The Property Bubble hasn’t burst but has certainly deflated.

Author | Paul Skuse, Oakfield Design & Creation

So now is the time to sharpen the marketing toolkit.

At a time when marketing properties off-plan has become, or should I say – returned to – a considered, sometimes relentless, often challenging, but ultimately rewarding and successful pursuit, the overall strategies that worked for the past three years are by no means obsolete, but now only part of the equation.

The way many things were done pre-pandemic still hold true today, but the world has moved on apace. Social media and content marketing have advanced significantly as marketing tools as our “buyers’ eyeballs” have been moved away from Rightmove as the only way to successfully market developments.

Animated CGI films, live streaming or pre-recorded Insta Reels and YouTube Shorts have become ubiquitous. LinkedIn (who is still trying to work out what it is I feel) is now playing host to agents advertising the latest developments in our feeds daily.

Pinterest won’t be far behind and Meta’s Threads will certainly pull eyeballs away from Twitter as it continues its take-off.

But the foundational marketing elements are also still as powerful (and now often even more powerful than before) as tools that get the right message across in the right way at the right time.

Tools that cut through the noise and filler, tools that actually capture attention and offer value.

Emailing the database was and is still a massively powerful tool. MailChimp and other email apps give us the insight, the hard facts we need about viewing, opening and click through rates. We see exactly what our audience is interested in, how they follow the links from their inbox to our websites and how many times. This information is priceless and when known and followed up on, often leads to engagement and ultimately to sales.

Only 3% of our databases are actively looking to purchase at any time. By seeing who this 3% is we turn marketing into sales effortlessly.

Website strategy and content, for both humans and Google consumption, landing pages, key messaging, clear calls-to-action, banner advertising, print advertising (in certain locations and when key for certain demographics) all still work. They just need to be part of the overall planned strategy, not “I tried that once and it didn’t work so I won’t try again” excuse.

Slow Release Not Fire Hosing

A constant stream of fresh CGI imagery (both animated fly-through and films as well as still imagery) and messaging is required, rolled out over weeks and months, not all thrown on to Rightmove at launch. A slower release of fresh imagery to keep the buyers interested and engaged. We’re still looking at the same budget and number of images here, just released across time not all at once.

Printed brochures are making a return. Yes, analogue is making a return in some parts. We are finding on certain schemes buyers are asking sales agents for a printed copy to take away and peruse as a key component in the customer buying journey. Short run printing is the new long run.

Website organic ranking through the clever use of copy and content – not just throwing words out – is still paramount. This needs strategising months in advance before the scheme launch so that Google has had the time to index and rank in time for the marketing phase. This, alongside Google Ads at the launch phase work hand in hand to drive the right traffic to client’s websites at the right time.

That traffic is the 3%!

What is required is a joined-up marketing strategy, to pull all these strands together, not a scattergun approach.

What is required is a way to analyse the outputs and to understand what is working and what isn’t. What is needed is a clear understanding of the way marketing has evolved.

What is required is to shout louder, more often, for longer… but in the right places at the right times.

We call it “squeezing the lemon”. Creating and getting as much use from the same budget, from all content, created across all platforms but in a clear, determined and coherent way.

Get in touch if you’d like find out more about how to create and run a content marketing strategy that gets returns in this new challenging climate.