Going digital… what exactly does that mean for a property business? Marketing through the Internet is becoming more and more prolific and expected, businesses need to be aware of their corporate image and presentations in an increasingly digital and social environment, especially now in the digital decade.
Where to next?
In 2010, we’re entering a new era of digital and social media marketing – one based on information, rationalisation, and resolve. Websites and digital applications are a cost effective and feature rich. Most importantly you can directly measure their success… How much impact a website has in selling a property? How successful is a campaign? Defining the “R” in ROI is a valuable tool in managing marketing spend, as it relates to business goals and performance indicators specifically.
For a digital campaign to work it needs to make a maximum impact, this could come from the development itself or from the way in which the presentation is geared to penetrate the market.
The property industry creates, markets and sells spaces to and for people. These spaces are designed to suite people’s lives, a place to live, a place to work. It’s no secret that we are becoming more and more accustomed to reading our news online and managing our money via the Internet.
How do we harness the power of this medium for the property sector? Instead of relying solely on the more traditional and somewhat formulaic print brochures. Consider teaser website campaigns which have a huge advantages (in amercing your audience in the property but with the advantage of video, virtual 3D simulations and sound it’s now even more reason to consider how your brand fits in) in addition websites and mobile phone apps have the advantage of tracking the interest in a development or space, measuring these numbers against the overall marketing budget and the size of the development is a powerful marketing tool that you simply don’t get with a printed brochure.
But why stop there, if digital is measurable, what of Social Media? Even though much of Social Media is free, not forgetting the cost of resources, engagement as it relates to employees, time, equipment, and opportunity cost (what they’re not focusing on or accomplishing while engaging in social and digital media). What does a property developer want with twitter? Well, that depends on the development, many don’t have the resources or PR capacity to warrant Social intervention.
We’ve become more accustomed to the digital environment and our buildings are becoming smarter and more environmentally friendly and “teched up”, it’s time our marketing does too. Consider the added benefit to the consumer if a mixed-use development had a community website to help both the managers and the occupants of the building. Much like other helpful services, this kind of added value helps build a developer’s brand from those occupants who have benefited directly.
When we truly grasp the ability to define action and measure it, we can expand the impact of new media beyond the profit and loss. We can adapt business processes, inspire ingenuity, and more effectively compete for the future.
