What to Look for in an Effective Home Builder and Real Estate Marketing Agency

Building or buying a new home is a monumental decision, and home builders and real estate developers play a significant role in this decision. Although the housing market has experienced many recent shifts and slowdowns, real estate is still in demand by many home buyers, and this offers home builders and developers fantastic opportunities. In their search for their new home, home buyers rely heavily on the resources and research they do online.

That means home builders and developers must implement convincing strategies to prove their unique value to potential home buyers and realtors. As home buyers search for the best home builder and/or best master-planned community, home builders and real estate developers should be on the lookout as well for an effective real estate marketing agency to partner with to set them apart from the competition.

Home builder and real estate branding and marketing agencies are instrumental in guiding your branding, marketing and placemaking strategy to achieve successful results that ultimately translate to interested buyers, new leads and loyal realtors. Partnering with a results-focused home builder and real estate marketing agency enables your team to focus on what’s most important – building incredible homes and developing desirable master-planned communities!

Through content marketing, advertising, engagement strategies, search engine optimization (SEO), reputation management and more, a successful real estate marketing agency can position your brand as credible and trustworthy. A strong branding and marketing agency will help your company create a cohesive plan that accounts for your long-term goals, unique value proposition, target audience, local market, sales goals, etc.

Below, we’ll discuss why you should invest in a home builder and real estate marketing agency, how it can benefit your performance and what to look for in an effective agency.

Why Should You Invest in a Home Builder and Real Estate Marketing Agency?

There are several reasons that a home builder and real estate marketing agency can serve as an invaluable asset for your team. The world of modern real estate moves fast – it’s highly competitive and constantly shifting. Marketing trends and home buyer expectations are always evolving, and that can be incredibly overwhelming to keep up with as a home builder or real estate developer.

A few of the reasons you could begin looking for an effective home builder and real estate marketing agency could include:

• Facing Slow Traffic and Sales – Has online and onsite traffic decreased due to market shifts or other factors? Have sales been down? Are you struggling to reach or successfully connect with your target audience?
• Interest in Growing – Maybe you’re reaching your business goals, but you want to aim for more? Is your company’s growth stalling? A home builder and real estate marketing agency could be the resource you need to take your business to the next level including a full branding process and brand plan for success.
• Launch of New Master-Planned Community - You are in the early stages of a new master-planned community, and you need assistance in creating a name, brand promise, brand plan, placemaking strategies and more.
• Lack of Time or Expertise – Have you noticed your team is falling behind on SEO practices, social media management, engagement strategies, etc.? Does your team feel comfortable and knowledgeable in executing marketing strategies, and are they receiving successful results? If not, marketing agencies can offer greater experience and dedicate time to those efforts instead.
• Unsure of Where to Start – Maybe you’re attempting to execute your marketing strategies but struggling to determine the best strategy for success? Home builder and real estate marketing agencies possess the expertise needed to develop a plan that provides your business with the best chance for success.

Not only are home builders and developers expected to be aware of and accommodate these changes, but they’re also expected to push even further to exceed expectations. Home buyers are making one of the biggest purchases of their life, and it’s not surprising many are looking for the best money can buy and are conducting extensive research on their options.

A home builder and real estate marketing agency relieves you of that weight, takes on the responsibility of ensuring your branding and marketing is at its best and allows you to focus on other aspects of your business. With knowledgeable expertise and brand-tailored strategies, marketing agencies help grow your digital presence, effectively reach your target audience, build engagement and convert increased leads.

A home builder and real estate marketing agency could help your business with:

• Branding Identity and Brand Strategy
• Social Media Management
• Public Relations
• Content Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization
• Digital/Print Advertising
• Website Design
• Email Marketing Campaigns
• Overall Marketing Plan, Budget and Execution Strategies

To select an agency that can effectively guide your marketing plan and deliver successful results, there are several aspects to keep in mind during your search!

Relevant Services

Marketing strategies and services are never one-size-fits-all! Before browsing agency options, a great starting point is taking the time to talk with your team and discuss the services that could be most beneficial for brand growth. Whether your brand is focused on finding a unique brand voice, expanding its digital reach, or implementing stronger creative work, these goals can help narrow your list of relevant marketing agencies for your company.

After determining the marketing services that are top priorities, you can search for home builder marketing agencies that specialize in those services. At Milesbrand, we offer a wide variety of marketing services from brand positioning to website design, organic and paid search strategies, digital advertising, email marketing, content marketing, marketing collateral, media planning and much more!

Understanding of Your Brand

To achieve a successful partnership with a home builder and real estate marketing agency, the agency must understand your brand. Ideally, you’ve formed a vision for the future of your business, and any marketing agency you work with should recognize and support this vision. From email marketing to advertising and social media content, the marketing tactics an agency will execute directly reflect and impact your brand. This means it’s essential to ensure the agency you select respects your unique value and aims to employ strategies that align with your overarching vision and compellingly communicate your brand’s identity.

When you work with Milesbrand, we create value for our clients by helping them identify and communicate their Brand DNA – the most compelling element of their enterprise, and often the most elusive. Our team then works with everything in our repertoire to bring your brand to life and introduce it to the right audiences.

Defined Process

Successfully developing and implementing home builder and real estate marketing strategies and campaigns takes time, effort, and an effective methodology. As every brand may have different needs and require varying services, every agency should maintain a clear, defined process for implementing tailored marketing strategies.

Every project has different objectives and challenges, and that means each call for customized marketing plans. An effective home builder and real estate marketing agency should ideally have a standard detailed action plan in place with steps along the way that can be altered for different brands and marketing objectives.

Although your brand is unique, a successful agency should be able to implement a practiced framework for successfully serving the business that understands how different strategies can be used tactically to generate more leads and more sales.

At Milesbrand, we identify our client’s most significant differentiator, their Brand DNA, through a well-defined, proprietary branding process. To successfully bring your brand to life, we focus on brand strategy, architecture, and identity to marketing, advertising, and promotion on the analog side, and from platform strategy and website development to SEO, social media, analytics and optimization on the digital side.

We implement our branding process to create a Brand Development and Differentiation Strategy for your brand. This process utilizes the following steps for creating value through brand differentiation:

• Brand Charrette – First, we’ll take time to listen and learn about your brand identity, target audience, offerings, challenges, objectives, competitors, etc.
• Brand Positioning - During this step, we’ll start forming an in-depth strategy for differentiating your brand.
• Brand Plan – Finally, we create a “go-to-market” plan to launch the new brand for your company.

Effective Communication

Remember that when you select a home builder and real estate marketing agency, you’re also choosing a partner with whom you must regularly communicate. To enjoy a smooth, successful collaboration, it’s important to choose an agency that you trust to offer clear, consistent communication in a timely manner. Ideally, the agency you work with will be easy to talk to, open and enjoyable to work alongside.

At Milesbrand, we pride ourselves on providing thorough, consistent communication with our clients to ensure they always feel supported. We strive to focus our complete attention and energy on the moment at hand— whether we’re guiding a client or creating a solution. It keeps us mindful, and it brings all of our expertise and insight to bear on any challenge or opportunity.

Experience

When searching for an agency that will guide your marketing strategy, it’s important to ask questions to determine if they have credible experience. Is this team knowledgeable about the latest marketing and advertising trends? Can they spot opportunities for success that you hadn’t thought about? Do they know which mediums, formats and tones are most effective in reaching and engaging your target audience?

While there are many marketing agencies out there filled with talented professionals, it’s important to ask if they have relevant expertise within the home building industry. Any agency may have a great grasp on paid advertising, SEO and more, but do they understand the nuances of selling homes, home building, realtor relations, and promoting master-planned communities? Choosing a real estate marketing agency offers more certainty that they will understand your offerings, the expectations of your target audience and the tactics that will work best to meet your objectives and generate greater conversions.

A home builder marketing agency that works with other builders and is active within the industry will possess an understanding of what other companies are doing, as well as what strategies are successful, and which are not. By working with an agency with relevant experience, they will also be more likely to understand your competitors, industry trends and the marketing practices that will work best for your brand.

For over three decades, we have had a singular focus on real estate branding and marketing, resulting in unparalleled industry knowledge and success. Since 1998, we have focused exclusively on branding and marketing in the real estate industry. We have helped sell more than 200,000 homes and generate over $60 billion in revenue.

Our brand development expertise extends to industry partners, home builders, master-planned community developers and mixed-use developers, as well as multi-family and apartment communities across the country.

Impressive Portfolio

Along with finding an agency that has the necessary expertise, their experience must be backed by supplementary evidence. Rather than hoping for the best, you should know what to expect from the agency, as well as the results they are capable of producing for their clients.

Before jumping in with a new agency, be sure to ask for a portfolio that includes examples of their previous work and marketing successes. By doing so, you can determine if their work meets your standards and fits your branding and marketing needs. Effective home builder and real estate branding and marketing agencies should be able to support their portfolio with defined, clear statistics such as conversion rates, return on investment, traffic increases, engagement rates, click-through rates, etc.

Another way to gauge the quality of their work is by listening to what their past customers have to say in their reviews. Although some agencies may have a negative comment or two, assess whether the good or bad reviews make up the majority of the feedback they have received.

Throughout our history, Milesbrand has had the honor of working with many of the leading real estate brands in the world, partnering with them to build their brand and reach their company goals. Our branding success rate has been outstanding, including our recent partnership with McCaffrey Homes and their master-planned community, Tesoro Viejo. We worked with McCaffrey Homes to refresh the brand for Tesoro Viejo, earning 4 Gold Nationals Awards in 2022, including Master-Planned Community of the Year.  With 122 Gold National Awards from the National Association of Home Builders, along with more than 500 Silver Awards to date, we are also the world’s most awarded real estate branding agency.

Milesbrand is truly the brand behind many real estate brands. Take a look at the incredible branding designs we’ve brought to life that have achieved phenomenal results!

Clear Measurements of Success

Another aspect of maintaining clear communication with the agency you choose is having a shared understanding of what they will measure as an indicator of success. Are your team and theirs on the same page as to what success looks like?

Ultimately, you need a home builder and real estate marketing agency that will produce the results you want. As your agency tactically executes a marketing plan for your business, it may be easy to lose sight of the end goal of selling homes. But both you and the agency need to remain aware of how the results they are achieving are affecting your bottom line to justify your investment.

As you shop for a strong marketing agency, ask how they will measure success and if they can provide clear metrics that will be used to track progress. Ensure the partner you choose plans to regularly report results that indicate the success of their marketing plan.

Choose a Home Builder and Real Estate Marketing Agency You Can Trust to Achieve Effective Results

Ready to find a home builder and real estate marketing agency that will lead your business to success? Finding an agency that offers unmatched expertise, relevant services, an impressive portfolio and more is the best way to ensure your company enjoys a rewarding and effective partnership!

We think Milesbrand is just the right agency to act as your trusted branding and marketing partner. Our ability to connect and become our clients' “most-loved” strategic partner has defined our brand for over 30 years. Learn more about how to start working with us by reaching out to our team today.