Businesses across all industries are creating new strategies and approaches for dealing with Millennial’s, and the real estate sector is no different.
Who are these Millennial’s?
First, who are the Millennial’s? Otherwise known as the Generation Y. Millennial’s are typically born between the early 1980’s and the late 1990’s or early 2000’s. In terms of marketing, their demographics vary according to region. economic, and social factors. However, they are known as the generation that grew up with digital technologies. They are known by their increased use and ease with media and communications.
Past generations have purchased property early in life. Millennial’s, on the other hand, have waited longer to buy their first home. Growing student debt and more travel opportunities offer some of the delay. Even less urgency to begin a career after college are some of the factors behind the delay in buying property.
Yet the real estate world is seeing a change as more Millennial’s are beginning to buy real estate. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise – the oldest Millennial is around the mid-thirties mark. Nowadays, the average age for first-time buyers in the U.S. is 33 years old. It’s exactly at this moment that Millennial’s are increasingly getting on the property ladder and it’s a trend that is definitely one to watch.
Millennial’s are buying real estate.
Working with Millennial’s is much like working with any other generation – they are all people after all. Yet thanks to their familiarity with social media and the world of digital technologies, there are certain approaches that real estate agents should take in order to effectively communicate with this generation. It stems down to knowing what they want and expect from services (including real estate) and this guide should help you understand your Millennial audience better:
Accessible Service All Day Every Day
Millennial’s are a connected generation and time barriers become irrelevant when it comes to getting information. No one expects you to attend a call at 3 am to answer a question regarding a property. However, Millennial’s will expect there to be sources of information available to them at any moment.
To satisfy Millennial’s, having an informative website or blog that is packed with information that answers the most common questions. Your site should be clean and easy to navigate so that information can be found quickly and efficiently. Having a site that takes ages to load or that seems disorganized will just leave Millennial visitors frustrated. Stay one step ahead of the game by adding an intelligent chatbox to your site. This can automatically answer the most commonly asked questions and provides a neat, quick way for your audience to get the information they want.
Another way of being accessible is to have a Facebook page and respond to questions there, either with a live Q&A session or responding to messages through Messenger. Just make sure you regularly check to see if anyone has reached out to you. Consider hiring a virtual assistant to stay on top of queries.
Be Authentic
Millennial’s have grown up with increasingly sophisticated marketing and advertising strategies. As a result, have become increasingly skeptical to them. They are incredibly marketing-savvy and will avoid anything that looks like a blatant pitch for sales. The key nowadays is to work on building long-term relationships and use indirect marketing strategies to gain trust from your audience.
One way of doing this is to build a strong online presence that gives you credibility. This includes a regularly updated blog and active social media pages such as Facebook and Instagram. Above all, your online presence should be authentic. Don’t worry about shooting short videos with your phone – Millennial’s will relate to that better than staged productions. Allow your audience to catch a glimpse of the real you by showing your social side. You need to strike a balance between being professional and approachable. Show that you are both an authority and someone people can connect with.
Make the Most of Experiential Marketing
What is experiential marketing? It’s one of the most exciting ways of reaching Millennial’s. Rather than treating them as a passive receiver of your marketing tactics, experiential marketing interacts with them and encourages them to participate. Millennial’s are increasingly open to new experiences.
Offering events to reach out to your audience will put you one step ahead of everyone else. Ideas could be having a workshop that addresses the issues first-time buyers face or even a brunch at your office where you invite people to network. The idea of this strategy is to create connections and subtly introduce your brand. It’s not a sales pitch; rather, it’s a way of meeting your audience and building relationships with them.
Use Real Testimonials
It’s common to see written testimonials on sites and when they come from a well-know or authoritative figure, they can be believable. However, the majority of Millennial’s are skeptical of written testimonials. They can come across as being fake. While writing false testimonials is unethical, it doesn’t stop people believing that companies do it. Adding a photo next to the testimonial doesn’t necessarily help – it’s all too easy to get a simple head shot from a copyright-free photo site. The best way of overcoming this is to have video testimonials on your site as these are much harder to fake and come across as authentic. Having feedback from past clients is important to Millennial’s who tend to seek social validation and reviews before engaging with a brand. If you want to keep your written testimonials on your site, mix it with some video ones too to bring some credibility to your positive reviews.
As the Millennial generation start entering the real estate market, now is a crucial moment to reach out to this new market segment. By meeting their expectations, you will be in a great position to effectively build long-lasting and beneficial client relationships.
Cindy Bishop is the managing director for Cindy Bishop Worldwide, a real estate business development school. You can reach Cindy to schedule events or sign up for coaching at info@bishopteam.org.