How social media post timings can boost sales campaigns

A clear social media strategy is more than just posting a picture and hoping that buyers and sellers just “come along”, according to an expert in the space.

Instead, good social media strategies will provide agents and property managers with an effective means to build a digital database and should form part of any property marketing campaign, said Bespoke Media Group’s Nic Fren.

From his perspective, “it shouldn’t be looked at as any less relevant than any other part of your marketing strategy”.

“For a buyer to see a property in the pre-market stage, then to have that property go through an auction campaign, means you have to hold the buyer there for almost five weeks, and in this market, that’s quite a long time,” he flagged.

It’s why he proposes that agents should look to employ any — or all — of the following social media strategies during a property marketing period.

1. The pre-market strategy

It can be worth promoting a property on your social media before launching your entire marketing campaign.

The key benefits here are the low costs incurred, according to Mr Fren. It also enables agents to track exactly where their results are coming from, and which platforms are working best.

2. After seven days

While this strategy may seem strange, Mr Fren believes after the first week can be “the best time” to launch an aggressive social media campaign.

He explained how the major portals will generate a lot of activity with their “NEW” listing rankings, as well as the eDMs the portals send out. Add an agent’s own email blast to the database and you can expect the engagement to be high.

“Once that starts to dip, it’s a great time to extract all the data from the portals (email enquiries) and upload them to Facebook and create a retargeting campaign to put the property back in front of those who have already shown interest,” the marketer continued.

3. Weeks two and three

Not dissimilar to option number two, this approach targets those who have already engaged with a property online, and enables agents to keep those thoughts at the forefront.

“With so many new listings coming onto the market, you want your buyer to subliminally be seeing your property everywhere, creating a feeling of ‘it’s meant to be’,” Mr Fren said.

He also considers it a “great technique for buyers who are not 100 percent sold on the property”.

4. The last seven days

At this point in time, social media can be a “great opportunity to again use the data the portals have collated”.

Then, you can put out a final blast to either firm up interest or generate interest.

According to Mr Fren, content such as “auction this week” or “final inspections” are a great way to encourage buyers to get themselves sorted.

Calls to action, such as “bring that family member through” or “do your due diligence with contracts and inspection reports”, can promote post engagement — and “will almost certainly start generating strong interest ahead of time”, he advised.

5. Sale time

The marketing expert believes it’s at this point in time “where we see a lot of agents really miss the mark”.

“This is a great opportunity to yet again use the data from the campaign, both the email enquiry AND the social media engagement, to retarget the sale of the property,” Mr Fren noted.

Written by Grace Ormsby of Real Estate Business