Best Practices of Luxury Real Estate Development Marketing

Attracting qualified leads is a common challenge for luxury home marketers who must appeal to a very specific type of buyer. Fortunately, the affluent market is on the rise right now, making it more important than ever to pay special attention to your first impression to affluent buyers — your website! In fact, NAR’s 2021 report found that 51% of all buyers find the home they purchase online.

According to The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, not only was there a 17% increase in the number of 5,000+ square-foot homes sold in 2020 compared to 2019, but luxury home prices are still seeing record highs due to the influence of working from home and lower interest rates following the pandemic.

To truly enjoy these incredible luxury market benefits, you'll need a compelling website. Here are five things to remember when designing your luxury real estate website to ensure your first impression isn't just memorable and meaningful to anyone — but to the right buyers.

Affluent Buyers Personas

Before any marketing efforts can begin, you must get in the mind of the affluent buyer. This means taking a deep dive into their thoughts, behaviors, wants, needs, likes and dislikes, and more. The best way to do it? Master your affluent buyer personas.

To begin, keep in mind the psychology of luxury real estate and the influence it has on shoppers. Creating affluent buyer personas allows you to take your relationship with your customers a step further. After all, the better you know your real estate target audience, the better you will be at catering to their unique and specific needs while maintaining exclusivity and value in your brand and community.

You may be wondering why real estate personas and target audiences matter, and you won't be the first to ask. Here are a few reasons it's important to pinpoint your target audience and create personas based on that data:

1. Empathy — knowing your buyers means you understand their specific values and needs, and therefore, are here to cater to them alone. With that kind of consumer knowledge comes genuine empathy for affluent buyers, making your brand stand out with more relevancy. 
2. Save time and money — putting all your focus on your real estate target audience will allow you to put all your resources and energy into only qualified leads.  
3. Personalized and impactful experiences — if there's one thing that's for certain, it's the importance of providing personalized and impactful experiences for buyers at every touchpoint with your brand. When you know your affluent buyers, you can then adjust your in-person, website, social media, and other brand/buyer experiences to match them perfectly, bringing more value to your buyer relationships.

Inspiring Website Design

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports that more than half (64%) of their members have placed 'website' in the three most valuable technology tools used in their business and in the top three tech tools that have given the highest quality of leads. For this reason, having an inspiring website design is extremely important — including professional photography and creative elements, in particular.

Some important design tips to keep in mind:

• Go back to the basics — before making enhancements with your design, you must ensure your website has some basics like a responsive design, the right color/text, and easy navigation (i.e., loading speed, security, etc.).
• Professional, compelling photography — keeping photos high-quality and relevant to the affluent buyer will invite them in to see more of what you have to offer. Make sure to get the best features you have to offer in photos and put them in a light that showcases their luxurious benefit.
• Creative elements — provoke emotions with your color, font, contrast, and other personalized connections.
• Property location on an interactive map — making it easy for your buyers to access the property makes all the difference in whether they move forward and set up an appointment to see it in person. Their buyer journey should be hassle-free at every touchpoint.

Likewise, 3D renderings and/or virtual home tours are almost expected by today's home buyers allowing them the technology to tour prospective homes online. The truth is, when a high-end buyer can see a virtual sneak peek of the grandiose of your homes, they are more likely to schedule an in-person tour, share your homes with others via social media, and drive overall sales.

Here’s one of the best luxury real estate website design examples:

According to Agent Image, a luxury real estate website like Quiana Watson's is one to aspire to. It's considered to be sleek, stylish, and artfully sophisticated — pulling in affluent buyers from the start and "earning her a spot at the top 5% of top-producing real estate professionals by the Atlanta Realtors Association."

Social Media Interaction

Speaking of social media, this is one of the most important places to interact with affluent buyers and direct them to your website and in-person appointments. In fact, they use it frequently and sometimes view it as an additional status-bolstering opportunity. 

Use this opportunity to interact with your affluent buyers, share home designs and renderings, and provide updates about construction and/or community development — all while keeping their high-end expectations in mind.

NAR also reported social media in the top three most valuable technology tools that have given the highest quality of leads alongside websites. 

Luxury Real Estate Advertising

Paid advertising is also a crucial aspect to consider when bolstering your marketing campaigns. Not only does research reveal that paid advertising can increase your brand awareness among affluent buyers by as much as 80% through Google alone, but you can even expect a 200% ROI. 

Consider incorporating paid social, paid search, and digital display to get in front of your already identified target audience. This will allow you to use the consumer data available to you to reach them on several different digital channels to help you stand out and stay memorable for when they're ready to move forward and get a luxury home of their own. 

Community Involvement

Everyone craves community interaction and the return of in-person events, showings, and marketing initiatives, but that is especially true for often-social affluent homebuyers.

Seeing and experiencing a real estate brand in a community atmosphere up close and in person will also encourage those social buyers to see themselves in your communities in the future. After all, who doesn't want to live in a community they are having a great time in? 

An ideal way to do this is by spending time organizing community events and business partnerships to help put your brand in front of the right people. Keep these partnerships and events relevant to your values and messaging — and watch all the right affluent buyers trail right in.

Master the Art of Luxury Real Estate

There are a lot of challenges following the boost of the digital age and all the technological advancements that have followed, but with the right knowledge and guidance, it can also be the most rewarding. Mastering the art of luxury real estate branding and marketing will take your business to the next level, giving you the competitive advantage you deserve.

Working with a partner like Milesbrand will speed up your success, maintain your relevancy among affluent buyers, and keep you updated and informed about the latest in luxury real estate development marketing. Contact us today to get started!