For new residential construction projects, a well-thought-out marketing strategy is crucial to maintaining sales. The marketing and communications agency Hooox utilises the latest technological innovations and automation tools to deliver project communications and marketing campaigns as efficiently as possible.
— Martijn Reviers
"Real estate marketing is essential for financing and pre-sales"
— Interview with Mathieu Van Marcke, CEO of Hooox
‘Over the past few months, we’ve seen a clear acceleration in the field of property marketing,’ says Mathieu Van Marcke, CEO of Hooox, in an interview with our editorial team. ‘One of the main reasons for this is that current market conditions are making sales more difficult. What’s more, the sales cycle is also taking longer. Real estate marketing has finally reached a certain level of maturity and is now being taken seriously. For a long time, it was regarded as a ‘nice to have’—in the form of an attractive project name, a striking logo and an appealing website. Now it is essential for securing financing and pre-sales, otherwise banks will pull out.’
Real estate, technology and marketing
Hooox, founded in 2006, focuses exclusively on marketing and communication within the real estate sector. The company started out as a 3D studio and moved into the real estate market through commissions for architects. Hooox is one of the pioneers in real estate marketing, and Mathieu Van Marcke is completely in his element at the intersection of technology, real estate and marketing. Technological innovation fascinates him enormously, a passion that dates back to his time in the late 1990s as a venture capitalist with the Flanders Language Valley (FLV) fund in Boston, where he served on the boards of various high-tech and internet start-ups on the East Coast and from where he witnessed the rise and fall of the dotcom economy at close quarters. It was there that he came into contact with the gaming industry and 3D technology, which ultimately led to the founding of Hooox.
The link with technology is also evident in the PropTechlab, of which he is a co-founder and a member of the advisory board, and nowadays also in the application of AI, where Hooox is likewise positioning itself as an ‘early adopter’. In between, Van Marcke was involved in the creation of the Belgian pavilion Surreal Estate at the Mipim property fair in Cannes and later also spearheaded the relaunch of the Realty Summit. He currently devotes 80% of his time to Hooox and the rest to Solv.world: an AI-enhanced stakeholder analysis tool, which he founded together with architect and urban planner Alexander D’Hooghe to guide infrastructure and property projects more efficiently through the planning permission process.
Identifying and approaching leads
‘To maintain sales of new-build properties, it is essential to cast the net as wide as possible,’ continues Van Marcke.
‘This mainly involves lead generation and digital campaigns via platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. It is then crucial to manage these leads effectively via a CRM system that we have specifically adapted for the property sector. After all, developers use both internal and external sales channels. We need to build a sort of Great Wall between these channels to prevent interference.’
In addition, Hooox focuses strongly on ‘lead scoring’. It measures how often a potential buyer interacts with the campaign, such as clicking on a link, opening an email or liking a Facebook campaign. This enables Hooox to determine which leads are ‘hot’, or ‘sales qualified leads’, and which are less active, the so-called ‘marketing qualified leads’.
‘We have observed that the average sales cycle has increased over the past year from one to two months to three to six months. This longer sales cycle stems, among other things, from the challenges prospective buyers face regarding bank financing and uncertainties surrounding legislation, for example concerning the 6% VAT scheme.’
Automated processes
The next step Hooox is focusing on is ‘lead nurturing’. ‘Once you’ve identified the leads, automated processes should approach them,’ explains Van Marcke. ‘I’m thinking of email automation, a classic approach where someone registers over a two-month period and then automatically receives several emails. This is also linked to sending newsletters, relating to events and open days. The aim is to provide updates on the progress of projects, including visual updates from the construction site. This shows potential buyers that the project is making progress and that completion is on schedule.
This approach requires specialisation and in-depth knowledge of the real estate market. I have often seen how traditional marketing agencies fail because the techniques they use for other sectors do not work for real estate. Property is a unique product that people buy once or twice in their lifetime.
The ‘client journey’ looks completely different: much more complex and longer. It is essential to maintain a constant flow of leads so that sales do not come to a standstill.’
Performance marketing
Hooox is also achieving strong results with ‘performance marketing’. For example, 25 mini-campaigns are launched simultaneously, and budgets are adjusted according to the results and the quality of the leads they generate. ‘We allocate budgets specifically, for example, with one part targeted at investors and another part for the sale of two-bedroom flats. Collaboration with sales staff and estate agents is an indispensable factor here. We organise monthly feedback sessions to discuss the quality of the leads. Based on this feedback, we adjust the retargeting algorithm so that we can continue to focus on attracting valuable leads.’
Hooox does not work on a success fee basis, but sets an overall budget for a campaign, which is monitored monthly. ‘We have had requests to work on the basis of leads sold, but I find this a tricky issue. What exactly defines a lead, and how do we guarantee its quality? An interesting development is the dynamic between sales and marketing. At Hooox, we made a conscious decision not to do sales because I believe these are two separate fields in which you cannot excel at the same time. Our success lies in repeat business: we have been working for years with property companies such as 3D Real Estate, Baltisse, BPI, BVI, Immobel, Qrf, Ceusters, Promiris and Eaglestone.’
In addition to marketing, Hooox also manages all communication aspects of a project: obtaining planning permission, local community engagement, public tenders and public-private partnership projects. Developers are also supported with their own corporate communications.
Finally, Hooox also develops broader campaigns to build support or put a political issue on the agenda through targeted press campaigns and digital influencing. The recent and successful campaign on the housing crisis commissioned by BVS-UPSI is a fine example of this.
The impact of AI
Immediately after the launch of ChatGPT, Hooox began using AI to generate images and text, as well as to optimise campaigns. Some of the LinkedIn posts are generated by AI, which helps with automation and cost reduction. Hooox expects to generate 50% more revenue this year with the same team, which will significantly improve profitability. Half of the team consists of in-house staff and the other half of freelancers, both from Belgium and abroad. For example, 3D production has been outsourced for years to a joint venture in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.
Van Marcke describes the impact of AI as the most radical development in his career, because for the first time the creative process can be partially automated. ‘This technological progress boosts efficiency enormously. However, the major evolution is yet to come, through the creation of company-specific models based on generative language models, such as ChatGPT. This allows us to use our own data to train these models.’
‘There is always resistance to innovation,’ concludes Van Marcke. ‘AI is radically changing the way people view business. It is not just about digitalisation, but also about automation and making systems smarter. It is a question of using the new technology as effectively as possible. For our clients, it is particularly important that the marketing plan is both performance-driven and cost-effective.’