Ten Tips For Marketing To Homeowner Associations

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1 HOA-USA.com Ten Tips For Marketing To Homeowner Associations We help you grow your business in the Homeowner Association Industry 1204 Village Market Pl #300 Morrisville, NC (919)

2 10 Tips For Marketing to Homeowner Associations* 370,000! The number of homeowner associations in America Homeowner Associations are Big Business! With over 370,000 Homeowner Associations in the United States, planned communities are big business. Single family, townhome, and condominium associations spend over $15 Billion annually on their communities. In addition, HOA s control billions more in reserve funds for capital projects. More and more businesses are realizing the potential in selling their products and services to these neighborhoods. A quick look at any association s budget reveals that dollars are being spent for a wide range of products and services. The obvious are management contracts, landscaping, utilities, banking, insurance, legal and accounting services. Maintenance is a broad umbrella for paving, painting, pools, tennis courts, and ponds/lakes. There are niche requirements for gutter cleaning, snow blowing, power washing, pool furniture, docks, and pest control. This summary of products and services only begins to scratch the surface. The opportunities to market to this target audience are tremendous, but also challenging. *For purposes of this whitepaper, when we reference Homeowner Associations or HOAs you can assume that we are referring to Single Family, Townhome and Condominium Associations. Different states and regions of the country refer to HOAs by various names. For this whitepaper it will be an allencompassing term unless otherwise stated.

3 The Greatest Challenge in Reaching HOA s As a market, homeowner associations are nearly invisible! Most HOA s do not have an office or a phone. Only a few maintain current websites and are rarely found on page one of a Google search. Without an identifiable customer, you cannot sell your product or service. So how do you get in front of the board members and decision makers for these communities? And what do you say in order to help them make informed decisions to better their community through you? The goal of this guide is to help answer these questions. HOA-USA is here to help you market your products and services in a respectful and effective manner to these homeowner association board members. 10 Tips When Planning a Marketing Campaign to HOAs 1. Respect the Board Member s Time People who serve as board members for their HOA all do so voluntarily. As an incorporated homeowners association, board members cannot be paid or otherwise compensated for serving on the board. Board and committee members put in a great deal of time into board meetings, enforcing covenants, collecting dues, and making their community a better place. About 35-40% of HOAs contract with a professional management company to help ease the load of running the community. The rest do so by themselves. In either case, board members are the decision makers for their communities and their time is quite valuable. When you get the opportunity to speak with a board member about your products and services, keep these thoughts in mind. In most cases, boards are required to get numerous bids on a variety of different services. They want to (and need to) hear about what you have to offer, but often don t have a lot of time to hear it. If you are fortunate enough to get agenda time at a board meeting, keep your presentation short and offer to send more information. By being respectful of the board s time, you may find yourself in a better position for an RFP (Request for Proposal) and increased business.

4 2. Offer Value at the HOA Level Remember that when you are reaching out to an HOA, you are speaking to the community as a whole and not just to one homeowner. Make sure that your message speaks to the ultimate goal of every board member: to retain and increase property values of the entire community. If you are an attorney, a management company or an insurance provider, you may be accustomed to selling services directly to HOA Boards (i.e. Directors and Officers Insurance, HOA management services, etc.). However, if your company typically works with individual homeowners then keep several things in mind: Often the HOA will have common area and amenities that need servicing. For example, the clubhouse may need carpet cleaning, or the private roads may need repair work. The board member is in a unique position to tell the rest of the community about your products and customer service. A good impression to the board member can go a long way. Offering discounts for multi-home purchases is a great way to ensure that the board or committee member will tell their neighbors. Remember that HOA Board Members CANNOT be paid or compensated for their work as a board member, so offering them personal incentives to promote your product is NOT allowed. However you can offer incentives to the HOA or community as a whole. For example, a power washing company may offer a free exterior cleaning to the HOA clubhouse in exchange for advertising on the community website (a true example by the way, which lead to a great amount of new business). 3. Timing is Everything Many of you may have products and services that are seasonal by nature. Pool companies, landscapers, and other types of businesses are often used to marketing their services at a particular time of year. There are certain factors to consider when reaching out to HOA Board Members that will influence their decision to choose your product or service.

5 Approximately 75% of Homeowner Associations hold their required annual meetings between the months of November and February. This is important because the annual budget also gets ratified at the same time. If a board is going to make a change in service provider for a bigbudget operating expense item, they are likely to make that change around the time of the annual meeting. These types of expenses include, but are not limited to, management companies, landscapers, utilities, and more. Marketing your services in the months prior to the annual meeting is often a good strategy. That s not to say that all expenses are decided during the annual budget. In fact, much of the operating budget will be adjusted throughout the year. Seasonal influences are likely going to dictate the appropriate time to advertise.. For example, it would be inadvisable for a Snow Blowing Company to advertise their services in June. This is an obvious example, but it illustrates that most board members will not consider a change in service provider when they are out of season. Various states and regions of the country will follow unique patterns as well. For example, the summer months in Florida may see a lot of absentee homeowners and board members. Often they have headed north for the summer and may not return until Fall. Absentee board members are less likely to make decisions for their communities while they are out of the state. A sound marketing strategy for HOAs will include some amount of marketing year-round, while leaving the majority of the advertising budget for the months of the year when board members are most likely to pay attention. HOA-USA Partners can discuss these strategies with an Account Manager to help make informed decisions about advertising. 4. The Role of the Management Company Approximately 35% of HOAs contract with a professional management company to aid with the governance of the community. The other 65% choose to self-manage or are, for all intents and purposes, defunct. A number of factors go into the decision to hire a management company: number of homes, types of amenities, type of community (Condos and Townhomes are slightly more likely to be professionally managed than single family communities), etc. When an HOA contracts with a management company, they are assigned a community manager. This person aids with collections, ensures covenant enforcement and generally handles the financials for the board.

6 The management company will often have a list of vendors that they go to when one of their boards is in need of a particular product or service. The property manager will take bids from their vendors and make recommendations to the board on who to select. However, the decision making power still lies with the board. The property manager will always yield to the board because the management company works for the HOA (not vice versa). Reaching out to management companies is almost always a solid marketing strategy if you want to work with HOAs. By getting your foot in the door with a management company, you stand the chance to be a preferred vendor and may be asked to provide an RFP for one of their communities. HOA-USA works closely with management companies and maintains a Management Company Directory nationwide of over 5,000 listings. It is important not to forget about the 65% of the market that chooses to self-manage. These communities need your products and services too, but they don t have the luxury of asking a community manager to help find your company. The fact that these folks have no one to turn to for help is the whole reason why HOA-USA is in business, and we have several ways for you to reach these board members. Working both sides of the market is important, and understanding that in both cases the ultimate decision maker is the board member may be the key to your success. 5. Consider Turnover on HOA Boards Serving on an HOA Board can be quite rewarding, knowing that you have helped your community maintain its property values and become a community worth living in. However, if you have served on an HOA Board, you know that it is also a time consuming and often thankless job. Thus, the turnover rate among board members can be high. Most new board members will take office at the beginning of the calendar year. This can often breathe new life in the community, as new board members often have a number of things that they would like to see improved in the community. However, many first-time board members have limited (or no) experience serving on a Board of Directors. With this in mind, it makes sense to advertise to HOAs at the beginning of the year, so now you can be heard by fresh faces on the board. New board members can feel overwhelmed at first and will sometimes take several months to get accustomed to life as an HOA board member. A marketing campaign than spans several months (January April) will give you a chance to leave a lasting impression with these folks.

7 6. Is Your Website Geared to HOAs? In this age of technology, it is very difficult to grow your business without having a solid online presence. Most companies have a website, which can range from a multi-million dollar site to a single landing page. Your type of business may dictate the type of website that you maintain, as a simple website with a handful of pictures and testimonials may work fine for many companies. If you plan to advertise your products and services to HOA board members, it is important to remember that you must speak to their needs as a community. Dedicating a section of your website to this agenda is a sound strategy, as most people will take the time to look up a company on the internet before doing business with that company. If a board member is able to visit your website and quickly find a page that speaks directly to them, you have put yourself in an excellent position to earn that community s business. Testimonials from other communities that you have worked with will be valuable to many board members. Position your company as a leader in the HOA market and you will find that more business will come your way. 7. How Can Social Media Play A Role in Marketing Your Company? If you haven t already ventured into the world of social media, it may be time to find out if it might be right as part of your business s overall marketing plan. It s a relatively inexpensive way to get the word out about your company and build brand recognition while creating loyalty among your customer base by creating a sense of community. People are using social media as a primary means of communication, which can translate into referrals and excellent word-ofmouth advertising. Many businesses are using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to bolster their online presence. These sites are a great place to advertise specials, post testimonials, ask for referrals, and join HOA-specific groups. Having these social media tools link directly with your website is also a great way to improve your search engine optimization, as many experts will tell you. Talk to your webmaster or website designer about integrating social media into your overall marketing strategy if you have the time to devote to it and you ll hopefully see positive results for your efforts. To get started, you can look up some other businesses (or your competitors) to see how they are using social media. A few posts or tweets per week will take no more than a few minutes of your time, and can lead to increased exposure and business.

8 8. How HOA-USA Can Help: Banner Advertising Banner advertising gets your company name and logo in front of your customers, and more importantly drives them back to your site, increasing your site traffic and Google rankings as well. This important first step in the marketing process reinforces your brand recognition to the decision makers who matter most to increasing your businesses sales. By carefully choosing only relevant sites your banner ads appear on, you can make sure that you reach the right audience and drive targeted traffic to your site. Since HOA-USA.com was created to reach the targeted market of HOA board members and decision makers, you know your advertising budget will be a good investment if you choose to advertise with us. And with over 1,000,000 page views per year, we ll get your company the visibility it needs! We can even create a banner ad for you if you don t have a graphic designer on staff. 9. How HOA-USA Can Help: Direct Mail Lately everyone has gone digital, so there s been less of an emphasis placed on using direct mail to reach your targets. This has caused a resurgence in the effectiveness of this type of marketing. To create an effective marketing strategy, it s important to reach your target market in various ways. To complement banner advertising and reinforce your brand recognition and messaging, HOA-USA also offers our advertising partners the option to send out direct mail to various targeted lists of homeowner associations. We currently have over 370,000 HOA addresses in our list that can be segmented in various ways to fit your company s needs. 10. How HOA-USA Can Help: Educational Content HOA-USA s mission has always been to Provide Education, Support and Referrals to Homeowner Association Volunteers. We take each of these very seriously, and we encourage our advertising Partners to help contribute educational content to our site. In return, we place your banner advertising and contact information at the top and bottom of the article, giving you full editorial credit for your contribution. This also gives potential customers another convenient way to learn more about your company and connect with you. Articles are a great way to educate potential customers. The Articles section of our website is our most highly visited section. Homeowner association volunteers are hungry for information, and HOA-USA.com is the number one source for educational content.

9 How HOA-USA Can Help In Summary HOA-USA.com offers an unparalleled combination of Education, Support and Referrals for homeowner association volunteers. Our advertising Partner Programs have proven to be successful for hundreds of vendors/advertisers across the country by helping them increase their sales to this targeted audience. Become an advertising Partner with us and let us help you market to this hard to reach audience and you too will see why we have over a 93% retention rate for our advertising Platinum Partners for the last 5 years. Want To Know More? To find out more about how we can help you grow your business in the HOA industry, please click here to get more information about our Partner Programs. You can also contact one of our Partner Account Specialists. We are here to help! Our Partner Account Manager can be reached at: Matthew Genaway mgenaway@hoa-usa.com Click The Image to Download Our Media Kit