Generating leads in the property market isn’t always easy, especially when you’ve got to compete with industry giants. With interest rates and property prices constantly fluctuating and rising, it can be difficult for estate agencies to maintain a steady flow of enquiries. To generate sales, you need to market your agency as well as the properties you have available. Sounds easy, right? Not necessarily.
Finding buyers is becoming increasingly harder as the real estate market becomes more and more difficult. Realtors need to be one step ahead of their competition and utilise clever marketing techniques in order to find house hunters and turn them into homeowners.
The real estate market is unpredictable and ever-changing technologies mean that how you generate leads has rapidly changed over recent years. Gone are the days of kerb appeal; the rise of digital marketing has taken over the industry. While building partnerships, networking and professionalism all remain the same, buyers have changed the way they actually search for a property.
Smartphones are now in more use than ever before, with 2.77 billion people actively using social media. 95% of people now search for their next home online rather than a shop window being their first port of call! From Facebook Advertising to lead magnets, promoting yourself and your properties is the main marketing method for finding a buyer.
One thing to be careful of when finding buyers is making sure that they’re a quality lead. It’s been reported that around half of those searching for a property online have no intention of buying a property. So although you may be getting a lot of website visits, you need to really look at the quality of those submitting an enquiry.
When someone submits an enquiry about a property, the chances are they’re looking to buy and looking to buy quick. And that’s why you need to be quick with how you deal with the lead. One of the strongest assets in any estate agency is the sales team. Lead qualification is an essential part of any sales process and enriching those enquiries is a great way to actually make the sale.
Not every enquiry you get will end up purchasing a property from you. Buyers get distracted by everything else going on in their lives, from work to social events. To get the deal done, sparking the right conversation is essential.
Combining technology and professional expertise is sure to be a marriage of success. The human touch is still incredibly important in the real estate market. Qualified and reputable estate agents with specialist knowledge who have an understanding of the digital world should find it easier to find buyers.
The term PropTech – a combination of property and technology – is the application of new technologies that make the use, sale and lease of real estate more efficient. In the real estate industry, it’s the latest buzzword. 5 years ago, no one was talking about it, but it seems like everyone is these days. PropTech influencer James Dearsley has described it as:
“One small part of the wider digital transformation of the property industry. It describes a movement driving a mentality change within the real estate industry and its consumers regarding technology-driven innovation in the data assembly, transaction, and design of buildings and cities.”
Technology is key to building a successful business. From marketing properties to managing clients, real estate agencies around the world are utilising technology to deliver a better service. Digitalisation, tech products and agency software have enabled realtors to find buyers in a different way than before.
With how fast-paced and competitive the real estate market is, it’s essential to have an effective digital strategy in place. You can use various methods in order to attract potential customers and nurture them until they become a buyer.
From having an optimised, easy-to-use website to advertising via email and social media, finding buyers in a difficult real estate market requires time and effort. However, with the correct use of various technologies and platforms, you should be able to attract potentials buyers on a wider scope than what you would without taking advantage of what’s out there.
By Ben Spowart
By Millie Taylor
By Ben Spowart