Real Estate Advertising During Coronavirus

Advertising can perform a vital function to society by providing a service to people researching where they will live when it’s safe after Coronavirus. Advertising helps people discover property or financing products they might want or need.

When a real estate, home service or PropTech brand provides relevant, tasteful advertising content, they are providing a consumer benefit, not shilling products.

During the last major recession in 2008 the digital advertising industry grew when billions of dollars shifted away from expensive traditional media onto the web where it was cheaper and measurable.

Below are a few timeless ways marketers have thought about their paid media investments during a recession or downturn, written for the real estate industry, and in the context of this specific COVID-19 recession:

• Just like buying stocks in a bear market, it’s the best time to invest your marketing dollars, if done correctly, because media is already about 25% cheaper than it was in early March, and these commodities perform just as well as when they are expensive. This is counter-intuitive, but true for most industries. By some estimates, online traffic has jumped 50% - 100% since the Coronavirus. People are stuck at home watching, reading, listening, and browsing at voracious volumes right now. Everyone is online and seeing ads all day. Help inform them with your message or service.
• COVID-19 will subside, eventually. Expect demand to resume. In the meantime don’t let your prospects forget about you when they are online and consuming more content than ever. Having sustaining brand awareness isn’t wasteful when ad prices are 25% lower.
• Advertising is one of the few ways companies can stimulate demand for their services, especially when everyone is online all day. Many of these services are valuable to moving our country and world forward: financing and securing a place to live when they need to.
• Consumers and businesses are being forced into a total digital immersion of commerce, remote work, schooling, and communication. The real estate industry is confronting the new reality of virtual open houses, self-entry, video marketing, and impersonal transactions. Marketing will be harder via in-person showings, billboards, or community events.
• People don’t make real estate decisions in 2 or 4 weeks. Oftentimes real estate is a 3 to 12 month search process. Stay present online as people continue to think about where they want to live.

The bottom line is: advertising seems wasteful right now. But the opposite is true if the message and service being provided is tasteful and can help people with whatever challenges they are facing now, or in the future. Its affordable and measurable.