5 Strategy Changes To Help Property Sales During The Pandemic

The novel Coronavirus had a profound impact on global economies and industries. Enough has been written about the adverse effects of the pandemic. However, what we do need to consider is the impact it has triggered on all industries worldwide.

OTT platforms took off, e-commerce picked up the pace, remote working became the new norm, online media became the primary socializing hub, and Digital transformation became more of a necessity than a choice.

Take the Real Estate industry for example. As buyer behaviour evolved, Real Estate Developers had to modify their sales function to suit the ‘New Normal’ way of living. CRMs have played a critical role in transforming sales as well as marketing processes in the industry.

Let’s have a look at some of the measures Real Estate Developers have implemented as a part of their Digital Transformation

Give Virtual Tours

As mentioned before, buyer behavior has evolved through the pandemic. There is an increased preference for online property search and virtual interactions than earlier. Enabling experiences like virtual or video tours and 3D walkthroughs will work wonders in replacing the conventional way of property purchase.

Promote Safety Measures

The lockdowns have been lifted, and people are heading out more often than earlier. But the inhibitions with respect to physical site visits still do exist amongst homebuyers. Enabling a completely virtual experience for potential buyers should be your primary focus.

However, you’ll have to take into account that a specific category of interested buyers will want to visit the development sites before making high-ticket investments. You should, therefore, take preventive measures on the site and in your office, and inform visitors about the precautions to follow before their visit.

Common safety measures taken include…

• Making the use of hand gloves and mask mandatory
• Installing sanitizer dispensers across the premises
• Creating designated area for waiting with proper social distancing indications
• Enforcing strict rules about hand contact with any object inside the premises
• Ensuring hands are sanitized at regular intervals, throughout the visit.

Upgrade from Physical to Digital

Although it’s too early to say that physical marketing collaterals like brochures and pamphlets have become obsolete, customer preferences have definitely shifted to the digital. If you are still relying heavily on the promotion of your properties through physical media, then you need to level up and focus more on digital marketing.

That means, focusing more on personalized marketing, omnichannel marketing and delivering customer experiences right to their mobiles.

This includes running paid ad campaigns, setting up a social media presence, utilizing email marketing, and implementing marketing automation.
This is where a real estate CRM like Sell.Do comes into the picture. With inbuilt marketing automation features to enable intelligent digital marketing for Real Estate, Sell.Do can effectively help RE developers, channel partners and brokers overcome the challenges brought forth due to the pandemic restrictions.

Sales team members can get on calls with interested leads and assure them of the safety parameters that are being followed on-site.

Generate useful and informative content

Your content will play a key role in building your position and convincing the homebuyer to invest in your property. Expert content generated in the form of blogs, landing pages, emailers, videos, and marketing campaigns, will help you achieve the thought-leadership position in the minds of your customers and the industry at large.

Promote Digital Booking

People are showing a growing preference for online home buying during the pandemic. Here are some recent stats:

• Zillow, a home listing site, said it saw a 191% increase in the creation of 3D home tours in one week compared with the average number created in February.
• Xanadu realty conducted more than 6,300 interactions with potential customers across Mumbai, both residential, as well as commercial real estate, in the affordable, aspirational and luxury categories.
• Redfin, a real estate brokerage, saw a 494% increase in requests for agent-led video home tours
• NoBroker platform witnessed 200 successful cases of tenants finalising homes only via video walkthroughs and without an actual property visit

With the right technology enabler, you can build a seamless and engaging online property buying platform for your customers.

For example: Mahindra HappinestTM recently partnered with Sell.Do, PropTech brand of the year 2020 as awarded by Realty Plus, for launching India’s first-ever zero-touch, digital-only project launch. An essential part of this activity was setting up a easy-to-use online booking platform which helped buyers explore the homes, choose the desired floor or home, and directly book it through an online payment.

The impact?

• 10000+ Leads managed and engaged virtually
• 250+ virtual meetings scheduled per day using the custom-made scheduler tool
• 300+ bookings garnered in just 3 weeks without conducting a single physical site visit

Conclusion

These are just some of the many Real Estate sales strategies that will enhance customer experience and ensure smooth sales for Real Estate Developers. There’s ample scope for innovation and a good Real Estate CRM software with a robust features deck can really help you explore multiple possibilities.