Content Marketing: Telling Stories, Building Relationships

How are you doing as far as all the terminology revolving around today's concept of Content Marketing?

Grab your audience; encourage participation in your brand!

Saw a nice blog on Contently: 10 Content Marketing Buzzwords You're Going to Hear Way Too Much This Year. 

No, we're not going to review all of them! If you're interested, you can read the entire blog here! It's still January so great idea to get a jump on the year!

We particularly liked and wanted to encourage use of Storytelling (as in: your brand encouraging storytelling) and Storyscaping (a new one for us but defined as "Stop creating ads, start creating worlds").

Take a look at some of CPS' other blog posts (including our most recent: Social Media Engagement: try it in your sales offices!). Storytelling and Storyscaping are key components of our SalesTouch and Social Media Wall products.  Take content (words, video, images) and engage your audience by actively soliciting touch and social media participation. Watch your audience and sales grow!

Planning on attending NAHB's Builders Show in Vegas?  We'll be telling stories all week; look for us in Booth 2860!

Social Media Engagement -- try it in your sales office!

A recent Kyle Wong article in Forbes makes a strong statement regarding the value of social media:

 Tradigital: adding digital engagement to traditional marketing

There is a near consensus that social media marketing is valuable because it allows companies to directly engage with their customers, build brand presence and ultimately sell more products.

Social Media is big and, according to a recent McKinsey & Co. report, is growing faster than any other technology before.  Just to put that thought into perspective, broadcast radio took almost 40 years to reach a 50-million listener audience; TV took more than 10 years.  Both Twitter and Facebook made it in less than 1 year.

Yes, but...is social media corporate-friendly? McKinsey suggests social media has become a commercial force to be reckoned with. Social media drives consumer empowerment though increased levels of corporate accessibility -- which becomes brand engagement which turns into purchasing.  Did you realize 66% of consumers say they trust online opinions/comments/likes -- second in trustworthiness to recommendations from people they know in real life!

We'll be blogging about Social Media throughout 2015.  For now, we wanted to showcase CPS' Social Media Wall -- a unique combination of traditional marketing media (photographs, video) and social media to create an ever changing display highlighting a new home neighborhood, its homeowners and prospective buyers.  Definitely tradigital!

How does a Social Media Wall function?  A set of images (lifestyle, homes, community amenities, schools, etc.) is established.  Twitter and Instagram hastags are established and whenever there's a related Tweet or post, it appears on the Social Media Wall interspersed with the "static" images.  The Wall goes beyond traditional marketing as it actively engages both current and potential customers!

How can the Wall be put to use in a sales office? Think of a neighborhood-wide July4th party and #July4MyCommunity. Every picture posted or tweeted will have the opportunity to be displayed as party of the sales office Social Media Wall.  It's curated, of course; an administrative website provides a mechanism to review every item before it appears on the wall. Your audience is generating marketing materials for you!

Social media, according to McKinsey, affects the entire value chain -- from product development through marketing, sales and service.  Contact us for Social Media Wall details and get your sales/leasing office and information center engaged!

Closing Starts a New Relationship: Keeping in Positive Touch

The all important Close of Escrow date means many different things for those involved: home possession, funds transferred, commissions, sales report updates...the list goes on detailing closing-related events.

COE is the beginning of a new buyer/builder relationship!

Yet, COE is just the beginning of a new relationship between the buyer and seller.  Many builders establish a  CRM process for homeowners (as differentiated from homebuyers) based on COE. Typically, this includes a welcome-to-your-new home gift, a "how did we do" buyer satisfaction survey and the ever-critical start of the referral process.

A critical component of the post-closing relationship is the home warranty process.  Part of the home builder's CRM system can include a post-closing Warranty Introduction email as well as notifications for critical time periods (such as 90-day and 11-month reminders).  Keeping in "positive touch" with homebuyers is a key part of a good CRM process -- and makes the warranty process understandable for the homebuyer.

There's no doubt homeowners will report post-closing construction issues -- large and small.  Jennifer Goodman, in a recent BuilderOnline article, Top Five Most Troublesome Callbacks, notes reducing call backs can save money and boost a builder's reputation. Managing those post-closing repairs, then, should be an important part of every home builder's construction management process.

Warranty software not only records homeowner issues and generates work orders to subcontractors, it contains the information to allow home builders to find out their own Top Five -- and more.  Do you know your most frequently reported problems?  Do you know what caused the problem?  Defective materials, poor construction, Act of God, wrong product?  There are many possibilities behind the homeowner reported "Bad front door lock!" -- and being able to drill down to the details is critical to improving your processes.  Which subcontractor has the most problems, is the quickest to repair?

Effective software, data mining, CRM, warranty management -- CPS can help you keep it positive! Give us a call or take a look at www.cpsusa.com.

ps: The Top 5? According to Goodman: leaky decks, crumbling stucco, water-logged windows, rotting roofs, peeling paint on doors.