Despite what your local agent is telling you, Australia’s housing market IS being impacted by social distancing measures and the market’s weaker confidence due to the coronavirus pandemic. Promises of “virtual auctions” which are going to make things business as usual are in reality just mitigating the loses. To many, this would have been unthinkable just a few months ago. Post the 2019 Federal election, we were roaring back into double digit growth. During the damage of the bushfires, Australia’s economy still grew by .5% in Q4 2019. Property prices in March 2020 still managed to grow overall in Australia. But key indicators over the last 3 weeks since social distancing was established like plummeting auction clearance rates are telltale signs of a weakening housing market. The Google Search Query Data below also reveals a drop off since mid March. This almost directly correlates to the announced distancing measures.
Property Developers, having made large upfront investments in construction cannot just sit back and wait 6 months for the coronavirus pandemic to recede. There is still a portion of buyers who continue to pursue a purchase, and developers need to be smarter in how to reach them where they are. With a strong “Stay Home” message from our politicians, the answer is overwhelmingly DIGITAL MARKETING, although there are still some “above the line” ad options which should be considered.
To succeed in property development during COVID-19, it is crucial to understand the state of the market in difficult times.
Here are a range of factors to maintain your property developer marketing during the COVID-19 situation.
1) NEGOTIATE FREE MEDIA E.G GOOGLE ADS CREDIT PROGRAM
Reach out to your media supplier to negotiate free media due to the COVID-19 crisis. Many large media suppliers like Google and Facebook are looking to help businesses cope with disruption due to lockdowns.
An example of this would be the Google Ads Credits program if you are an eligible customer.
Some tech providers on a software as a service model may also consider waiving monthly fees for some months e.g. campaign, reporting and analytics tools.
Who doesn’t like free candy?
2) SPEED & FLEXIBILITY
The Real Estate industry can carry on trading by moving from open inspections to private ones by appointment, so they can enforce social distancing (one on one). Open house inspections are to be done by private appointment. You will surely need to boost responsiveness when receiving an online lead, to lock people down to a time slot. Attempt call backs with half an hour of receiving a lead. Flexibility is key here, as people are often busy working from home during the week.
Property agents can achieve private appointments using calendly, youcanbook.me and x.ai etc. on their website.
3) VIRTUAL TOURS AND VIRTUAL AUCTIONS
Agents like Ray White are leading the way with virtual auctions for people confident enough to make a bid online. Despite some teething issues with setup, many auctions have gone ahead over the last few weeks, especially for in demand properties. Virtual Tours were already very useful even prior to COVID19, but are now more important than ever for Property Developers. Here’s an example of a virtual tour for a GEOCON Property.
There are so many effective ways to seed your virtual tour online to the exact audience you are after, whether it be YouTube, Facebook Ads or Instagram Ads.
4) WEBSITE TRAFFIC FOR RETARGETING
Nimbull’s Facebook reps have confirmed that Facebook activity is surging during COVID19. This includes both number of active users and the amount people that are creating, sharing and commenting. For paid Facebook advertising, we would recommend using more budget on website traffic campaigns instead of other objectives like lead form ads that keep people on Facebook, to generate a great cookie pool we can retarget to for many months to come. Even 180 days later (when COVID is hopefully a distant memory!), you can reach people on Facebook & Instagram in a variety of rich formats, like this Facebook carousel ad below.
5) REAL ESTATE MARKET HAS MOVED FROM ACTIVE TO PASSIVE BUYERS
They can still be coaxed in. Seeding the right type of content where property buyers are binge-reading about COVID19 is a very clever way to attract passive buyers that may have recently cooled off on their buying pursuits. Use paid media on Outbrain for this e.g seed an article you write on your property developer website blog e.g ‘Buy a property near the top 10 schools in Australia’.
6) CLEVER OUTDOOR ADVERTISING (WHERE PEOPLE ARE FLOCKING)
While digital marketing is the best for property developer advertising during this lockdown period, there is some traditional advertising that can be taken advantage of in these strange times we find ourselves in. Outdoor Advertising in key hotspots can attract a tremendous amount of eyeballs and bring great value to your marketing mix. Target the shopping centre closest to your property development with digital displays. Aim to have these in front of Aldi, Woolworths or Coles, where people are flocking to, or even better, forced to stand outside in line with nothing to do but read your ad on the digital panel! Each panel plays for tens of thousands of impressions per fortnight, and you may be able to negotiate some amazing rates during these times.
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