Selling property off the plan presents unique challenges, particularly when the market is soft.

But fear not, help is at hand from this 20 year sales and project marketing veteran. He will share some sales tips and ideas beyond online portal listings and digital advertising to help you sell out your next property development project.

John Meagher, from Three Sixty Property Group, is one of Australia's leading project marketers and has been involved in some of Australia’s most iconic and successful residential developments. He has spent more than twenty years in senior sales and marketing positions and is responsible for the sale of more than 20,000 residential properties. So he knows a thing or two about selling off the plan!

We have a great discussion around marketing and selling property developments. Keep an ear out for how John approaches thinking about a marketing strategy, particularly his comment around being parachuted into an area without any digital back up, how he looks to segment, target and sell, and different ways to connect with prospects in places you may not have thought of.

I think you will enjoy this discussion, I certainly did.

Lessons for real estate developers

There is some absolute solid gold bullion in that conversation about how you go about marketing and selling property developments. I really enjoyed my chat with John and took these points away with me:

1. Think beyond digital boundaries when selling property off the plan

I loved John's comment about what would you do if you parachuted into an area with no digital back up and had to make some sales. What would you do? Who would you talk to? How would you start? This is a great way of thinking beyond portal listings or social media advertising to add some breadth to your marketing campaign. So give some thought to how you might market your developments without any digital channels...

2. Segmenting your buyer audiences to succeed

This simple formula is all about understanding who are the likely buyers of your product. What are their motivations, where are they hanging out before they look at your online listing, what are they looking for in their next property? I liked John's suggestion of interviewing existing purchasers to see what they like or didn't like about your marketing materials or process, and how did they find your project? These are all great ways to find out who you should be targeting and what messages might resonate with them.

3. Develop a deep understanding of the market where you are selling property off the plan

How deeply do you understand the market you are selling in? Do you feel like you are on top of the trends and demands of buyers in the area? Is there a gap in what is being asked for and what is available? Can you make any connections with local community groups like trader associations or sporting clubs to help expand the reach of your message? You can use all this local intelligence to shape and form your project and product.

And finally, John encouraged a relentless focus on quality, which I agree with.

If you enjoyed the discussion around project marketing then go back to the awesome conversation I had with Andy Hoyne in episodes 47 & 48: