The marketing strategy of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate (BHGRE) included various strategies which aimed at leveraging the brand awareness among the consumers who were interested in real estate news and developments.
Social Media Marketing Strategies
Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate used the social media marketing strategies to position their brand and connect with the target audience.
B2B social media strategies:
Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate used the following B2B social media strategies:
- Website Marketing & Content Marketing Strategies: Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate designed a website located at www.bhg.com which attracted as many as 5 million consumers every month and the number grew to 7 million. The content on the website included interesting topics for readers such as decorating tips, family management ideas and meal planning. The website had a huge brand awareness according to 2006 online Business Information Group.
- Brand Positioning Strategies: Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate brand positioned themselves as a real estate brand which would allow users to connect emotionally with their real estate purchase through lifestyle and community building. Through the use of social media for B2B marketing the brand positioned itself as a forward thinking and edgy brand in the minds of the younger generation of agents and brokers and also among the tech savvy agents. Social media provided an excellent medium to communicate with the potential franchises for the brand.
- Product/Service Differentiation Strategies: Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate brand differentiated their services through the website which offered users to search for homes and network of brokers and agents; and also provide consumers with content and guidance about the home buying process.
- Online Press Releases: On the launch of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate brand, press releases were issued by both Realogy and Meredith which were distributed through online PR website Newswire.
- Blog Marketing: Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate launched the Clean Slate Blog in 2008 located at http://bhgrealestateblog.com which was a pioneer blog in the real estate industry. The blog posts included informative content on industry trends and the use of social media in the real estate industry.
- Twitter Marketing: In July 2008, the brand started tweeting through the microblogging platform Twitter which led to interactions with brokers who expressed interest through Twitter in becoming BHGRE agents.
- Facebook Marketing: The Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate team created a Facebook page which was a medium to interact with the industry peers and was utilized by the brand to document the brand launch progress in US states. The Facebook page was named Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate and was used to share information, trends, best practices and transparency.
- Meetup.com: The Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate team utilized the power of meetup.com to organize face to face meetings for young real estate agents which provided free education on social media marketing.
Consumer Marketing Strategies
The consumer marketing strategies involved:
- Paid search engine marketing
- Website strategies which had tools for agents and brokers
- Print advertising in Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate magazine
- Digital advertising campaign on www.bhg.com which generated more than 15 million media impressions.
- Pinpoint tool was launched in 2010 to assist Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate brokers and agents to get industry exclusive access to Meredith’s consumer database for direct marketing.
Recommended Marketing Strategies
After the huge success of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate brand in B2B social media marketing strategies, the brand needs to devise effective B2C marketing strategies. The challenge is not to mix the positioned B2B marketing channels with the new B2C marketing channels for the brand. If both B2C and B2B marketing is conducted through the same platform, it can lead to confusing positioning for the brand and risk its online brand reputation among the B2B consumers. Therefore, following marketing strategies is recommended:
- A separate B2C section on the existing website which shall allow consumers to contact the band directly for their housing needs or search for the brokers and agents online.
- B2C Website App: The Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate brand can launch a mobile app for consumers for different mobile software platforms such as Android, iOS and windows. The app would enable consumers to search for brokers and agents and also allow them to search for suitable real estate property in their desired locality.
- B2C Facebook Fan Page : Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate brand should launch a separate fan page for B2C on Facebook where consumers can browse through various real estate properties and also interact with the brand as well as brokers and agents. The Facebook fan page can be an interactive platform to connect the brand, brokers & agents; and the end consumers.
- B2C Twitter Page: Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate brand can launch a separate twitter handle to engage directly with the consumers and share updates on popular real estate properties and provide information about various offers and discounts.
- Newsletters/ Email Marketing: The brand can utilize the power of email marketing to send promotional emails to target consumers providing information about the brand and its offers.
- Additionally, brand should actively promote itself through dedicated blogs targeting B2C; and employ social media sites such as Google Plus, Pinterest and LinkedIn to connect with the consumers.
It is important for the brand to measure its social media marketing efforts through various indicators such as Klout score , number of followers on twitter, retweets, interactions and followers on twitter; and number of plus ones in Google plus.
Works Cited
Better Homes and Gardens. 2014. http://www.bhg.com/. 21 June 2014.
Facebook. Facebook Fan Page. June 2014. https://www.facebook.com/pages/create/. 21 June 2014.
July: Summertime, Summertime! 2014. http://www.bhg.com/better-homes-and-garden-magazine/. 21 June 2014.
Klout. Klout. June 2014. http://klout.com/home. 21 June 2014.
