Think Property & Co
Marketing Strategy of a start up Real Estate Agency
Think Property is an independent owner operated real estate agency with a twist. Founders started this business to challenge the status quo of a relatively rigid industry by putting the customer first. They needed an online shop front that would reflect their unique and innovative approach and empower their prospective clients to become better equipped to make an informed decision on their forthcoming property investment, or rental. Think Property chose Digital White Space (DWS) because of their Melbourne-based team of strategic and digital marketing and creative expertise (whom also boast decades of experience in the industry).
Digital White Space (DWS) believes that every business is unique and that their website, marketing and branding should reflect that. To achieve this, DWS took a customer-centric approach by crafting a website to support and encompass Think Property’s online-only business model, which was complemented by a digital and social media focused campaign strategy. This digital approach allows for active social listening and effective monitoring of consumer behaviour. This is achieved through the analysis of behavioural metrics including brand mentions, social sharing, open rates, click through rates, multi variant testing, exit rate analysis and goal path analysis amongst others. Ultimately, this results in a process of continuous improvement, Think Property & Co are able to quickly adapt to ensure that they are always providing the best service and content on the best platform.
The Design – Our Creative Approach
Based on the aforementioned research findings, DWS adopted a highly localised approach to the creative direction. Avoiding stock imagery and opting to capture the local flair of each individual suburb. Each photoshoot focused on local icons, amenities, unique spaces and other areas that buyers and renters would consider when making their application or purchase decision.
In order to create a memorable and distinct brand, the DWS team used neon colours and geometric shapes alongside grey and pine lime brights. These designs often feature a colloquialism or fun image with a dog (french bulldog dressed up) to ensure that the brand has a distinct personality and to show users that will be treated as individuals, not just generic customers.
Each suburb (referred to as a “stomping ground” on the site) serviced by Think Property & Co, boasts its own microsite featuring;
- Live RP data including median prices for buying and renting;
- Photography of the area including features which make the suburb desirable;
- Social media streaming for real time and relevant information on the area;
- The top haunts, local shopping strips, local eateries and lifestyle features; and
Articles, blogs and other relevant links.
Functionality
The site features a variety of functions designed to address the pain points of customers, utilising the latest digital tools and techniques available.
CMS of choice
The DWS team chose the WordPress content management system (CMS) which is an open source platform industry leader so it is normally first to market with trending features and plugins. Additionally it is ideal for search engine optimisation (SEO), easy to use and mobile enabled in order to create a great user experience.
Unique features
Following industry trends inline with a digital strategy all in order to maximize the benefits of SEO, a microsite for each suburb Think Property & Co services was created. Providing specific information for customers to understand the benefits of why they would want to live, rent or buy in the area, over twenty microsites feature:
- Articles
- Images
- Map of suburb
- Social posts
- Articles
- Demographic data
- Buy & lease median prices
Social
The site is socially activated, enabling the directors to track and record customer or prospect feedback through analytics and measurement. The team at DWS also opted to include a range of plugins and API’s to harness all publishing and advertising of properties from Real Estate Advertising platforms such as REA, Domain etc. integrating listonce into the website. These feeds are then pushed through into the social media platforms. To enable this social media feature, the DWS team created multiple social media accounts for Think Property & Co. Including:
- Pinterest
This approach benefits Think Property & Co with the reduction of manual uploads and syncing properties, as well as it benefits customers and users to easily refer and alert friends/family via social media on properties available.
Gallery
Website Results;
Think Property & Co won finalists in the best Website of the Year at the REIV. The importance of the business website is paramount as the company’s reach is primarily online, with no high street location the site exceeded goal conversion rates by incorporating a process of continuous analysis and improvement. Exceeded goal conversion rates by incorporating a process of continuous analysis and improvement. Analysis included tracking user behaviour via heat-maps, exit page analysis, etc. and responding accordingly by including more content, more calls to actions, restructuring content, A/B testing features and pages. The following results were recorded between 1 August 2015 and 31 July 2016:
• Customer testimonials: Received an average 200% uplift in unprompted inbound testimonials per month, that recognise our brand recall and customer service approach
• Returning user: Increased to 2656 from 2 in June 2015 which is a 132800%, This demonstrates a positive impact on brand recall and recognition that has been created
• Average sessions: The site has achieved a growth rate of 6822% on sessions per month, from August 15 to July 16. Exceeding the industry benchmark of 300 sessions per month by an additional 314.
• New business enquiries:
This was driven up by factors such as:
– New visitors per month 6,119 from 35 in June 2015- which is a 17,482% increase in new monthly visitors
– Increased customer acquisition by 4800% (from 1 to 480)
– The asset value of the rent roll in the Agency has increased to over $1 million dollars
– The content is proven to be relevant and intuitive, resulting in an Increase of 2600 % of new leads generated, with over 500% of new customers converting per month
– Bounce rate has decreased by 11% for first 3 months vs. last 3 months this year demonstrating that customers are purposely coming to the site and not leaving
– Time on page has dropped from 01:53 to 01:49 for same periods which is content with the site being easy
to navigate for customers and outlines the correlation between user experience and increase of leads
