New Venture Lab: Equipping Christian Entrepreneurs

Question

I recently launched a company that provides services to local land developers and builders.  What kind of marketing or advertising do you recommend for me to build my business?

Answer

There are many avenues to build your business via an integrated sales and marketing strategy.  These avenues include advertising (in all types of media such as print and online), direct marketing (in telemarketing, direct mail and email), public relations, referral programs, etc.  (See the download: "Presentation: Introduction to CRM" for a much more thorough outline of the overall sales and marketing process).

At the heart of your sales and marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) strategy must be a laser focus on who your customer is and why they should want to do business with you.

Since you have a local service company and since you serve a very specific industry, I would recommend a very tightly focused marketing strategy in just your local area and specifically designed for your target decision maker.  A few suggestion would be joining the local real estate professional associations (try the local chapter of the national association of home builders for example), advertising in local real estate publications that are read by builders and land developers (don't take the publication's word for it, but ask your current customers what they read and what meetings they attend), and direct calling or mailings to your key contacts.  Since there is likely to be a small number of active land developers and builders in your local market (say less than 100 each), it should be fairly easy to identify who they are and begin mailing them or calling them.  If you run out of ideas on how to obtain a list, you can probably buy one from the local chapter of real estate professionals or the local business journal.  The local business journal usually publishes a list of the largest land developers and largest builders once a year and often will send you the list at no charge.