It’s no surprise that real estate marketers are, or will be, engaging with one of the wildest and, frankly, most loosely defined tools to hit the marketing toolbox in quite some time. From writing copy, mapping and web design to CRM management and chatbots, Artificial Intelligence, in all its varied forms, is changing how real estate is marketed, and there is no turning back.
Finding an agency partner who can help shepherd you through the integration of this powerful tool will be important as we all consider what’s the right level of involvement and where in the marketing journey to engage. And to be clear, we see it as just that, a tool. A powerful tool to be sure, but a tool nonetheless, not a replacement for marketers or their advertising agencies, but instead a tool to help accelerate initial thinking. AI allows us to take some of the commoditized and mundane tasks out of the mix to allow for more creative thinking and even a new way to breathe life into a vision that today only exists in your mind.
Just where is AI showing up in real estate marketing?
There are many ways AI is playing a meaningful role in real estate marketing. Here are a few notable use cases our team has identified:
- Market Evaluations: Everything from research to data analytics to reporting and action planning.
- Concept Visualization: While creative concepts will always come from the talented and insightful humans that are responsible for nurturing and growing your brand, AI, when prompted correctly, can help with the visualization of those concepts.
- Mapping: A very important step in overall real estate marketing is mapping, which, of course, can take various forms. By leveraging the power of AI technology we can now support the development of initial site maps, which can be leveraged into more full blown specifications.
- Virtual Tours: This long-standing and important tool to the industry just got a booster shot.
- Web Design: From initial landing and information page to full active community websites, leveraging a variety of AI platforms can go a long way in creating efficiencies and functional integration. As with creative concepts, website design and development will always need to have a watchful eye involved from concept to finished site. While the tools available through AI may help in certain ways on a website project, there is no replacement for the thinking brought by your agency partner.
- Chat Bots: Existing bots will get smarter, initializing them will be quicker and our database of FAQs will grow exponentially when we infuse them with AI tools.
- Lead Generation: This will become even more precise and personalized when we integrate AI into our CRM workflows.
- Personalized Content Development: This will allow us to become even more granular in our one-to-one marketing efforts.
AI tools are coming fast.
And frankly, the possibilities are endless. Some of the tools we use in pursuit of leveraging the power of AI include a wide variety of platforms. Including:
- Midjourney and Stable Diffusion to bring a concept to life and AI-generated art.
- Tango for data analysis and analytics.
- BARD and Chat GPT for strategy consultation and research support.
- Epique and Write Homes for dialed-in content generation.
All of these new platforms and tools deliver benefits to not only the marketers but also the consumer. For marketers, it all boils down to speed and efficiency. Speed in decision-making, speed in creating and speed in execution, not to mention a way to imagine what was unimaginable just a couple of short years ago. For the end user/consumer what it looks like is far more personally curated options and messaging directed to them in the way they want to receive it.
Don’t get left behind.
As real estate marketers it’s clear the power of AI can truly change the game for them and their audiences. It all starts with the ability to be open to it as a tool and not intimidated or apprehensive about it. Be open to it, experiment how you engage with it, be purposeful about how it fits into your marketing plans and learn as you go. Remember, there is no right or wrong when engaging in AI to help augment your efforts, but there are real implications if you ignore it and shy away. The biggest and most important implication of not engaging is being left behind. Your competitors are and/or will be doing the same and thus, it’s time to level up your efforts. One thing to keep in mind as you venture into experimenting with AI tools is that many are not approved for commercial use and so be sure you fully understand what you are getting into.
Once you give yourself permission to lean into AI, find an advertising agency you can partner with to help guide you. At Schaefer, we’ve been heavily exploring and engaging in the technology for nearly a year now and are seeing fantastic results for our clients and our agency. To say it’s the modern way to work smarter, not harder to eclipse your competition is an understatement. Leveraging AI can propel your marketing efforts to the next level while providing you with more time and budget for the project at hand.
At Schaefer, we understand how to integrate the benefits of a variety of AI platforms into existing and future marketing plans. Whether you are a developer, builder, or community planner, we have a roadmap to navigating your landscape as you leverage the power of AI.
