As I reflect on my journey as an in-house marketing leader for homebuilders, I can’t help but think about the pivotal lessons I wish I had known earlier in my career. Having started my career on the agency side, I had the opportunity to work with a spectrum of home builders, from Fortune 500 companies to small family-owned businesses. Thus, even when transitioning to an in-house role, I wasn’t a novice to the industry.
Build Your Marketing Career with Curiosity and Collaboration
While my past experience was undeniably valuable, the transition to an in-house role brought with it the need to pose questions—lots of them. At first, my pride had me wanting to answer the questions on my own.
If I could journey back in time and have a conversation with my younger self, I would underscore the critical role of asking questions and seeking support from others to develop a marketing strategy that has a meaningful impact on the organization.
The reality that new marketers should understand is that even seasoned marketers cannot possess all the answers. Building a successful career requires engaging with peers across the company, consulting with internal senior leaders, and networking with other industry marketing professionals.
Your Guide To Building An Impactful Marketing Strategy
Crafting a successful marketing plan for a homebuilder is undoubtedly challenging, and it transcends the mere numbers on a spreadsheet. In this blog, I will overview five essential areas for new and experienced marketers to delve into (and ask questions about) to construct your annual marketing plan.
1. Align Your Goals Cross-Departmentally
In the world of homebuilding marketing, it all starts with marketing, but it certainly doesn’t end there. I wish I had understood sooner that our marketing goals should be intricately tied to the pipelines and capacities of other departments. Sitting down with leaders across the company to understand organizational goals is not just a suggestion; it’s a necessity.
Our marketing strategy should not only support the sales department but also take into account the dynamics of other departments. Insights from operations, finance, and beyond are invaluable in forecasting potential marketing expenses. As marketers, we have a unique vantage point to analyze data that affects the entire organization. Those interdepartmental discussions are about shaping our marketing budget and objectives and actively impacting processes, technology, and product development.
As you head into your meetings, consider some of the sample questions below.
- What are the company-wide goals?
- What are the goals not just for sales, but revenue?
- What does construction have in the pipeline?
- What are the projected financial closings?
- What new products, plans, or communities will we launch?
- What departmental goals may require marketing support?
2. Customer-Centric Considerations
Crafting a marketing plan demands a grasp of the ever-evolving marketplace and shifting customer behaviors. Through years of experience, I’ve come to recognize the paramount importance of consistently updating customer personas. Customers evolve, and so do their expectations. Updating personas isn’t a sporadic task; it’s an ongoing, data-driven process.
To construct this aspect of your strategy, leverage methods such as customer surveys, internal customer data analysis, and insights gleaned from industry reports. Reports like the Zillow New Construction Consumer Housing Trends provide invaluable perspectives on market dynamics and emerging trends.
Yet, it goes beyond data—connecting with your team members is equally vital. Sales teams, in particular, offer profound insights into the customer mindset. Taking the time to engage them and extract observations from the field is crucial. Integrating data insights with anecdotal observations is vital to maintaining a dynamic understanding of the market and the customers that drive it.
3. Embrace Marketing Trends
As marketers, we all recognize the importance of staying ahead of the curve regarding trends. Given that most home builders operate with lean in-house marketing teams, the real challenge lies in finding the time to delve into emerging trends while juggling internal priorities.
It’s a task that we can move off the priority list, but I advocate carving out the time to understand these trends and reporting back on them to your leadership team. This not only aids in building a robust strategy but also makes introducing new strategies smoother with buy-in from other leaders in the organization.
The great news is that our industry offers many fantastic resources that simplify the process of understanding the value of different marketing trends and gauging customer demand. Resources such as the Zillow trends report, the annual International Builder Show, various webinars, conferences, and podcasts are invaluable in staying informed.
4. The Role of KPIs in Strategic Planning
Once company-wide goals are crystal clear, charting a course to achieve them demands a data-driven approach. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) emerge as guiding beacons in this journey. Metrics such as website traffic, leads, inbound calls, and total sales provide indispensable insights into the effectiveness of our strategies.
Common Home Builder Marketing KPIs:
- Website Traffic
- Leads (web/community traffic)
- Inbound Calls (per campaign/community)
- OSC Appointments
- Total Sales
It’s never too soon (or too late) to begin tracking KPI data. If you are not monitoring these details, it’s time to ask questions. Sometimes, this will mean asking team members direct questions, but you can often dive into the data housed within your company’s various digital tools. It might require a bit of creativity, but the insights gained are invaluable.
In the early stages, you may need more information to identify patterns that inform your strategy. During this data-gathering phase, leaning on industry trends can provide valuable guidance. The combination of internal metrics and external trends forms a solid foundation for refining and optimizing your strategic approach.
5. Craft a Budget That Supports New Home Sales
The initial phase of crafting a marketing plan involves gathering crucial information, but the strategic puzzle remains incomplete until a budget is meticulously developed to underpin it. While not every company may require a marketing budget, adept in-house marketers understand that tracking expenses is pivotal for long-term success. My recommendation? Craft a budget, even if it isn’t strictly mandated.
Categorizing the budget and comprehending Return on Investment (ROI) over time are vital steps to ensure enduring success and secure approvals for forthcoming marketing expenditures. Each line item in the budget should contribute to lead generation and sales success, spanning from digital advertising to community events. While many budget items maintain consistency month after month, factors such as market seasonality, the construction pipeline, new community launches, and the integration of new tools will impact your monthly allocation.
Before you go ahead and finalize your budget, please consult the insights gained from cross-departmental meetings. Have you allocated resources for critical company-wide and departmental goals? Ensuring you have the time and resources to be a collaborative partner with other department leaders is important to your continued success.
If you are just starting out, generic templates can provide a helpful starting point. Explore these template options from HubSpot as you begin this essential aspect of your marketing strategy.
The Final Phase: Constructing Your Marketing Plan
The journey doesn’t end with the finalization of the marketing plan. Regular reviews, feedback from the team, and adaptability to external factors are crucial. The marketing plan is a guide, not a rigid set of rules. Sharing the plan across all departments fosters unity and ensures everyone is aligned with the goals.
Remember, the ultimate goal of the marketing plan is to drive growth and profitability. Regular reviews and adaptations ensure the plan stays relevant in a dynamic market. In times of uncertainty, lean on the team and seek external expertise to refine the plan and stay ahead.
As you create your marketing plan, keep these lessons in mind. Cross-departmental collaboration, customer-centricity, trend awareness, KPI-driven strategies, and effective budget management are the pillars that will support your journey toward marketing success in the ever-evolving world of homebuilding.
Conclusion: Builder Marketing Success is A Community Affair
Growing your career as a marketing leader in the building industry requires more than planning, data, or even hard work. To succeed, you must seek peer, leader, and expert support and be open to collaboration and learning.
So, question, collaborate, and innovate. Remember, your success depends on your existing knowledge and willingness to learn and discover new things.
Join The Welcome to Home Building Conversation
Regardless of whether you are new to the industry or a seasoned expert, please comment below or draft a blog post for the Welcome to Home Building community and share your insights. You never know how your experiences might inspire and contribute to the collective wisdom of our dynamic community.
Melissa – This is a great article. Very simple and to the point. You nailed all the critical aspects of building out a marketing strategy. The effort that stood out the most to me was #3 Embrace Market Trends. I totally agree with you – builders are working with lean in-house departments and many push aside critical customer research and trends to focus on other priorities but in reality the consumer sentiment and customer research is the most important piece to the puzzle. If we don’t get that right, then we are just filling marketing vehicles with content that might not resonate. I’m on board with your advice to resist the urge to push this kind of effort to the back burner and make it a priority. Thanks for your insights!