See that?
That’s me checking the list of mistakes I’ve made in business. I bet your list is long too. Why? Because it has to be. We can read all the emails, go to all the seminars, collect all the books, get all the education, but at the end of the day, sometimes business owners just need to get out there and make some mistakes to learn the right way to do something.
Marketing is no different. No one knows exactly what’s going to work. We can make an educated guess, sure, but that’s anything but a guarantee. That’s why the industry is constantly trying new things – new messages, new campaigns, new platforms, and new content. Some times they work, and some times they don’t.
An advantage we have at Bild Media, as an industry specific marketing agency, is that we see data and results from hundreds of clients across one industry (manufactured housing), and we can learn from it.
In an industry like ours, one with tremendous opportunity to grow, improving the marketing at one manufactured housing business will help all businesses within that region. For example, if your competitor down the road improves their marketing, you will both sell more (assuming everything else stays equal). When you subsequently improve your marketing to compete with theirs, you will both sell more again.
In the housing, there is more need than demand for manufactured homes. As our industry’s collective marketing efforts improve, the demand will increase as future home buyers realize we are a solution their affordable housing need.
Do you want to improve your own marketing? Of course! We all do. Take a look below at some of the common mistakes I see, and what you can do to avoid them.
5 Most Common Marketing Mistakes in Manufactured Housing
Not Saying ‘Why’
Do something for me, real quick.
I want you to go to your social media accounts and look at the last 5 posts. Read through all of them, and see how many times you told people why they should do business with you (price doesn’t count – see below 😉).
If you’re like most in the manufactured housing industry, you don’t say ‘why’ enough. Why should someone choose you over the competition? Why is your business the best in the region? Why is manufactured housing so great? Why should someone purchase a manufactured home instead of renting an apartment, condo, or house? Why you?
Featuring products, specials, promotions, and sales on social pages is great, but you can’t let your social accounts turn into product catalogs. Buyers need to see why they should buy from you, not just what they can buy from you. Educate them. Tell a story. Create a relationship online so that when they speak to you or come in the store, they already have a good feeling about how their experience will be.
If you’re thinking the ‘why’ posts will get fewer leads…you’re right. They’re not there for leads though – they are there to help all your other marketing and sales efforts perform. If buyers in your market have a good perception of your business, they are MORE likely to click on your lead ads, call you, visit you, etc.
Need an example? Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of them. ; )
When you’re driving down the road and see a billboard with a polar bear and Santa sharing a coke, you don’t swing into the gas station and grab a 2 liter of coca-cola because you saw a billboard. However, when you’re at the movie theater, you do remember that feeling the billboard gave you, and you opt for that large coke instead of a water. Good advertising doesn’t always just generate leads – it also increases the awareness of your brand, and improves the performance of all your other ad campaigns and sales efforts.
‘To market or to sell’…that is the question
Which of these would most salespeople rather do: 1) Put up a social media post, boost it, and answer questions (Price?), or 2) Call through leads to make appointments?
If given the opportunity, most people will go with #1. All the likes, comments, and shares feel good, there’s very little negative feedback, and there’s clear evidence of work to give the sales manager. And #2? As we all know, most calls go unanswered, and most that do answer aren’t ready to buy, and maybe a few out of a hundred will actually come in to look at, and buy, a home. Option #1 gives a lot of positive feedback, option #2 gives a lot of negative feedback. And who wants negativity in their lives?
The problem is that you have to do #2 to sell more homes and grow your business. Posting on social media doesn’t sell homes – selling is what sells more homes.
To see if this an issue in your business, look at all the leads you’re received over the past 3 months. Why they didn’t buy? Why did they submit their info to purchase a product, and then NOT purchase that product? If your sales team can’t answer this question about their leads, they need to hit the phones/emails/texts/messages and get to selling. If there are unworked leads, it’s time to start calling, not posting.
Marketing With Price
I hear this WAY too often: “We don’t do much marketing. We just price ourselves a few thousand dollars under the prices of the corporate store in town, and buyers come here to get a good deal. It helps us save on marketing costs.”
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Does it though?
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If a retailer lowers their price by $5,000 per home to compete, then they’re actually spending (losing) $5,000 per home. And if they sell 60 homes per year, that’s $300,000 in lost revenue. You’re essentially spending $300,000 per year in advertising, except your advertising cost is lost revenue, not an expense. It has the same effect on the bottom line though.
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Losing $300,000 isn’t the end of the problem though. It’s the beginning. Because their revenue is down $300,000 from where it could and should be, they now don’t have the money in the budget to service the homes properly, and they have poor reviews all over the internet. This business also doesn’t have any money to advertise, so they have to wait on buyers unhappy with the corporate store to stumble across their sales center down the road. This business also earns the reputation as the “cheapest place in town”, and they get buyers that are looking for the cheapest place in town, and those buyers aren’t always the best to work with.
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There’s nothing wrong with being competitive with your price – we all do it. The problems start when busynesses rely on their pricing to market and advertise for them.
Lackluster Shopping Experience
Walmart. Chick-Fil-A. Starbucks. Chipotle. Apple. Target.
Question: Do you know what all these brands have in common?
Answer: Manufactured buyers shop at all of them.
How does your in store experience compare? Do you have a paved, well marked, and well lit parking lot like Walmart? Do you have smiling, happy employees like Chick-Fil-A? Do your employees ask for customer names, and remember them, like Starbucks? Is choosing which product to purchase simple like Chipotle? Is your store squeaky clean, organized, and modern like Apple? Do your buyers, or their spouse, somehow feel compelled to spend 10x more than they planned on like a trip to Target? : )
Our industry does not exist in isolation, and home buyers are comparing the manufactured home purchase experience with other industries. We are not getting a pass for a sub-par experience because we sell ‘affordable housing.’ We have to create and maintain a superior shopping experience if we want to bring new buyers into manufactured homes. The first step in elevating the buying experience is making sure that other industries aren’t outperforming us.
Next time you’re out and about, visit popular retail businesses in your region and write down all the positive experiences you have. Next, go back to your business and see how you stack up. Start with the simplest to change, and move on to the more complex and expensive. Once you’re through that list, I guarantee you’ll have a better in store experience, and more sales as a result.
No Follow Up
We’re wading into the sales world with this one, but I think it’s so prevalent that it’s worth mentioning here. As an industry, we have to follow up better with customers online. We’re getting out sold.
Did you know that it takes an average of 8 attempts to reach a prospect, and the average salesperson only attempts twice? (Source: Kellogg School of Business). When someone messages your business, how many times do your salespeople attempt to call or message them back? Do you have a minimum in place?
Great marketing is all but wasted if salespeople do not actively follow up with every opportunity they have. Calls, messages, emails, texts, are ALL necessary tools to use to reach your leads and schedule appointments. Make sure you have a great sales system in place to ensure that every lead is contacted until 1) they purchase a home, or 2) they demand you stop calling.
