So, what actually makes a new homes Open Event worth attending? Peter Hurrell, our Land & New Homes Director, shares his thoughts on what sits behind a successful event, from giving buyers a genuine reason to visit to making sure the right planning, marketing and teamwork is in place.
An Open Event is easy to arrange. Generating meaningful traffic is the harder part.
For us, it starts with one simple question: why should a buyer attend?
A new show home, a new release, revised pricing. Ideally, there should be a catalyst. Simply putting a date in the diary when nothing has materially changed is unlikely to change the market's response.
Then comes the planning. How much lead time do we have? What's the message? How will we build exposure online, digitally and offline? Do viewing slots make sense, or is an open-door approach better? And what else is competing for buyers' attention?
A Bank Holiday, for example, doesn't necessarily mean people want to spend it viewing houses!
Ideally, it's a collaborative effort between the client, sales team and New Homes marketing team, giving the creatives time to create, the marketeers time to generate exposure and the client time to make the product sing.
Of course, the outcome won't always match the effort, particularly in a market that seems to have missed its anticipated post-summer bounce, with buyers perhaps treading water ahead of the Autumn Budget and against a backdrop of wider geopolitical uncertainty.
Which made it all the more rewarding to see the team rushed off their feet at Framingham Gardens last Saturday.
A busy Open Event doesn't guarantee a sale.
But if you're going to open the doors, give people a reason to walk through them.
Peter Hurrell
Land & New Homes Director