Takeaways:
- Millennials have been marketed to their whole lives and seek relatable content.
- There is a general misconception that this demographic is one of entitlement, but rather it is a generation that wants informative feedback.
- Although millennials have a great deal of data at their fingertips, they still need help navigating the real estate process.
SAN FRANCISCO — What makes a joke funny? There is always a hint of truth in it. So it’s no surprise that when the Inman Connect session focused on marketing to millennials began, the first panelists were Wes Pinkston and Eric Simon, authors of the comedic real estate blog The Broke Agent.
Pinkston and Simon, millennials themselves, pointed out that their generation has been inundated with marketing their entire lives and that it takes a human touch to reach them.
They admitted that social media is their world; content must be relatable to find a means of reaching them
To this end, they incorporate humor in their messaging and have found that it immediately puts their audience at ease and gains their attention.
These wisened millennials use this opportunity to build trust with their audience by providing information that is valuable to their network.
The second group of panelists included Roh Habibi of Coldwell Banker and one of his millennial sellers, as well as Kat Carroll of Pacific Union with one of her millennial buyers.
Carroll’s buyer defined millennials as people under 35 and pointed out that there is a general misconception that this demographic is one of entitlement, but rather it is a generation that wants informative feedback.
They do not want to be told what to do; that want expert insight to influence their decision-making. When helping millennials prepare offers, Carroll recommends not supplying the price, but providing advice and letting the buyer make an informed decision.
Habibi’s seller explained that he originally thought he could sell his property without the help of an agent to save on commission. He thought that open houses were old-fashioned, and that all he needed was a lockbox and the house would sell itself.
Habibi helped him see the value of working with an expert agent, as well as how bringing the human element to marketing utterly changed the results for his sale.
This seller is now a convert who appreciates the effort an agent spends to show property and help buyers see the opportunity from an expert’s perspective.
The overarching message from all the panelists was that though millennials have a great deal of data at their fingertips, they still need help navigating the real estate process and making sense of the flood of data.
The best way to work with millennials is to build trust by providing value through insight and transparency.
Heather Sittig Jackson is the CEO and co-founder at Relola. You can follow her on Twitter or on LinkedIn.