Happy Valentine’s Day! Hope it will be a wonderful one for you and yours. Today would also be the perfect day to begin giving the manufactured housing industry and ourselves a little more love.
The point has been made by many that the manufactured housing industry needs an image makeover. I don’t think too many of us would disagree. One question has always been what kind of image would best serve the industry and how exactly do we go about projecting that image?
One question is “what is best image attainable for manufactured housing?” High-quality, affordable, greener construction techniques, etc. come to mind. I’m sure you can think of others.
I’m going to let you handle the “what”. Let me throw out a couple of possibilities from my perspective as an Internet Marketer as to the “how”.
One of the reasons a media campaign hasn’t actually happened is the expense involved. But maybe, just maybe, it can be started as a grassroots campaign to get the ball rolling.
We want to go where the customers are. Since some 80% of home purchases begin with research done online, that is the perfect place to start. There are many websites available right now that can help you sell a manufactured home. Many of them do a good job of listing homes and providing leads to the sellers.
What they don’t do for the most part is any image building on behalf of the product or the industry. We’re doing a lot of that here at MHMSM.com. But our image building is aimed at you, the industry members. What we need are some image building efforts targeting the public at large, especially those who, in the past, haven’t even considered manufactured housing for themselves.
At the grassroots level, that means engaging retailers, communities and other industry members that interface directly with the public.
But what exactly can those good folks do that will make the difference?
A simple 1-2-3 answer? Blog, Facebook, Twitter. If dealing with blogging and social networking aren’t your cup of tea, find someone who can do it for you – maybe MHMSM.com?
See the updated version of the original “Blog It!” post here.
Everything good that happens to you or you business should be posted to your blog and linked from both Facebook and Twitter. Don’t have a blog? Consider building one. This is important.
If we could build a small army of professionals doing this, plus owners and employees using their social networking accounts to post positive items about manufactured housing, before long positive items about the industry would begin to dominate the local Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) in towns and cities across America and beyond.
That would mean increased traffic for all of on your websites and will introduce our product to those who have never considered manufactured housing in the past – and it will do so in a positive light.
One of the things that seems to stop local businesses in their tracks when it comes to effective online marketing is what to write about. In an old blog post called “Blog It”, I outlined 50 or so items that businesses of all types could blog about. Now you can add Facebook and Twitter to the mix, so where I say “Blot It!” think “Blog it, Tweetit and post it to Facebook.” A lot of this can be automated, but your personal attention is also required.
Here are a few of the entries that apply to housing. Once you start, I’m sure more will come to you:
- Have weekly or monthly sales? Blog it!
- Hold auctions? Blog it!
- List new properties? Blog it!
- Sell properties? Blog it!
- Post a sale on eBay? Blog it!
- Selling something on Craigs List? Blog it!
- Post a video to YouTube? Blog it!
- Have a job to fill? Blog it!
- Energy efficiency for the home? Blog it!
- Home building projects? Blog it!
- Tips on buying a home? Blog it!
- Tips on selling a home? Blog it!
- Tips on renting a home or apartment? Blog it!
- Home improvement tips? Blog it!
- Home cleaning tips? Blog it!
- Lawn and garden tips? Blog it!
- Participation in local events? Blog it!
- Do-it-yourself projects? Blog it!
- How to apply for a mortgage (or chattel loan)? Blog it!
- Controlling insect pests? Blog it!
- Outdoor lighting? Blog it!
- Swimming pool care? Blog it!
- Summer activities for children? Blog it!
- Summer activities for adults? Blog it!
- Sponsor a youth league team? Blog it!
- Sponsor a charity? Blog it!
- Sponsor a local event? Blog it!
- Summer activities for adults? Blog it!
How long do you think it would take if 100 of us started doing this in our local markets before it would become an underground phenomenon – local phenomenon – and then through additive effort, a national one?
Think about it. In his Masthead blog, Tony has repeatedly talked about the need to grab the bull by the horns and “Git ‘er done.” We have the resources to help, but the future of this industry is squarely in YOUR hands.
Clip art courtesy Webweaver’s Free Clip Art.