How to promote your business during National Home Remodeling Month

In May, during National Home Remodeling Month, the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) launches its annual campaign focused on the benefits of hiring a professional remodeler.  It’s the perfect opportunity for NARI members and chapters to create a public relations campaign to inspire homeowners to become educated consumers and tackle that long-awaited dream or do needed repairs.

Whether it’s tips on the importance of choosing a professional remodeler or top remodeling trends, you can use Home Improvement Month as a hook to draw consumer, media and social media attention.

You might be surprised to know that every month—and even every day—there are dozens of causes that have awareness campaigns. That’s because commemorative months allow organizations-such as NARI and its membership to gain awareness because its relevance is heightened during that time. The more people know about you, the more your cause will gain attention, momentum, engagement and action.

But, we also want the equation to work in reverse—raising the relevancy of your message leads to greater awareness. This is especially key with the press—it gives them a reason to cover your story and share it with the masses. National Home Improvement Month offers an opportunity to talk about remodeling trends and can also be used to provide information on important consumer issues, such as remodeling homes safely, green remodeling, universal design and the importance of hiring a professional. If your chapter participates in community home improvement projects, or your company is involved in pro-bono or other non-profit work, you might consider building it into the promotion, as it provides a news edge about your chapter/organization’s efforts to improve the community.

To help you get started, NARI offers materials that include banners for your website and Facebook pages, press releases, fact sheets and other consumer materials.

Events

Commemorative months are helpful to create special attention because they provide timeliness to the information. One of the best ways to get media and consumer attention is to promote an event that you create or are already doing with a Home Improvement slant.
Consider holding your own event—whether it’s a casual meet and greet in your showroom or doing a kickoff to enhance what your chapter is doing, such as a parade of homes, home show or chamber event and branding it in honor of National Home Improvement Month.

Website

• Add the NARI National Home Remodeling Month resizable web banner to your company’s website. Right click here to download it to your computer.
• Embed a video about the benefits of home remodeling on to your website. Visit the NARI video library on YouTube. Preview the available videos here . You can copy and paste the code below into your HTML to feature the video on your website or blog. The created Playlist has several videos suitable for the consumer.
• Download specially created NARI 15-minute consumer podcasts, which you can offer to consumers on your site as part of Home Improvement Month on a variety of topics:

CONSUMER: The Stages of a Remodeling Project

CONSUMER: Setting Your Budget

CONSUMER: Creating a Successful Relationship with Your Remodeler

Social Media

• Use the National Home Improvement Month Fact Sheet to create snippets of information or to post on Facebook, Houzz, and other social media platforms and on your company blog.
• Post photos of your company’s projects with before and after shots—all tied into National Home Improvement Month.
• Check out more Social Media posts created for your use here.

Logos

Click here for an assortment of logos suitable for Facebook, website, and printed materials.

Press Releases

Sending press releases and calendar listings is another way to help create a buzz about your company during National Home Improvement Month.

Depending on the publication, they may use your press release/calendar listing or allow you to post it on their online site. The key is localization, as most smaller online and print publications are looking for hyper-local news. Even if they don’t run the news release, it brings your name to their attention as an expert they may want to contact for a future story.

E-mail one of our press releases on Home Improvement Month to your local media and add tips for a successful remodel. Include your company name, contact information and website, so they can reach you for an interview. Include high-res photos of your completed remodeling projects with captions to highlight your craftsmanship. NARI can provide you with a distribution list of key media contacts in your area.

NARI has also created press release templates that are customizable so you or your chapter can use to send to the media:

• (Your company) Celebrates National Home Improvement Month (press release)
• (Your company) Celebrates National Home Improvement Month (calendar listing.
• Top Ten steps to prepare for a remodel
• Vibrant colors are back in remodeling projects
• Lighting, mix of cabinetry, wine storage top kitchen trends in 2014
• How to Hire a Professional Remodeler (CHAPTER)
• Letter to the editor (CHAPTER)

Include the National Home Improvement Month Fact Sheet that has been created with your press release to provide additional information about the month and remodeling.

Newsletter/blog/flyer

Both newsletters and blogs provide another opportunity to reach consumers with information about your company.

Because it’s important to have quality content for either a newsletter or blog, you can repurpose information that you’ve already created for another use: a press release, the National Home Improvement Month fact sheet, descriptions from a recent or even past CotY entry and also the NARI code of ethics. You can market it with as a special Home Improvement Issue. Be sure to include the NARI Home Improvement logo for this special issue.

A NARI flyer for National Home Improvement Month, Don’t spend your summer like this, is also available, geared for Chapter use, and is suitable for insertions into chamber and other organizations newsletters, community bulletin boards and business window fronts.
Hopefully, these ideas will jump-start your efforts to generate interest about what your company is doing and what makes you unique-during National Home Improvement Month.

For additional information, contact marketing@nari.org or call (847) 298-9200.—Susan Swartz

| 4/24/2014 12:00:00 AM | 0 comments