Your new home marketing team is being stretched thin between all the showhome grand openings, promotions, and day-to-day tasks. You know you need some help, but how do you get there with your current staff and scale-up to where you need to be?
Follow these six steps to build a successful marketing team upper management is sure to love.
Reading time: 7 minutes
Level: Intermediate
Key Takeaways:
- the foundation your team needs for a successful scale-up
- why having clearly defined roles is so important
- training is the investment that builds better marketing teams
- a look at the culture you want your team to have and why
- promote from within and watch your team grow in the right direction
- why a new home marketing agency could make sense as your next hire
If you'd like to read a summary of this post, simply click here.
Depending on the size of the home builder company you work for and how they separate regional responsibilities, the structure of a typical new home marketing team can vary. But the good news is the core roles for an effective team are generally the same.
Let's get into the details of what these positions look like so you can fill the gaps in your new home marketing team and continue to grow from within.
Step 1: Build the Foundation for a Successful Scale-Up
Any successful new home marketing team starts with these three positions:
- Marketing Manager
- Assistant Marketing Manager
- Digital Marketing Coordinator
This allows you to delegate responsibilities, focusing on the decision-making while your team executes the marketing plan. You're also investing in the strength of your team members by giving them a clear role they can focus on while delivering the results you're looking for.
Step 2: Have Clearly Defined Roles for Each Team Member
Take the time to create a detailed job description for each member of your new home marketing team. This not only helps you understand their role better so you can track their growth over time, but they will also be more clear on what is expected of them. Review the position agreement together and sign it so you're on the same page moving forward.
Make sure to include their direct supervisor or whom they report to, a list of their day-to-day responsibilities, as well as their key performance indicators (KPIs) in terms of how you can accurately measure their work.
Personal characteristics are very important in narrowing down potential candidates, ones that would be the best fit in your work environment.
For example, the Digital Marketing Coordinator you select for your team should have relevant post-secondary education and/or experience in the same position in your industry. This makes the learning curve easier because they've already worked with a home builder in a similar role.
The personal traits worth seeking out are subjective because each team is different. With that said, common character assets to any team should include good organizational skills, attention to detail, time management, and eagerness to grow in their position because marketing trends and best practices are constantly evolving.
Step 3: Invest in the Right Training
Yes, training takes time but in the long-term, your team will be much better for it and it makes scaling up so much easier.
When a new hire starts out, set aside time for at least a week (most likely more) where most of the day is spent training them on their most important tasks. Set them up with a master password where one login will take them into anything they need access to. This way, they are ready to go through the software they will be using as you start your training process.
Another important part of properly training your new home marketing team is the processes and systems they will be following as they begin their workload. While this may take some time and you want to scale up fast, it's a good idea to start with documenting essential tasks as soon as possible. This way, new team members will know exactly how to complete each task and can go to their supervisor if they have any questions.
Once your new team member is settled in their role, encourage them to continue learning with external courses or certifications that can help them do their job even better. If they are interested in taking a paid course on the latest marketing tactics for home builders, don't dismiss it right away.
Think of it this way - is investing a small part of your budget on building a great team worth it? This is how you scale up smart and stay ahead of the market.
Step 4: Create a Culture of Champions
Hiring someone with the right qualifications is great, but going further and establishing the culture you want to create builds a winning team.
You've committed to your team and provided the tools for success, so look at what you're getting back. Not just in their work, but in the attitude they bring every day. Having the wrong culture fit can ruin the environment you've worked hard to create and leave the wrong impression on your most loyal team members.
A great culture breeds a team of passionate people who want to succeed and will be the best advocates for new hires as you continue scaling up. A solid business culture also creates a place for open communication, less internal politics, and clarity for everyone.
Step 5: Promote Your Rockstars
Identify those people on your team who truly care and consistently deliver great results, even going out of their way to make sure the job is done right. They are the key to keeping your team moving in the right direction and proving to upper-level management that marketing is an investment.
When you have proof your marketing team is helping your company sell more homes year after year, this opens up the opportunity for more budget to work with. Invest it back in your team by promoting your marketing rockstars into management positions and hiring replacements with your culture in mind so you can keep turnover low and continue growing.
Step 6: Consider the Advantages of Outsourcing
Once you get to a certain point in the growth of your new home marketing team, you realize it's time to hire help so you can focus on the big picture and free up more of your time. Another thing to consider is your budget and the value you'll get by hiring an extension to your marketing team versus another employee.
With the help of a home builder marketing agency, you get specialized help to generate more high-quality leads, sell more homes and grow faster. They will develop a content marketing strategy tailored to your ideal buyers.
Next, marketing automation is set up to take your leads from curious website visitors to highly-qualified appointments with your showhome sales reps. You will still be very much a part of the process and will receive monthly reporting with measurable results, making it easy to back up your decision to outsource.
If this sounds like something you want to learn more about, get in touch with us today! We'd be more than happy to explain what it's like to have this kind of specialized help on your side with a new home marketing program.
Summary
Your role as Marketing Manager has you stretched thin on time and left you in need of some help to build a winning new home marketing team that's scalable.
First things first, you'll want to make sure you have these three core positions on your team - Marketing Manager, Assistant Marketing Manager and Digital Marketing Coordinator. The size of your home builder company may mean having multiple marketing support roles; it all depends on what you need to make your team scalable.
Invest some time in developing clearly defined roles for your team. This will help you in your hiring process so you can find the best fit. You're also setting each new team member up for success because they know what is expected of them and the level of performance you expect.
Having proper, organized training ready for when a new hire starts means they can get comfortable with the software right away. They can then start performing the most important tasks following the processes you show them.
What kind of workplace culture do you want to see in your team? You need to have this in mind when hiring someone new, but it doesn't stop there. Keep a pulse on your team and be available to address any issues.
Promote the rockstars on your team who truly "get it" and consistently deliver great results. Doing this keeps your culture strong and sets the precedent for newer team members, showing them how far they can move up in their position.
Depending on the specific size and needs of your new home marketing team, it might make more sense to bring aboard a specialized new home marketing agency as your next hire. Think of them like a member of your team who is there to help you achieve your marketing goals. After all, generating more high-quality leads that turn into more show home traffic and home sales is what they do best.
