It’s the season of spiced apples, cozy sweaters, cinnamon sticks, and also one of the best times of year to launch fun and unique new home sales and marketing campaigns! Builders are often concerned that traffic begins to die down in these months, but we say meet your prospects where they are and speak the language of autumn and winter! This is the time when we all start thinking about renewal and growth for the new year, and if those plans involve a move, you’ll want to make sure your homes and communities are top of mind.
Here are a few fall/winter and holiday campaigns we’ve partnered with our builders to create, and we’re happy to share them with you!
Highlight Self-Guided Tours
Self-guided tours allow for prospects to view your model homes on their own time, and at their own pace. It’s the perfect solution to accommodate interested buyers who don’t have a lot of time during regular business hours, and it frees up onsite agents’ time to focus on closing more deals. During the holidays especially, when people are busier than ever, self-guided tours make experiencing your homes easy, convenient, and memorable for your prospects.
This video we created for New Tradition Homes explains how the process works:
Host a Social Media Contest
Whether virtual or IRL, everyone loves a contest! Fall and the upcoming holiday season are the perfect times of year to hold a social media contest, encouraging your followers to post pictures, submit comments, and engage with your online community. Photo contests, in particular, highlight the beauty of your homes while introducing your homeowner’s unique styles.
Here is Wayne Homes’ 2021 Front Door Decorating Contest, which beautifully showcases decorated porches and front doors throughout their communities. The homeowner with the most liked photos received a gift card, but Wayne Homes was also a winner as these photos were liked, loved, and shared across social media.
Celebrate with a Community Event
Now that the sweltering summer temps are behind us, it’s time to think about events! People LOVE celebrating the season with festive gatherings. Even if you can’t pull off a community event centered around a specific theme, consider a food truck event or even a walking tour for homeowners and prospects alike to check out your beautifully decorated homes. Events promote a sense of community, and when shared with your wider audience, demonstrate how great it is to live in your neighborhoods.
Prioritize 5-Star Reviews
It’s the holiday season, which means people are feeling generous! Take advantage of their good cheer and develop a strategy to boost your 5-star reviews on Google. Even if you’re having a great fall selling season, a few bad reviews can hurt your reputation for the long haul. We’ve worked with builders to develop programs that put the review program in the sales team’s hands and encourages them to ask for reviews at strategic points in the sales process. You can make it super easy for customers to leave a review by creating a QR code that they can scan with their phones right in the sales center.
Bonus Tip: List Your Homes Sooner!
It takes, on average, about 4.5 months of searching before a prospective homebuyer makes a decision. Even if you don’t have any finished inventory, now is the time to list your homes wherever they are in the construction process. Images of homes being built will get people excited and ready to buy in the New Year!
For a lively discussion and more ideas for the cool weather and holiday selling seasons, listen to this episode of Building Perspective, Marketing Tips for Fall Selling Season.
If you’re interested in developing a new and different marketing campaign this holiday season or any other, our Strategy and Creative departments are ready to get to work!
