Four Ways In, Not One
How we marketed a 55+ community before its model home opened
South Shore Communities, an Epcon builder
The situation
The Courtyards at The Brooks went to market early — before there was a model home to walk through.
Valparaiso is a small town with very little search traffic to work with. A community of 36 homes can't afford to depend on one way of being found.
What we did
Google search, aimed tight.
Broad searches brought plenty of visitors and very few inquiries. Narrow, local searches brought fewer visitors and far more inquiries. We moved the budget accordingly.
Organic content strategy alongside performance and paid media content.
Even though we develop specific graphic pieces for Paid Media that only run in ad campaigns, we also use content from the feed in ads. Beyond the fact that this approach means the potential client is impacted by one cohesive visual identity and strategy, it also allows us to capitalize on engagement such as new followers, likes, comments, inbox inquiries, and so on. Same look, same voice, seen by more of the right people.
Ads aimed at people already shopping.
We showed ads to people who had recently been at competing communities nearby, and at the places our buyers go.
What happened
Nearly 70,000 clicks from ads brought people to the community's website over twelve months. Where the traffic came from matters more than the total: in Analytics, local ads brought about 30% of sessions, Facebook and Instagram 25%, Google search 20%, and the last 25% came from people who already knew the name or found the community another way. That spread is the point. If any one of those stopped working tomorrow, the community would still be found three other ways.
The ads aimed at people already shopping nearby did the most useful thing of all. They brought more than twice as many people out to the property in person as the broad ones did — on about a third of the budget.
In their words
"We were opening a community in a town that wasn't searching for us yet. Glue built four ways in instead of one, and then showed us which one was actually bringing people out to the property."
— Chris Knight, South Shore Communities
What's next
With the model home opening and the Google Maps listing going live, the community has a front door to measure against — and the ads can point at that location.