It's a well known fact that in most markets, Realtors can multiply sales efforts for new home builders. So, how do you engage Realtors and influence them to bring prospects to your new home communities? Builders use every kind of event marketing concept to bring Realtors to their new home communities. As everyone knows, the goal of these events is to help Realtors see why a new home may be the best solution for their buyers and to experience, first-hand, the benefits of a beautifully designed new home community in their marketing area.Now that we're into the new year, we thought it would be a good time to share a brief round-up of content pieces that address the Builder and Realtor relationship. We hope these provide some marketing inspiration for the new year.
If you are trying to break through the marketing noise directed at Realtors in your region, you may be interested in this article from Professional Builder about the 5 Ways to reach out to Realtors.
www.newhomesourceprofessional.com is a website hosted by BDX that is devoted to Realtor content and education. Topics include: New home 101, Why Show New, How to Sell new and The Building Process. Referring Realtors to this link is one simple way to support them immediately.
When we listen to our clients talk about their Realtor relationship-building, we hear a few consistent themes:
Sales Teams go to Broker and Realtor offices regularly to be part of their internal meetings. They often drop off business gifts.
Smart Builders treat Realtors like customers and educate them about how they build along with the value their new homes offer.
Quality over quantity. 10% of the Realtors bring 90% of the business. Builders target the high producing Realtors.
All Builders find creative ways to welcome Realtors to their Sales Centers. This includes everything from monthly lunch meetings to VIP wine tastings.
When Builders host Realtors at their new home communities, we are always asked to create memorable gifts that can be presented to Realtors as part of the special event. Our BP Custom Shopper™ service has delivered countless presentations with creative ideas to help Builders cultivate a connection between their Communities and high performing Realtors they are targeting.No blog post about Realtor engagement would be complete without sharing some of the creative ways that Builders are using Realtor gifts to cultivate brand awareness. Here are three of our favorites:Wildly popular at the moment are these yeti-style stainless tumblers. Everyone who sees a product sample has a "must-have" reaction to them. They are trendy, stylish and pragmatic all at once which makes them an ideal carrier for any Builder brand looking to add some promotion to their Realtor program. You can find these in our builder-centric website. You can hear from our Sourcing Manager in this short one minute video too.
The BP Custom Shopper™ team is also loves anything that promotes the gourmet kitchen and great room spaces that new homes offer. There is no doubt that the open concept style, combined with thoughtful design is a knock out benefit to the right home buying consumer. This contemporary gourmet cookbook includes a custom-designed insert page to give Realtors an overview of your community while they are enjoying the well-known Food52 gourmet recipes designed for today's busy professionals. It's a way to showcase the open concept gourmet kitchen/great room living spaces new home builders do so well.
Because so many Realtor Gifts need to reinforce the educational value of a Realtor event, our team loves this journal with a custom promotional page to communicate about the benefits of a new home and your specific community attributes. The journal itself provides a simple tool for jotting down notes about your new home community during your event or meeting.
Thanks for stopping by. Check out our BP Custom Shopper™ page for a turnkey event digital marketing event checklist. Digital marketing experts and Hubspot Partner at the Builder Funnel designed exclusive content for our clients. We hope that it helps you simplify the process of growing the right RSVP list for your Realtor and Prospect events.
Flags serve several important purposes for New Home Communities:
Attract
Identify
Direct
When new home buying prospects shift from digital shopping to an in-person visit at your beautifully designed new home communities, they are usually met with inviting, eye-catching and enticing Community branding, architecturally interesting entrances and billowing flags. Flags are a cost-effective way to signal that there is a new home community waiting to be explored, discovered and enjoyed by prospective home buyers.
In the context of new home marketing, a flag's main purpose is to create movement that attracts prospects. Secondarily, they identify your brand and differentiate your Community from others in the area.Lastly and most importantly, flags are important signage that direct visitors to your Sales Center and Models. As digital shoppers begin to align with your brand, it's important to ensure they can find you easily in what often is a sea of new home communities built in expanding and crowded regional markets.
Here are the main design components and flag styles used by our Home Builder clients. These serve all three purposes; signaling, decoration and signage.
Flag Designs: Flag Styles:
Custom Builder Flags Custom feather flags (138" x 27")
American Flags Vertical Adbreeze flags
State Flags Horizontal rectangular flags
Solid Color Accent Flags
Buyers often mistake flags as permanent signage when they are in fact a perishable product. They are often at the mercy of mother nature and that is why its important to refresh them every 3-6 months. Everything from intense sunshine (Florida/Arizona) to high winds (northern California) to hurricane weather (gulf coast), can impact the life of a flag. The good news is that by far, flags are one of the best brand investments because they cost pennies on the dollar for each brand exposure. This is especially true of poly flags which create movement and attract the eye with the slightest breeze. Gone are the days of a heavy nylon flag wrapped around a flag pole hiding your brand. Europe has been ahead of the curve on this for years and most builders have shifted to the Poly flags because they do the job better, last as long as nylon and are significantly more cost-effective.
Here's the simple Math - Let's say you have 30 Adbreeze flags installed throughout your newly launched community. They cost you $22 each for a total of $660 (flags only - poles do not need to be replaced). Let's say your traffic per month is 500 visitors. That's 44 cents per brand exposure for 1500 visitors over 90 days. And because a flags job is to attract passersby, it's critically important that they are replaced and refreshed regularly. Many Builders refresh their flags quarterly.
If you are using the smaller rectangular flags, the math is even more compelling - 30 3' x 5' flags at $10.95 each or a total of $328. That's 22 cents per brand exposure for 1500 visitors over 90 days.Signage is permanent and flags are perishable. It's important to refresh flags and recognize that they are dollar for dollar, one of the best values there is in brand advertising for new Home Communities. Builder Promotions has a JIT (just-in-time) Flag program that helps you manage your needs and keep community merchandising fresh, cost-effectively. Flags can be shipped to communities directly or to installers locally.
Thanks for Stopping by! We appreciate you sharing your time with us.
Cheers!
Leslie Bridges, Chief Blogger
Marketing Blueprints is sponsored by Builder Promotions, Inc. the leading builder-centric e-Commerce platform and group buying service. Builder Promotions centralizes and consolidates purchases of marketing supplies used to support the entire new home buyer journey. BP Custom Shopper™ is a signature service of Builder Promotions, Inc. Builder Promotions designs, manufactures and distributes New Home Builder Flags, Avenue Banners and Hardware. We'd love to talk with you about how your outdoor merchandising is working to influence new home buyers. Talk with us by calling 800.388.3565 or connect via email at info@builderpromotions.com.
You are sitting at your desk with a cup of your favorite, thinking about what you will add to your upcoming Community Marketing event to make it memorable for prospective home owners. You think you'd like to use a branded gift to keep them connected to your community after they've toured your Models and met Sales Consultants. What to do? You have a million other details to handle to be ready for your event. If this is you, read on!
Here are Five of our Favorites for New Home Community Event Marketing:
1.) We love this stylish vintage laminated grocery tote which works triple hard carrying groceries, reminding your home buying prospects about their connection to your brand and advertising your communities to everyone one else in their midst as a small billboard. Under $3 for all that promotional power! Consumers love the all-over print look on these laminated bags, proven by the many upscale retailers who currently sell laminated shopping bags in their stores.
2.) The Fidget Spinner is a hot trend right now and there's nothing like it to entertain younger family members while Parents are taking time to explore your enticing Sales Models.Under $2 with hours of entertainment value and fun. Packaging creates completely custom presentation options for $1.25 extra (min. 200 pieces). Promote schools, outdoor play space and family fun in your new home communities.
3.) Hot off the press and and arriving this month! We love this well-priced pop-up lantern forOutdoor Family Summer Movie nights in your Community. It's a reminder to prospective homeowners that their new home in your community is full of promise for making endless family memories. Under $8.
4.) Trendy soda bottle-shaped water bottles are being used by consumers everywhere. High performance construction keeps liquids hot 12 hours and cold for 24 hours. As low as $13.55 for 26 oz. bottle. (retail brands are selling this at $35+ in stores). Consumers cannot get enough of this product.
5.) If great schools are a draw for your communities, align your event gifts with Fall back-to-school promotions. These compact recycled tubes carry a pen, pencil and wooden pencil sharpener, all for $2.15. Super easy to store and distribute.Our BP Custom Shopper (tm) team works on Home Builder Event marketing projects daily. They love shopping for you and creating a complimentary digital presentation you can use to review creative ideas. Feel free to reach out at 800-388-3565 or via email at info@builderpromotions.com if you'd like the support of a personal marketing assistant while you handle all the other details of getting ready for your event(s). And, if you love a short creative break to shop for your events, enjoy surfing our event themed stores here:
Home Builder Event Gifts by Event Themes
Where do you get your event inspiration? We'd love to know! Feel free to share on our Facebook page. When you visit our Facebook page, check out Eventbrite's list of 83 ideas for event types, styles and themes.
Thanks for stopping by.
Cheers!
Leslie Bridges, Chief Blogger
Marketing Blueprints is sponsored by Builder Promotions, Inc. the leading builder-centric e-Commerce platform and group buying service. Builder Promotions centralizes and consolidates purchases of marketing supplies used to support the entire new home selling cycle. BP Custom Shopper (tm) and BP GroupBuy (tm) are signature services of Builder Promotions.
Welcome to Marketing Blueprints, a blog of Builder Promotions. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy a quick read about the marketing value of "refreshment".
Refreshment is such an easy way to create delight. It's a gracious way to say "welcome please stay awhile". And it can be an effective marketing tool too. Builders are using refreshment in many creative ways to compliment their events. One quick scan of my Builder Instagram account tells me that Builder Marketing teams are using everything from the Summer BBQ to Food Truck Festivals to draw crowds to their community events. They offer bottles of water or hot beverages to help home shoppers relax and enjoy wandering through a Sales Center. If you look to the retail world, savvy marketers are finding ways to provide refreshments in stores to keep shoppers looking. Here's one of my favorite examples.
Pirch Home Store is a beacon for customer experience design. Consultants in our city take new clients on a tour of the local Pirch store to understand what great customer experience design feels like. Pirch says they are in the business of delivering "a lifetime of joy". They describe themselves as follows:
"We are not here to sell you what we want, rather our focus is to guide you to discover and fall in love with the best products that best suit how you live. It’s your playground to explore before you buy as you sample complimentary chef-prepared sweet and savory bites and hand crafted coffees, ensuring a lifetime of Joy."
The Pirch espresso bar (pictured above) is always full of spouses waiting happily while their other half is finishing their shopping for a wide spectrum of kitchen, bath and outdoor home products. It's brilliant marketing and such a simple tactic using refreshment as a tool to extend the time customers spend shopping in their store.
Could Builder Sales Centers take a page out of the Retail playbook?
Yes! Builders have intentionally designed their Sales Centers and Models to help home buying consumers experience the ideal of what their new home could be. When busy house hunters begin their in-person home search on a weekend that is already jammed with kids activities and house chores, there's a good chance they haven't planned their refreshment breaks. There's also a better than a good chance that they are pushing through their house hunting "list" very efficiently so that they can be finished in time for their children's game or social event that evening. How can you borrow a page out of the Pirch playbook to encourage them to "stay awhile"?
One BP client recently purchased their own branded Tea and Hot Cocoa packets to make people feel welcome during the winter season. Another uses a Popcorn machine to keep the youngest family members entertained, and they brand the fun with their own custom popcorn boxes. These are small ways to make visitors feel welcomed and provide a little refreshment too. We think it also buys a little extra time with prospects because they get refreshment at the Sales Center rather than departing for the nearest Starbucks.
Private Label Water is another simple marketing tool that offers refreshment and delight to weary home shoppers. By leveraging gorgeous Builder photos, water bottle designs become another delivery point for rich lifestyle images of your communities. It's another way to welcome your visitors and offer much needed refreshment in a busy day of house hunting.
While we love Pirch's espresso bar idea, we realize you may not be ready to hire a full time Barista at your Sales Centers! Here's a list of budget-friendly refreshment ideas to help prospects enjoy their experience at your new home community:
Builder Branded Trail Mix Packages
Builder Private Label Power Bars
Builder Custom Label Coffee, Tea, Hot Cocoa
Private Label Water
Custom Breath Mints and Chewing Gum
Thanks for stopping by. We appreciate your time.
Cheers,
Leslie Bridges, Chief Blogger
Marketing Blueprints is sponsored by Builder Promotions, an e-commerce, and mobile procurement platform delivering branded products used throughout the new home selling cycle. Builder Promotions proprietary GroupBuy service enables Divisions to benefit from collaborative purchasing.
With the spring selling season well under way, Builder Marketers are thinking about how to keep the crowds coming to visit new home communities during summer months. Our Instagram account is filled with creative event themes (posted by Builders)that bring prospects and their families to new home communities. I'm a big fan of the outdoor movie night. I love a warm balmy summer night, great movie, my family and a bucket of popcorn on a soft lawn in my community park. I don't even mind that the fog often rolls in where I live as long as I have a blanket to stay warm! It's Memorial Day weekend, and I am already thinking of all the outdoor fun that awaits my family and me this summer.
We just launched 10 new Home Builder Event Theme Collections in the Builder Promotions e-Store. Our collections are overflowing with an abundance of creative and fun ideas to support virtually any event theme you can think of! The Summer Movie collection has 30+ products -- 4 of which are pictured here in this Instagram frame. Summer begs us all to play more and relax a little. Click the links below to have a peek and have fun planning your events. Our team is always here to help you create memorable brand gifts that strengthen your connection to prospects you are nurturing.
What are you favorite event themes? Do you have pictures? Head over to our Facebook page and show us what you are doing! We're sending a free gift to any Home Builder who shares event content with us for the next two weeks.
Thanks for stopping by.
Cheers!
Leslie Bridges, Chief Blogger
Marketing Blueprints is sponsored by Builder Promotions, an e-commerce company and group buying platform designed to help Builder Marketers procure branded products and marketing supplies used throughout the new home selling cycle.
This week I was a participant in one of the best webinars I've seen, bar none. BDX (The Builders Experience) spent 30 minutes showing Builders how to help Realtors bring their clients to see new home communities. I've included a live link to the Slideshare here for anyone who wants to get this information in a quick and concise format. There are some great "aha" moments in 9 information-rich slides.
Builder Promotions has been designing Realtor Referral programs for many years. My goal in listening to the Webinar was to get a solid grasp of the specific challenges in cultivating Realtor relationships in today's market. Everyone knows that the digital house hunt has changed the game for Builder Marketers. What I learned is immediately actionable to anyone with a list of Realtors in their market and web content they can repurpose to help educate and engage them.
As a professional with Sales Management background, I was intrigued by the potential to add Realtors to your salesforce for very little upfront investment. Essentially Realtors are asking Builders for education, relationship building and respect that you are sensitive to the part they play in helping their clients navigate the new home buying process. According to experts, Realtors are ultimately representing 89% of all home buyers. They play an important role in new home sales by providing third party validation of Builder product and shepherding their buyers through the new home buying process. They are in your markets working with prospective home buyers already.
How do you reach Realtors currently? Maybe you are doing enough, and maybe you want to test new points of contact. Perhaps you are just beginning to put marketing dollars toward Realtors again now that the market is trending up. Either way, here are 4 examples of solutions you can use to add Realtors to your sales efforts with tools from Builder Promotions.
New Homes Sales Companion - Realtor Mobile App - $3000 to develop your complete App, and make it available to any Realtors you target in your market. Includes educational content about your new home sales process, convenient access to your listing feed, mobile client registration and key policy documents Realtors need to work effectively with you. There is a click to call or click to email button that Realtors can use to call you on the spot and make an appointment for their client.
Video Brochure Direct Mail Campaign - $50 per realtor to develop a 5" x 8" dimensional video brochure that marries the power of video with the benefits of print and graphic design. This is aimed at showcasing your new homes with video you already have, like this video tour by Trendmaker Homes. Print design outlines the new home sales process, registration process and key contact information so that Realtors can share it with their prospects. Campaign design support and direct mail included.
Realtor Referral Digital Platform:Digital gifts pair with a landing page that captures Realtor contact information or survey results, and rewards them with easy-to-redeem digital gifts from your builder branded site. You set the gift budget! Landing page design is $750. Reports on contacts that redeem are FREE. Consult to help define reward structure - no charge.
Personalized Realtor Promotional Kit: Create a set of cost-effective branded gifts that are personalized for key realtors you are cultivating. Here's an example: a microfiber lens cloth is a product that does double duty as a brochure for new home product.
Use it to communicate the basics of the new home buying process and personalize it with the Realtors contact information, "compliments of" your builder brand. $1 each! It's a cost-effective way to educate about the new home sales process. Personalizing these for Realtors let's them reinforce their relationships with their clients, while telling them about new homes sales as an option, too.
We'd love to hear what you are doing to engage Realtors in your market. Head over to our Facebook page to share your ideas or post pictures of your Realtor events. Thanks for stopping by!
Cheers!
Leslie Bridges, Chief Blogger
Marketing Blueprints is sponsored by Builder Promotions, Inc. an e-commerce and mobile platform with a proprietary group purchasing system for Builders of all sizes. The platform enables builder marketers to manage branded products used throughout the home selling cycle, from any device.
We've launched our own Corporate Mobile Appto help our clients Search, Shop and Purchase their community marketing supplies from their mobile device. BP clients engage with us in a lot of different ways. Some people LOVE to shop products in our enormous search engine while others delight in the efficiency of our e-commerce platform to make fast purchases for their regular marketing supplies. And we've found that a lot of our clients use gifts as a way to express their creativity and differentiate their communities. I love BP's Mobile App because it lets everyone do what they like and makes it fun to shop too! Our App is available in the Itunes Store or the Google Play Store.We are listening to our clients everywhere we can. One thing our clients tell us is that they are crazy busy. Procuring branded products to merchandise models, complement special events and welcome new customers into their homes, is one small task among a broad range of priorities they must attend to every minute of every day.
Our Mobile App is one more step in the direction of making it fast and simple to order builder marketing supplies. More than 50% of us now make e-commerce purchases on our mobile devices, and that number is growing. 30% of Builder Promotions' clients use our e-commerce platform to make their purchases, and that number is growing too. Where do you make your e-commerce purchases? Smart Phone, Tablet, Laptop, Desktop, Smart TV, Smart Watch?I am thrilled that Mobile Apps can be designed to support a portable work lifestyle. Builder Marketers are constantly on-the-go. Here are some benefits that make our App a fun addition to your virtual office:
Fast, tons of choice (search engine with 600,000 products)
Crisp large pictures that make it easy to see on your smartphone.
In a meeting wondering what to do for your grand opening? Pull out your tablet or smartphone, open the App, search and shop right there on the spot.
Oneclick to call. One click to quote - Done! Pass it on to our team to handle.
E-commerce from anywhere.Click to order your quarterly stock of doormats, flags, and private label water in the 2 minutes you have before your next meeting!
Access your company e-Store at builderpromotions.com. One tap on the e-Store tab and you are there!
Thanks for stopping by to talk Mobile with us! We appreciate your engagement.
Cheers,
Leslie Bridges, Chief Blogger
Marketing Blueprints is sponsored by Builder Promotions, the Builder's single source for branded products used throughout the home selling cycle. Builder Promotions is an e-commerce company devoted solely to Marketers in the new home vertical. Our App is available in the Itunes Store or the Google Play Store.
A Home Builder brand wants to inspire future homeowners to live their best life in a new home and to enjoy the total lifestyle that a planned community offers. Builders want to fit into the ideal of what a new home will offer for home buying prospects.
#YourBrandinTheirLife refers to branded products that support consumers in their daily lives.
I got to thinking about how our e-Store products integrate into "life" for home buying consumers so that we could give builder marketers one more way to nurture prospects during the home selling process. Branded products tend to be low cost and utilitarian. And, they can be a valuable marketing tool to remind prospective home buyers of their connection to your communities. But they have to integrate into your prospects' daily activities.
Here's an example using my typical Saturday morning routine. These products integrate into my activities and could easily promote a brand I like.5:45am:
I get up early (before anyone needs my assistance), and have a cup of coffee. My objective is to carve out a little time before I go to an insane exercise class, followed by a day of boys soccer. I need to wake up, stretch and enjoy a little content on my laptop. My coffee routine is a space where I devote time to getting set for the day. Starbucks has transformed the coffee ritual, and stylish coffee cups are now part of the coffee experience. I love mine because they are symbolic of this quiet time in my day. And, I always seem to need more of them.
6:45am:
I gather everything I need to make the most of my morning outing. Like many consumers, I am combining errands with my activities. I'm also making use of time in the car to connect with people about plans. Here's my checklist for leaving the house (and yes, I'm running late, aren't we all?).
Power Charger (late dinner, forgot to charge my phone last night)**
**My teenager has "borrowed" my portable charger because his phone is out of power. Fortunately, I can recharge it easily, and I have a back up in my briefcase, so I can call my friend on the way home.
These are small, inexpensive, and utilitarian products that make it easy to go about living our daily lives. You can't brand everything, but consumers accept that products like this are sometimes branded, and if they are of good quality, they are appreciated as thoughtful gifts from brands they like.
Builder Promotions e-commerce store is set up to serve these gifts to the Home Builder vertical. We are told by our clients that they love the simple layout with quick access to categories that sync with the home selling cycle. And whether our clients make a fast e-commerce purchase or email to get a project going before they end their day, the feedback is, it's great to be able to do mobile shopping and still get a human on the phone when it's most convenient to speak directly.
I don't know what your Saturday morning looks like, but I bet you use a few products that make your life easier. Could they be branded? Probably! Maybe you can find new ways to integrate your brand into your prospect's life while they are deciding where to purchase their new home.
Thanks for engaging.
Cheers!
Leslie Bridges, Chief Blogger
Marketing Blueprints is sponsored by Builder Promotions, an e-commerce solution offering Convenience, Control and Peace of Mind. Our branded products are used throughout the home selling cycle.
If you are a home builder, a successful marketing event means you are introducing a prospective buyer or a realtor to your homes (in real time!). You have a chance, in-person, to showcase all the custom options that make buying new such a delight, and people get to experience what it feels like to be in a beautifully designed home. Anyone visiting a new home community also sees how the outdoor environment interplays with your models, and they begin to imagine their life in those spaces and environments. But that's just one day. It's been a successful event, and then everyone goes home. And chances are, your prospects are still looking at other competitive products, weighing their options.Last week, we launched a Community Event Marketing e-Store to help builder marketing clients extend the impact of successful events. We know our marketing clients are using every mean possible to keep prospects connected to their brand.
The products in our Community Event e-Store are tools that work for you before, during and after events. They have the potential to draw a crowd, and they keep prospects connected to your floorplans, virtual tours, home albums, and other digital content.Some products work for you as mobile billboards and let people in the local area know about your new home community, too. We have selected products that integrate, enhance and fit into your prospects life to support their connection to you and nurture interest in your brand. We hope you take some time to shop around. Here's one product that provides a fun family experience at home.
Our Digital Reward cards, reproduce photos of your homes and lead prospects to a branded landing page to redeem their digital gift (in this case a movie rental). When they redeem their gift, they supply their contact information. Our team quickly formats that data into a report for your Sales and Marketing teams, so they can follow up on prospects who attended your event.
The gift, landing page, and reports are all included in your cost!Digital Movie rentals are a fun way to showcase your Great Room design. Check out our other digital reward gifts; Tree Planting, Music Download, Fitness Download or customize a Digital Choice card. Click here to learn more about how other industries are using digital rewards to engage prospects and capture important data too. You can use your redemption landing page to survey, capture contact info., promote a new community, or deliver specific detail about green building benefits.
The key is that the gift integrates into your prospects' life in a way that connects them to your new home benefits. And, for this particular example, who doesn't love an excuse to enjoy a family movie night!
How are you connecting with prospects after your events? We know this is one tactic of many! Thanks for engaging.
Cheers,
Leslie Bridges, Chief Blogger
Marketing Blueprints is sponsored by Builder Promotions, a branding and procurement platform that ensures brand consistency throughout the home selling process.