The real estate market is very crowded, with approximately 2 million active real estate licensees in the United States alone, As a real estate professional, your goal is to grow your business. However, without a good 4C marketing model, all your time and efforts will be in vain.
In the real estate business, it is not how much you work, but how you work, that determines the success of your business. A successful real estate professional knows the importance of a marketing model in the real estate business and uses it to earn revenue.
The 4C Marketing Model
Table of Contents
The 4C marketing theory was first proposed by Professor Robert F. Lauterborn, substituting the traditional 4P marketing model by changing the perspective to customer demands. The marketing elements of the 4P marketing model are – Customer, Cost, Convenience, and Communication.
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Firstly, these elements emphasize on putting customers’ satisfaction in the real estate business as the priority.
Secondly, to alleviate problems, the focus is on reducing the purchase cost for the customer, while making a profit.
Thirdly, you should focus on making it more convenient for the customer to purchase goods instead of determining your marketing strategy, and making the process more inconvenient.
Finally, you need to build customer confidence by engaging with your customer via effective consumer-based marketing communication.
After you know the significance of the 4C marketing model in the real estate business, you’ll be able to think about your business from the customer’s perspective, which can be beneficial for your real estate business.
1. Customer
The 4C marketing model strategy signifies that you must be able to identify your target customer. Keep in mind that you may be targeting multiple groups rather than a single one. As a real estate professional, you should be able to identify your customer’s needs and demands.
In short, you can achieve operational success only by identifying your potential customers, understanding their demand for real estate throughout the market, and satisfying those with proper targeting and marketing.
This leads your customer to think that you value their demands, which improves communication, thus leading to more sales. Keeping the following two points in mind will add a different dimension to your marketing campaigns:
- Know your target customer
- Satisfy your customer’s demand
2. Cost
In general, the cost in a real estate business is considered from the seller’s point of view to gain more profit.
However, the 4C marketing theory approaches cost consideration from the consumer’s point of view. You have to understand how much the consumer would be willing to pay and evaluate the value so that they find it affordable, satisfactory, and value for money.
Keep these guidelines in mind while evaluating the cost.
- Research on the value you decided for your real estate property and check if that figure is reasonable and affordable for your target customer.
- Check if the value your customer is willing/able to pay is still profitable to you.
- Determine the market value, your expenses, service charges, taxes, and other expenses. Also, determine the expenses of your target customer and then estimate the rate of your property.
- Remember that you should drop your price to the bottom line. To convince your customer to buy by offering a low price, you might hurt the value of your property and your business. Therefore, setting a low price doesn’t always drive sales.
3. Convenience
Customer convenience is everything when it comes to the real estate business. Customers want a reliable and secure means for easy purchase of the property.
In short, customer convenience is any element or customer experience that saves the customer’s time and effort. Hence, business models centered on providing convenience are remarkably successful. Consider these points to make it easier for your customers to buy from you:
- Determine the barriers that your customer might face when they are trying to locate your property. You can boost your online presence with Google listing.
- Help out your customer through the purchasing process and make sure that they do not face any hurdles through the process. Always ask yourself what kind of customer support you should offer to make it more convenient for your customers. If you are providing loan assistance, make sure to mention it on your real estate marketing flyers.
- Make your website appealing and user-friendly to your targeted customer. Make them feel secure and friendly when they visit your website. Make sure that your website is optimized to load faster and easy to navigate.
- Consider hiring a real estate market expert and offering your real estate product through multiple sources. This might hit your profit margin a bit, but by making it more convenient for your customer, you can drive more sales.
Thus, customer convenience is the key to the real estate business.
4. Communication
In 4C marketing theory, communication refers to how you are going to engage with your customer. You should use multiple ways to engage with your target customers and build trust with them. Even the best of real estate properties are getting less to zero visitors because of the lack of a proper communication strategy.
You should promote your business by saying what you have to say and reaching it out to the maximum number of potential customers. Also, communication strengthens your understanding of the customer and build trust in your brand. Keep the following points in mind before you communicate with your customer:
- Engage with your potential customer through meaningful communication and build the confidence of your customer for your brand. However, you need a good communication plan.
- Every customer wants to know how your real estate business can offer something better than your respective competitors. Your communication with your customer should answer those questions.
- Social media is a powerful communication channel. You can use social media to promote your real estate business, you can use images as well as a video presentation to gain more attention. Social media is the best platform to engage with your potential customers and also gain their feedback.
Conclusion
The previous model of focusing on personal benefits overlooks the most important component of marketing – the customer. When you switch to the customer perspective, you start understanding the burdens of the end-user and what goes through their heads.
By focusing on market research, setting up a reasonable price, providing convenience to the customer, and interacting and engaging with potential buyers, you stand at a better chance to market your product, and profit comes naturally instead of constantly worrying about it.
Moreover, it will also set up a base for future clients as you grow with experience after every rejection and understand customers better.
humayoun mussawar
•4 years ago
You can use different social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to attract potential customers. Facebook’s real estate marketing strategies are the new talk of the town because of its ease of use and effectiveness.