By Gil Sperling, Co-CEO and Co-Founder: Flow Living

Property Marketing on social media platforms isn't rising, or even 'mainstream' - it's established itself as 'The Stream'. The property industry has joined retailers, brands and services in the online marketing space, engaging tens of millions of South Africans each day on the devices in their pockets on platforms where they spend upwards of 3 hours a day.

Proptech is branding agencies, building reputations and bringing in remarkable numbers of buyer, seller and renter leads, online, for agencies who have made the switch away from roadside billboards and dustbin advertising to carry their reputations.

Build a Brand and Draw Sellers

Eleven Seeff Property Group branches in KZN found themselves short of stock for agents to sell, so they made the switch to FlowBrand to help establish an online presence amongst social media users looking to sell their properties.

By targeting social media users on the platforms they engage with most, we were able to help them reach relevant prospects within a 5–10km radius of each of their branches at a frequency of three times per month, putting them top of mind. By effectively targeting their audience, they saw a huge increase in brand consideration which resulted in a 30% lift in organic traffic to Seeff Property Group sites, nationally.

Having drawn traffic, they also instituted a Flow-driven seller campaign for each office, building their expert status on the back of their newfound brand recognition and promoting a strong call-to-action. Their reward for venturing into the world of social media? 54 seller leads from a single campaign, and signing up over R20 million in mandates.

"The ability to dynamically target and engage with our audience has had a tremendous impact," says Ted Frazer, Seeff Property Group National Marketing Manager. "Compared to a more traditional approach to paid digital, what usually takes a lot longer - and more investment - to achieve in terms of understanding and adapting to user behaviour is delivered far more efficiently through this platform and makes other forms of paid advertising seem redundant. This platform has taken our paid digital communications to a new level for both longer-term brand-building awareness, as well as shorter-term ROI lead generation".

Shift Stock

Kempton Park-based RE/MAX Dazzle found themselves with plenty of stock in their agents' inventories, but were having a tough time shifting it. Turning to Performance Marketing on social media with us and using FlowFuel for a three-month trial, they were able to instantly and automatically turn more than 200 property listings into social media ads and serve them to people within a 5km radius of their office.

The return was as instant as the conversion to the online space itself, with the campaign immediately drawing over 44 000 online viewings of those listings and generating 343 high-intent buyer leads for their 70 agents. "More than 35% of our agents set up physical viewings with more than a third of their Flow leads, without ever having used social media platforms before," says RE/MAX Dazzle Broker Owner Neville Brits. "Our new clients were equally excited at the experience of having the right properties to match their needs finding them on their most-frequented social media platforms".

Launch a new Development

The team behind FLEX on Murray, a new 105-unit residential development in Waverley, Johannesburg, turned to us to help create awareness and interest in the development ahead of their official launch event. They needed to generate quality leads from potential buyers in order to maximise launch sales so they could trigger the build.

We launched a campaign for them using Facebook Instant Experience ads, which provided an interactive way of experiencing the development, for potential buyers. Once the audience was established, we retargeted those users who had engaged with the ad – and audiences on the periphery – to bring them to the FLEX on Murray launch event.

The campaign was the primary lead generator to the launch event which generated 10x the number of lead volumes the client had previously experienced resulting in an ROI of 625x.

“Flow has changed the customer journey for property searches,” says Jessica Chetty, Director of Forge Real Estate, the marketing agents of FLEX on Murray. “They experience so many brands differently in the online space, and I don’t think anyone in the property industry can afford to ignore the opportunities afforded to potential buyers & sellers to get a truly immersive experience of a property on the platforms they frequent. It’s a new experience that’s set to become the only way to buy property”.

Book a Flow Living demo today to find out more about how to build your agency brand, bring your audience closer to you and pitch your inventory to the right people, on the right digital platforms, at the right time.