What's the Big Idea?

Every company needs a solid social media strategy. Over the years, we’ve learned a thing or two about the unique marketing challenges facing homebuilders, and we have some helpful tips to consider for your next plan.

How have you spent your summer? We recently spent part of a week at the beach to plan for next year, do some team building and enjoy some much needed relaxation. 

Think of brand identity as the intersection of the company personality and the consumer. To stand out in the flood of competition in the marketplace, advertisers have turned their attention to developing brand identity “intangibles” that include emotional branding; the development of a brand tone with targeted messaging and eyes on consistent message delivery.

We click, we scroll, we scan, we scroll, and we click again. What stops the cycle? An image that captures your attention. 

Think back to childhood—good cowboys always wore white hats while the bad cowboys wore black hats. To understand the term “white hat SEO”, think in cowboy-terms: white hat SEO focuses on writing to a human audience that is organic and tangible, compared to “black hat SEO”, where tactics are sterile, computer-generated, and designed to “trick” the search engines behind the scenes. 

2015 was a great year for marketing campaigns.  Brands worked hard to cut through the clutter and grab their audience’s attention. From adorable animals that make us laugh to some truly hilarious campaigns that deal with not-so-funny issues, the Martin staff named their favorite ad/campaign picks from this year!  

I’m sure that you have heard the phrase “A picture is worth 1000 words.” It is true. One simple photo is capable of conveying a larger thought, idea, or message. That’s why it is so important to carefully consider each photo you use in brand messaging to determine what “story” is communicated in your photo.

Every image that is shared has one of five purposes:

These days, marketing your business must be more than print ads.  Getting your business in social media marketing allows you to connect with an entire demographic of clients who are spending hours of their free time engaged in social media interactions. If you aren’t on social media, you are missing out on marketing to numerous potential clients and business leads. However, you have to do more than just create accounts. You must be: 

Houzz has been a bit of a hidden gem when it comes to social media marketing for home builders. Houzz is a one-stop shop for anyone seeking ideas on home building and design; therefore, if your business has ANYTHING to do with houses or home projects, you NEED to be active on Houzz.

• Building your business presence online can be hard; there are so many places to be active it can be difficult to connect with all your potential clients everywhere online.

  As marketing and branding experts, we have a few tips on how to:

  • ·      better engage your audience
  • ·      target your clients
  • ·      increase engagement
  • ·      ask your clients for online reviews.