PHPD speaks to Andrew Rogers, of Rogers Watson, to find out a bit more about what the company does and how they can help you market your homes.
Tell our readers a little bit about yourselves; what does the company do and how long has it been going?
Rogers Watson focuses on physical marketing for housebuilders, whether that’s entrance signage, hoarding or a full sales and marketing suite design, supply and fit-out. We have positioned ourselves to be able to provide the industry with experienced designers, manufacturers and fully approved site-based fit-out teams. Started in early 2019 after working for one of the country’s largest housebuilder marketing agencies, Rogers and Watson has been steadily growing ever since. Our vision is to provide honest high quality site marketing solutions to housebuilders nationwide.
Explain a little more about some of the products and services you offer to potential clients.
We offer a myriad of products and services all catered around the sales arena and process. We are working hard to ensure we can provide a one stop shop including signage, cabin and modular building supply, marketing suite design and on-site installation. We have recently partnered with another small business allowing us to also now undertake brochures, PR, social media and website builds specifically tailored to the housebuilding market. We also work with videographers and drone pilots to provide a full service for clients.
Isn’t it true that this type of marketing is only suitable for larger companies?
No, in fact the majority of our clients are small housebuilders, usually working on 3-5 sites per year and only a few plots per site. What you really have to think about is the customer journey – what makes your site memorable? Usually the first thing a prospective buyer sees of your brand and your offering is the signage on site and the marketing suite, therefore this must reflect your brand and the houses or apartments you build.
I personally have worked on full site marketing projects from £12,000 up to £800,000 for one off builders through to the UK’s largest housebuilders. It is all based around your prospective buyer feeling comfortable to purchase from you.
We can help ease your customer’s journey using signage and the marketing suite experience, thus maximising your sales.
Can’t builders simply erect their own hoarding and hope that potential homebuyers will enquire further? Does on-site marketing seriously convince people to buy homes?
Yes they can, but should they? No, they shouldn’t. Take a married couple looking to buy a house, for instance. Most likely, they’ll take a Saturday afternoon visiting the area they want to buy in, wandering around most of the sales offices around and, naturally, making a decision whether to go in based on their feeling when they walk up to the sales office. Personally, the impression I get from a standard blue painted wooden hoarding, compared to some nice, well thought out and informative signage, is going to be completely different and my expectation and excitement is going to be much higher from the signage than it is from standard wooden panelling. You have to see marketing suites and site signage as a form of silent salesperson and your first real contact with the consumer.
There are hundreds of housebuilders out there and you have to be memorable whilst still showcasing your quality product. I also strongly believe that marketing suites and signage pay for themselves, if you present the right look and feel you will get prospective buyers that are more driven, and more willing to pay that little extra. This not only saves your sales teams time but it allows you to recoup the investment on your sales suite.
Who installs the products and takes them away when they are no longer needed?
We install all of our own products from signage to full cabins and modular builds and, usually when finished with, the site will dispose of them, or in the case of a modular build marketing suite it can be reused on the next site. We are able to remove and store product for our customers but it’s not something that we honestly have to do very often.
Beyond the physical marketing – hoarding, sales suites etc. – what else can you offer housebuilders?
We have teamed up with a number of trusted businesses in order to offer a full range of services from brochure design, websites and digital marketing through to launch events and PR. We don’t work these elements in-house, however we do control these elements for our clients and ensure that the marketing strategy is coherent throughout. We have found that using multiple agencies without a core link means more work for our clients, more chances of something not linking through with each element and ultimately ends up costing more. We can take all the elements and manage them as one project using our trusted supply base of select professionals. This reduces your work load and costs, whilst ensuring brand coherence.
Anything else to note?
It’s worth noting that people often see sales centres as reserved for the big builders, this just isn’t the case. You don’t need large amounts of money to invest in a sales arena, it’s very easy for us to get something in and up and running for you that still provides the brand continuity and the customer experience. If you have any thoughts or are just wondering whether you should have site signage and marketing, then I’m personally very happy to talk through any queries or concerns that anyone may have around sales suites, signage and general customer journey planning, just get in touch through our website or linked-in.
