By Varun Singh

For the last few days, a picture has gone viral on social media. It is of a billboard that shows a plus 0.25BHK homes.

The tweet on the social media platform gained a lot of traction, with some being sarcastic, while a few terming the concept of 2.25BHK and 2.75BHK a gimmick.

SquareFeatIndia’s Varun Singh spoke with Vishal Agarwal of Kirsala Developers who came up with this concept to understand the mystery behind this.

According to Agarwal, there’s no mystery behind the 2.25BHK and 2.75BHK homes that he is offering in his Pune project.

He has termed the additional 0.25 bedroom that he is offering in his project as ‘My Studio Space’. “This additional 0.25 Bedroom in the 2BHK apartment is the space that can be used for anything, With the current situation the 0.25 bedroom can be used for Work From Home or someone can convert it into a puja room,” said Agarwal.

He further claimed that in Pune, where his project is coming up many homebuyers opt for 2.5BHK so the additional 0.25BHK would make the home 2.75BHK.

“The same way 0.25 bedroom is for 2BHK it would be the same for 2.5BHK,” said Agarwal.

Actually, Krisala developers are developing a project in Pune’s Hinjewadi named 41 Cosmo. The project was launched on June 17, and in the last month, the project received a total of 270 tokens.

There are a total of 188 apartments available for sale in the project, These token are available for a refundable amount varying between Rs 41,000 to Rs 3 lakh.

The flats are allotted on a first come first serve basis to the homebuyers. Those who do not get the homes refunded the amount within 7 working days and also are then first in the queue for the next project.

Agarwal claims that he has been watching and reading the comments that people are posting on his concept of the plus 0.25BHK, but he doesn’t take them negatively. The mystery he says is that most of his homebuyers are happy with the concept and hence it’s working for him and his company.

The company was launched around 12 years ago by Agarwal’s eldest brother Sagar then his other brother Aakash and he joined the company.

Also Read: Affordable Housing Share Dips, Builders Launching More Premium Homes

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Here are six marketing tips that can help real estate professionals, builders, real estate agents to have sales.

Recently Godrej had. announced that it sold 500 homes. These homes were sold in the second half of March. They say this was possible as the company focused on digital sales tools to sustain operations despite the lockdown.

Gaurav Gupta, a marketing and communication expert, who has worked in the real estate industry for one and half decade has shared six marketing tips for battling the lockdown digitally.

1. GIVE THE BUSINESS A HUMAN FACE

Real Estate has always been a people-centric segment. Being one of the biggest purchases in one’s life, homebuyers still take suggestions from friends and family. No wonder,  real estate site visits and open houses have been human dependent all these years.

In the background of social distancing and lockdowns, ready the best customer-facing salesperson you have and make him or her to become the face of the business. Train them to talk in front of the camera the way an expert friend would do in-person.

A weekly live broadcast on social media pages is a great tool. One hour ‘live’ on a peak day of the week, that’s it! Not only he can discuss problems via live Q&A but also give insights and tips on choosing the right #realestate #product. 

This is also a great opportunity to demonstrate your product through virtual tours or online open house videos. Ensure to give incredible free value and don’t forget to have a call-to-action in all the captions.

2. MAKE YOUR DIGITAL MARKETING ‘EXPERIENTIAL’

Now is the time to engage with your audience like a real-world situation, and that too online. Virtual Tours have been around for a while now and are still being employed. However, the need of the hour is to have a more personalized approach with a human element.

Real Estate marketers should immediately start producing valuable and relevant content that guides the audience to take the desired decision. VideoMarketing would work the best here. The budget split should be 60:40 with respect to #branding initiatives and PPC campaigns. 

Homework includes ensuring that your website is mobile compatible, easy to load (as the internet is an issue at many places during the lockdown).

3. UP YOUR SEO GAME

Potential customers and clients are searching tons of queries with keywords every day, especially during the lockdown. They are investing a lot of time to research and plan future investments but are waiting for things to normalize. Which it will, eventually. 

SEO whether paid or organic reaches the customer exactly when they are specifically searching for it. If bundled up with a potent opt-in email marketing campaign, SEO would work wonders. 

As the saying goes, “When the market is good, you sell. When the market is bad, you should brand.”

4. STAY ON TOP OF THE MIND WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS. EVEN THE OLD ONES!

The COVID-19 crisis has led man to uncertainty and that is what pains the most. As a real estate business, you need to be close to your audience, even more. 

Check on your clients, prospects and VDNBs( visits done but not bought), even the one those who have already bought. DO NOT sell rather mean that you care and stand by your customers in the time of distress and uncertainty. 

Share insights, latest reports, validating their recent investments by highlighting the benefits they would reap because of the purchase. Eventually, they would start talking for you.

5. SOCIAL MEDIA AT YOUR SERVICE

Everybody is on social media and more and more people are joining every day. Now here is the thing- while your social media is a type of owned media, it is also your online real estate which should be used to stay on-top-of-the-mind of your audience.

Start curating an online community and engage with them. Come up with warm, entertaining as well as meaningful #socialmedia content that exemplifies your brand and also assists the audience in coping up with the crisis

Do not hesitate to experiment a lot. Again, it’s the right time to build communities and encourage interaction via User Generated Content. Give them a platform to showcase themselves. Do not forget to occasionally highlight the good things your company is doing for the community during COVID-19. This is ORM (Online Reputation Management) in a way!

6. INVEST IN UNDERSTANDING YOUR BUYER’S PERSONA

The ‘normal’ after the COVID-19 crisis will not be the same as we all know. In such a dynamic environment, every marketer ought to adjust their lenses regularly to understand the buyers’ persona. Something that was important a couple of months back may not be of any importance now or in the coming days. The more you understand your audience and their persona, the better you can solve their problem.   

Primary research such as surveys, dipsticks or one-on-one interviews, backed up with data and insights to understand the buyers’ persona better will only bring in more and more efficiency to your marketing efforts. 

Today there’s a dire need of coming up with customized and more targeted messaging that can happen only by understanding in what stage of decision making your audience is.

Keep in mind that the current scenario is stressful for both, businesses and buyers. Especially a high involvement category such as real estate needs to stand by its target audience with empathy and personalization. 

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are that of the expert, they do not reflect the views and opinions of Square Feat India.

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