Standfirst: CEO & Founder of PIXL Group, Imran Khan, decodes marketing for the off-plan real estate sector
Pullquote: “When it comes to a project, especially in off plan real estate where we focus and specialize, marketing literally creates the product before anyone else in the market can visualize it. If there is no marketing, there is no dream…what will the sales team sell?”
Podcast: Abu Jiyadh
What exactly is the role of a real estate marketing agency in an off-plan project by a developer?
We work from day one, from the very initiation of that idea of the project with the developers. We support the developers in advising on where that project should come in. Who the right kind of buyers for that project are? Is this going to be an end user focused project, or is this going to be an investor focused project? What kind of unit mix works in that area? Because obviously we do a lot of analysis of that area itself. Sometimes we also advise on pricing. You know, marketing has four P’s price, place, product promotion. Right. So as a marketing consultancy firm, we focus on all of these. And then we get into the execution. And that’s when I say we work with the consultants, the engineering teams, the architects to visualize the project, the actual image, the render of the product, and that involves the storyline behind it. So if this is a project coming up with an in an area which is up and coming in Dubai, which attracts a lot of end users, it has metro connectivity, it has malls, it has parks. Speaker1: We look at all those amenities and advise the developer, look here, it should be an end user focused project. Therefore, the project should be named ABC, which rings a bell with the end user bias. At the same time, it is in consonance with the developer’s brand and from there, from the christening of that project to what the positioning of the product should be, what those renders should look like, how many should there be, what that brochure should talk about, what that fact sheet should talk about, how that launch event should be, how do we excite the buyer and sell this product to the broker? Because, you know, this is a very broker heavy market, right? So this is the philosophy we have in marketing. Let’s excite the buyer but sell the project into the broker, because eventually the broker is going to be that person who’s going to convince the buyer to buy. Right. So this entire gamut of services, this entire ecosystem is fueled by marketing. If there is no marketing, if there is no dream, what will the sales team sell? If there is no dream, what will the end user, buyer or investor invest in? And obviously for us, the seed bed is Dubai. Dubai has created a story strong enough for investors and end users to invest in. We take it from there. We go to the area, we go to the project and then we continue to build it. And marketing is such an interesting space that if you look at off plan real estate, there is no sale. Speaker1: Without marketing, the product doesn’t exist if you don’t market it right. So definitely, literally everything in the ecosystem, from naming the project to positioning the project to branding the project to marketing the project, whether it’s on digital media, whether it’s on social media within the digital ecosystem, whether it’s offline marketing, taking the project to the media, press releases, launch events, press events. All this comes in the marketing space of things, even when the project is launched post launch. How do you how do you communicate to the buyers and the end users and the investors. That’s where we use. And we amplify the use of technology in the marketing space to ensure that outreach continues once the project is launched. How do you celebrate a sustainability award your project gets? How do you communicate that to the investors and the future investors in your next project? So marketing is kind of an endless cycle in the off plan space for any developer to have kind of a marriage with. Right. And that’s why marketing is extremely critical. If there is no marketing, where will that broker pack come from that the brokers take to the end users or to the investors to convince them to purchase the property? Right. And all this behind all of this is basically a marketing company or a marketing team, coupled with a technology solution.
What is the lead life cycle from the time it’s generated to the time it’s closed? What is the return on marketing investment?
Important question to ask – or you run the risk of blowing money on marketing and not tracking any return. So, the short answer is, of course we are involved. In fact, that is the genesis of PIXL. That’s how the company started. But we are involved in the entire ecosystem or process, as we call it. So the cycle is as follows. You start by christening the project, naming the project, positioning the product for end users or investors. Move on to creating all the branding marketing collateral for the product. Move on to creating the broker packs. Move on to a pre-launch campaign that starts prima facie on digital, because obviously digital has excessive outreach. And the moment you start this pre-launch campaign, obviously you start getting interested buyers and interested brokers. Right at that time, we liaised with land department to get certain permissions and approvals, because obviously there’s a very strict ecosystem under which we operate, and thanks to the government of making it so process oriented that it becomes very easy. It’s like one, two, three step by step on how to market your product, right. We get the requisite permissions and then we start marketing it on social media and on traditional media. Once you get start getting interest, we also work closely with the developer to get certain approvals to obtain expression of interest.
And that’s where the lead trickle starts. Then the project gets launched through an event, a proper event where brokers are invited, media is invited, and the project is showcased to all these people so that they’re buying into the project amplifies. Then they start taking it to the market, and then we give them broker kits, which they can use to further advertise the project on social media, on offline media, through their WhatsApp, through different routes, including press releases for PR, etc., to take them forward. And at that time the developer sometimes says, okay, you know what, I want to generate my own leads. And that’s when lead generation campaigns kick off. They could be on social, they could be on Google, they could be on newer media platforms, they could be with the help of traditional media. And that is where our promise of tech and martech comes in, where we are able to track literally every click, every lead, whether it comes from a billboard, whether it comes from your social or Google or email. Right. We track all of that to maximize conversions we want. With the help of AI, we create multiple images of the same product or of the same project, and our algorithm helps us optimize the right creative on which the maximum clicks are happening. So that requires a lot of intelligence, right? And then once those leads start coming in, we obviously keep passing them on to the sales team or the developer.
That’s when the CRM comes in to understand what is the lead life cycle. From the time it’s generated to the time it’s closed, what is the return on marketing investment? Because otherwise you can just keep blowing money on marketing and not track any returns. So as a company that gives us an extra edge that with the use of technology, we can actually tell the developer, hey, this is what you invested, and this is what your return on marketing investment is. And they love to see this because then that gives us gives them the strength to continually invest in this space. Right. Sometimes when a project is launched, we also have a lot of broker clients who come to us and say, you know what, we want you to run lead generation campaigns on this project. And that’s when we support them with lead generation campaigns on the same project. Once the project is sold out, marketing continues beyond that as well. Right. Because there are so many leads that did not get the product right, and they convert into prospective expressions of interest for the next project of that developer or the next project coming in that neighborhood for the broker who generated that lead. And then it continues. You start nurturing these leads. You start communicating with these leads.
