Marketing seemed almost superfluous in the go-go boom days. But now it’s essential. A few new resources can help you determine what you should be doing and how you should be doing it to get the greatest impact from your efforts.
BuilderMarketingIdeas.com is a year-old blog on sales and marketing specifically geared to home builders. Managed by Painesville Township, Ohio-based afl Marketing, which handles marketing for more than 30 home builders and developers, this informative blog is well-versed in employing both old and new media. Blogger Ante Logarusic offers some extremely straight talk for builders about which marketing tactics work and why some don’t, along with a variety of tips for social networking to help build your business and links to other useful resources and tools. Visitors to the site can subscribe to receive e-mail alerts of updates to the blog. There’s also an archive of past posts.
Another important component of marketing is public relations—a task for which many small builders are ill-equipped. In this economy, paying a professional agency to promote your business may be an unaffordable luxury, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make some effort. Do-it-yourself online marketing resource UnderstandingMarketing.com has just released a new e-book that teaches small companies how to use public relations to increase sales and profits. Public Relations Toolkit: How-To Guide for Public Relations by PR veteran John Sternal teaches small-business operators how to promote their companies to increase media awareness and generate buzz. Offering a PR agency-in-a-box, Public Relations Toolkit guides business owners through the process of identifying creative story angles, writing attention-grabbing press releases and e-mail pitches, and building relationships with news media. The e-book can be downloaded for $29.99 at www.understandingmarketing.com.
