How smaller developments can make the most of the project website and marketing materials

In my earlier post last week I outlined some key budget settings to guide how the marketing spend for a small development project might be structured. I did this because it is important to consider the key relationship between how marketing expenditure is structured and the likely impact these decisions will have on the sales path for a project.

The logic behind this way of working is that setting the marketing budget against the development and sales strategy will highlight the key market conditions that will have to be addressed in order to gain the necessary leads and subsequent sales – the benchmark of our marketing success.

Assuming that any project we are working with is yet to start construction, the marketing budget, if well managed and structured, plays an instrumental part in a project’s success.

I’d like to highlight two key points from the marketing budget outlined in my last post, being the project website and display materials. With both accounting for about15% of total budget they are potentially, outside of media, two of biggest and most effective areas of expenditure. Together they are also imperative in helping to drive off-the-plan sales.

If either of these two areas are under-invested in they can easily become issues that are expensive to overcome or they will add what are clearly avoidable time pressures. If the marketing budget is an early focus and with the amount of experience available with the right project team, I believe that such hurdles should be avoided, so they do not become issues that need to be addressed later in the project’s development.

The project website

The project website is an essential marketing tool.

Now that’s a statement that will not be a surprise to anyone working in project marketing, but its nonetheless worth re-stating.

And because we are talking about budget settings, it’s also worth acknowledging that website development and construction need not involve a large up-front cost, but effort in terms of quality content and keeping the site up to date, including being linked to database management (CRM – customer relationship management).

A well-planned website will also make allowance for the varied product stages that may be required during the marketing, starting off with the ROI (registration of interest) and pre-release period.

Some current project websites that in my view are stand-out performers for various reasons are:

www.colliers.com.au/smart/home

http://www.sundayapartments.com.au/

http://www.beachsideliving.com.au/

http://www.colliers.com.au/friday

http://www.swanstonsquare.com.au/