You’re Virtually Missing Out
You’re Virtually Missing Out
Nobody likes missing out, we’ve all experienced our fair share of it over the last 18 months. Now whilst this new normal might have us all missing out on some things, the same doesn’t have to be said for our property marketing tools.
We’ve all had that feeling of FOMO (or, fear of missing out), when all your mates have been invited to a party and your invite got lost in the post. We’ve all had those moments where we missed the boat on something, like taking too long to book a flight and then the price hikes up. It’s a natural part of life.
The property sector has always been a brilliant mix of the old-fashioned and the cutting edge. We’ve always said that the in-person relationships built with customers can never be fully replaced by technology. But the property sector is becoming increasingly technologically minded, if only to keep up with our customers. We’re seeing tech solutions impact the whole customer journey. For homeowners, so much of their search to rent or buy is now conducted online thanks to property search tools like Zoopla, PurpleBricks and more.
Housing development is no different, more and more of the big developers are looking to bolster their offering to service an increasingly digital minded customer base.
What are you actually missing out on?
One of the biggest challenges for housing developers is getting their builds rolled out into showhomes and ultimately, sold off-plan. Whilst in an ideal world, developers would like to get an example of each property style built out into a showhome, that’s not always possible; which means potential buyers may not be able to view their property of choice immediately.
As we said earlier, our customers are getting increasingly digitally-savvy, so through the use of virtual tours you can put off-plan property in front of customers earlier.
Castle Green – Case Study – Beating FOMO to Sell Property Off Plan
Castle Green needed a digital revamp, they injected a digital direction to all their brand touchpoints, which meant the product needed to walk the walk too. Through the power of CGI virtual tours, they were able to visualise their new build developments before they were built.
The Situation
Castle Green Homes is a forward-thinking housebuilder. Formally Macbryde homes, the 35-year-old business is undergoing rapid change to reflect their more digital approach to marketing and selling homes. To align with this new identity and ethos, their entire branding, website and marketing strategy is receiving a digital uplift. In addition they’ve designed a new housetype range to feature on all future developments. Willow Fields is located in Warrington and consists of 145 plots. It’s the first development featuring their new housetype range and is marketed under the new Castle Green branding.
EyeSiteView connected with the Castle Green team in early 2021. Together we defined a brief that redefines their traditional marketing methods and projects an enhanced digital strategy and off-plan sales experience. Without any showhomes built or marketing material for the new housetypes, we proposed creating digital twins of Willow Fields and each housetype to enable the creation of our immersive and interactive services.
Key aims of the project include:
• Ability to launch off-plan and sell homes earlier
• Empower customers & sales advisors with interactive technologies.
The Solution
We generated a cohesive package of digital assets to transform the traditional marketing and sales strategy.
Each service is designed to seamlessly integrate within their:
• Website
• Social Media
• Sales Centre
Examples of services included:
Active Site Plan
The 3d map of the development allows customers to explore the development from above. Each plot is interactive and plot availability, size & price are displayed if selected. Property filters allow the customer to narrow their search specific to their requirements.
CGI Virtual Tours
Virtual Showhome Portfolio – Every housetype in their new portfolio accurately represented in photo-realistic CGI, allowing their customers to jump inside their new home and explore it virtually.
Each Virtual Showhome has the functionality to:
• Explore in immersive 360°
• Toggle between different kitchen & bathroom options
• Turn furniture on & off
• Accessed anywhere on mobile, tablet or desktop
Development Tour – Explore the entire development in 360° before a brick is laid. It’s just like Google Streetview but before it exists.
Home Configurators
Every property includes a Housetype Configurator. An intuitive interactive tool to assist customers visually review specification options and upgrade choices.
Animations & CGI
Traditional fly-through animations, streetscenes and housetype CGI to tell the story of the development
Customer buying behaviors are evolving. Consumers expect instant access and convenience, something Hannah Ryle (Marketing Manager) appreciates:
“We wanted a platform that empowers our customers and puts them in control. Our investment into digital marketing and sales tech allows homebuyers to start their purchasing journey earlier, all from the comfort of their own home.”
The Result
Willow Fields was launched online in June 2021. Sales are strong with many homes already sold off-plan.
The development webpage is packed full of the new interactive CGI assets.
Hannah continues… “We’re really pleased with the end result. The services easily integrated into the current website structure and provides our customers with an enhanced user experience”
The sales team at Castle Green are finding creative ways of using the immersive content. “We love the new tech. I often use the Virtual Tours to teleport my customers inside our virtual showhomes. It really helps them to begin to imagine living there.”
Lindsey Dilworth – Field Sales Manager
Check out the full Castle Green Development Website here.
You don’t need to ‘virtually miss out’ on virtual tours in 2022
New Year is always the best time for resolutions, so as 2021 thunders to an end; why not make 2022 the year to end your property FOMO and start using virtual tours get your new builds to market earlier.
If you’d like to find out more about virtual tours and other interactive sales tools, get in touch with us today to book a demo.
