In tough times I have seen builders slashing their marketing budgets and laying off their Marketing Directors. Pick up the newspaper on the weekend and the Real Estate section is pretty thin and has few ads from Builders.
The question I have to ask is… how do you expect to attract prospective home buyers into your sales / model center if you don’t advertise?
I’m not suggesting that newspapers are the answer, and surely the number of budget dollars dedicated to traditional print media has to be examined and measured against new media. There is an old adage in marketing that “Half of my adv
ertising is effective, I just don’t know which Half.”
I would counter that with a different reality. All your advertising works together as a whole. Each portion supports the other and should employ a strategic message across the spectrum. Print ads, radio, TV (if you have that kind of budget still), internet (I’ll just lump it all together — facebook, twitter, your web page, etc.), snail mail, and yes, even those flyers your sales agents take to the broker offices. They should all deliver the same message, with the same look and feel, to build on each other and form a stronger whole.
If your marketing message is fractured and confused, what does that say about your company? Is anyone hearing your marketing message? Do they care?
If you dumped your Marketing Director becuase the receptionist seemed kind of creative, it may be time to analyze what was lost when a planned marketing strategy disappeared from your business plan.
Effective marketing is rarely about the number of marketing dollars, but it is about where and how those marketing dollars are put to use.
Michael J. Kruszynski
