The Role of Content in Catching Property Buyers

Branding and marketing expert Jho Alzamora of Viabrand reveals the secrets of engaging buyers as early as possible on the path to property purchase and how to keep their eyes on your brand.

Did you know that 90 per cent of property buyers start their search online? Many complete all phases leading to the moment they make contact with a developer online too.

Now that the first segment of the path to purchase is conducted mostly in a digital sphere, it’s vital for developers and builders to capture the market’s attention online and keep it.

Here’s another salient point: most people have trained themselves to ignore ads.

Modern consumers don’t engage with traditional advertising experiences that interrupt their consumption of whatever they’re reading or watching.

HubSpot reports that 72 per cent of consumers would have a lower opinion of a brand that displayed a pop-up ad. So they don’t just ignore your advertising, they actively dislike you for subjecting them to it.

Meanwhile, 70 per cent of people say they would prefer to learn about a brand via content.

This is actually really good news for marketers. Content creation in lieu of traditional advertising allows for more in-depth storytelling. If done well, it’s more engaging, interactive and shareable.

There’s also a higher level of trust in content than in advertising. If your content is well-written and produced, relevant to your audience, engaging, sharable and credible, you will get better ROI than you would for an equivalent advertising spend.

What to Say, When to Say It

So how do you capture your audience with content? You need to create useful materials for each stage of the property purchase journey.

That way you’re sure to be giving consumers the information they want from you, when they want it. Think of the path to purchase and what they want to know at each stage of the journey. Then create maps, articles, videos, apps, animations, photos and infographs to match.

Stage 1: Consideration

Buyers are not ready to talk to anyone directly yet, as they consider whether buying is the right move for them. They’ll be researching online financial guides or looking into property prices in suburbs they like.

Strategy tip:

• Include a mortgage calculator on your website

• Write an article about the average prices in suburbs you’re selling

• Create a how-to video on choosing a good investment property. Write about renting vs buying

• Rate lenders or write about how to choose a lender; or give tips on what information to prepare or consider when looking for a loan.

Stage 2: Research

Buyers are still researching online and not ready to talk to you directly yet. They’ll be looking into pricing, buying guides, finance and legal information, inclusions, features and benefits offered by developments and builders.

Strategy tip: Content should include things like:

• Legal costs to consider when buying

• Features and benefits of your packages

• Inclusions

• How to customise your plans

• Buyer beware tips

• Information about building inspections

• How to spot shonky work

• Questions to ask your builder.

Stage 3: Active search

These buyers are now starting to look more closely at floor and site plans, location maps, pictures and virtual tours, property price guides and data and they are more willing to start direct conversations with developers.

Strategy tip: Share all of your plans! Make the content as aspirational as possible.

Highlight the lifestyle they can expect to enjoy in your development. Lots of visual content is handy at this stage. People really want to be able to picture themselves living there. Also, make sure you have strong prompts to get in touch with you to find out more on all of this content.

Stage 4: Transaction

The most important step in their journey. The buyer will probably be excited and nervous. They’ll be showing friends and family your website, especially maps, floor plans and property photos. Lots of last minute concerns and questions will crop up from the buyers and their loved-ones. This is where the small details matter and trustworthy, credible content is vital.

Strategy tip:

• Offer detail focused content that builds trust

• Testimonials from happy customers

• Step by step guides to moving in

• Content that highlights the quality of your builds

• Little details on inclusions and exclusions

• Anything to reassure people they’re making the right choice.

Keep adhering to the aspirational angle and give them lots of reasons to fall in love with the idea of living there.

Stage 5: Post sale

Clear communication, reassurance and ongoing customer service are key at this stage. Bad word of mouth can still be generated if the post-sale experience is sub-standard.

Strategy tip:

• A digital welcome pack

• A gift to sweeten the deal or that makes the moving experience easier

• Something to make them feel part of the community.

Content that covers any development opening events (e.g. free family fun day at the park) can serve to remind buyers of the lifestyle they’ve bought into.

Clear contact information in case they have a problem, backed by reassurances about warranties and post sale service they can expect.

That might seem like an awful lot to create, but making useful, free content people can easily access online doesn’t just work well to attract and retain interest, it also improves your rank on search engines, driving more traffic to your site in the first place.

So now you know what to create, it’s time to get started!

Viabrand’s complete property branding and marketing services attract the right buyers to help developers sell sooner.

Contact us for end-to-end strategic branding for every phase of your property development and visit our website to download our free Property Branding Guide for insights, tips and more.

The Urban Developer is proud to partner with Viabrand to deliver this article to you. In doing so, we can continue to publish our free daily news, information, insights and opinion to you, our valued readers.