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Here are 13 marketing ideas that if properly executed, will improve your sales results... GUARANTEED! This is good news; so don't waste money doing useless marketing when you can spend it wisely. Yes, the devil is in the details, but if you don't take some time to look at your plan you will fail, even the Cheshire cat knew that.

#1. Create a marketing/business plan for a 12-month period. Your plan can be simple, but it should provide a road map for your marketing. Project the number of homes you want to sell this year and then determine your marketing budget. It should be at least 5% and rarely more than 10% of your gross revenue. Now you know what you can afford to spend. Any plan is dynamic and can change, but revising a plan is better than a knee-jerk reaction from a lack of planning. Don't forget expenses like Realtor sales co-ops, model home expenses, literature, media, and point-of-purchase displays and plan renderings...

#2. If you still have standing inventory, make sure you have good Realtor relationships. Realtors often control between 70-85% of all home sales in a market, particularly standing inventory homes. Since Realtors are occasionally hesitant to sell to-be-built homes, relos are often very good prospects for speculative homes. So make sure you are getting a brochure, e-mail or something into the Realtors hands on a regular basis since they generally control the relo market.

#3. One of the most overlooked but cost effective tools are small 14" x 22" directional signs. These signs are without a doubt the best dollar for dollar value for builders. The sign should only have a directional arrow, your company/community name and a product designation (townhomes, single-family homes). That's it, just simple directional information. It's not fancy, big design stuff here, just a plain sign that clearly communicates directions. The job of a directional sign is to communicate directions!

#4. If you don't have a website, go out and immediately have one professionally created. The cost ranges from $3,000-$10,000 depending upon complexity. According to recent statistics, as many as 70%-85% of all new home searches begin on the web. The three keys to a successful site are: navigational ease, design strength, and upload speed. Don't overdue it. Complex websites are often too slow, difficult to navigate and worst of all expensive. Start out simple and just get online... it's imperative so do it now!

#5. Do not rely on search engines for customers to find your site! Too many builders believe that coming up in the top 10 of a search engine is easy, it's not. I know all about those emails you get saying, "we guarantee you will remain in the top 10 of three search engines for at least one year." Most of those people are lying to you! Market your URL everywhere you spend marketing money and utilize portals such as move.com and newhomesource.com. Prices run as low as $135 per office a month and these sites will drive you leads.

#6. What candy bar fills you up? What car is the safest? Who delivers pizza in 30 minutes or less? Which chocolate will you give a client, Hershey's or Godiva? Every question adds up to one often overlooked marketing concept: the unique selling proposition (USP). You must understand your USP if you want to increase sales. Your USP is a marketing message that clearly communicates your product's most distinctive and compelling selling point. It will answer the question, "Why should I buy from this builder?" As builders there are several USPs you need to consider. You must continually market the USP of your business in order to maintain and improve your brand image. This is a long-term effort that generally does not produce traffic to sales centers. It is subtler, yet effective in building brand. The second, and I believe most important USP, is the one you have for each individual community you market. The USP for every community you build in can be very different because the target market is also very different. You must understand your audience and formulate a USP based on their real needs and desires, not your concept of what they want.

#7. Create professional advertisements. You must understand that the 18-year old at the local paper may have twelve ounces of design judgment, but they probably don't have an ounce of wisdom concerning ad creation for the building business. Your ad may be the only chance you will ever have to attract that potential client, will you trust it to someone without the experience necessary to truly hit the target. Make sure once you understand your USP; state it powerfully in the headline, and reinforce it in subheads and body copy. Tie the graphic to the headline to reinforce and empower the presentation. Spend the money to do your advertising professionally.

#8. Clean up your home sites. Many buyers visit your homes when you're not there. So it's very important to put a good face on what they see. Clean up the inside and outside of your homes every Friday so the site doesn't leave you looking shoddy, sloppy and disorganized. Perception is reality! If you are perceived as sloppy and disorganized by visiting prospects, you are sloppy and disorganized to the person who believes it: the customer you may lose.

#9. Good site signage is worth every dollar you spend. If your site signs are getting ratty looking, invest some money and get new ones. Once again, these small oversights are glaring clues to prospects about how you do business. A sign can communicate, "we don't care about the details," or "the details are very important to us." Put the best possible face on your marketing.

#10. Maintain consistency in your marketing message. That means the same colors, shapes, logo, and tag line if you use one, should be used everywhere: trucks, hats, signs, coffee cups, brochures, etc. Inconsistent imagery creates disjointed marketing and reduces the effective brand value. Take the time to create a palette of correct imagery and use it. It will pay off in the long run.

#11. If you can't afford a model home, but build speculative homes, try these ideas. Arrange a special Realtor event just before settlement with a light lunch so the local agents can get a taste of your construction quality and have an opportunity to meet with you personally. Make sure you open the home for an open house (without carpet or with additional carpet protection) the week before you settle. Keep a brochure box filled with company literature in an obvious place during construction. Ask the new owner for permission to put a small sign out front that says, "Future Home of Mr. and Mrs. Young." These small gestures will produce results if performed consistently.

#12. It's spring and that's the best possible time to get great photos of your homes. Take the time and money to get 3-5 great shots of your beautiful homes at least once a year. Always get photos of your homes for marketing use, preferably with nice landscaping and after the homeowner has occupied the house. If you do this you should always get a written approval from the homeowner to use the home in ads or brochures.

#13. Good marketing is a series of often-small steps that will help you grow your building business from a mom and pop shop to a successful building business or from 75 houses a year to 150. If you add a little to a little long enough you get a lot. Pay attention to the small marketing points and the larger ones will take care of themselves.

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