Listing Strategy That Goes Beyond Realtor.ca! A Client Case Study
Let's talk about brand strategy awareness and the threefold purpose of what might seem like a "silly social media post." When executed properly, these posts serve to:
Showcase your marketing skills to your current clients.
Demonstrate to potential buyers that you have a nuanced strategy to enhance their overall value through their selling experience.
Appeal to the user experience (UX) of potential buyers of that property & users of your channels.
When it comes to a listing, it needs to have several different touchpoints with varying layouts and features along its journey. However, for the point of this conversation, we will focus only on the classic "For Sale" or touchpoint 2. Depending on the status of the listing, a sneak peek, teaser or coming soon is posted beforehand aka touch point 1. Assuming that has been executed, touchpoint two is "For Sale." A touchpoint is one of multiple ways a user engages with a single property, each with its own purpose and strategy behind it.
Client Case Study:
This client specializes in waterfront listings while also selling homes and lots away from the water. Here is the threefold purpose to just one touchpoint!
Your approach should be rooted in your brand’s projection, awareness and identity. How are you displaying a property while still being rooted in what your brand represents and values. How do you showcase a layered brand and with different niches?
1) Colour Categorization: This improves UX by allowing users to easily identify waterfront properties compared to other options when they land on your page. Much like organizing folders, this streamlines the user experience, allowing them to access what they are looking for with limited barriers. Intuitive colourization leads to memorization.
If a page is difficult, confusing, or overwhelming to scroll and scan, users will turn to someone who provides easy access and usability. You don’t want that!
2) Labeling Your Listings: This is a marketing angle. While there’s no strict definition of, for instance, a "premium listing," our definition in this instance is any property that isn’t waterfront, whereas waterfront properties are “luxury listings”.
This heavily affects consumer perceptions of a listing's status. For instance, restaurants may only offer medium ('premium listing') and large ('luxury listing') drinks. Why? - because there is more positive connotation with medium than small, as the buyer feels they are "getting more," when in actuality it is the smaller of the two values. It's all about marketing and perception through visuals and verbiage.
3) Brand Synthesis: How can I effectively organize different aspects of my brand? For instance, this brand draws from the rural cottage country area they reside in while also appealing to tourists buying homes from the city. When combined, elements like plaid, blue, red, black, white and wood grain can create a confusing and unappealing image that overwhelms users.
Our job is to take all these moving parts from the client's ideas and synthesize them into digestible, easy-to-use pieces that build a larger story and narrative about their brand. Each post contributes to the story and representation of the brand identity.
This approach synthesizes the brand and incorporates all elements without appearing cluttered. Overall this demonstrates:
To your clients, it demonstrates that their houses and properties have unique journeys and appeals. Overall, this adds a richer value, by showing that you are doing more than just Realtor.ca. They can tangibly see the strategy in action.
Improving the UX for potential buyers results in better engagement. Improved UX means more time on screen, creating positive experiences and increasing the chances of repeat browsing.
Showcasing to future sellers that your strategy isn't one-note but layered. Each post represents your skills and serves as marketing for both the property and yourself.
Realtors are busy people, and there can be a gap between strategy and execution. It's crucial that everything aligns towards YOUR long-term goals. Let's ensure consistency across all touchpoints to reinforce our vision effectively.
Contact trista@ftlom.ca to talk about your strategy!
