Community Marketing & Real Estate

This article is the second in the series. The first article was published in the October Landings Journal.

The Landings Company: How Do We Market The Landings?

When ownership of The Landings Company was taken over by The Landings Association (TLA) in 1998, TLA leadership at that time were astutely aware that a community the size of The Landings could not maintain the property turnover needed to sustain home values with local buyers or resident referrals alone. Therein lies our mission: The Landings Company is a real estate brokerage that attracts and represents home sellers and qualified home buyers through a comprehensive marketing campaign supported by professional agents and staff providing excellent service.

Certainly, sales within The Landings as residents upsize and downsize, and those sales to off-island Savannahians moving to our community, are tremendously important and valued. However, those two categories total only about 50% of annual sales, and their numbers alone will not accomplish the mission. Substantive growth in sales must come from “national” buyers – what we define as those coming from outside the Savannah Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), be they from Atlanta or Alaska.

The University of Georgia’s 2020 Savannah Economic Trends study confirms from the most current data that our area’s population has grown at an annual pace of about 2,925 per year from 2010-2018. More importantly, only about 10%, or 290 per year, come to our MSA with household incomes of $150k or greater. The data also shows a net annual growth in employment from 2018 to 2019, of +305 with the same 10% expected to earn $150,000 or more. This is a very narrow group from which to draw the share of the buyers we need annually that can afford a Landings property and likely join The Landings Club.

One great attribute of The Landings is that we are not a resort and do not have the transient visitor/vacation traffic of one. However, that also costs us the huge exposure of many that do like Hilton Head, etc. The only way for us to reach essential national buyers is through a well-planned, well executed, and very efficient media campaign to attract them specifically to The Landings and our lifestyle. These buyers likely will never find a posting of a listing and the pictures of an available house if they do not know to look for The Landings, our zip code, etc.

So, what do we mean by a comprehensive marketing campaign?

We begin with the basics by advertising in TWATL, Skinnie, Savannah Magazine, Savannah Morning News, The Landings Journal, and The Landings Association’s Residential Directory to raise awareness of The Landings and our available properties with our residents and locals.

Our listings are entered into our Multiple Listing Service (MLS), which not only allows all other agents to see our available listings, but this information also is uploaded to www.realtor.com, www.zillow.com and, of course, www.thelandings.com along with many others real estate portals in order to be viewed by potential buyers.

Most important to the cause are the following national efforts:

• Our airport displays, both in the terminal and at baggage claim, for exposure to the more than three million (2019) passengers who fly in and out of Savannah each year (pre-COVID-19).
• The eight real estate shows we participate in annually that allow us to reach buyers interesting in moving from markets in New York, the Midwest (Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin), New England (New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island), Mid-Atlantic (Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, and Pennsylvania), and now the West Coast and Texas. Importantly, given this year, we’re seeing buyers from Washington, Oregon, California, and Texas, as our national marketing is reaching more folks looking to make a change. Now virtual due to COVID-19, these events have quickly morphed into an even more efficient way to get exposure to a much larger audience.
• Social media including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, which are critical and cost-effective ways we target our key demographic all over the country. Social media has now overtaken other media sources as our most effective lead producer.
• Google and Bing, with hundreds of key search terms relevant to The Landings.
• Other proprietary and extremely targeted digital marketing directly to the smartphone or tablet of our key demographic and more.
• All interested parties are driven to www.TheLandings.com. We are on pace to receive more than 3,500 inquiries and several hundred requests for Discovery Visits this year.
• We are the sole provider of Discovery Visits, which many of you took advantage of in order to see what The Landings Life was all about for yourselves. We subsidize the cost to the guest and provide accommodations, boat tours, carriage rides, bicycles in each home and, with the Club’s help, access to all facets of their offering to our guests. Keep in mind that no one will buy a home here until they’ve had a chance to visit.

All told, we will generate sufficient revenue through our own sales to fund approximately $1.5m in marketing this year to create interest in The Landings so that the buyers we attract will then visit and, like all of us, hopefully fall in love with The Landings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Landings Company is 100% self-funded and can only continue with your support when selling your home, referring friends & family or renting your home.

If you are interested in selling your home, please call us today (598-0500). Listings across all price ranges are selling at a pace higher than we’ve seen in many years with a supply that’s at its lowest level in years as well.

In the next installment of this series, which will be included in an upcoming edition of The Landings Association’s weekly ENews, we will cover What are the results of our marketing – Discovery Visits, sales, and more.

 

 

 

 

 

Your Company, The Landings Company!