This week I caught up with Natasha Attal (Twitter) the founder of Composure Marketing (Facebook), a new age marketing agency. She has several years experience helping clients expand their presence on and offline. She has extensive knowledge of social media networks and how to effectively leverage these types of resources to increase brand awareness.
Natasha began her career marketing investment properties for Massey Knakal. She was later recruited by an investment fund to lead their corporate marketing efforts and handle research for investor relations. Naturally, Natasha then transitioned into consulting on the implementation of marketing and PR strategies, maintaining client and media relationships, business development, and increasing overall brand recognition for companies.
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With the proliferation of social networking sites such as twitter, Facebook, and blogging, the channels of marketing projects have changed, however the fundamentals remain the same.
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Can you talk about the process of marketing real estate? What’s the general process and how do you target the right buyers?
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Real estate is similar to marketing other products or services in that the key is to know who your target audience is and then feeding in to their needs. Developing a strong contact/buyer list and building relationships is obviously a fundamental of this process. When marketing a property for sale you want to make sure that the most important features of the asset are highlighted.
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How has the process of marketing projects changed since the ubiquity of social media?
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I think it has changed in that you have access to more people than you did in the past. Previously, many real estate professionals would use cold calling as a main source of lead generation whereas now they have the ability to use Internet marketing as an outreach tool. Many people in the industry are using social networks to reach out to people they didn’t have access to before. One of my favorite social networks for real estate professionals is LinkedIn – I have seen many people in the industry use the Questions and Answers feature to establish themselves as “experts” in their particular field. It also allows people to source content for their blogs and see what people think about certain issues being discussed on a real-time basis.
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Can you provide a case study or example when a building sale occurred as a direct result of social media marketing?
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I did not work on this project but I find it to be a fascinating example of social media marketing for USC student housing at a building in Los Angeles called University Gateway. They launched a Facebook fan page prior to opening the building for occupancy to increase awareness and start filling the units. They have over 2,900 Facebook fans today and continue to communicate with their residents and students interested in living at the 1600 student bed housing development. They have launched giveaways, contests and allowed their residents to get to know each other through wall posts and other engagement campaigns. They were able to build such a strong online community by having a student in the Leasing office of University Gateway administer their Facebook fan page. A fan page admin must know the target market and how to engage in conversations with those fans.
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With the explosion of social media and blogs, how has PR and media relations changed?
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It is evident that with the addition of social media channels and blogs, the way in which PR and media relations is conducted has changed for the best. PR companies are starting to embed multimedia into their releases to increase sharing capabilities. A company that I have used for clients in the past is called PressLift and they allow you to include videos, social media links and and PDF documents in the release. Something I find very powerful is when PR professionals send journalists links to Youtube videos where they get a visual guide to a new product or service or even a message from a company CEO. This allows journalists to connect more with the brand. In addition, influential bloggers in various industries have become the go-to sources for information and PR professionals are learning that although it is important to get quoted or have products placed in traditional marketing channels such as magazines and print newspapers, it is also vital for brand building to be mentioned on popular blogs.
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Often times real estate developments receive negative press, how do you deal with the negative attention? What can be done to proactively avoid negative attention toward a proposed development?
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Negative commentary is not necessarily always a bad thing. Sometimes a developer wants the same things as protesters but certain regulations won’t allow it – this may help the developer get allowances from the city. In terms of negative press being truly negative, it is hard to come up with a specific strategy in how to respond because it always depends on the nature of the comment. It can be anything from people not liking the architectural feel of a building like is the case for Columbia’s new athletic development in Inwood to people thinking the new development is not the right fit for that particular neighborhood. Community outreach in the neighborhood that the development is being built is usually the best way to mitigate negative commentary. Reaching out to bloggers that cover real estate in that area is also a good way to connect with people that would be interested in the topic whether they have positive or negative views.
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What is one piece of advice you would provide a developer marketing his own property?
- Newly constructed 14-unit apartment building in the East Village
- Prefab green construction (LEED Gold)
- Prefab green construction (LEED Gold)
- Intended for young families and 20-somethings
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Coming from a background working with brokers, I tend to see the advantage of working with them to market properties since they have an already built in database of potential buyers to contact. However, if the developer is looking to market the property on his own and wants to use social media I would highly recommend creating Facebook ads that are targeted towards his demographic of young families or 20 somethings. He/She should build buzz around the building’s green features and invite neighborhood residents for an open house party. This event could also be used as a Foursquare event where people who check-in would get some type of incentive for telling their friends where they are. People love incentives and they love them even more if it means they will get something out of buying real estate. Giving incentives for purchasing units has become a popular trend in NY lately but developers should hold tight to the idea that they can very creative by integrating these incentive programs with social media channels to expand their outreach.
Coming from a background working with brokers, I tend to see the advantage of working with them to market properties since they have an already built in database of potential buyers to contact. However, if the developer is looking to market the property on his own and wants to use social media I would highly recommend creating Facebook ads that are targeted towards his demographic of young families or 20 somethings. He/She should build buzz around the building’s green features and invite neighborhood residents for an open house party. This event could also be used as a Foursquare event where people who check-in would get some type of incentive for telling their friends where they are. People love incentives and they love them even more if it means they will get something out of buying real estate. Giving incentives for purchasing units has become a popular trend in NY lately but developers should hold tight to the idea that they can very creative by integrating these incentive programs with social media channels to expand their outreach.
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Social media and the internet has changed the marketing channels. It’s become much easier to reach your target audience, however marketing itself hasn’t changed. You still need to evaluate objectives and align them with creative strategies to reach potential customers and maintain past costumers. If you have any questions post them in the comment section or contact Natasha directly.
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