Online real estate marketing, sales and lead generation are constantly changing. Although experts predict a difficult year 2023 for the real estate market in Romania, there are some tactics and tools you can use to ensure that your properties attract as many potential customers as possible.

As a developer or real estate agent, especially during this time, you probably feel the need to diversify your efforts to promote and sell your properties.

In the last 4-5 years, promotion platforms have changed dramatically, many of them don’t work the way they used to, and most likely, your results aren’t as good either.

We’ve put together a real estate marketing guide for 2023 below to help you with your promotion and lead generation efforts and get your real estate brand on the minds of as many people as possible.

1. Who is the real estate marketing guide for?

If you are a real estate developer or work in real estate as an agent or broker, this guide is for you. You will discover strategies and tips to promote residential complexes and properties and attract more potential customers in 2023.

In the guide you will find information on how to get started with a real estate market analysis and how to identify the target audience for your properties. We’ll show you how to set your marketing goals and how to choose the right channel to achieve them.

We’ll also introduce you to the benefits of online and offline marketing, as well as ways to use public relations to build your brand and attract customers.

We hope you find our real estate marketing guide useful and we wish you success in 2023!

2. Making a marketing strategy

Real estate marketing strategy is essential for promoting and selling properties. More often than not, a well-crafted strategy can make the difference between selling homes in less than a year, or extending the process over a much longer period of time.

Here are some important steps to developing an effective real estate marketing strategy:

1. Market and Area Analysis: Before starting to market properties it is important to have a deep understanding of the market and area where they will be built. This includes researching the prices of similar properties, the demand for certain types of properties and market trends and the buying desires of people in the area.

If the people in the area where you build a new residential complex are looking for low or medium-end apartments, developing an ultra high-end project can be a mistake.

It doesn’t mean that those properties won’t sell, but a much larger investment in promotion will be required to attract new customers.

2. Identify the target audience: After analyzing the market, you need to identify the target audience for the properties. This can include things like age, income, interests and location.

A better breakdown of this information will later help to choose the right channels to reach the target audience.

3. Establish Marketing and Sales Objectives: Once you have identified your target audience, you need to establish your marketing objectives. These could include attracting a certain number of leads or selling a certain number of properties within a certain time frame.

4. Choosing the Right Marketing Channels: Once you have established your marketing goals, you need to decide how to achieve them through the right marketing channels. These may include online, offline marketing or PR efforts.

5. Create a Marketing Plan: After you have decided on the right marketing channels, you need to create a detailed marketing plan.

This should include a budget, a marketing calendar, a list of specific actions and how they will all be used to generate the number of customers you need.

3. Online marketing

In recent years, online marketing has been the most useful method of attracting new clients to real estate.

The vast majority of real estate projects coordinated by us at ADACITY were sold in proportion of over 70% of leads coming exclusively from online promotion channels.

Here are some important steps you should take to ensure your properties get the exposure they need to sell.

1. Making a website

It is the best place where you can build and promote a residential brand. Use the website to present your residential complex in the best possible way and to convey the message and identity of the brand you are building.

It allows you to provide detailed information about the properties, such as photos, descriptions, prices, maps or the list of finishes and amenities. This can make the search process for potential customers much easier and faster and will help qualify them much more concretely.

How do I choose the right platform for building a website?

We get this question a lot from clients and collaborators. In most cases, when discussing residential projects, luxury individual properties, and general showcase sites, our recommendation is to use an already existing CMS. Webflow, WordPress or any other CMS will make setup and subsequent administration much easier.

At the moment CMSs are so complex and well established that you will be able to achieve 99% of what you want by using them together with a custom front-end, adapted to your brand, without the need for a backend website custom.

2. Use real estate ad platforms

Promoting a residential complex through real estate platforms is still a good way of exposure and attracting potential customers, even if recently their efficiency has decreased.

The right real estate marketing mix should also include these types of platforms to ensure maximum visibility for properties.

Platforms such as Imobiliare.ro, Storia or OLX also offer property promotion options, sponsored ads (Top Listing, Silver, Gold) and accounts for real estate developers or residential complexes.

Use real estate classifieds platforms to add property listings making sure to include detailed information and quality photos. This will help potential customers get a clearer picture of the residential complex and decide whether they might be interested in learning more.

3. Creating relevant content for social media

Using social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok) to create interesting and relevant content can help draw attention to the residential brand you’re building and grow a follower base interested in available properties.

In general, publishing content organically does not directly generate many leads, but the main benefit is increasing the trust of potential customers in the residential brand, informing and convincing them (over time) that the properties they are interested in are suitable for them.

There are many types of social media posts that can be used to promote a residential complex. Here are some examples:

• Property photos and videos: Posting photos and videos that show the properties as a whole can help potential customers get a clearer idea of what they have to offer.
• Home Design and Decorating Tips: Posting home design and decorating tips can be a great way to draw attention to your home and build a follower base interested in what you have to offer.
• Special offers and contests: Posting special offers or contests can be an effective way to draw attention to properties and attract potential customers.
• Community Updates: Posting community updates such as new amenities, upcoming events, and construction progress can help keep potential customers interested and encourage online conversations about it.
• Content Relevant to Your Target Audience: Posting content relevant to your target audience, such as articles on real estate trends or home buying tips, can help build a follower base interested in what you have to offer.

4.Paid Lead Generation Campaigns

An important part of the real estate marketing mix is paid campaigns. They will generate a large part of the leads needed to sell the residential project and help expose the brand to as large an audience as possible.

The most commonly used platforms are Facebook / Instagram Ads, Google Ads and, recently, TikTok Ads. There are some differences between these platforms, and in order to use them effectively it is necessary to understand them.

Facebook & TikTok campaigns will primarily target well-defined audiences at the time the campaigns are set up. Defining your ideal customer profile is an important process before setting up your campaigns because interests or other demographic characteristics will need to be defined for the users to whom we want to show your ads.

For the best possible basis in creating Facebook Ads campaigns, we recommend the course below. It’s 6 and a half hours long, but once you’ve completed it, you’ll have a solid foundation for setting up and managing Facebook campaigns.

Search campaigns on Google Ads are based on user searches on the Google search engine and will be displayed based on well-defined keywords.

The right mix of budget, targeting and type of campaigns on all these platforms differs by area, project specifics and audience and will need to be constantly adapted to achieve the final sales goals.

🟧 Keep in mind that in 2022 Facebook made many changes to the Ads platform. For all real estate ads, the targeting methods and interests available were very limited. However, this does not mean that they will no longer have an effect on the promotion.

5. E-mail marketing

For long-term residential projects, a very useful channel in the whole real estate marketing mix is email marketing. In the long run, building a database of former and potential clients will be able to sell your projects much faster, as there will be clients of previous projects who will want to purchase apartments as an investment. And what better place to do it, if not in the projects of the brand that he has already been satisfied with in the past.

Among the other benefits of email communication are:

• A much better open/view rate of all ads related to the current or future project than organic posts on Social Media.
• In the event that one of the social media platforms used encounters problems, the database can be very easily converted into followers on other channels or platforms.
• Using the database of existing or potential customers to promote competitions and prizes in the case of referrals.
• Using the database to educate the algorithm of advertising platforms (retargeting, similar audiences, etc.)

4. Traditional Real Estate marketing & PR

1. Outdoor advertising

Outdoor advertising can be an effective way to draw attention to a brand or residential complex. Used properly it can bring qualified customers both from areas of interest to the target audience and from adjacent areas or even other cities. Here are some things to keep in mind when you want to invest in outdoor advertising.

a. Choose the right placement

Display the outdoor banners in places where the target audience spends their time or in the area of the residential complex (most of the time, the people who are very suitable for moving to a new apartment in that area are those who already live there). In the case of residential complexes in tourist areas (the Black Sea, or mountain resorts in Romania), the use of billboards near highways can have a positive impact on promotion.

b. Use quality images

Make sure that outdoor advertising contains quality images that present the residential complex in a positive light. Beautiful images can attract attention and help potential customers get a clearer idea of what the properties have to offer as a whole.

c. Write short and concise messages

Outdoor advertising must be very easy to understand and attract attention quickly. Use short and concise messages that convey key information about properties and benefits at a glance and encourage potential customers to get in touch with the sales team.

d. Create engaging banners

Just like in the online environment, outdoor advertising must attract attention in the shortest possible time. People usually move to a well-defined place and their attention is on something else entirely. Attract their attention with colors contrasting with the surroundings, large fonts and easy to see from a distance.

5. Monitor the results

Use different phone numbers for banners via a switchboard and even different QR codes or links. This way you will be able to track the performance of each banner and you will be able to focus your marketing budgets where they really give results.

2. Organise events and open houses

Once the homes are completed, holding open house events to showcase them can be a great way to attract potential customers.

Use the already existing community and convince those who are already part of it to invite their friends, relatives or acquaintances to these types of events and you will find that if they are looking for a new home, it will be much easier to you convince them to move where people they know already live.

For new residential complexes, organizing a launch event for each project will help to expose the new project both online and in the press, thus bringing increased brand awareness.

3. PR and collaborations with influencers

Press releases, maintaining a good relationship with journalists and collaborations with influencers can be effective ways to promote real estate projects. Here are the first steps to be used as effectively as possible:

1. Identify the right influencers and journalists

Look for influencers and journalists who are relevant to the target audience of the residential project and who have an active audience. For example, if apartments are mainly aimed at families with children, you can look for influencers who focus on parenting.

Contact the right influencers and propose a collaboration. Give them access to completed homes to showcase to followers, or run discounts and giveaway campaigns to draw attention to the project.

2. Create a PR plan

The main purpose of this plan is to attract media attention to the residential project. This may include press releases, conferences or other PR events.

By doing this once every few months, there will always be enough exposure for the residential brand so that the number of qualified customers can be sufficient (depending on market conditions).

5. Managing customers and relationships with them

1. Create a fidelization program

Growing a residential brand is achieved over the long term. The same is true of building people to support that brand and the products made.

Implementing a customer loyalty program early on for future projects can have huge long-term benefits, including making the property much easier to sell.

Here are some tips to implement it in the most effective way:

• Make a list of customer benefits. Whether you are offering discounts or special offers on properties in the residential complex, the chance to buy pre-sale properties in future complexes or material prizes (furnished kitchens, electronics or appliances), these must be well known by the community.
• Decide how your customers will be able to win the prizes. Maybe you want to offer rewards for each property purchase or for their referrals to other potential customers.
• Promote the loyalty program. You can do this through social media, email or a banner on your website. The more people know about it, the bigger the network effect.
• Monitor the results of your loyalty program. Use reporting tools to see how many customers are participating and how many benefits are being awarded. This way you can get an idea of how effective your program is and make adjustments to improve it over time

2. Online reviews management

Online reviews can have a powerful impact on any brand’s reputation. Studies show that before making a purchase decision, regardless of product, over 94% of people check reviews of the respective business on Google Business. That’s why it’s important to manage them carefully to build a positive reputation and attract new customers.

Here’s what you can do to ensure that reviews, whether positive or negative, don’t impact your efforts to promote and sell your real estate:

1. Respond to all reviews, whether positive or negative. In this way, you will show that you are concerned about the opinion of your customers and that you understand their needs.
2. Provides solutions when issues are mentioned in negative reviews. You will show that you are dedicated to improving the experience of your customers and that you care about the experience they had.
3. Encourage your customers to leave positive reviews. You can do this through a feedback form or by encouraging them to leave reviews on relevant sites.

You can learn more about online reviews for your project and how Google Business works in the article here.

6. Conclusion

Real estate marketing is an essential component of every residential brand development plan. In 2023, the major difference between successful residential projects and those that will struggle to sell available properties will be made by how they have developed a well-known brand in recent years.

By using a combination of strategies such as online marketing, PR, influencer collaborations and outdoor advertising, you will be able to reach the right target audience and build a strong reputation in real estate.

At USEBORD we have been doing this successfully for over 7 years for residential projects in Romania.

If you want to learn more about how we can help you develop and grow a successful real estate brand, contact us on the page here and let’s work together to achieve your development goals.