The pandemic has brought about tumultuous time with there being no defined rules that one could follow as it is challenging to gauge the magnitude of the impact. The crisis has brought the business and functioning of various industries to a standstill, real estate being one of them which has been hit in a major way.
With businesses trying to gain momentum with unlocking 3.0 there are a ceaseless number of questions running across on how to accelerate growth within a short period and understand the customer pulse aptly. As there is a famous saying ‘Right Place Right Time’, keeping this into consideration, the need of the hour for the communicators is to adopt a strategy and formulate ideas for this current hyperactive competitive market.
The Indian real estate sector has been one of the strongest sectors and has fueled the growth of India’s economy over several years. However, the next one or two years look to be challenging times for the real estate segment. Nevertheless, understanding the country’s colossal population there is a root to the residential economy in India. Changing buyer perception and circumstances will play an important role in fueling the demand for residential real estate in the country. The post-pandemic era will be witnessing a shift in the expenditure pattern, consumption, and consumer behavior, especially in the property purchase.
To build a long-lasting, connect with probable buyers and investors during and the post-pandemic world, real estate developers and builders are required to reimagine their marketing and communication strategies. It is critical to think harder and analyze what the end-user in the subsequent normal will contemplate, comprehend, feel, say, and execute.
Reimagining the home buyer’s motivation and the path to purchase is the need-of-hour. It is too early to predict the transition in behavioral patterns, however below mentioned are some noteworthy signals that can play an instrumental role to devise the brand strategy for the future:
Content is the King: With the ever-evolving media landscape, it is pivotal to pave the path for innovative content consumption approaches. Sometimes an exquisitely created content fails to perform if it does not reach the potential customers. It is critical to stand out and be positioned uniquely when you are compared with your peers. What stands extremely crucial here is your ability to deliver tailor-made content that creates a strong foothold for the brand with key effective media coverage that breaks algorithms running all over the traditional and digital medium that generates optimum SEO(Search Engine Optimization). The same coverage comprising of relevant information and suitable content can further be delineated on the social media platforms, projecting as an information resource and building up credibility amongst the target audience.
Ground-breaking ways to connect and engage: The traditional media will continue to thrive, no matter in a limited capacity due to the emergence of digital power of media platforms. The desiderata to ponder over the evolution of new strategies is quintessential in these times, as it will be effective in connecting and boosting customer engagement, continuously. Hence, it is important to wear the creative cap over the self-promotional one. Focusing and harnessing on the right platforms would lead to the right engagement for the brand and create inquisitiveness in the right light. With on-ground events now looking like a distant possibility, press events and new project launches will now move online. This means that real estate brands must pull on live streaming platforms to link and interconnect with their customers.
Influencer Marketing: Investing in relations is what Influencer Marketing implies in current times when digital and social media plays a huge role in the consumption pattern. As per resources and data, it has been witnessed that millennials (who are considered to be a defined set of audience altogether) depend heavily on online reviews, social media posts, blogs by influencers, before investing. The digital source of information is considered to be of high influence on the lines of mobilizing their decisions and taking a call, in terms of property buying that can yield a good ROI in the long run.
The tool of influencer marketing can be a phenomenal way for the brand to achieve the communication objectives if the right platform can be used accompanied by a power play of content within the appropriate timeline. This tool is still not activated at full capacity in the real estate segment but is slowly gaining momentum and will be popular in times to come, due to its faster reach and conversion. Creating the right product mix and leveraging upon the reach of the influencer who has a huge following comprising of the target audience, can complement in building up a robust brand reputation. Brand influencers will have to be chosen prudently, in a way that home buyers find them to be relatable and convincing enough. With taking charge of health becoming all the more important during COVID times, realty developers can run content on how homes can facilitate in refining lifestyles and bring a salubrious flip.
Understanding the human pulse while forging a digital future: The brands need to create innovations that bolster their competitive agility. Remembering that customers can be the best influencers, is very important. The pandemic has brought about transition moving us swiftly into the digital era. Nurturing transparent communication concepts will create a meaningful impact.
Digitally-led customer experiences will endure developing in the post-crisis era. Hence real estate organizations are required to act rapidly and revolutionize their delivery model by lending a human touch to the customer experience management strategies, to thrive. It is prudent for them to redesign journeys that will matter to customers. In the pandemic times, the virtual podium has emerged to be the core medium for engagements and interactions, be it business or family conversations. We have spent more time than ever before on the streaming online platforms and depending on e-commerce to order our groceries and essentials. This is going to be the median, soon. This is an exceptional time for real estate fraternity to re-strategize, re-analyze, and rely on digital offerings over solely depending on non-digital routes, unlike previous times.
We all tend to be profoundly connected when we have to undergo a crisis together. That emotive realism is for the benefit of the associations between companies and clients. Facing a situation during a difficult period and backing each other, these ties will only reinforce over the long term and can form a new basis for how brands and buyers can unite soon.
Article by Shweta Powar, Founder and CEO, Aria Communication.
