How Marketing Can Better Serve Sales - Gabriela Cortesia

Greg Bray: And we are excited to have joining us today, Gabriela Cortesia. Gabriela is the VP of Marketing at Castle Rock Communities. Welcome. Thanks for being with us.

Gabriela Cortesia: Well, thanks to you for inviting me.

Greg Bray: Well, let's start off by just getting to know a little bit about your background and history. Give us that quick overview about yourself.

Gabriela Cortesia: Well, I've been here in the States for a little over 10 [00:01:00] years, and about the same time here in Castle Rock. I worked in Ryland before that. Before that, just different industries, right? Bank, lawyer firms, and you name it, advertising agencies. So, it's been a good ride.

Kevin Weitzel: So, we're going to jump into a bunch of stuff, digital marketing and adjacent. However, before that, could we have an interesting factoid about you that has nothing to do with work, the home building industry, or family?

Gabriela Cortesia: Interesting fact, I guess, could be that I'm Venezuelan. Of course, you could have never guessed with this accent. In a previous life, I was a dancer, and I love the arts, and maybe that's why I have this interest on design and marketing.

I don't know. Hopefully that's interesting, but dancing in flamenco.

Kevin Weitzel: So, flamenco dancing?

Gabriela Cortesia: Yeah, it's a lot of fun.

Kevin Weitzel: Wow. That's a lot of work, too. I tried one of those Fred Astaire classes one time, and I think I actually do have two left feet because I just kept stepping on my girlfriend's toes, and my beat wasn't matching the music, so.

Gabriela Cortesia: I would pay for it to see that. [00:02:00]

Greg Bray: I would pay to see that, too. I think we should take up a collection and see who else will pay to see that. Well, Gabriela, tell us a little bit more about your journey into home building. You said you started in some other types of industries. What got you into new construction?

Gabriela Cortesia: Well, once I came here to the States, that was the first opportunity that was presented to me to work in the home building industry. It was fun. I realized that all my English classes did not cover what a crown molding was, but you know, I got to learn a lot about the industry in the first few months. And then again, being here in Castle Rock and building the team, because it was just me when I started 10 years ago, building the team and the different areas, and, up to now, having kind of like a boutique advertising agency here internally, it's been a really interesting and fulfilling life.

It's been coaching every little aspect [00:03:00] of home building on the marketing side, of course, and design, I guess, a little. It has been very interesting to also live through different market changes. Of course, COVID, who would have imagined, right? If there is anything that I can say about my day-to-day life, it's that it's always changing, from the basics to the wish list items, every day in every area of the marketing department.

Greg Bray: So, before we get too far into it, tell us just a little bit more about Castle Rock Communities, where you guys are building, and the types of buyers that you are working with.

Gabriela Cortesia: We are a Texas Home Builder, by history. We've been here over 20 years, 21 years, I guess at this point. We are in Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Texas, but the last few years, we acquired a couple of builders in Arizona and Tennessee. So, we are expanding. And of course, like any other builder, our intent is to continue growing [00:04:00] in the markets we're at and different markets, of course.

Kevin Weitzel: I have a question for you, since you have acquired some other companies. The philosophy varies from one major entity to another. What is your idea or thoughts on do you completely rebrand that brand or do you let that brand stand as a standalone? I kind of have an opinion on it both ways. I can lean either way. What direction did you guys take, and what was the reasoning behind it?

Gabriela Cortesia: I would love to hear your thoughts because I'm sure you've heard some other companies' experiences, but we've handled it differently for the two companies we acquire. So, in Arizona, it was just a couple of communities that we were acquiring, and from there, we've grown with the CastleRock brand. So, it was a more direct switch. We immediately switched everything to the CastleRock brand. The team came and joined and got trained on how we do things.

With the Jones Company in Tennessee, we had a little softer approach. [00:05:00] We leveraged from their brand because they had been in business for decades before we acquired them in the market. So, we ended up changing to the Jones by CastleRock Communities. We, of course, put signs up and designed the whole site with the idea that now the Jones Company was part of the CastleRock family. We did that for about a year until we transitioned later to the CastleRock brand. And now we are just promoting ourselves as CastleRock.

We did leverage that brand, and again, this is just my perception, that softer approach might be good for the brand, but may be tougher for the employees because then that transition, instead of understanding like, look, things have changed and now we're doing things this way. It is tough to still say that we are the Jones, but then we're CastleRock as well.

When I worked in a bank back in Venezuela, the government [00:06:00] intervened the bank, and it was upsetting because those walls that used to be blue, because that was the brand of the bank, next week would be red. And then the following week, something else, small changes every week that I feel were harsh because then you didn't know what to expect the following week. So, I can relate to that slow change being kind of like, what is the scenario going to be? So, I guess it really depends on the strategy on the brand, but that has been my experience from my chair on those two different acquisitions. What are your thoughts?

Kevin Weitzel: Well, since you asked. So, here's where I stand on that. I think that there's a philosophy in a strategy for both avenues. Avenue one is if you have somebody that has strong brand name recognition, you don't want to just overturn that apple cart. Either make a slow transition like you guys did, where you added a [00:07:00] by Castle Rock Communities. That way, you can leverage the strength that that brand name association already has.

However, being that I'm a firm believer in making marketing outreach consistent and having brand consistency across all channels and all venues and all verticals and all laterals, I mean, you name it, I want brand consistency everywhere. Because there's tons of research that would support that once you have that brand name recognition, that you want to leverage that everywhere, in every avenue that you can. So, as much as I'd love to keep the endearing, you know, Billy Bob's Home Building company name, what it really comes down to is it is more beneficial in the long game to rebrand everything to that one parent company.

Greg Bray: Yeah, it definitely opens the door to the question of what is the value of brand. Where is that line of two brands coming together? Are they equal value? Is one like way differently valued? And of course, it's based on investment and time and awareness in the [00:08:00] community and things like that. You don't want to just throw it out if there's value. You have to figure out how to leverage that.

Kevin Weitzel: And Greg, is it a strategic business unit or is it an enveloped part of a company? To expand on that, you take somebody like Warren Buffett, where he acquires companies all over the place. So, when he acquires companies, he wants to keep the name; he wants to keep everything, because it is just a specialty business unit on a spreadsheet. It is something on a balance sheet that he looks at to say that, you know, these different entities are producing this type of revenue.

Whereas from some of the LandSeas out there, which is now what the New Home Co or whatever, but when you have companies like that, that are acquiring companies, it is growing their footprint of the actual entity itself. So, that's where the major difference is going to come in. Is it a spreadsheet line item, or is it actually part of the whole conglomeration?

Greg Bray: It's a tough one for marketers, though. And Gabriela, I'm guessing that you might not have had the final say in all of those decisions either.

Gabriela Cortesia: No, it was definitely a strategic decision. Of 00:09:00] course, we thought about it, discussed it. The decision was made definitely because it is, like you guys say, a case-by-case scenario depending on the strategy for the brand or the specific market. So, there's not a one-way to go here. I think both have value, and even though I have personal experience with some of them, I think that it did benefit us having the brand for the Jones.

And we, of course, use every channel again for that brand consistency that you, Kevin, are mentioning, because we were trying to have both logos and still keep somehow the consistency of the brand. So, it was more expensive and more intense, for sure, because then you have two transitions instead of one, but beneficial. So, it was very interesting to me.

Greg Bray: So, Gabriela, going back to something you said a few minutes ago. You talked about when you came to CastleRock that you had the opportunity to then build a team, and you've grown that almost [00:10:00] into your own agency of players. Talk us through that journey a little bit more. Where did you decide to start? Which positions were most important for you to have in-house? When did you decide we're going to partner with somebody or we're going to hire? What were some of those moments like along that journey?

Gabriela Cortesia: Well, at some point, I was wearing too many hats, right? Because we, marketeers, tend to have different fronts to take care of. So, I was the marketing coordinator, the marketing manager, the internet sales consultant. So, that was the very first two positions, I guess we looked into. So, we explored first on having a mix between marketing coordinator and internet sales person, and then we separated that to two different positions. And then, we realized we needed more coverage, so we hired the second and third internet sales consultant later. And then, the marketing coordinator was great at marketing, but then we needed something, someone to support the graphic [00:11:00] portion of it.

We are now a team of 10 people, which has been life changing, of course. We take care of all seven markets. We're at, right now, from here, centralized. It makes it much easier because we know the history of the brand. We are consistent, again, to Kevin's point, across all markets, not only on the look, but also on the strategy. So, it's been a great experience to grow the team, but it has been evolving step by step. First on the marketing, internet sales, graphics, renderings. We do our renderings here in-house, design. So I've explored two designs since I've had some of the team doing the marketing day-to-day life. So, it has been evolving over the 10 years that I've been here.

Greg Bray: Where do your internet salespeople sit today? Are they part of the marketing department? Are they part of the sales team? Are they somewhere in the middle? How have you defined that role?

Gabriela Cortesia: Well, they are in the marketing department, and [00:12:00] we very closely work with the sales team, not only on the internet sales side, but also on the marketing side. So, we are part of operations, of course, and our day-to-day life is to serve sales. Whether it is setting up appointments with buyers and goals or preparing material for them to go do their business. So, they are, as of now, sitting in my department, and I think that's a great position to be at because again, we are here to serve.

Greg Bray: I like the way you have defined that, our job in marketing is to deliver the leads. Right? And that can include making appointments for those leads. A lot of builders I see, that online sales consultant, internet sales consultant sitting under the sales team. Sometimes they're in this weird in-between space. They kind of float around, and nobody's quite sure what to do with them. It's kind of interesting to hear your perspective.

Gabriela Cortesia: Well, it has been great because then we support it, right? We support the internet [00:13:00] sales team. We draft all the drip campaigns. We find tools for them, and we would wherever they sit, but being part of the marketing department, it feels like more comprehensive support from marketing to sales.

Greg Bray: So, when you come into the office on a Monday morning and you have those reports and numbers that you look at first thing, what are some of those key statistics or analytics data that are the most important to you, that you are always kind of monitoring and checking on?

Gabriela Cortesia: Definitely, Monday morning would be sales, sales for the weekend. And I guess not only the weekend, but the week. We meet every Monday morning, all operation heads for every area, and then every corporate operation areas in marketing, and sales and closing, and permitting, and purchasing, and accounting. So, we all meet and go over sales of the week, how we are doing compared to business plan, and any hot topics [00:14:00] we have to discuss for that particular week. Whether it is training on something going on with market or rates. That's usually my Monday morning, so I'm always looking to get here with tons of coffee and my glasses on.

Greg Bray: So, besides the sales, where do you go a little deeper into some of those numbers?

Gabriela Cortesia: I mean, on the marketing side, we closely track the funnel. So, web numbers to appointments, to engagement, and appointments set, and then appointments completed or canceled. Where do we have to follow up? How traffic is compared to reported sales, because we are trying always to fill the holes through the process, through the whole funnel. That's where we, in marketing, focus on the numbers.

Sometimes they align, those numbers. Sometimes you realize there's no reported traffic for last week, but we reported to sales. That's where we get with the sales team, or we get with the [00:15:00] managers, or we check ourselves. What's going on zero appointments consistently for two weeks for this certain area. So, if we wanted more detail, that's where we focus on.

Kevin Weitzel: It's actually very convenient that you said that. I assume you're tracking everything in a CRM. So, how often are you looking at your numbers that are feeding to that sales side as compared to the follow-up on the sales side? Because you look at, you know, if you have a hundred leads and those hundred leads turn into, you know, 30 appointments. Those 30 appointments equal to 10 quotes or contracts, whatever you want to say. And then how many of them close? How often are you tracking, or does this fall once it hits that threshold, it's out of your bucket, you don't have to worry about it? Or do you look at the comparison of what those sales follow-ups are as comparatively speaking, to the leads that fell in their lap or that were provided to them?

Gabriela Cortesia: We formally look at that once a month, but I have my Salesforce staff open all day long. Those reports are live. So, depending on what is going [00:16:00] on, you just refresh and look into a particular person, a particular market. I receive calls all day long from our 12 different managers, kind of like, Can you check on? They can as well check they have the same reports and the same, but it's a lot easier for them because they know I have it right there in front of me, open. So, I don't know, I wouldn't want to say every five minutes, but you know, we are often looking at those numbers. That's what we should all be doing, right?

Greg Bray: She sounds like she's an obsessive CRM user, Kevin.

Gabriela Cortesia: I love data. It's just so easy these days. In a past life, when we in marketing didn't have this type of data, it was a lot more difficult for us to understand where those holes are. But today, with one click, you should be able to have a good picture of what's going on.

Greg Bray: As you guys are working on your content creation and your messaging and all of the various parts and pieces that go into marketing, where are you starting to [00:17:00] leverage or experiment with some of the AI tools that are out there? What are some of the ways that you've found them to be helpful? What are some things that maybe didn't work the way you had hoped or kind of wanted them to? What are some things you've learned there?

Gabriela Cortesia: Well, definitely, content creation has been really fun to poke around. It's funny, though, because at this point, when sales consultants are sending things our way, like, Hey, I'd like to promote this event, and I have this drafted. We're like, you can see all these emojis at this point, and you're like, did you really write this? So, it has been really fun to poke into AI, and we do encourage sales consultants to use it, of course. You still have to understand that it is a tool. It is meant to give you a practical start, and a quick start, but still you cannot forget about going through it, put it on your own tone, and just adapting it.

Same happens with images. [00:18:00] So, I mentioned earlier that we do our renderings in-house, and AI, it's wonderful. I mean, you can see renderings from the architect's drawings, but you have to be very specific. You don't get to choose your palette at times, or you get to see, you know, portraits on top of attic doors because it's just AI.

So, there is always that component of like, it'll get you 70, 80% there, but you have to fill that little gap. So, that is where I feel that AI is very useful. It will get you a really ahead of start, but you have to make sure that you don't forget about the human component, and you go over that whatever result it is, whether these images or content, you have to give your 20.

Greg Bray: So, it sounds like you've been playing with it in different areas. Are you looking at all at any of the processes where it like chains different steps together, or is it [00:19:00] still more of an individual one-by-one kind of use? I'm just trying to understand some of those options.

Gabriela Cortesia: We have not, in the marketing department, used it for processes overall just yet, just for more for like particular projects, but I potentially will leave this call and start looking into it.

Greg Bray: No, that's awesome. It's great to hear that you guys are experimenting with it, though, and not running away from it.

Gabriela Cortesia: No one should, right?

Kevin Weitzel: Have you had any seven-legged dog incidents where you've tried to do some things and AI? Because I've run into that myself.

Gabriela Cortesia: Yes. Well, like I just told you, right? You have like a vase of flowers on top of this little door to the attic. I still think it is a great tool. A lot of it depends on the input you provide. But again, that's why I highlight that you still have to make sure that you put your 20% at the end because you can end up with a dog with seven legs. And that's why then I [00:20:00] have my graphics team kind of like, okay, here's the dog. Can we fix it?

Greg Bray: Fixing the dog means lots of different things, depending on the context.

Kevin Weitzel: It does.

Greg Bray: Gabriela, as you have worked with your internet sales team, being that they're in the marketing department, do you get feedback from them consistently on, like, how do we improve the website to make it more clear for the buyers? What kinds of things do they find that maybe the web development team kind of missed or overlooked that the sales consultants found?

Gabriela Cortesia: Absolutely. I remember my base as an internet sales, and I would have a tab open for every market all day long, because that's what you provide. They are permanently on the website and navigating the site, and they are like, Hey, this is broken, or this is not deploying as it should, or is there a way that we can add this? They are a key portion of our team because they are [00:21:00] likely the user that is more often on our site and the different apps.

So, absolutely, they are there, and they kind of serve as, I don't know if I should throw this there, but it does kind of serve as an online mystery shopper kind of situation because they are not the marketing team that developed the journey or the platform. Even though they are there often, they are kind of like an external, not external, set of eyes looking at the website there. So, they definitely help us to understand, okay, was the journey clear or is this an feedback? We developed it. We are too used to it. So, it is always good to hear their feedback because it does help us improve, for sure.

Greg Bray: Well, and they're the ones that are dealing with the phone calls and the emails where people have questions that, well, it was right there. How come they didn't see it? You think it's right there, [00:22:00] but it got missed for some reason. We appreciate the time that you've spent with us today, Gabriela. As we kind of wrap up, just a couple of last questions and thoughts.

As you have looked at technologies and opportunities, you know, you've been doing this now for a little while. What's the one piece that you're like, I have to have it, they can never take this away from me? It is the super-duper thing that helps our buyers understand what we're doing. Is there one just piece of technology on the website or in part of your sales process that you just love and are so happy to have?

Gabriela Cortesia: Tough question. If there was just one tool.

Greg Bray: Alright, you can have two. You can have two.

Gabriela Cortesia: Okay. I appreciate that because that helps me out. The website is inevitably the number one tool that any company would definitely need. And with that comes all the tools that you can have on the website, all the interactive tools, the visualizers, the [00:23:00] journey, the chat tool to talk to the internet sales. The website is the single most important tool that any company can have, especially in home building.

Because, as we see new generations buying homes, they don't want to talk to a single human being until they've done their research. So, a decade ago, maybe the sales track would be much longer on the sales team and very short on the marketing one. But these days, a lot of people spend much more time sitting on their computer and doing their research. Then, only when they are ready and they've likely made that decision, then they go to the sales office and to see the sales consultants. All that time on the sales journey or the home buying journey, they've been on the website, they've been online, they've been searching in Google, social media. So, if I had to choose just [00:24:00] one, it'd be definitely the website. That is where you qualify first.

Greg Bray: Awesome. Love it. Well, do you have any last thoughts or words of advice that you'd like to leave with our audience today to help them with their marketing?

Gabriela Cortesia: I feel that two things potentially we need to have very present every day. The first one is that we are here to serve sales. I understand sometimes we receive requests or we feel that we are holding their hands on some part of the process, but if we don't do it, who will? I think we are there to serve them instead of the other way around. It's very easy to lose track there. And the second one is, we cannot lose perspective. Put ourselves on the buyer's shoes. We have to make sure that, again, we do this research and we make sure that the journey is clear for the buyer. We need to understand how we better [00:25:00] serve them. We are here just to connect those two. So, the better we do to serve both of those ends, the better job we do.

Greg Bray: Gabriela, if somebody wants to connect with you and get in touch, what's the best way for them to reach out?

Gabriela Cortesia: Oh, well, LinkedIn would be potentially the best avenue to reach out. We all have LinkedIn, and then my email or my phone will be there. So, feel free to connect anytime.

Greg Bray: Well, thank you so much again for sharing your experiences with us today, and thank you, everybody, for listening to The Home Builder Digital Marketing podcast. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine.

Kevin Weitzel: And I'm Kevin Weitzel with OutHouse. Thank you. [00:26:00]