Morgul Marketing

    Publishing to a Miami-Dade market that speaks two languages and votes on its windows

    Two things separate a window and door account in Miami-Dade from one anywhere else. The first is that a large share of the work is sold in Spanish and answered in Spanish, with Haitian Creole arriving in the comments on top of it, so language is a casting decision rather than a translation task. The second is that a great deal of the glass in this county belongs to buildings, where nobody decides alone and nothing gets approved without a document. A feed that ignores either one is publishing into a market it has half described. The way through is to film in the language the sale happened in, show the county's own evidence instead of the worn-out adjectives, and make something a manager is willing to attach.

    Talk to us

    Post the job in the language it was sold in

    A whole-house sale in Hialeah is usually conducted in Spanish and an association meeting in Brickell is usually conducted in English, and running one through a caption translator is obvious to both.

    Shoot the Spanish version in Spanish, with your own installer talking. Translated captions over English footage read as advertising. A foreman explaining an anchoring detail in the language the customer speaks reads as a neighbor.

    In Little Haiti and North Miami you will get comments in Haitian Creole, and often from an adult child asking on a parent's behalf. Answer in the language you were asked in, or say plainly that somebody will call.

    Do not mirror everything, because a small company cannot hold it. Pick the subjects worth doubling: the product explainer, the sequencing walkthrough, the finished job in a neighborhood where that language is the street language.

    Whoever answers comments has to answer in both. Handing that to somebody who cannot is how a post that worked ends as a dead thread with three unanswered questions under it.

    Photograph the label on the frame and leave the number out of the caption

    Miami-Dade runs its own product control system, and the acceptance label on a unit is a physical thing you can show a camera, which the phrase impact rated stopped being years ago.

    Homeowners here have been hearing impact windows their whole lives, from everybody who ever sold anything, so the words have stopped carrying information.

    A close shot of the label on the frame you are installing gets past that. It is the one piece of evidence in this trade a homeowner can see for themselves without knowing anything about glass.

    Keep the acceptance number out of the caption. A Notice of Acceptance is a live document that gets renewed and superseded, and the screenshot of your post will outlast the version you typed into it.

    Show it on what you actually stock. In the High Velocity Hurricane Zone the specification is most of the conversation, and a homeowner holding three quotes is mainly trying to work out which of them describe the same unit.

    The same restraint belongs in replies. Describe what a label covers in general and offer to look at what is installed, rather than ruling on somebody's house from a photograph in a comment.

    A building talks about its glass in the quarter it is already spending money

    Miami-Dade puts older buildings through recertification, and an association in the middle of that is the one whose owners will finally discuss the openings.

    A board with nothing on its agenda does not take up windows. A board working through building recertification is already surrounded by engineers, assessments and a list of deferred work, and the openings enter that conversation whether anyone planned it or not.

    Timing therefore beats frequency. The sequencing explainer earns its keep in the quarter a nearby building is arguing about money, not in the month a content calendar says it is due.

    Ask the managers you already know what their buildings are about to discuss. Their answer is a better calendar than anything you could draw up in January, and it costs one phone call each.

    Keep the tone level through it. Residents who have just been told what their share of an assessment is are not in the mood for an offer, and everything you publish that quarter is being read by them.

    A board never sees your feed, only what a manager was willing to attach

    The decision on a building is a vote, a vote runs on documents, and the only version of you that reaches the people voting is whatever a community association manager pasted into an agenda item.

    Nothing you publish arrives in front of a board directly. It arrives as an attachment, forwarded by somebody whose own standing depends on what they chose to forward.

    So make one thing a month attachable. A plain walkthrough of how an occupied stack gets done, with the hours, the noise, the days a resident loses the use of a room, and no offer anywhere in it.

    Date it and keep it current. A packet gets assembled once and circulated for weeks, so a walkthrough naming a product you no longer stock turns up in front of a board looking careless.

    The same document does a second job in your comments. A unit owner in Edgewater or Coconut Grove who has been told the association decides is better served by something they can send upstairs than by a price.

    The rest of it, the parts that would read the same in Denver or Atlanta, we set out once on our window and door social media page.

    Questions we get

    Should the Spanish version be a caption or a separate take?
    A separate take, filmed with your own installer or foreman speaking. Captions over English footage read as an agency decision, which is exactly what they are. Pick a handful of subjects to double rather than mirroring the whole account, and make sure whoever handles comments can answer in both languages, because a doubled post with unanswered Spanish comments underneath is worse than one you never made.
    Comments come in Haitian Creole, usually from an adult child asking for a parent. How should we handle that?
    Answer in the language you were asked in if anyone on the team can, and say plainly that somebody will call if nobody can. The person typing is doing a favor for a parent and is judging whether the company is going to be patient. A short honest reply does more for that job than a polished post in a language the household does not use at home.
    Can we publish the acceptance number for the product we install?
    Show the label, not the number. A Notice of Acceptance gets renewed and superseded, and a caption stating a number is a claim that keeps circulating after the document behind it changed. A photograph of the label on the frame you are putting in makes the same point, ages better and is far more persuasive to somebody comparing quotes.
    A building near us is going through recertification. Is that the moment to pitch?
    It is the moment to publish, not to pitch. Owners in that building are being assessed for structural work and are talking about money in a way they will not again for years, and the openings come up inside that conversation. What earns you a seat is a straight explanation of how the work gets sequenced in occupied units. An offer landing the same week reads as circling.
    A community association manager asked us for something to send their board. What do we give them?
    A dated walkthrough of how a stack gets done in an occupied building: hours, access, noise, what a resident loses the use of and for how long, and how the openings get closed each night. No pricing and no offer, because a manager can circulate an explanation and cannot circulate an advertisement without it reflecting on them.

    Rules that affect your marketing

    Product approval is the part of this market that genuinely changes between counties. Miami-Dade and Broward sit inside the High Velocity Hurricane Zone and generally work through Miami-Dade Notices of Acceptance, while Palm Beach County work is usually documented under statewide Florida Product Approval against a local design wind speed. The two are not interchangeable on a permit, so approval language is a compliance statement rather than a marketing one, and it is worth having a dealer check their own documentation before it goes on a page.

    Window & Door Replacement Social Media Strategy & Execution elsewhere

    Written by KC Thompson, Morgul Marketing. Updated .

    Talk to us about social media for impact window and door dealers in Miami

    Tell us about your business and where your marketing stands. We'll tell you what we'd do first, and what we'd leave alone.

    We won't add you to a mailing list. A person will reply.