Millennials and Gen Z are entering the housing market in greater numbers, and it’s a big opportunity for title agents, particularly given the static housing market. It’s no secret that real estate sales were down in 2023, and that trend has continued throughout the first part of 2024. Capturing the pent-up demand of younger buyers is one way to overcome market challenges and boost profitability. But success hinges on shifting your mindset and adopting the right tools and strategies. Here’s how to do it across a few key marketing channels.
The long road to homeownership for Millennials and Gen Z
For many Millennials, it has been a difficult road to homeownership, and not because of eating too much avocado toast.[i] The 2007 financial crisis and subsequent Great Recession is one reason why Millennial homeownership has often lagged their generational predecessors. The picture has changed, however, in recent years. Nearly 40% of new home buyers are now Millennials. The generation also makes up the highest percentage of first-time buyers, increasing their proportion from 70% to 75% over the past year.[ii] Not to be outdone is Gen Z. Data shows that 30% of 25-year-olds are homeowners – 3% higher than their Gen X parents when they were the same age.[iii] While Gen Z currently only makes up 4% of national homebuyers, major subsections such as single women are trending higher than other generations.[iv]
Social media
Let’s begin exploring how to reach these folks by looking first at social media. Why? Well, because it is perhaps the single most important channel for marketing to younger buyers. More than 1 in 4 Millennials use social media to find products and services, and nearly half use different social platforms to conduct research.[v] Blogs circulated via social are even more popular, with 1 in 3 relying on blogs to inform purchasing decisions.[vi] By developing your social presence and incorporating best practices like short-form video, you can amplify your impact and grow your brand.
Mobile friendliness
These days, having a mobile-friendly online presence is a must, especially if you are trying to reach Millennials and Gen Z. Research shows that over 96% of internet users ages 16-64 own a smartphone[vii] and nearly 62% of all website traffic comes from mobile.[viii] Stats like these don’t even speak to the popularity of apps geared toward mobile users. Data shows Gen Z currently spends between 24-48 hours per month on TikTok – which amounts to approximately 24 full days every year![ix]
What does this mean for title agencies? Just put yourself in the mindset of a consumer! Let’s say title agency #1 has a website that looks great on your mobile device while title agency #2 website does not. Which one would you think is going to take care of your closing needs more effectively? I suspect you already know the answer.
Online reviews
One characteristic of younger generations is that they grew up using review sites like Yelp, Google, Foursquare, etc. This trend has continued to the present day. For example, 86% of Gen Z reads reviews ahead of making a first-time purchase.[x] Data like this means your agency must establish a presence on review sites and stay active by responding to user comments and complaints. The benefits of doing so are two-fold. You will become more visible to younger users. And you will showcase that you are a responsive, reliable company committed to their satisfaction.
Partnerships
Even in a digital-first economy like ours, good old word-of-mouth marketing still can’t be beaten. One of the best ways to build positive buzz for your brand is by developing relationships with the real estate agents who guide customers through the home-buying process.
Final thoughts
As anyone involved in real estate knows, this industry is always changing. The rise of Millennial and Gen Z home buyers is just one recent development. By getting digitally savvy, meeting these younger buyers where they are, and making an honest effort to create positive word-of-mouth, you can capture their business and grow your own profitability.
After experiencing sustained growth, many businesses will begin to think about expansion. But while moving into new markets can be an exciting prospect, success often hinges on rigorous planning. Here, we will examine how market research is an important part of this process and how you can develop your own. Let’s jump in.
Market research is key to successful expansion
Navigating business expansion can sometimes resemble trying to pick your way through a thick forest. The trail can feel uncertain and unpredictable where one wrong step could trip you up. Think of market research as a light that illuminates the best path forward. It deepens understanding of potential customers and leads to more informed decision-making. Moreover, it reduces risk, enables the creation of better products and services, and shores up the long-term health of your brand.
The challenge of getting started
Despite its benefits, conducting marketing research can seem like a tall order, especially if you’ve never done it before. All too often, this leads to companies commissioning a report by a third party, which can be quite costly. Depending on the research, the cost can range at least $15,000 – $25,000 a pop.[i] This can be an unnecessary expense, especially as it’s possible to gather a lot of this information on your own.
A deeper dive
So, how do you start a market research report? Begin by sketching out your goals and objectives. Then outline the contours of your target market using these categories:
Market demand for title insurance
Qualitative and quantitative nature of the customer base
Competitor analysis
Regulatory environment (only if different from your current environment)
Competitive advantages you bring to the table
Any barriers that will prevent you from entering the market
Secondary research
After you have this framework, add additional detail by consulting secondary research sources. Fill out the market demand and customer base sections of your report by consulting:
Title industry reports
Government databases
Housing, population and employment trends
Next, learn more about your competitors by following these steps:
Search online for competitors who serve the target market.
Look at business directories and your local land title associations for additional information.
Then, see what your competitors are doing to market their products and services by looking at:
Their website
Social media channels
Review sites
SEO rankings
Any available advertising
Pair this with information on your competitors’ pricing, services and customer base.
In working through this exercise, a better picture of competing organizations will come into focus. The last step is then to populate the sections on your competitive advantages and barriers to entry. Perhaps one of the best tools to use here is what’s known as a “SWOT analysis.” Here’s what that requires you to look at and flesh out:
Strengths: What are you doing right and/or well.
Weaknesses: The potential weak points within your organization.
Opportunities: The opportunities or openings in the market of which you can take advantage.
Threats: What could threaten your ability to enter a new market.
Next steps
Armed with a better understanding of the market, your competitors and how they stack up against your organization’s strengths, weaknesses and capabilities, you can build better offers for your products and market them in a way that connects and converts. Don’t stop with just market research, though. Use this document as the basis for creating a strategic plan, a marketing and sales strategy and even guidance for how your organization can align resources with short- and long-term goals. Combined, these various assets will position you to not only enter your target market but hit the ground running.
Have some of your leads gone cold? Reconnect using these tips!
Nobody likes to see their email leads go cold, but sometimes it happens despite our best efforts. The trick is not to give up hope, especially when there is no reason to do so. There are many strategies to reignite your dormant prospects. We’ll dig into a few of them here.
Why leads go silent
It’s important to note that leads are not static. At the end of the day, leads simply represent people, and people are always changing. Seen through this lens, it becomes clear why a lead that was once active could suddenly go dark. Agencies must continually assess their leads and adjust their approach to avoid this.
Leads can go dormant for reasons that either have to do with the business or with the customer. We will begin on the business side. When putting together your outreach campaigns, problems can arise if:
Your content is no longer relevant to your audience.
The message’s quality is perceived as poor and includes:
Grammatical or spelling mistakes
Delivery or presentation problems
Timing issues
Larger structural issues like lack of brand trust or awareness.
Then there is the customer side of things, which may include:
Budgetary constraints
Changing goals
Staff turnover
Inaccurate data
A competitor offering a more compelling value proposition
Reconnect with your leads
To begin rebuilding a connection with your leads, take a strategic approach by reviewing your marketing lists and segmentation strategies. As mentioned, leads often disengage if your content is no longer relevant to their needs, goals and pain points. Determine if your buyer personas are still accurate and that you are actually sending the right content to the right people at the right time.
After that, review your email marketing programs and ask hard questions about whether you are incorporating all the latest best practices. You may want to consider developing personalized content for future messages. Ensure you emphasize value for the reader. And don’t forget to double check that your copy is optimized for mobile!
Reengagement campaigns
Agencies can also go one step further by creating a reengagement campaign. These campaigns involve sending a series of emails or phone calls (or both) that de-emphasize hard sells and prioritize educational and helpful content. Over time, reengagement campaigns show cold leads that your agency is a trusted, go-to resource that is equally committed to solving their problems as it is to making money.
Keep the momentum!
Once you start to see engagement again, it’s important not to stop. Stay consistent with your messaging. Consider using a content calendar if it’s helpful. Whatever you do, keep a watchful eye on your email analytics. Staying vigilant is the best strategy for adjusting in real time and ensuring your audience stays engaged and happy.
Final thoughts
Sometimes in marketing, it can feel like you are taking one step forward and two steps back, especially when a lead goes quiet. Yet marketing is often a pendulum rather than a straight line. Anytime leads go cold, it can feel like a major setback. But with some thoughtful course correction, your results can soon start swinging in the right direction.
Unless you’re a spring chicken, most real estate and title insurance professionals know that as the weather begins to heat up a bit, so does the market. But seizing on business opportunities during this time is not something that happens by accident. Instead, it requires thoughtful, well-executed marketing strategies. Here’s how you can ensure you’re ready for action now that spring has sprung.
Hope Springs eternal
Starting a new marketing campaign is always an exciting and even hopeful time, especially during the spring selling season. Time and time again, the turning of the seasons brings increased buyer demand, as house hunters and sellers look to make a change and start fresh. Agencies that get proactive about their marketing can capture greater market share and solidify their position as the go-to-resource. It all starts by taking a good, hard look at your current marketing programs and making improvements where necessary.
Spring into action
Nearly everyone has heard the expression “look before you leap,” but it merits repeating whenever contemplating a marketing overhaul. Reviewing your previous marketing activities and taking stock of what has (or hasn’t) worked in the past is an essential first step before embarking on a new campaign.
To do this correctly, spring into action and go channel-by-channel. Assess whether your current strategies have brought you closer to your goals. If you started a social media feed to bring people to your agency’s website, dig into Google Analytics and review acquisition numbers. If your drip emails are intended to promote your offers, inspect click-through rates to determine if they’ve moved the needle.
Apply the principle across the entirety of your marketing output. Only by understanding the historic results of your marketing can you plan for future success.
Spring is in the air
When spring is in the air, put the season at the heart of your marketing and freshen up your copy. Begin with your most important digital asset: your website. Consider rewriting important sections of your site to emphasize the concepts of rebirth. Intertwine these ideas with the real estate market and communicate how your company can keep buyers and sellers safe as they embark on this new beginning. If you can, consider offering a spring-themed promotion. You may also want to create an entire landing page that can act as a hub for your spring campaign and which includes a clear, compelling call-to-action.
Build thematic, impactful campaigns
Once your website has been polished and freshened up, turn your attention to the channels you want to use to promote your products or services. The best part about spring is how well it lends itself to content and social media marketing. Here are a few examples of marketing actions you can take to raise awareness and convey your value:
“Spring cleaning”: Build an educational campaign to get people thinking about how they can ensure a smooth buying or selling process. Instruct aspiring buyers and real estate agents to keep an eye out for anything that may mar title. Frame your copy around the concept of “spring cleaning.” Emphasize how important it is to have all paperwork organized and accounted for prior to proceeding with a transaction.
Hit the road: Spring often brings an up-tick in in-person real estate events, which are prime opportunities for title agents to hit the road and network. Doing this can potentially lead to greater brand visibility and leads, but only if you’ve prepared ahead of time by doing things like practicing your agency’s elevator pitch.
Out with the old in with the new: Leverage the beginning of spring by timing the release of any new products or services you may be unrolling. Doing so dovetails perfectly with the season’s focus on renewal.
Expand your social media: Let’s face it: Title insurance isn’t exactly known for its visual qualities. The spring selling season, however, offers plentiful opportunities to change that. Push as much visual content as you can during this time. Even doing small things like profiling your employees or asking your followers to share their favorite spring memories is a great way to grab eyeballs during a time of increased demand.
Let’s welcome the return of spring
As winter reaches its last legs, what exactly “springs” to your mind? For real estate and title insurance professionals, spring is all about the sales. Carefully reviewing your marketing and leveraging the spirit of the season can help you capture new business and success throughout the year. In short, April showers may bring May flowers, but it can also bring a windfall of increased opportunity and profitability to your firm.
On June 29, 2007, the first iPhone was released, and the rest, as they say, is history. Flash forward over 15 years, and mobile devices have become one of the top ways in which we receive information and make buying decisions. This has naturally had huge implications for businesses. To keep up with this changing customer behavior, it is essential to optimize content for smart devices regardless of the channel you’re using. Here, we will look at how you can ensure your content is picture-perfect for audiences who are more connected, agile and mobile than ever before.
Your digital front door
An organization’s website is one of its most important digital assets – acting, in a sense, as its digital front door. Logically, this makes it a natural place to start your mobile optimization efforts. The good news is that, unless your website is a digital dinosaur, it likely is already functioning properly for mobile. For nearly 15 years, “responsive design” has been a standard practice for web developers, but it is still worth reviewing how your website’s content is rendered across a wide variety of devices. Some important things to keep in mind include:
Review your website’s layout changes depending on the device on which it is being displayed.
When viewing your website on a mobile phone or tablet, make sure the main navigation switches from every main tab are visible in a simplified format, typically consisting of three lines stacked upon one another.
Be sure pictures and videos are displayed correctly and are not cut off horizontally.
Note whether forms are rendered appropriately and displayed in a simple and straightforward fashion.
Determine whether website pages load quickly and efficiently.
These are all standard website functions that modern buyers expect to see, so if you find issues with one or more of these elements, consult your web developer to make the necessary updates.
Go channel-by-channel
After you’re positive that your website is in tip-top shape, it’s time to move on to your other digital assets and take it channel-by-channel. Start with your email marketing software. Even in 2024, email remains one of the most popular marketing channels, making it a valuable place to begin. As with your website, most of today’s email marketing software implemented responsive design practices long ago. Still, it never hurts to verify that you are providing your audiences with the best possible user experience.
Keep the following in mind as you do:
Double-check to see if you are building and sending emails with mobile-friendly templates.
Be careful with the fonts you use and keep your email content short, snackable and to the point.
Reduce the size of any imagery to ensure that your emails load quickly and cleanly.
Conduct ample testing to confirm whether your emails are displaying correctly across devices and email applications.
Keep your overall design simple by avoiding things like columns or code-heavy features.
Once your website and email are ready to go, give some consideration to remaining channels like social media. As with email, most major social media sites have the infrastructure in place to ensure users’ content will be mobile optimized. Agencies would still be well-advised to take the following actions to reduce the possibility of something problematic turning up in their audiences’ feeds:
Review your profile to ensure that each element will appear on your audiences’ screens in the best possible light. That includes using a logo and banner image whose details can still be seen even on a very small screen.
Take particular care regarding your call to action (CTA) element. As the most important part of any given post, it is essential that your CTA is visible and legible.
Be aware of where you are linking your social posts. While your social media profiles will typically render well across devices, you cannot extend that guarantee to other areas of the internet where you are trying to direct traffic.
Final thoughts
The advent of the smartphone changed the marketing game forever, with increasing emphasis being placed on delivering a crisp, clear and powerful digital experience across any device. Thankfully, many marketing platforms are designed to facilitate responsive design and do not require additional technical skills to execute. That doesn’t mean you should just set and forget your marketing campaigns, though. It’s worth taking the time to double- and triple-check your materials to provide an ideal viewer experience. That’s the way you’ll win in today’s marketing environment.
