Cost to reach out on digital is 1/3rd to broadcast mediums: Prasun Kumar, MagicBricks

Prasun Kumar, Head of Marketing, MagicBricks sheds light on real estate marketing trends across social media and digital.

Millennial make for one of the biggest sect of first time home buyers. The generation that looks for recommendations and services on social media.

According to a study put together by Madison and Pitch, close to 18 percent of the advertising spends in India happen on digital as a platform. Coming to real estate, Prasun Kumar, Head of Marketing, magicbricks.com estimates that, real estate developers are spending anywhere between 20-25 percent of their annual marketing dollars on digital as a platform.

Kumar highlights that investments by real estate players on digital platform are already at a much higher level than the industry average.

Here are some noticeable real estate marketing trends seen on social media and digital.

Increase in online search of properties 

A recent study by Google suggested that there has been a growth of 38 percent of users in terms of searching properties online in the last one year. Also according to an estimate, around 75 percent of the property seekers during their entire decision making process, at least come online once to research or chat with experts.

Rise in users from non-metro areas 

According to the same study by Google, a huge chunk of the searches from India are also coming from the non-metro cities. Also around 51 percent of real estate searches are coming out of top metros. Real estate is not an impulse category, it requires a lot of research. The fact that users from non-metro areas are logging in, suggest that these online portals are helping them to finalize their decision.

People are also willing to pay for the services online 

40 percent of the real estate consumers who are coming online are also willing to pay for the services, which are available on these portals. It may be legal verification of the property or to get the property checked.

Digital has impacted the buying behaviour

Today a consumer is far closer to the developer and seller of the property because of digital. However, a lot of advertisers and developers are yet coming to terms with the power of digital media in terms of helping them achieve their targets. Majority of them, have not developed a social handle. This is a biggest mistake as they are losing out on a big opportunity to reach out to their prospective customers.

ROI is higher on digital

ROI on digital is far superior to ROI on traditional mediums. According to an estimate, the cost to reach out on digital, is about 1/3th to a broadcast medium, it is about 1/5th the cost to reaching out on newspaper and about 1/10th the cost to reaching out on magazines as a medium.

Focus on consumer experience 

In order to stand out from the clutter, it is very important to have your fundamentals right. A lot of times, brands in the real estate category also forget about consumer experiences, but it shouldn’t be the case. The beauty of digital is that, it is an extremely dynamic platform, which allows for higher interaction and more engagement in comparison to the other traditional forms of marketing. A brand that tries to answer the queries of the consumer and sort their problems, is the one that is best remembered and thus it stands out.

Commenting on the future of digital marketing in real estate, Kumar concludes, "The future is very bright, digital is the most cost efficient and cost effective medium. A tweet can become a complete campaign. On digital, content is the king, if you are getting the content right and engaging with the consumers, then there is no stopping."

Prasun Kumar, Head of Marketing, magicbricks.com spoke at #SamosaTalks organised by Social Samosa.