To be successful at marketing real estate in Nigeria (specifically commercial real estate), there is no one solution or “magical/immediate solution” to help individuals or teams grow their Nigerian businesses and/or sell their properties faster or better.
One must look at the whole picture and understand that “online marketing real estate in Nigeria” is not a single act or a strategy in and of itself but rather a complementary force to sales efforts and a key addition that both builds upon and enhances the core strengths of a sales team.
Most of the commercial leasing and sales teams within Nigeria are structured in such a way that marketing persons typically supports a commercial real estate broker or a team of brokers who then conceptualizes, carries out, and services both business development and property marketing strategies in order to assist with growing the business unit.
Here are 9 Marketing Strategies for Real Estate Businesses in Nigeria
Core abilities development
In an era of unprecedented lack of trust in financial institutions and financial services, it is important that a Nigerian real estate salesperson possess certain core abilities as a prerequisite to doing business in that they understand not just the products and services they are selling, but the environment in which they are conducting business, as well as the needs and wants of their customers.
A Nigerian real estate salesperson must, at the very least, have the financial wherewithal, business acumen, and understanding of the legal landscape in Nigeria in order to handle a variety of multi-faceted, complex, and multi-party interactions both efficiently and effectively.
Promote your Value
Nigerian real estate sales professionals must focus on providing something of value, by gently asking the clients who love you the most to get the word out for you, and wait. Your value will sell itself, in time.” In addition to working hard and establishing a solid reputation, you can leverage your perception through public relations efforts, whether it be speaking at an industry event, writing a column for a local business journal, or sharing a case study that is relevant to the community’s economic development efforts.
Be consistent
Consistency builds trust, whether it be producing a monthly newsletter, a quarterly report, a reoccurring event in your market, or always returning calls within a certain amount of time, establishing consistency in your approach to business will build trust over time: the foundation for solid relationships.
Create Goals Mindset
Successful entrepreneurs tend to create S.M.A.R.T. goals. This surely holds true for real estate professionals. By formulating goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant to the business, and timely, S.M.A.R.T. goals are more fastidiously realized and achieved.
Relationship Management and Development
This one speaks for itself. Whether your goal as a real estate professional is to sell more properties, represent more buyers, gain additional market share, or be a resource to the community at large – make sure you’re spending time formulating the types of relationships that lend themselves to accomplishing such objectives.
Leveraging other platforms
There are a variety of platforms (most notably hotel.ng, jumiatravels.com, jiji.ng) that work to promote your product and service offerings. By continuously monitoring the effectiveness of such platforms, you can adjust your usage of each service to meet the level that most effectively matches your business goals.
inbound marketing
For brokers who rely on cold calling, direct mail, and newspaper advertising, the audience for such messaging is quickly dwindling.
Much more effective than an outbound marketing strategy is an inbound marketing plan where business flows in to you based on the information and resources you put out to the world so that people can find you, whether it be through establishing a blog or Twitter account, joining a specific LinkedIn group, or formulating a social media strategy in general.
Conclusion
In short, to be successful at marketing real estate in Nigeria, there are no shortcuts. Building a successful strategy requires taking a look at the whole picture; building a strong business requires hard work, critical thinking, and strong execution skills.
You must not only have the know-how, the strategic approach, and the appropriate team in place to actualize goals, but the alignment of sales and marketing efforts in order for the business to grow.
Above all, satisfying customer needs through a systematic approach to uncovering opportunity and effectively servicing requirements through a foundation of strong relationships is not only the most straight-forward, but sustainable approach to growing your business.
When understood and leveraged properly, marketing can work to amplify and increase the reach of such messaging to result in a simply unbeatable approach.
