N5R has helped a huge variety of real estate projects all over the world improve their marketing and drive their sales Today we taking another look back at one of these real estate projects and sharing the sales and marketing lessons that we’ve learned.
The Project
This international luxury brand’s condo hotel project was set to be one of the tallest and most expensive residential buildings Canada had ever seen. It was being built in the in the heart of downtown Toronto and began preselling way back in 2004. Although it had the advantage of a well-known and respected brand name, this project did have its issues. Firstly, there were two products being sold within the same building, which can often confuse buyers. The first 31 floors were set to be condo hotel units, while the top 31 were residential condos marketing to the extremely wealthy.
The second problem was that this building’s extravagant had rarely been seen in Toronto and past attempts at introducing them had been failures. The solution was to market to international buyers and because of the appeal of their well-respected brand the campaign was a success. Sadly, that success didn’t last.
The Challenge
Due to a series of unforeseen circumstances the development of the condo hotel was delayed for years. It was now 2012 and there were drastic changes in the market leading to many of the original buyers walking away from their purchase. N5R was brought in to help resell these previously sold units in a market that had completely changed since the project’s inception.
The Marketing
A lot had changed since this development’s first marketing campaign and we knew that what had worked then wasn’t necessarily going to work now. The first campaign had focused heavily on international buyers. We analyzed the past purchasers and found that although they had had success all over the world, two markets stood out. The United Kingdom had by far the most buyers with Canada holding the second most. We decided to look at these two markets more closely and determine if they were still viable in the current economy.
One immediately apparent change in the market was the state of the dollar in these two countries. After analyzing the currency fluctuations we determined that this purchase would now be much more attractive to Canadians than to those living in The United Kingdom. This was the market that we would focus on.
Next we had to find where, within Canada, we would focus our marketing. Due to the high-end nature of this development we were only interested in targeting the extremely wealthy. Those customer’s addresses were scattered across the country, but a huge majority of them worked in the financial district of downtown Toronto, that actually only encompassed about 4 major city blocks. This is where we could reach our target.
The Advertising
We bought every outdoor media space that was visible from the street for the entire financial district for 6 months, giving us a huge amount of targeted exposure. Each different advertisement had a unique URL attached so that its success could be tracked and compared to other advertisements. This would help us find out which imagery and messaging was the most effective. On top of that we used retina analysis technologies to analyze the effectiveness of the current images and messaging. This is a relatively new technology that allowed us to track exactly where, within our advertisement, prospects were focusing. With it’s analysis we were able to show the developer exactly why their images weren’t being successful and create new imagery and layouts. We used what we had learned to focus our prospects attention on the details we needed them to focus on.
The Sales
One might assume that because this development had originally been sold with some success there would be a great sales department already in place. Unfortunately, because of the issues with the project’s development there wasn’t even a real sales office. In fact, the entire building was currently a construction site. They had a great team that could take prospects on a guided tour through the building and tell them everything about the construction and layout, but they had no idea how to make a sale.
We quickly made space for a proper sales office and hired interior decorators to give it the luxurious WOW factor befitting of the project. We also hired an entirely new sales staff that we knew were well trained and experienced closers.
On top of that we switched all of their website material over to Hubspot software. This allowed us to better analyze where leads were coming from and the sales staff could follow up more effectively.
The Lessons
Find Your Target
We can’t stress this enough. The most efficient way to market effectively is to find your target and focus your communications. Analyze where past customers are coming from and find the easiest way to reach them. Don’t waste your money on broad marketing campaigns to audiences that have no interest in your project.
Never Stop Testing
In order to remain effective, you have to be continually analyzing and evaluating your marketing communication. The easiest way to do this is through A/B testing. Create two different communications and track which communication brings more leads. But don’t stop there—use every means of analysis at your disposal to test the effectiveness of your communications. Continue to do this and you’ll continue to create more effective messaging.
The Sales Office Matters
Don’t discount the importance of a sales office for your project. This doesn’t always mean that you have to spend a fortune, but you will scare prospects away if your sales office looks like a construction site and is always empty. Remember that your sales office and your sales staff are representing your brand. They should always be professional and welcoming.
If you want to learn more about how to increase your real estate project’s sales, apply to our exclusive one-day Condo Mastery seminar.
Watch the video below to hear about Condo Mastery directly from world-renowned condo and sales and marketing expert, Roman Bodnarchuk, and click APPLY NOW to learn if you qualify.
