Gotta Catch Them All: Using Pokemon Go to Attract Millennial Homebuyers

East Dallas has a high density of parks and public spaces: White Rock Lake, the Dallas Arboretum, and Flag Pole Hill, the dog park, as well as the myriad trails and scenic routes that wind through the neighborhoods of Lakewood and Lake Highlands.

All of these reasons make this area prime for Pokemon hunters.

With the augmented reality app Pokemon Go sweeping the nation, homebuyers from Team Valor may find it beneficial to move to East Dallas. However, downtown isn’t exactly slim pickings, either (are you listening, Team Mystic?). Truth: We can’t hate on this fad, as it’s helping people connect, making people go outside and get some fresh air and exercise, and also creating a new marketing opportunity for small business — and real estate, of course!

In fact, some small businesses are seeing a serious boost in sales. In some cases, Realtors are using Pokestops, gyms, and rare Pokemon sightings as ways to attract Millennial homebuyers to open houses:

But how do you take advantage of Pokemon Go to draw in more traffic and boost your sales?

Forbes put together a really great basic guide to using Pokemon Go in your sales strategy. Your secret weapon to bring in the throngs of gamers focused on their phones? Lures.

While lures are intended to attract Pokemon, notes Forbes writer Jayson DeMers, they might as well be human lures, as the “trainers” go where the Pokemon are. To see if there are any meet ups for players in or around your business or listing, there are a couple of local groups to Scout on Google+ and Meetup.com.

If your business is on top of or next to a Poké-stop, you’ll have the ability to drop a “lure” for 30 minutes, which will probably similarly attract a number of players wandering nearby due to the increase in the number of Pokémon that show up when lures are placed. The only catch is, the only way to get a lot of lures quickly is to buy them with real money—but depending on how you buy them, they’re usually less than $1 each.

Your second tool? Using promotions to attract members of teams. There are three affiliations in Pokemon Go: Team Valor (red), Team Mystic (blue), and Team Instinct (Yellow). Doing promotions that encourage competition for prizes or discounts between teams can bring in even more people.

You can cater to specific team members by offering specials for different teams on different days; for example, you can offer $1 off drinks for Team Mystic members (that’s my team, by the way), or have a Team Instinct night that encourages Instinct members to gather at your location to trade tips.

Additionally, DeMers says you can attract Pokemon Go players by offering tips and tricks, or even highlighting where rare or prolific Pokemon are through social media, such as Twitter or even on your Facebook page, or even by adding a sign. Adding it to your listing information could be fun, too.  Charmander or Pikachu down the street from your office or listing? Share it and use hashtags such as #pokemongo #pokespot and location tags. Find a Pokemon and take a selfie tagged #pokeselfie DeMers suggests.

And finally, you can attract some good, ol’ fashioned competition by hosting gym battles, which really only works if your business is near one of the designated gyms. You can find this out by walking your block and taking note of any stationary throngs of people all staring intently at their phones. In this heat, I’d bet that they’d much prefer an air conditioned spot to sit, charge their phones (the game quickly drains battery life) and admire your listing or purchase a drink or two!

If you happen to be in this lucky position, promote the heck out of the fact that your business is at or near a gym. Players vying for control over a gym will usually need to spend at least a half hour (usually more) to battle the gym leaders enough times to gain control of the gym, so they’ll want to stay a while (and buy your products, hopefully!).

Will you be using Pokemon Go as part of your strategic marketing campaigns?