Marketing luxury homes needs to be done with precision to attract the ideal high-end buyer. Here, Ray White Sovereign Islands sales executive Edin Kara explains why he uses a combination of print and digital marketing mediums to sell mansions on the Gold Coast, as well as the new method he’s turned to for personal branding.
When it comes to advertising the luxury Gold Coast homes he sells, Edin Kara has one firm rule.
The advertising must match the calibre of the home.
When you’re selling multi-million dollar mansions, that’s no mean feat.
But for Edin, a Ray White Sovereign Islands sales executive, the philosophy is simple; prospective buyers can tell a lot about the property just from the ad.
“If buyers see a double-page spread, they know, approximately, how much money they have to spend,” he explains.
“They know it’s in the millions.”
That’s exactly how things played out when Edin sold 15 Westminster Court, Sovereign Islands, for $6 million earlier this year.
Edin and the vendors used News Corp Australia to run a print advertising campaign in the Gold Coast Bulletin and a digital campaign using the News Xtend Property Marketing Prestige package.
“I always say that the size of advertising or the money you spend on advertising represents your home,” he says.
“You can’t take out a quarter page for a $6 million home, you’ll look foolish.
“I always suggest a double-page spread and digital, and the owners are quite happy to invest into advertising because they see the value.”
List the property
It was Edin’s second time around listing and selling 15 Westminster Court, after first selling it to Insurance king-pin Peter Edwards and his wife Christine for $3.1 million in 2019.
“Peter and Christine love buying good quality homes and turning them into spectacular properties,” Edin says.
“They buy the best, upgrade it, renovate it to the max and sell it. They bought it for $3.1 million and sold it for $6 million.
“They spent a lot of money and time on it.”
Marketing the property
Edin says a holistic approach, combining digital and print advertising, was needed to market 15 Westminster Court, a Mediterranean mansion facing the broadwater.
With the home spread across multiple levels and offering 31m of water frontage, it was critical that the marketing captured the home’s unique features, including six bedrooms and six bathrooms.
That’s before you get to the state-of-the-art soundproof theatre, temperature-controlled wine cellar, north-facing pool, barbecue terrace and a 12m pontoon from which to unmoor your boat.
“With our marketing, we are targeting a certain type of buyer,” Edin says.
“We are actually trying to attract the buyer that doesn’t know they are a buyer yet. We want to get to them before they go out to look for a property.”
Edin says the advertising in the Gold Coast Bulletin reached out to local buyers, while the News Xtend campaign targeted interstate and international buyers through display advertising across the News Corp Australia and Google Display networks.
It also included social media advertising and a website created solely to promote the property.
The print campaign
Edin says he uses print advertising for every property he sells, and he’s been able to create an audience and a pool of buyers who look out for his listings.
Double page spreads enable the use of large scale photography, and Edin says there’s a distinct strategy in how those are displayed in the paper.
“It (the double-page spread) gives you exclusivity,” he says.
“You’re on a double page, and there are no other properties on the same page. From the owner’s perspective, they don’t want to have a mixed message with another property on the same page.
“On one side of the page, we did some aerial photographs because all homes on Sovereign Island are on the waterfront.
“On the other side, we tried to concentrate more on the internal finishes. So we were giving buyers both.”
Edin also notes that he has attracted print editorial for some of his best properties through his relationship with News Corp.
Editorials aren’t paid for and nor are they guaranteed, but Edin says it’s a welcome bonus when they appear as it complements the message the paid marketing is exhibiting.
One recent property that secured editorial space is 35 Brittanic Cres, Sovereign Islands.
“It’s a story about the owner and the property,” Edin explains.
“The buyers absolutely love it.
“They want to have more information, and when we advertise, we provide them with information about the property, but nothing personal.
“The editorial gives them more of a private look into the owners and the property, why they purchased it, what’s happened in the meantime and why they’re selling.
“It gives them a different point of view and, in a lot of instances, they want to come and have a look through, which is exactly what everyone’s after.”
The digital campaign
While Edin loves print advertising, he also knows digital campaigns are a must for his properties.
“I believe that both of them, print and digital, have to work together because you never know where the premium buyer is going to come from,” he says.
“You have to use all of the tools that are available to you.”
The digital campaign for 15 Westminster Court comprised social media advertising on Facebook and Instagram, as well as display advertising on News Corp Australia’s news and lifestyle websites.
Edin says this attracted local, national and international inquiries, while Google Search Ads meant buyers found the property when they typed in key search terms.
“What they (News Corp) do is, for each property, they set up a website so that all of the advertising directs to that site,” he says.
“When the buyers click on the site, it comes up with all of the advertising for that property, the pictures, descriptions, video, and they can send us an inquiry, ask questions, share the property with friends and get our phone number and give us a call.”
The buyers
The family that bought 15 Westminster Court were locals who lived just around the corner on The Sovereign Mile.
They also happened to be Aussie waterskiing legend Glenn Thurlow and his wife Lisa, who had bought property from Edin in the past.
“Glenn and Lisa were looking for something slightly different and not actually looking to buy a property like this,” Edin says.
“They had a look at the ad, then the second ad and then a third ad, and they called me to say, ‘We’d love to have a look through 15 Westminster’.
“We went through it, and they liked it, and I gave them all the information about the renovation, and then we organised another couple of inspections, and they’re madly in love with it and can’t wait to move in.”
Personal branding
As well as advertising his properties, Edin has also recently turned to promoting his personal brand through the use of News Corp’s Social Display advertising.
This sees your social media posts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter converted into display ads that are then shown across thousands of brand-safe websites in the News Corp Australia network.
Geo-target and advanced real estate intent audiences are used to push traffic to your website and ‘Learn More’ buttons in the ad do the same.
“The Social Display advertising is to target your personal brand and to demonstrate and grow your profile as an expert in the area,” Edin says.
“I think advertising your properties in print and digital and also doing some personal advertising and branding helps to grow your business.”
