Rising Popularity of Webinarsin Indian Real Estate

Trends, Insights & Gaps

A Survey by

FOREWORD

Presently, across the world,

lockdowns are suspended and

normalcy is getting restored. With

government incentives towards

capital injection coupled with our

grit & efforts, we are hopeful that

soon we would be able to offset

the economic losses due to the

slowdown.

However, there can be no denying

the fact that the new normal is not

going to be same. Meetings, face-

to-face interactions & property

exhibitions would be largely

avoided in this post-COVID world.

At a time when the traditional brick

& mortar-based offline models will

be greatly curtailed, realtors need

to adapt to the digital realities.

For an industry which has largely

remained offline, the overnight

flight towards going digital is not

without hiccups.

Home purchase is generally

perceived as a high involvement

decision & conducting most of the

customer interactions over the web

is a little challenging. However, the

lockdown period demonstrated

that real estate, like any other asset

class, can be smoothly transacted

over the web. All it requires is an

engaging and transparent platform

that can reach out to target

audience, pique their interest

effectively, address the pain areas

& facilitate smooth transactions.

Webinars have already existed

in the industry from quite some

time. However, their popularity

got a shot in the arm during the

mandatory lockdown period

as most of the developers and

realtors leveraged the medium to

ramp up their digital marketing.

To further scrutinize the efficacy

of webinars in real estate

marketing, we have surveyed on

414 respondents from the industry,

which includes developers,

marketers, sales professionals,

channel partners & real estate

journalists across India. The

survey findings yield the growing

significance of webinars, besides

numerous other essential metrics.

It can render useful insights for

realtors, developers & marketers

about how to strategize & leverage

webinar marketing in the future.

As the rules of marketing are in flux, webinars are emerging as a popular tool amongst realtors to market and sell their products.

Ankit KansalFounder & MD, 360 Realtors

INTRODUCTIONThe recent crisis has proved that Real Estate can be trans-acted over the web as developers, advisories, marketers & the most important component in a Real Estate value chain, the buyers, are showing signs of technological adoption.

On the back of thriving digital

innovations & technological

adoption, the dawn of a new era

is visible in Indian Real Estate,

flagged off by progressive &

forward-looking management

styles, wider adoption of remote

working cloud software &

proactive digital innovations

driving most of the human

interactions.

As major developers are altering

their business model and upgrading

their digital capabilities to facilitate

seamless property transactions,

webinars are playing a pivotal role

in marketing, promoting & selling

properties. They are offering a

content-rich and value-driven

platform to reach out to a large

number of potential buyers in

real-time, elucidate them about

current opportunities in the

market & address their queries in a

personalized manner.

TRADITIONALCHANNELS

EVENTS &ONLINE

DIGITALUPGRADING

Door to Door Marketing

Yellow pages

Classifieds

TV commercials

Radio-Telemarketing

Mobile Marketing

Content Marketing

Search Ads

Social Media Marketing

Real Estate Events

Emailers

Webinars

Virtual Events

Teleconfrencing

Analytics

The Rising Popularity of Webinarsin Modern MarketingAmidst such evolving

trends & ascending

momentum seen in online

Real Estate, webinars

(& related software)

are emerging as one

of the go-to platforms

to engage with various

stakeholders, employees,

channel partners & of

course, customers.

However, webinars are

nothing new in Indian

& international Real

Estate. At the onset

of the decade, the use

of webinars began in

modern Real Estate

across both residential &

commercial Real Estate,

targeting buyers, sellers &

channel partners.

This gives it an edge over

traditional tools of digital

marketing such as blog

posts & videos. It also

provides a conducive

platform to the realtors to

easily explain & elaborate

complex topics to the

viewers alongside sharing

tips on property buying

and addressing potential

customer queries.

Further, with the help of

embedding numerous

complementary tools such

as videos, infomercials,

downloadable reports,

survey polls, online

forms & brochures, these

webinars are made

content-rich & value-

driven.

Research in the past has yielded that on an average, buyers can remain engagedfor around 40-45 minutes in a webinar.

Through fruitful engagement, webinars can also aid the host to showcase their thought lead-ership skills to a wider audience.

“

Conducive platform to explain complex issues in

a simplified manner

Sharing tips on Property Buying

AddressingCustomer Queries

Positioning as a Thought Leader

Driving customer engagement through narrated videos, info-mercials, downloadable reports

Procuring actionableinsights with the help ofsurvey polls, online forms etc.

Reach out to geographically dispersed potential customers.“

The Rising Popularity of Webinarin a Post-COVID WorldIn a post-COVID world, webinars

have fortified their position as an

effective tool in the sales & marketing

of Real Estate products. Today when

people are mostly avoiding physical

interactions, webinars are providing

an effective alternate platform

to reach out to customers and at

the same time maintaining social

distancing. Not only will webinars be

used for generating quality leads and

engage the existing pipeline, but they

will also contribute towards brand

building & maintaining the market

share, crucial levers to foster growth,

once the process of economic

recovery starts. As traditional face-

to-face marketing channels are

losing steam in a post- COVID world,

webinars will continue to fill the

existing marketing

gap.

wherein 90% of the respondents

indicated their importance.

Likewise, 91% of the respondents

demonstrated that in a post-

COVID world, their importance

will continue to gain momentum.

Likewise close to two-third

respondents have conveyed that

they can be used for showcasing

new products. 59% of the

respondents have suggested that

it enables in tapping into new

geographies and markets.

Little less than one-third of

the respondents believe that

webinars can be useful in selling

properties. Similarly, over 35%

suggested that they can generate

leads.

The growing importance of webinars was further confirmed in the 360 Realtors’ survey report,“

“Over half of the respondents believe that webinars are an effective medium to elaborate general trends in real estate.

Yes

No

Can’t Say

Are Webinars Important to Market & Sell Real Estate

Yes

No

Can’tsay

Will Importance of Webinars Rise ?

Benefits of Webinar

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

89.70%

5.90%

4.40%

3%

6%

91%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Expla

in G

ener

al

tren

ds in

Rea

l Est

ate

To S

ell

Brand

Positio

ning

Tap in

to

New

Geo

graphi

csO

ther

s

Showca

se N

ew

Proje

cts

Address

Cus

tom

er

Que

ries

Gen

erat

e

Lead

sCan

’t

say

54.40%63.20%

32.30%

41.20% 38.20%35.30%

58.80%

7.40%1.50%

2.90%

60%

50%

70%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Two-third of the respondents

suggested that webinars can drive

overall engagement. Likewise, 30%

believe they offer a personalized

approach to the attendees. Over

59% expressed that webinars are

very insightful & informative, which

is further resulting in their growing

popularity.

Likewise, evenings (4 PM – 7 PM) are the best time slots.

The survey further yielded the fact that weekends are the best days to host a Real Estate webinar.

The growing popularity of webinars is rooted in multiplefactors.

In a new normal, webinars will

continue to drive customer

engagement and will be actively

used by real estate advisories,

developers & marketers. However,

to make it more effective in terms

of generating leads & improving

conversions, it is essential to

make them more interactive and

engaging. Pure vanilla-type webinar

sessions with a key focus on just

selling a product might not augur

very effective in the longer run.

As most of the developers and

realtors already doing a lot

of webinars, a possible risk of

saturation can’t be discounted.

Hence to stand out, webinars need

to be more customer-centric with

a key focus on adding value to the

customer. Likewise, they need to

be designed in such a way that

engages the customers effectively

and offers them a personalized

approach.

CONCLUSION“

Monday Wed/Thursday(Mid-week)

Days don’tmatter

Tuesday Friday Weekends(Sat & Sunday)

Can’t say

Drive CustomerEngagement

Informative &Insightful

Can’t sayPersonalization Easily Consumable Others

14.70%

47.10%

26.50%

10.30%

1.50%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Morning(9AM - 12PM)

Afternoon(12PM - 4PM)

Evening(4PM - 7PM)

Time does not matter

Can’t say

Best Time to Conduct Webinars

Best Days to Host Webinars

Factors driving popularity of Webinars

66.70%

30.40%

59.40%

26.10%

10.10%5.80%

60%

50%

80%

70%

40%

30%

10%

20%

0%

1.50% 1.50%

20.30%

10.10%

59.40%

4.40% 2.90%

60%

50%

70%

40%

30%

10%

20%

0%

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