Tips for Maximizing National Home Remodeling Month

National Home Remodeling Month in May is the perfect opportunity to bring added attention to the benefits of hiring a professional remodeler for home improvements. Many local home builder associations host home shows or parades of homes, and the National Home Remodeling Month toolkit and step-by-step guide will complement your activities this spring or help you create a new event to reach consumers.

The National Home Remodeling Month toolkit contains a series of articles, press releases and public service announcements designed for direct release from your HBA to your local market. You can customize the materials to add information specific to your remodelers council and community. Use the material to jump start a special section in your local paper in May or to focus your association blog on a new remodeling topic each week throughout the month. Here are a few other ideas:

• Record a PSA for your local radio stations about the benefits of hiring a professional remodeler. Use the templates provided by NAHB Remodelers in the National Home Remodeling Month toolkit. The Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Cape Cod created a compelling radio spot to drive home owners to its website and ultimately hire one of the members.
• Pitch your local TV talk shows on a remodeling segment. Use topics such as how to choose a remodeler, how to avoid contractor fraud or other “hook” to support the Remodeling Month theme. Here’s an interview with the Greater Birmingham Association of Home Builders remodelers council on the Talk of Alabama show!
• Embrace social media. By incorporating Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, you will reach new audiences and supplement your current marketing pieces practically for free. Check out this document for sample tweets and posts that can be combined with photos of remodeled homes.
• Help organize and sponsor a consumer remodeling fair that brings together community resources including remodelers, lenders and product manufacterers to provide information on the remodeling process with information on new styles and trends. The event could include a Remodeling 101 seminar that describes the benefits of hiring a professional remodeler, how to plan a remodeling project, how to hire a professional remodeler and opportunities for remodeler members to gather customer leads.
• Organize a tour of remodeled homes or include remodeled homes in your Parade of Homes event. Show off the work of some of your local remodelers, plan informational and networking events and give local home owners ideas for remodeling their home.
• Hold a seminar about remodeling for aging-in-place at a local senior center or other community organization. Explain the fundamentals of universal design, describe the expertise of Certified Aging-in-Place Specialists and share examples of aging-in-place remodeling projects.
• Conduct a month-long campaign in May to enlist every remodeler council member to include yard signs on their finished home remodeling sites. This idea is from Pam Easley, the executive officer of the HBA of the Upper Cumberlands in Cookeville, Tenn. The HBA made yard signs for its members (corrugated plastic, two-color, 18x24), and the project was a big hit. The sign reads: “Another fine home built by a member of [name of association],” and includes the association logo, phone number and website address. It promotes the remodeler’s membership as well as the association.
• Work with community partners to remodel a home for a charitable cause. These projects garner positive media for the association and for the remodelers who participate. For more information on the philanthropic efforts of home builders, click here.
• Develop your own Top 10 list of reasons to remodel a home in your community and use it as a theme throughout May, releasing one for each of the first 10 days of the month to news media in a release that includes local data and quotes that reinforce your message. Examples from the promotional materials are available.