I want to grow my home building business
I grew up knowing, currently know and am friends with many people that build houses, frame houses, side houses etc
Every home builder I know and have been able to talk to for 5 minutes or more about what they do for a living, about their crew, about their business 2 things become very clear to me for the majority of these people.
They are VERY good at what they do
They don't see the big picture of what the business could be (they are so good at the building, at the running there crew that sales and marketing come second!)
Does that sound like you?
if it does not sound like you, stop reading. If it does, keep reading!
As we close out the year and you start looking to next year what do you want to accomplish, most guys want to grow there business, do more projects in the coming year but they don't know where to start... First know above all...
It's about time and attention
If you put time and attention on something it will happen, if you don't, it won't...its that simple.
Now if it is about time and you feel with the crew you're running or your home life or both that you don't have time to put attention on building your brand in the market place then hire someone. You can hire full time, you can hire part time. You could hire out the job you want to do... What is 3-5 or even 10 projects more a year worth to you? You need to do some backwards math on what that would mean to you and your company financially.
Now on to the practical stuff that you could do right away. These are free strategies that only take time...
Content your customers want to know
Google Trends
Branding
LET'S DIG IN
Content that your customers want to know
When you think about producing content whether it's voice content, video content or a blog does it seem like a lot of work, like it's daunting? Most people feel like that. It DOES NOT have to be that way though.
The number 1 quickest way to come up with content
The number 1 way to come up with content is to think about the questions you had when you started and the questions your customers ask you every time you work with them. (Ok, that's 2 but they're kinda the same)
Come up with topics by going through how getting a build comes up, for example...
how to pick the perfect piece of land
How to get financing from the bank for you're property
How to find the right person to draft your house
How do you decide on the layout of your new custom home
How do you get a mortgage if you're building a house
Should you hire the contractors
These are just a few good examples there are 1,000 more you could do. Each one of them could be a video, a blog, a podcast and then chopped up into content for Facebook, Instagram and the like.... All for free, just costs you time.
Google Trends
This one will be short and sweet and helps you with the content piece. If you go to Google Trends (click the link) In the top right corner, make sure you change "United States" to your country. In my case I change it to "Canada".
Once you do that you type in a phrase you think someone might Google when looking at building a custom home (or whatever it is you do for a living really) I typed in "Custom Home" and if you scroll down to the bottom on the right hand side there is a card that shows "Related Topics" It has arrows towards the bottom right for multiple pages. Here are some of the search results:
numbers 1 to 5 when I typed in Custom Home Building
numbers 6 to 10 when I typed in Custom Home Building
numbers 11 to 15 when I typed in Custom Home Building
number 16 when I typed in Custom Home Building
There are 16 topics above that you could be writing about, now some of them I realize don't really make sense to write about. BUT I'm sure you'd agree there are at least 5 here you COULD write/vlog/blog about.
Again that was FREE, just took a little time.
Examples from above
Talk about the different kinds of drywall you can use (does it matter)
Talk about different windows (we all know the choices are endless
Talk about countertop types, cost, pro's and con's.
You could write a whole series on Kitchens, how to set them up for flow, how you pick the right faucets, does flooring in the kitchen matter? (the list could be endless)
Talk about Cabinets, color, types, uppers, lowers etc.
Branding
This is such a BIG topic I won't be able to talk about it all right here BUT what I want to talk about is, who are you?
I have some questions for you?
Who are you?
Who is the business?
Do you have a mission statement?
Do you have a logo?
What does that logo stand for?
Can you answer all of these? If you cannot, IT'S OK. BUT, BUT you need to take time and think about this, think about why you have what you have now for a business, for a logo.
From there, you should start telling a story about the brand...
Let me lay this out using an example
There is a company based out of Steinbach MB that has a Mammoth as their logo, I don't represent them, I don't know them I just see it on the side of a truck on my way to work sometimes. SO, let's think about this.
If I had a Mammoth for my logo, I would create a Mammoth character...maybe a cartoon, maybe real life... I don't know. I would then write a story around that character and how they help build custom homes or better yet how they battle test the house once it's built and make sure it's "as strong as a mammoth"
I would create a whole story around the character of the mammoth I would have him/her say things, I would put that on shirts, hats, toques etc. I would have a separate place on your website where these are for sale.
I would give them away as promo gear (it costs money to do this but will pay dividends down the road I promise!)
This character can then have posts on Facebook, Instagram, Your Youtube, Your blog and the list goes on.
That's just one example of how you can build a brand, tell a story and have fun with it to build a narrative around a big piece of your buisness!
If you have any questions please let me know!