Just like the age old saying “know thy self”, knowing your audience is the first step in marketing and advertising. This information can set the course for your entire marketing venture. So, lets break it down!
When advertising homes or communities for sale there are a few general categories to choose from:
Home Buyer OR Home Renter
Those seem pretty obvious, however they each have their own sub-audience to play with as well:
Home Buyers
First you want to look at the individuals looking to purchase:
- A Home in a community (All ages and/or 55+)
- A pre-owned home and have it on private land or into a community.
- A new or home to move to either private land or a community
- A custom home to build and place on either private land or within a community
In addition to the above groups you also have professionals who purchase homes as well. Those you can typically breakdown to the following groups:
- Professional assisting individuals on their home search
- A community manager or owner looking to purchase pre-owned or new homes for their community
- Professionals home sellers looking to purchase homes (both new/pre-owned) for resale.
Home Renters:
With individuals looking to rent a home there can be a number of categories. The most common tend to be:
- Individuals looking to rent a home for short term due to a job re-location, to temporary location change.
- Someone seeking a second home or a retirement property to rent seasonally
- Individuals looking to rent due to budget restrictions or preferred flexibility with a lease agreement.
Once you have invested time in knowing your audience you can move on to the following marketing and advertising steps!
Exposure/Market
Understanding the market you are looking to work within and navigating the available exposure is the next logical step after knowing your audience. Knowing your audience will dictate the types of marketing and advertising that will be most effective.
Statistically, online advertising is still at the top of the list in general, since it’s easily manageable, typically reasonable in cost and lets face it everyone starts their search online these days.
In addition to online advertising, there are still some benefits to advertising in print.
So for this step in your process you will want to evaluate the most effective avenue to reach your buyer/renter, then be sure you are dominating that market as best you can.
Content
Content is so important. Not only do you want to be sure any and all details of a home are included in your advertisements, but your contact options too!
Someone looking to purchase or rent a home will need all information about the home upfront. In addition you also want to give any necessary details in reference to monthly fees if in a community, any sales commission a professional might require etc.
You also need to be sure that all of the content is accurate and updated regularly. For example, if you have photos of the home that were taken with snow on the ground and the ad is being posted in July, then you will want to have current photos taken and the advertisement updated.
Follow-through
These days there is little to no excuse for not following up with a customer. However, not only is it important to follow-up, it’s also important to provide all of the information they need within that response.
This still goes back to content in a way since you want to be sure your buyer or renter has all of the information they need to take the step in closing the deal.
So, while there are several areas to manage when advertising homes, starting by establishing your audience can dramatically increase the efficiency and eventual quality of your marketing campaigns.
If you have any additional questions on how you can improve your MHVillage advertisements please contact us!
