Fundamentals of Luxury Real Estate Marketing and Advertising

Identify Ideal Affluent Buyers

Although some may have expected the COVID-19 pandemic’s harsh effects to cause a shift in qualified luxury buyers, this is not the case. In 2020, high net worth individuals’ wealth continued to grow by 12.3% in the U.S. according to the 2021 Capgemini World Wealth Report.

The luxury housing market continues to thrive, which bodes well for home builders and developers with elevated homes and communities. This means the real challenge for home builders and developers is ensuring their offerings are noticed and cultivate interest. This is made possible through chic branding that elevates the development and promises a sense of exclusivity.

To develop an effective luxury real estate marketing strategy, it’s vital to identify the ideal buyers and understand their needs, desires and lifestyle expectations. According to a report from the National Association of Realtors, the average age of luxury real estate buyers is 46 years old. Studies show these buyers typically possess average assets of around $8.75 million and $2.6 million in average real estate holdings. It’s important to understand this buyer market to discern who your buyers are, the types of luxury homes they’re seeking, as well as their interests and buying behaviors. Although your target buyer may not perfectly match the average luxury buyer, knowing the potential audiences relevant to luxury real estate brands creates the opportunity to develop wide appeal.

How We Did It: London Bay Homes is an award-winning custom home builder located in Florida focused on serving an affluent, highly sophisticated clientele. We identified their audience by researching the luxury buyers purchasing real estate within this area to form a buyer persona that guided our branding and marketing efforts. We determined that the ideal target audience of luxury buyers for London Bay Homes is comprised of wealthy, highly sophisticated professionals with a net worth of $10+ million who are interested in purchasing a second home in Naples or Sarasota, Florida.

Elevated Brand Promise

Positioning a luxury real estate brand all starts with developing a sense of prestige and lavishness. Affluent buyers seek out established luxury real estate properties where they are assured they’ve found the best that money can buy. Wealthy buyers have high expectations for their homes, so luxury home builders and developers must offer a refined, distinguished brand that appeals to this target audience.

While these affluent buyers are seeking high-quality developments with lavish features, they also desire to find homes from real estate experts. This means a strong luxury real estate brand promise should deliver expectations of both expertise and high-class values to create a brand identity that truly resonates with the ideal buyer.

How We Did It: London Bay Homes boasts three decades of experience, the highest quality materials and award-winning craftsmanship – a standout offer that helped us form a powerful brand promise. We sought to create a strong expectation for homebuyers and position the luxury real estate brand as a premier builder in Naples and all of southwest Florida. To accomplish this brand positioning, we created the brand promise Private Label Living – a confident guarantee the builder provides after decades of going above and beyond for every client. This brand promise recognizes London Bay’s offering of the highest level of personalized design and exceptional service, positioning their home building experience as tailored for each unique client. The simple yet sophisticated tagline effectively communicates the desires of London Bay's affluent buyers and the builder’s promise to deliver.

Modern Creative Design

Affluent buyers are often seeking sleek, minimalistic home designs, so luxury real estate marketing and branding should reflect the same concept to appeal to these wealthy buyers. Imitate common aspects of modern home design within marketing and branding efforts to capture the attention of affluent buyers – think simplistic layouts with straight lines and open spaces.

How We Did It: We developed an exceptional branding design with minimalistic elements for the boutique community The Summit. As the last new development in a sought-after Castle Pines community, it was essential to create a stellar final offer to complete The Village at Castle Pines. For the community’s logo, we developed a modern design to match the sleek designs luxury buyers seek in their new homes. With this concept, we designed a logo that offered a simplistic heptagon symbol and chic calligraphy to top it off.

Opulent Photography and Videography

High-quality photography is incredibly essential for luxury real estate marketing as this element is critical for truly selling the community to prospective buyers. This is the primary way to show target buyers that the development meets the brand’s upscale descriptions. While sophisticated brand positioning and lavish language provide an initial narrative to elevate, the visual elements such as photography and videography concretely capture the community’s features and amenities in-depth for prospective buyers.

All images should be high-definition, offer enticing visuals and showcase dazzling colors to highlight the homes’ extraordinary construction. It’s crucial to invest in professional photography to avoid dark, pixelated or blurry images, in favor of crisp, crystal-clear photos that truly showcase how luxurious and worthy of the high end-price the community and home designs are in real life.

It’s also important to incorporate the latest in video technology into the luxury real estate marketing strategy to optimize the quality of the homebuyer experience. With virtual tours and high-quality videos, luxury home builders and developers can showcase their communities with modern marketing touches that allow luxury buyers to experience properties virtually on their own time, no matter their location. By sparing no expense on exceptional marketing strategies and tools, affluent buyers are only further convinced of the brand’s luxurious and exclusive offerings.

How We Did It: For The Summit, we delivered the brand promise Welcome Up, and we connected this positioning to the luxurious imagery for the community. This tagline draws focus to The Summit’s peak location, upscale home designs and elevated lifestyle opportunity, which is also reflected in the community’s high-definition, eye-catching promotional photos. Professional photography for the community showcases stunning luxury homes surrounded by grand mountain views, lofty vantage points from the community and overviews of the landscape to highlight The Summit’s extraordinary property.

Sophisticated Storytelling

When marketing luxury real estate, it’s important to consider the mindset of upper-class shoppers. Luxury real estate inherently offers buyers a symbol of status and exclusivity, so the language used to describe homes should tap into these desires. Incorporating these ideals into luxury real estate marketing and advertising is a way to heighten appeal and reinforce the prestige and exclusivity this purchase offers affluent buyers. Selling luxury real estate brands to buyers extends beyond simply describing physical aspects to also emphasize the community’s elite lifestyle appeal.

When describing homes, choose words that are both precise and attractive to set an enticing scene and match the brand’s luxurious appeal. Utilizing expressions such as "lavish finishes,” “elegant appointments,” “magnificent architecture,” and "expansive suites" offers buyers a tangible allure and an intrinsic feeling of luxury. To maintain strong brand identity and tone, it’s beneficial to build a collection of luxurious vocabulary and familiar language for the brand to consistently convey the right tone of sophistication and refinement.

How We Did It: During our branding projects with London Bay Homes, we created a digital interactive corporate brochure, ongoing annual magazine and custom book and print ad filled with enticing, luxurious descriptors. Inside these marketing elements, homebuyers discovered an abundance of lavish language including “gracious ambiance,” “highly refined aesthetic,” “luxurious interiors,” “magnificent living environments,” and “true design innovation.” This vocabulary helped capture the high-class appeal offered by London Bay Homes.

Allow Milesbrand to Be Your Luxury Real Estate Marketing Expert

Selling luxury real estate requires understanding fundamental marketing elements necessary for enticing wealthy buyers. From exceptional branding to stunning creative design and extravagant messaging, several components are vital to elevate a luxury real estate brand and effectively reach affluent buyers.

With abundant experience helping luxury home builders and developers reach their ideal target audience, we’ve established ourselves as luxury real estate marketing experts. Contact us today to find out how our team can develop an elevated brand with sophisticated positioning for your luxury real estate development.