The Cutting Edge of Online Marketing

The main manufactured housing industry users of the power of indirect marketing to sell more homes are our clients and followers. The flip side of that fact is that the vast majority of MHPros uses direct message marketing. For those in both the indirect and direct camps, tapping into the power of friends and family ought to become a must.

Back circa 1993, MCI led the charge with an early loyalty and referral program they dubbed Friends and Family. Here is a sample video commercial that promoted it.

MCI was acquired in 1998 by WorldCom, which eventually became part of Verizon in January 2006. MCI was known for their historic role in breaking the AT&T monopoly on telephony, as well as this Friends and Family marketing.

Today, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other forms of social networking are the 'friends and family' options of choice.

But don't limit yourself to just those social media tools. Think about the powerful fact shared below as you develop – or redevelop – your operation's or location's marketing!

Manufactured housing and its precursor, the pre-HUD Code 'mobile home,' has some 23 million people in the U.S. living in one of our homes. What if just 5% of those residents in the next year became 'evangelists' for manufactured housing to the extent that they would bring a family member or friend to your community, retail center or development to buy a new home?

That would be a record setting 1.15 million new manufactured home sales! It would roughly double the highest water mark ever set by our industry.

You don't have to wait for the industry at large to get together on such a concept. You can start a friends and family program all your own! Tapping the power of friends and family could put your operation, career or location into overdrive. If you need help creating a successful friends and family – or other! – marketing and sales program, send me an email or pick up the phone and call. ##

PS: Check our many Exclusive and Red Hot Featured Articles for May and see the

other new stories at MHLivingNews.com too.

L. A. "Tony" Kovach

MHLivingNews.com=Re-Discovering and Spotlighting the MHLifeStyle

MHProNews.com = MHMSM.com = Industry News, Tips and Views Pros can Use

Services:B2BandB2CAds, Proven MH Marketing & Sales Systems, Websites other Industry Solutions.

Office -815-270-0500

latonyk@gmail.com or tony@mhmsm.com

www.MHC-MD.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach= connect with me on Linkedin.

http://pinterest.com/latonyk/manufactured-home-lifestyle/

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Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right. – Henry Ford

We aren't talking about the Al Pacino movie, or even the glories of women and their many perfumed scents. What we will discuss is the thought behind William Shakespeare's famous phrase, "A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet."

Let's see the two paths manufactured housing pros need to consider and implement in order for us to achieve our new home sales potential.

What's in a name?

There are many words that all mean "woman," and many that are used accent her scent delightfully. But some terms used are crude and rough, not fitting to be used to describe a lady in polite company.

By analogy, there are many names that all mean factory-built home. But some of the names used are derogatory, outdated and crude; not flattering at all.

We as manufactured housing professionals ought to realize that what's in a name truly matters. Which would you rather own:

• A modern manufactured home,
• A mobile home, or
• A trailer house?

Using the right name (terminology) at the right time may yield a more fragrant 'scent' to a qualified prospective customer, and thus more customers who are able to pay cash or who have good credit.

You better believe that the person capable of buying a residential style HUD Code Manufactured Home would not be nearly as interested – or may completely reject! – the notion of buying a "tr–ler house."

As the definitions provided by Texas manufactured home retailer, Frank Woody, linked here, a manufactured home is NOT a mobile or the T-word.

Now, let's acknowledge that the term 'mobile home' is used more online than manufactured home, and is thus useful as "Google bait."

That said, there are ways to get that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) benefits, without demeaning what should be the image of our quality, appealing home product!

Direct and Indirect Term Marketing

Many understand direct terminology marketing and use it daily.

Direct marketing term marketing is when you describe the homes you sell under a label like manufactured home. This is the most common kind of marketing in our Industry, and is not to be ignored, because some people want what we sell.

This is the concept behind the MHVillage approach. The success of their platform is clearly shown by their ability to attract over 42,000 visitors daily.

That group seeking a manufactured home (…or mobile home, or a tr–ler house) is roughly 15% +/- of all housing customers.

It is also common that many (not all…) of these shoppers seeking a 'mobile home' have sub par credit. Regardless, thousands of homes are being sold this way monthly, so we should not ignore this method!

Nevertheless, let's look at a different, often overlooked path to increased total housing market penetration to drive more sales success.

Attracting the higher-end Cash and Good Credit Customers

Then there is a second group of marketers, that drops the "manufactured housing" or "mobile home" terminology phrases from their vocabulary. If you have a high end location, you just call your homes, homes.

By doing so, you've now opened up your market to acceptance by the other 85% of the population's tastes.

Change your use of terms, and you improve your client base. Theory?

Nope. We do it for clients, but we are not alone.

Look at appealing Saddlebrook Farms near Chicago, IL as a 1400 filled-home-sites example of the success such a process can enjoy.

Having the chutzpah – and wisdom! – to define yourself and go after a more upscale client is part of the core of this successful concept.

This vision is defined inside and out by offering residential style examples of a quality lifestyle. There is an absence of the 'mobile home-ish' look at this appealing Gray's Lake IL land-lease community.

But what about 2 or 3 star locations?

Doing a process like this at a 4 or 5 star property that uses ground sets or mimics it with appropriate foundation enclosures or landscaping makes sense. But what about the 2 or 3 star properties, which in many markets are far more common? What do you do when you have pre-HUD Code, metal on metal, 1960s or 1970s model homes sitting next to vinyl- or hardboard-sided homes with shingle roofs?

We've pulled that off too with operations we've done this with, but it takes a much more savvy approach that uses indirect term marketing. It takes a trained professional who can engage a caller one on one, talking them past preconceived or false notions about modern manufactured homes.

This is a creative, free enterprise solution to selling homes that also attracts more customers with cash or good credit.

Combing an indirect terminology marketing process with a solid professional sales process that is customer friendly can make once struggling locations roar back to life.

Using parallel paths

MHLivingNews.com is the start of a direct approach at myth busting that can grow the sales of customers in markets where this resource is put to work. See this link for more details:

Start Your Free Manufactured Housing Image Campaign Here

At the public focused site linked from the above, we can showcase appealing homes, videos, facts and image building information. Properly used, this can have a positive impact in your market(s).

But combining indirect term marketing with the correct sales process will drive more customers with cash or good credit to the locations – like yours?! – that have the wisdom and discipline to use it. Learn more at this link:

Giving Good Phone

A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet. The Scent of a Woman. And the appeal of quality, eco-friendly affordable homes. This process is not for the lazy, nor for the mere order taker. This is for the professional who is ready to learn more to earn more!

Once you or your team learns this system well, it becomes as easy as an other habit. Some mistakenly think that habit is a nasty word, not so. habits can be good, bad or neutral. In fact, a new, good, healthy habit formation is the essence of what we do. ##

PS: Check our many Exclusive and Red Hot Featured Articles for May and see the

other new stories at MHLivingNews.com too.

L. A. "Tony" Kovach

MHLivingNews.com=Re-Discovering and Spotlighting the MHLifeStyle

MHProNews.com = MHMSM.com = Industry News, Tips and Views Pros can Use

Services:B2BandB2CAds, Proven MH Marketing & Sales Systems, Websites other Industry Solutions.

Office -815-270-0500

latonyk@gmail.com or tony@mhmsm.com

www.MHC-MD.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach= connect with me on Linkedin.

http://pinterest.com/latonyk/manufactured-home-lifestyle/

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Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right. – Henry Ford

You are driving along a highway or road. It is a drive you are used to making. You are 'running the path,' you see the signal lights and might pay some attention to the speed limit sign you've past hundreds of times before. The business signage has largely become background to you. What you notice this time is the 'new sign' that popped up! That catches your attention, because it is 'new and different.' But there is more to the story of signage…

As nice as this sign is, if you aren't specifically looking for these stores as you drive by, what they make on you is an 'impression.' That impression lodges in your subconscious mind, along with millions of other ones. If someone at the gas station asks you for directions to Trader Joe's or WalMart, you may automatically know right where to tell them to go.

The “impressions” made by your driving past that sign so many times sank in.

More powerful for quick attention getting that drives traffic is the far less costly sign being used below that is being held up by a man.

If you were in the market for jewelry (guys, a hint, Mom's day is coming up fast!) and drove past a man holding a sign like this, you might just peel off your drive route and pull in. This, by the way, would be interesting to test for your next public manufactured housing open house, if you are located on or near a favorable road way.

More expensive than a regular vinyl billboard – but far more effective – are the new electronic billboards.

As the message changes every 10-15 seconds (+/-) your eye is just naturally drawn to it, even if you drive by the sign many times a day. The “motion” (change) in the sign attracts the eye.

A Signs Web Corollary

If you are placing a 'banner ad' on a website, and have the choice, we recommend the animated banner ad vs. the static one. The reason for it is similar to the one for the static vinyl banner billboard vs. the electronic billboard.

The “impression” on a visitor of a site for an ad hits the subconscious mind the same as driving past that road sign does. Some of our clients have had millions of impressions on MHProNews, because we have lots of traffic from professionals focused on manufactured housing related news, tips and views.

With a banner ad, the impressions are the same be the ad static or animated, but you will get more click throughs on an animation on our site or any other one too.

A similar principle holds true for your website. If your website doesn't appear to 'move' or change,' once a person has visited once or twice, what is there that will 'bring them back' to you online?

This is more important than you may think! Because studies show that the millions of big ticket buyers will shop 3-6-to-12 months in advance. You want to get them coming to you regularly. We could talk about strategies that will also cause them to sign up with you, just as we have thousands signed up to get business building and protecting information from us twice weekly via this link.

So, for example, on the Louisville Manufactured Housing Show's website that we built, the high impact image slider 'above the fold' on the site draws the eye and keeps the reader for the ever so critical first 5-10 seconds. That is how long a person statistically takes – 5 to 10 seconds – to decide if they are going to stay on your site, or surf eleswhere.

Then, as you scroll down the page, we have a blog that is updated in the run-up to show season and that features some post show info as well. Plus, at the bottom of every page, there are news feeds that are updated 24/7/365.

Having the right first impression on your website is important and so too is keeping a steady diet of information that your target audience will want to come back and check out. If you haven't done an update on your website in the past 3-4-5 years, odds are you are way overdue.

An outdated website, like an old sign, might be better than nothing. On the other hand, the turn off from a bad business sign may keep people away. The same could be true for many of those 'better customers' you want to attract who have the cash or good credit. The newer, nicer website is far more likely to draw and keep them engaged.

Websites and road signs both need to be kept fresh and appealing. When you do so properly, it will be reflected on the bottom line of your factory built housing business. ##

PS: Check our many Exclusive and Red Hot Featured Articles for April and see the

other new stories at MHLivingNews.com too.

L. A. "Tony" Kovach

MHLivingNews.com=Re-Discovering and Spotlighting the MHLifeStyle

MHProNews.com = MHMSM.com = Industry News, Tips and Views Pros can Use

Services:B2BandB2CAds, Proven MH Marketing & Sales Systems, Websites other Industry Solutions.

Office -815-270-0500

latonyk@gmail.com or tony@mhmsm.com

www.MHC-MD.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach= connect with me on Linkedin.

http://pinterest.com/latonyk/manufactured-home-lifestyle/

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Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right. – Henry Ford

There is an old maxim that goes like this: “First you form your habits, then your habits form you.” Ladies and gents, this is true and over time leads to chains that are as challenging to break as they took time to forge. Habits lead to slavery. The question becomes if we are the masters of that habit – masters of that slavery – or if that slavery masters us.

To rephrase, are we making or breaking ourselves through our habits?

Let me give an example of slavery and an 'aha' moment.

At the recent Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) Congress and Expo (C&E), I was listening to a group of community owners talking about 21^st Mortgage's CASH program. One was commenting to the others words to this effect. “I had all these vacant lots, and knew about this program that Lance Hull at 21^st Mortgage had talked to me about. But instead of thinking, 'hey, this is a solution for my vacancy problem,' I was looking at it backwards. I was thinking that if I did that then I was leaving money on the table. I had to change my thinking before I was able to see the program for what it is.”

That happens to be true of EVERYTHING we do in business, not just the example that the gent above was referencing. There happens to be a number of programs available today that could be useful to community owners – or street retailers, for that matter! – but because of slavery to 'past habits' and old ways of thinking, they are not being used to the benefit of a business or location. FYI, yes, you can email and ask me about them.

I was listening to Crystal Washington during the 2013 National Community Council's Forum at C&E. Frankly, most of what she was saying simply made me smile. Of course, we agree! We preach it daily through Featured Articles here on MHProNews, or here on the Cutting Edge of Marketing and Sales blog. Even the video that she played was a version of one that we have featured before on our website.

That video reminds us that like it or not, change is happening, and that the pace of change is rapid.

Slavery to old habits keeps you locked up in the past. The only way to end that slavery is ironically to forge new habits! You can't stop doing one thing without starting doing some new thing instead.

That's not to say that all that one did in the past is 'bad' or 'wrong.' But you have to dispassionately evaluate – or have a third party professional evaluate for you – what to keep and what to replace with something modern that will move your location, career or business ahead.

One of the presenters – who did a very fine job – nevertheless made a statement I took issue with. The statement was that 74% of housing shopping was starting online. Sorry, but the National Association of Realors puts that number at a whopping 94% of home shopping is online!

This is an example of one of many modern website styles that causes visitors to
dig deeper into your product or service.

That's doesn't mean you must dump all forms of print or other media. What it does mean is that if you have a web presence, you better make sure it is a good one. Because studies show that millions of online shoppers will decide in less than 5-10 seconds if they will stay on your website to learn more.

If your

• website looks outdated or if your social network marketing is non-existent or failing you and

• if your sales process doesn't work at bringing you more customers with cash or good credit,

then it is time to stop the slavery to the past and forge the powerful new chains of gold that will build your business' future. ##

PS: Check our many Exclusive and Red Hot Featured Articles for April and see the

other new stories at MHLivingNews.com too.

L. A. "Tony" Kovach

MHLivingNews.com=Re-Discovering and Spotlighting the MHLifeStyle

MHProNews.com = MHMSM.com = Industry News, Tips and Views Pros can Use

Services:B2BandB2CAds, Proven MH Marketing & Sales Systems, Websites other Industry Solutions.

Office -815-270-0500

latonyk@gmail.com or tony@mhmsm.com

www.MHC-MD.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach= connect with me on Linkedin.

http://pinterest.com/latonyk/manufactured-home-lifestyle/

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Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right. – Henry Ford