Real estate is a highly dynamic industry. It is dictated by the ever-evolving demands and preferences of the consumers, and these must be met in order for the industry to scale and grow. In the current climate, the competition in the sector has enhanced multifold. There are numerous projects that are being launched in the market, and it is now more important than ever to strategize a launch that sets you apart from the competition.
Despite the constant changes in real estate market trends, there are certain tried and tested learnings that can be leveraged to create successful launches. Hereinafter elaborated is a proven framework that can help you achieve high velocity launches:
STEP 1: Understanding the Market & Your Buyer
The biggest parameter for the success of a launch is the degree to which it aligns with the market and homebuyer demand. An accurate product-market fit must be created, and for this, it is crucial to understand the dynamics of demand and supply. A few ways in which this can be done are:
- Conduct a Demand & Supply analysis using data collated from sources such as RERA & IGR to analyze various aspects (such as carpet area, configuration, price range etc.) of the inventory that is in demand, and that which is available
- Conduct a thorough Competitor Analysis to identify your strengths, development areas, opportunities and threats. This analysis should be done primarily on the basis of 4 key factors:
- Brand
- Location
- Pricing
- Lifestyle.
- On the basis of these four factors, you should try to create a value proposition for homebuyers, by making your project or pricing stand out from among the competition. This will also help in defining the marketing narrative.
- Gain insights into infrastructural development in various micro-markets, and registration information from portals like PMC, BMC and BBMP
This analysis will allow you to draft the right narrative for communicating to your target audience, and creating high aspirational value for the launch in their mind.
STEP 2: Positioning Your Project Correctly
The results from the various analyses regarding the real estate market and buyer trends will help you to identify the ideal positioning that the project must have, as well as the go-to-market strategy that must be adopted for it. Along with it, you can also understand where the target group for your launch is the most active, and accordingly craft your ATL and BTL activities. There are also key elements regarding the project that can be analyzed, such as:
- Its positioning, and the Go-To-Market strategy for it
- The price bucket of the product
- The attractive offers or schemes that you can offer to homebuyers
From the marketing perspective, it is helpful to set targets against the various channels based on historic metrics and experience-based assumptions. The performance of each channel should then ideally be tracked, to give a representation of what is working better for your project.
STEP 3: Setting up Growth Marketing Framework & Analytics
This is one of the most important steps for ensuring the success of launch campaigns. At each stage during the launch process, there should be complete clarity on certain metrics such as:
- Targets
- Experiments
- Assumptions
- Expected outcomes
Growth Marketing experiments will help you prepare the best strategy to market your product in a way that can generate the maximum leads and boost your sales. Certain aspects such as the target groups, channels of marketing and communication can be made the foundation for the experiments. Once each of these aspects has been tracked, it can give useful insights into the best-performing marketing aspects, which can then be scaled.
It is also necessary to track the metrics of targets vs achieved results using real-time data.
Furthermore, targets should be set up at each level of the funnel metrics:
- Top of the funnel metrics like – reach, CTRs, Time on Site, leads, qualifications, cost per qualified lead
- Middle of the funnel metrics like – Lead engagement, pre-sales TAT, lead scoring, lead nurturing, Site visit ratio, Cost per site visit
- Bottom of the funnel metrics like – Lead to booking ratio, Site visit to booking ratio, Cost per booking
STEP 4: Planning Your Channel Partner Aggregation
Channel Partners are a vital source of sales. A good real estate channel partner network can help you cast your sales net wider, and achieve the high velocity that your project launch needs. Similar to homebuyers, it is equally essential to keep channel partners engaged through the duration of a project launch, in order to harness their potential in boosting your sales.
Due to their increasing importance, there are now tech-based aggregation platforms which can efficiently connect you to a network of channel partners. Through these platforms, your marketing efforts can be scaled greatly with minimal costs, and they can also help in tracking and analyzing the performance of various channel partners.
STEP 5: Defining Your Customer Experience (CX)
The experience that your brand creates for your customers is just as important as the product you are selling. During interactions with customers, the product pitch is of vital importance. The experience that your customers should be well defined at every step during their journey:
- Pre-Sales is the first touchpoint that the customer has with your brand, and it dictates the perception that the consumer will make of the brand. It is essential to have pre-sales personnel who have good etiquette and are knowledgeable about the brand.
- Attention should be focused upon the on-arrival experience that the customer has. The on-site experience is also an extremely important aspect of the overall interaction that the consumer has with your brand. It should be curated in a way that showcases the best aspects of the property and your business.
- The sales pitch should be properly planned and executed. It should be done in a professional manner, with attention to detail of the consumer’s requirements
- It is also crucial to ensure that the customer has a good experience with the sales team during, and after the sale
Besides implementing these measures for a good customer experience, it is equally important to be able to track the interactions at various stages and identify the areas that can be improved upon.
STEP 6: Setting up Full-Funnel Analytics
Data and metrics are the best sources of information to strategize a successful plan. It is essential for you to understand how the entire campaign is shaping up, where the gaps are, and which aspects need to be improved. This is only possible if you have set up processes and metrics for the entire homebuying journey, i.e., the full funnel:
- Leads
- Cost per lead
- Qualification
- Cost per qualified lead
- Site visits
- Cost per site visit
- Ratio of lead to site visit
- Bookings
- Cost per booking
- Revenue
- Marketing cost
- Sales cost
- Inventory management
- Payment and booking management
Funnel analytics should represent every stage of the real estate sales and marketing process, starting with leads and ending with payment and booking management. These insights will provide a clear representation of your business and its performance, and help you create a successful, high-velocity launch.
By adopting and implementing the above-enumerated steps in your launch framework, you can achieve a successful project launch. BeyondWalls - India's only Integrated Proptech Ecosystem provides complete, end-to-end services for all real estate requirements. As a real estate marketing agency, BeyondWalls can optimize your real estate business, and help you achieve high-velocity launches.