Recently, Group Two worked with Cornerstone Homes to launch the Grand Opening of the sales center for their newest community, The Villas at Ashlake. The challenge…this new Sales Center is in a strip mall about a mile down the road from the site where the community is being built in Chesterfield, VA. So, in addition to the usual business of promoting a new community, our job was to help overcome the location challenge to ensure that prospective buyers knew where to go for a community preview and the Grand Opening event.
What Group Two Did:
Custom URL. We created a new URL (Ashlake55.com) for both the signage and print ads that redirected to the Ashlake community page on Cornerstone’s main website. This allowed us to better track print and drive-by traffic and cleanly display the web address on materials.
Sales Center Displays. Since there were no homes to see on site, we wanted to make sure prospects had a strong sense of the community as soon as they stepped foot inside the sales office. With plenty of lifestyle imagery and photos of product soon to be built, we were able to create excitement around “what will be” on the currently empty land.
Onsite Signage. Even though the community hasn’t broken ground yet, we used the site to promote the Sales Office address and Ashlake55.com URL with signage that made it clear where the sales office is located down the street.
Eblasts. We sent eblasts based on the print ads to an interest list, promoting the grand opening date, and emphasizing pre-construction pricing.
Incentives. We promoted pre–construction pricing, a preview of all amenities, and first choice for lot selections as a draw for potential buyers.
Print Ads. We ran a series of ads in two local newspapers, for two weekends leading up to the opening, including the day of event. Since this is a 55+ community, print was definitely valuable here. As an added value, one of the papers gave us digital ads on their website.
Social Ads. We ran both boosted posts and targeted ads, aimed at 55+ prospects within a 50-mile radius of the area with a length of current homeownership over 7+ years.
Blog. We used a blog about the event as a landing page for social ads, and also pulled it as “News” on the Cornerstone homepage.
Remarketing Ads. Community specific remarketing ads followed web visitors who had landed on the community page through eblasts, ads, and paid search campaigns. Remarketing Ads helped reengaged prospects that were considering The Villas at Ashlake.
The Results:
Our multi-media blitz with the right messaging was very successful. Over 60 guests attended the one-day Grand Opening – and at least 3 contracts were signed that day with plenty of appointments in the books. This boutique 55+ community has a long interest list of qualified prospective buyers.
The integrated marketing plan that Group Two created for this client can be implemented for any community event. We’d love to talk to you about strategies for your next marketing challenge, so let’s chat!
