The online behaviour of international buyers has some simple lessons for achieving more sales.
The world’s top marketers have been using data for decades to create their vision of the perfect buyer and tailor campaigns accordingly. If we truly understand our buyers, it’s only a short step to make the small changes that increase leads.
Kyero’s traffic statistics contain a treasure trove of demographic data on buyers. Gender, age and device preference can all be used to make subtle changes to sales and marketing activity that will raise your international appeal.
First, let’s take a look at the data:
Kyero’s entire visitor base is split almost exactly 50/50 by gender, but this quickly changes across national boundaries. In Sweden women take clearer charge of house searches, while German and Italian men prefer to dominate the property hunt.
With the split roughly even, the general rule should be to avoid sexual stereotyping. At the same time there are recognised tendencies in gender behaviour that you can use to keep both sexes happy (and make gender irrelevant).
When writing sales copy, aim to please everybody. Female buyers are more likely to want to form an emotional attachment to the property and you should help them paint themselves into a picture of their new lives.
Replace “The villa has a large kitchen” with “The spacious kitchen is ideal for entertaining”.
Meanwhile men are more likely to want practical information: What’s the energy rating? Is the broadband speed good? Is everything old, and will it need fixing?
Maximise appeal by combining hedonic (emotional) and utilitarian (practical) language
Use colours that appeal to both sexes in your agency’s brand design. Blue is a trusted colour, admired by both men and women. On the flip side, purple is a divisive colour loved by women and loathed by men.
A purple logo in Ibiza (dominated by male German buyers) could be a bad idea!
Whilst researching this piece, we took a look round at the websites of established agents. Prestige Properties in Ibiza is just one example of good practice. They utilise colour and imagery beautifully to create a great first impression for both sexes:
The stereotypical view that international buyers in Spain are old isn’t entirely true.
Certainly they are at the upper end of the age range but retirees form quite a small proportion of the overall picture. On average most buyers are aged over 45, with notable national differences: Germans are around 10 years younger than Brits, over half all French buyers are over 55, while Italians are mostly younger people of working age.
If you’re planning a billboard campaign or print advertising for a new development, choice of imagery will be very important. A Pew research piece in 2009 showed that the gap between actual age and “felt” age increases over time.
This means if your market is over 50, DON’T use imagery where everyone has grey hair. This age group sees themselves as younger, so pick images of happy people in their 40s instead.
The difference reduces at the lower end of the range. If you’re selling to Italians in the Canaries, don’t reduce their age in marketing photos. Depict them as they are: Adventurous and entrepreneurial 30-40 year olds.
Demographics can also inform the sales information you provide. For example, younger audiences are more likely travel for work – is there a local bus service?
Prepare answers to likely questions in your sales copy to reduce friction and increase leads.
Tech habits confirm a stereotype that international buyers are affluent: While iOS devices form only 30% of the total smartphone/tablet market, fully 60% of Kyero’s audience uses an Apple device. If you can afford an iPhone, you’re probably doing okay in life.
The use of smartphones and tablets has exploded in recent years and Kyero has invested very heavily to ensure our site works both quickly (where bandwidth is limited) and responds gracefully on a vast array of devices. Three years ago it was barely an issue – and now it informs every part of the design process.
Luckily you don’t need an engineering team to take advantage of the trend, and there are national differences you should respond to: Belgian, French and German buyers still love their desktop computers so ensure the property images you use online are large.
While images are automatically scaled down on small screens, this approach allows photos to expand nicely on big screens.
At the opposite end of the scale Brits and Italians are the biggest gadget addicts, with Brits using tablets notably more than any other nationality.
Small screens present a different set of problems: Users are less patient and making a good first impression is harder. Ensure the primary property image they see (the thumbnail) is the best photo you have, and that the first paragraph of your sales copy provides a killer summary quickly – ideally in less than 200 characters.
These two tips will improve first impressions and increase your lead rate.
Gadget addicts prefer the convenience of electronic communication to the telephone. They are likely to be less patient than other users, so the guiding mantra for increasing conversions should be speed of response. Responsive agents close more sales.
Happy selling!
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