Millennials currently account for 38% of all homebuyers, with older millennials (born in the 1980s) accounting for 25% of the total, and younger millennials (born in the 1990s) accounting for 13% of the total. If your brokerage is unable to reach this group, you’re leaving lots of money on the table.
Luckily, millennials are easy to find — they’re all online! Here’s how today’s brokers are thinking digitally to reach millennial buyers.
1. Social Media
90.4% of Millennials are active social media users. And with users spending an average of three hours per day on social networks and messaging systems, there’s a lot of opportunity to reach millennial buyers via social media.
But what should you post about? Here are some ideas for engaging social media posts:
- Polls: Try polling your social media followers with the question, “What is preventing you from becoming a homeowner?” This will give you an opening to start overcoming buyer objections such as down payment requirements and monthly mortgage costs.
- Buyer tips: Give buyers insight into how the buying process works by offering tips on topics such as house hunting, preapproval and making an offer.
- Neighborhood info: Promote the benefits of living in each neighborhood, highlight neighborhood businesses and post video tours of drives through each neighborhood.
- Sales stats: How many homes sold last month? How long did the average home stay on the market? How did the sales price compare to the list price?
2. Online Ads
There are several options for online advertising to reach millennial buyers.
One of the easiest online ads is simply to “boost” or promote any of your social media posts to a wider audience for a fee. Alternatively, you could set up any of these post topics as an ad, targeted to reach specific demographics. But choose your demographics carefully; because of Fair Housing laws, social media platforms may not allow you to target ads based on gender, age or any of the other protected classes.
You could also create a pay-per-click campaign to use Google searches to capture more leads. Google searches for “process of buying a house” were up 950% week over week at one point in the summer of 2020, so you know first-time buyers are looking for information online. You just need to choose your keywords and set your advertising budget for Google Ads. Google will promote your website, and you’ll pay a small fee any time a user clicks on your promoted link.
3. Single-Property Landing Pages
Single-property landing pages are a quick and inexpensive way to impress your millennial buyers. As the name implies, single-property landing pages are one-page websites devoted entirely to a single property. This is a good place for all your online ad traffic to “land” so visitors can learn more about the property and get information on scheduling a tour or meeting with an agent. Because these landing pages are just one property on one page, the buyer can stay focused on that property (and your brokerage) without getting distracted by other properties and other brokerages.
In addition to impressing buyers, this feature could help your listing presentation stand out in the minds of sellers. Who wouldn’t want their property promoted with its own website? With PropStream’s built-in marketing features, you can easily create your own landing pages. These features are included in your membership, so it won’t cost you anything to add this substantial value for your buyers and sellers.
Millennials are buying homes in 2021. To reach them, you have to meet them where they are. Get on social media, create your online ads and set up single-property landing pages to attract millennials to your brokerage.
