Community Events – Digital Marketing

We know that our Builder Marketer clients use our platform to consolidate purchases of branded marketing supplies to save time, because they must attend to a long list of digital marketing tasks that are necessary to launching their Communities. This is the second in our blog series about how to use digital marketing tactics to fill your new home community events with lots of prospects. In our first blog post on this topic, we covered the important asset and content building involved in getting ready for your new home marketing event. Spencer Powell, with the Builder Funnel, outlined a simple step by step process that provides a virtual map of the tactical work that needs to get done in order to have a successful Community Marketing event that brings in enough of the right prospects.  We're going to jump right in here and move to the Phase Two Execution. This assumes you've created content and built your assets for your Event. Here's the second part of our interview with Spencer. Marketing Blueprints:  So much to do, so little time.  Planning really helps. Now that you've set up your schedule and all your assets are in place, how do you get people to your event? Spencer Powell, Builder Funnel: Now that you've developed your assets and content, you'll see why it pays to get all that lined up early.  At this point, about 3 weeks out, it's all about inviting your list, amplifying to the surrounding community via Social Media and consistent reminders to get them there. Here's our checklist for Phase Two Execution, Filling Your Events: 1. 3 emails to leads in your system database for that specific community to invite them to your Event.  Link to the landing page and RSVP form you have developed (see our first post for this if you haven't read it yet).

•        Email #1 goes to everyone on your list
•      Email #2 goes to the non-reads from email #1
•        Email #3 goes to everyone who opened emails #1 & 2, but did not click

2. Reminder emails to RSVP List:

•      One week before your Event
•      One day before your event
•      The morning of your Event            

3. Publish Post on Social Media - Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

• Promote the event on Facebook once a week, 3 weeks out, twice a week 2 weeks out and several times per week in the week leading up to the event.
• You can follow the same guidelines for Instagram.
• I would sprinkle in 4-5 tweets per week on Titter starting 3 weeks out. You can be a bit more liberal with Twitter since it's a constant stream and you'll be mixing in other posts as well.

4. Run Social Advertising - One of the best proven methods for boosting a post for brand awareness is called the Mari Method, names after Mari Smith.  Essentially, you leave the post "as is" first. The best posts to boost are the ones that are already organically performing well.  Post that are outperforming others do even better when a little budget is added under them. So, let your post sit for a day and if it's doing well, add $15-$50 to that post to really pour the gasoline on! Marketing Blueprints:  This sounds so organized!  What a relief for Builder Marketers who are pulled in every direction with tons of competing priorities.  In the interest of keeping it real, what would you say are the top three challenges Builder Marketers face in organizing for their events? Spencer Powell, Builder Funnel: I notice three areas where our clients run into challenges:   

• Timing - Ideally it's 4-6 weeks out but a lot of Builder Marketers don't get the information they need to plan ahead with that cushion of time.
• Assets can be a challenge to secure for some Marketers because they are held by outsourced providers or corporate graphics departments who are over-burdened with requests.
• Weather - Out of your control and influences attendance up and down.

Marketing Blueprints: Often people perceive that landing pages are time-consuming or expensive. How would you engage a Web or IT contact to get your landing page done? Spencer Powell, Builder Funnel: Sometimes getting IT, Digital Marketing or an Agency to create a landing page can be a pain, but here's a simple piece of communication text you can use to request it from your Web/IT team: "Hi there! I'm working to get more people into an event in a month, and I need your help building an RSVP page. It can be really simple.  I've attached the image I'd like to use on the page, and I've included the content below. Please use a 2 column, skinny right format.  Use the left side for the content and the right side for the RSVP form.  Please request First Name, Last Name and Email on the form, and require all the fields. The follow up email should come from me, and I've also included those details below.  Please have any form notifications directed to my email @ ________________." (Insert the landing page content you developed for the event here) (Insert your email follow up content you developed for the event here) Marketing Blueprints: Thanks Spencer! We're excited about this awesome bonus content, too. We asked Spencer to develop a simple checklist that we could share in a PDF document so that our readers can save it to a desktop as a resource, deploy new team members to get ready for events or use it as a map for an upcoming event. Click the button below to get your copy.   Thanks for stopping by. Head over to our Facebook page and let us know if you have any other tips you'd add to this checklist!  Cheers! Leslie Bridges, Chief Blogger Marketing Blueprints is sponsored by Builder Promotions. Builder Promotions is the leading builder-centric e-Commerce and creative services platform helping new home builders centralize purchases of branded marketing supplies used to support the entire new home buyer journey. BP Custom Shopper(tm), a Builder Promotions signature service, brings creative sourcing support to Division Marketers nationwide.