

Identifying Your Target Market

The customer’s profile differs from project to project. Let us consider a project in a location which has the domination of service holder’s majority looking for a temporary accommodation due to their transferable nature of job. These customers are not going to be your direct customers. Most of these people will look for rented accommodation. Thus you need to target investors who are looking for rent and Capital appreciation.

Realistically thinking that the customer profile differs from project to project, probably share some similar characteristics. We can look into a hypothesis, say an area where you are building your housing project have domination of service holders with majorly looking for temporary accommodations as because of their transferable job requirement. These prospective customers are not your direct customers as they would tend to go for rented accommodation. Thus your prospective clients would be investors, who would like to make good earning from rent and capital appreciation.

However, there is also a possibility of service holder buying a property due to availability of housing loan on easy terms. These customers may tend to invest in a property for their own accommodation and sell for profits if the location has prospects of fast Capital appreciation. Identification of target market is an ongoing process due to changing circumstances. It is important to understand a customer and motivate them to make a choice, and how they behave, or the steps they take in making a purchase.

Demographics

Who needs your product or service? Include basic demographic details such as age, gender, family size, educational level, and occupations than it is likely that your target customers belong to the age group between 28 to 45 with small family having a white collar job with a reasonable income. If you are making affordable one, two bedroom and studio apartment. You need to identify the segment for such affordable housing. The above criterion does not find its importance when you are building in a posh area for the niche customers. The approach has to be different for positioning your brand.

Geographies

We need to learn detail of the location details and the statistics as its population density, climate etc. Proximity from the big city or town, it is important to know, where are your customers? It has been observed that the trend is to live in sub-urban area with slightly above average median income. This is because of good transportation facilities, low polluting air, and good infrastructure facilities.

Psychographics

Why do your customers make the choices they make? This is personality and lifestyle information that will help you figure out your customers’ buying patterns. For example, if you know why your customers buy your product, you can figure out how much of your product they need and how often they need to buy it. Also consider what benefits you can provide over your competitors, and how loyal your customers are to you or your competitor (and why).Your existing customers are ambassadors of your brand. This plays a great role in sustainable branding in the market. 

Behaviors

How do your customers behave? All customers are buying products to fulfill a need, but how do they regard that need? How do they regard your product? How much information do they have on this need or how your product fulfills it, and what are their information sources? Electronic media advertisements are very effective for establishing your brand image. Prospective customers always try to equate a product with their needs. Creating value addition to your website and other POP materials with detail offers to match customer’s need. Once customers can relate with your offering, your job is almost done!

Clear Budget for Marketing Expenses

Another major factor in successfully expanding your real estate business is to develop a marketing budget and stick to it. There are literally hundreds of avenues to spend your marketing money on, such as real estate websites, email marketing, social media marketing, and postal marketing. Your spend must be based on your target audience. For example, customers in the San Francisco bay area might require internet-based marketing, whereas customers in a rural area might require a different approach.

Publishing a Real Estate Newsletter

If you are serious about your long-term success, then you may consider publishing a weekly or monthly newsletter with updates on current mortgage rates, changes in real estate laws, benefits of homeownership, how to develop a real estate investment portfolio, health checks on the local market, and so on.

All current and prospective customers would appreciate the insights from such a newsletter, as it shows your knowledge and commitment to the business.

Encourage Referrals and Word-Of-Mouth

Most successful real estate agents generate several deals through referrals from previous customers. A customer referral is most valued by a new buyer or seller.

For example, new customers are more comfortable selecting a real estate agent when referred by a friend, colleague, or relative. You can always boost this approach by offering referral bonuses to the person who refers a new customer.

Respond Quickly

We live in a world that is moving at a much faster pace than ever before. It is very important to respond to customer queries or else you will risk losing new business.

You must have access to email via a smart phone at all times and ensure that you respond to a customer request as soon as possible. You cannot wait to respond until the next day in this business. If you are prompt in responding, it adds to your credibility and reputation.

Develop Brand Awareness

Just like big brand businesses, your real estate business must also strive to develop a brand of its own. It could be under your name or your business’s name. Any real estate sales strategy that you apply must keep this concept in mind.

People often wonder how to get into real estate sales and how to successfully build a business. The answer lies in planning to develop a name brand and using it to market the business for years to come.

Additional resources to help you with branding your business:

• The Complete Guide to Branding Your Small Business 

https://articles.bplans.com/business-branding-guide/

• Discover Your Brand in 12 Easy Steps

https://www.shopify.in/blog/how-to-build-a-brand

• How to Build a Brand in 5 Days

https://www.canva.com/learn/brand-building/