4-min read
There comes a time in your home builder/developer career where you want more. More conversions, more traffic to your website and more sales propelling your business forward. But how do you gain more clients? By teaming up with a home builder marketing agency or advertising firm.
You need to consider many factors when determining who to pick for your marketing agency. In fact, there were 13.74k advertising agencies in the United States in 2017 alone. Can you imagine how many there are this year? With so many to choose from you need to determine which one will be the most compatible with your business.
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One of the best times to start looking for a new marketing agency is at the beginning phases of your business. Looking for an agency when you launch your company is rewarding because the agency can help you develop a website, create relevant content and help you morph your business into the perfect company you’ve aspired to build.
Another excellent time to start looking for a marketing agency is when you don’t have one already in place. For instance, every home builder or developer should have an agency on their side to help them with developing a strategic marketing plan to keep them relevant in today’s competitive world. In other words, you’ll be behind your competitors by not having an experienced marketer on your side.
The third reason for when you should consider looking for a marketing agency is when the one you have isn’t cutting it. You might already be paired up with a digital marketing agency but are they performing? This is important because the success of your company is far more important than the relationship you have with your current agency.
Like I mentioned earlier, there will be a time in your career where you want more clients and sales. In fact, this feeling is very common amongst many small business owners. Working with an experienced agency can guarantee you more visibility in both traditional and non-traditional advertising methods, thereby extending your reach and brand awareness.
Beginning your search for the ideal agency online is a given and I know that. However, there are specific tactics you can utilize within Google to receive better and more accurate search results. An important tactic you need to know about is searching with the use of punctuation marks.
Use dashes when you want to exclude a word from your search results list. For example, if you search for home builder marketing agency –New York then the search results will give you home builder marketing agencies that aren’t in New York.
Use quotation marks when you want to have an exact match of your search query. For instance, if you search for “online digital marketing agency” then the search results will give you the companies who rank specifically for online digital marketing agency.
Use asterisks when you have a specific set of keywords you would like to search for but don’t quite remember the order. For example, if you search for SEO * home builders, then the search results will help you fill in the blanks and give you the best possible solutions per your search query.
Use a tilde when you want to search for all synonyms. For instance, if you search for digital marketing agency ~online, then the search results will give you all of the similar search terms for online. Other examples include home builders ~video brochures, home builders ~event promotion, and home builders ~AI.
Use a double period when you want to search for ranges. For example, if you search for home builder marketing trends 2000..2020, then the search results will give you a range of trends from those 20 years.
The most reputable digital marketing agencies for home builders have the best referrals and reviews. Don’t underestimate the power of learning from other home builder’s experience with a specific agency. Although not every single agency has authentic reviews, 84% of people trust online reviews as much as they trust their friends.
There are several tools online which can help you find the perfect marketing agency. These tools below are like traditional phone directories specific to the agency arena.
The last tip in finding the ideal agency for you company is to learn more about your options. Take your list of top ten agencies (or however many you have an eye on) to request more information about each firm. Many marketing and ad agencies have a very detailed About Us section on their site, however, nothing is more beneficial than starting a real conversation with the potential agency.
Communicating and visiting the firm you’re interested in can make a world of difference in how you make your choice. From my personal experience, I am much more successful gaining a new client after a face-to-face meeting than by relying solely on online forms of communication.
An often overlooked criteria for selecting your marketing firm should be corporate culture. Does your potential agency have similar culture to yours? Do their beliefs, style of communication and personality of their team align with yours? For a truly great alliance, this is critical.
Good-luck on your digital marketing agency search!
How did you find your current agency?
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About Terry Zelen
Creative Director | Consultant | Author | President of Zelen Communications
Terry Zelen is a seasoned Creative Director with more than 35 years of experience in Home Builder advertising and marketing.
He is the founder of The Punch List, which is an online blog to help inform home builders and developers on strategic marketing insights to fuel their firm.
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