It makes sense that when people can’t engage in person they fill the void with virtual community. Social media pages have become central to how people continue to connect with each other as they maintain social distancing. Smart brands will capitalize on this opportunity for increased awareness and engagement.

Build Awareness Through Social Ads

Social media has become a lifeline to the outside world. People have more time to connect with each other, but also to discover brands. Putting your ads in front of people can be a great way to build a prospect pipeline. During the stay-at-home orders, you have a great chance to increase your impression share and that means your cost per visitor should decrease.

Since many of the detailed interest-based target audience settings aren’t available to residential property marketers, ad copy testing is very important to drawing the right audience. Utilize the various formats available within the platform, test messages, images and measure conversion. Recently we put together a series of multi-image carousel and video ads. When we looked at the data, our most direct single-image ad converted at the highest rate! Important things to consider in the current environment.

• Utilize your video tour content to showcase your spaces since prospects can’t drop by and visit. People are used to less professional video on social channels, so your videos taken by the leasing team are probably good enough!
• Carousel ads with multiple images are another great way to “tour” someone through the space.
• Use the single content ads to promote specials and educate prospects about the best way to connect with you during this time.

Social Engagement > Followers

Real estate isn’t a regular repeat purchase. So, stop worrying about followers, other than getting your residents to follow you. Active prospects are going to visit your social pages to see what life is like in your community. Use your platform as a way to provide a picture of what it’s like to live in your building.

• Showcase your property images with descriptions that help the prospect imagine how they will live in the spaces. Make sure your language takes into account current social norms and protocols.
• There’s never been a better time to be a good neighbor and promote local businesses that are open. Make sure you tag the business to encourage cross promotion and engagement.
• Your residents are a great resource for content during this time. Encourage residents to share their tips, tricks and successes living at your property during this unusual time. It’s a way to connect with your residents and for them to virtually connect with each other.

Remarketing Is the Key to Success

It’s important to remember that many of these visitors will not be active prospects at the moment. They could just be visiting your website to dream, get design ideas or kill time. Or, they may be interested in moving to your community, but unsure of their financial stability. Ensuring that you have a strategy to engage the additional traffic sent through social channels is key to maximizing the spend.

Develop a remarketing campaign that keeps the traffic engaged since they likely weren’t actively looking when they first engaged with your site. View our blog on remarketing campaigns.

Your future residents are spending a lot of time on social media. They are ready to connect with you. Meet them where they are right now!