Online media knocks print out of realty sector

Digital technology has touched every part of our life. So how can the multi-billion dollar realty sector remain untouched by it?

Right from setting up branded YouTube channel that showcase walkthroughs of upcoming projects, to hiring social media marketing firms, real estate players such as Godrej Properties, Tata Housing and Adani are joining the digital media marketing bandwagon in a bid to strengthen sales.

Real estate developers in Mumbai and other metropolitan cities have taken to digital media in a big way to boost sales, sidelining the print media. The reason is not far off. Not only are the developers finding digital media cost efficient but also increasingly effective in enhancing conversion rates.

Not only are the developers finding digital media cost efficient but also increasingly effective in enhancing conversion rates. So on one hand while Tata Housing saw over 10 bookings in first few hours of going live, Godrej Properties finds 20 per cent of its sales coming from online play.

The Mumbai-based real estate developers recently found success in the three-day ‘Great Online Shopping Festival’ where Google in association with Tata Housing offered prospective buyers of houses and encouraged them to book a flat or apartment by the company. Moreover, Tata Value Homes (TVHL), a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Housing recently received over 200 applications online within three hours on the National Home Buying Day. For Godrej Properties as well, the number of online enquiries for its projects has more than doubled over the past few months.

In the aftermath of the success of both Great Online Shopping Festival and National Home Buying Day – where both the marketing of the sale, and the transaction itself, were conducted purely online – we plan to add several more to the calendar, providing consumers more frequent avenues for accessing quality homes. This is emerging as an exciting option to target HNI’s and NRI’s,” says Brotin Banerjee, CEO and MD, Tata Housing.

A study by Google India says: The internet is influencing consumer behavior as 7 out of 10 buyers know the exact brand and model they want to buy with the help of online research.

Says Girish Shah, Executive Vice President (Mktg & Sales), Godrej Properties Ltd: “We use digital media to build communities of like-minded individuals, without an overt brand presence. This allows for a lot of creative flexibility and the ability to co-create products by crowd-sourcing trends and preferences. We also use it to convey transparency and are probably the first real estate brand in the country to have branded YouTube channel, which has sets dedicated to walkthroughs, news about the brand and project updates,” says Girish Shah, Executive Vice President (Mktg & Sales), Godrej Properties Ltd.

The realty developers not only run contests on Google plus and LinkedIn to connect with diverse customers, but also have integrated IP-based calling that is connected to call centres that are trained to handle specific campaign-related enquiries.

If that is not enough, developers have also begun taking help of professional digital media marketing firms for enhancing their web presence.”In the recent times, a number of our new clients have been from the real estate industry. Real estate developers this year have found it hard to continue business only through the offline media platform and have, hence, begun outsourcing their digital media activities to firms like us to enhance their web presence and bring in increased conversions,” said Anshul Gupta, chief executive officer, Digimedia, a Mumbai -based digital marketing firm.

What also has been attracting real estate developers to the platform is the cost efficiency. Dipesh Roy, vice president (marketing) Adani Township and Real Estate Company says: Digital media tends to cost us one tenth of the conventional print and outdoor platforms and yet bring in at least 40-45 per cent conversions which is only growing. Also, there are lots of leakages in the conventional platform whereas the digital platform can be used to focus only on the target consumers. We have seen that out of 10 people using digital platform for our projects, nine have come to see the product.