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Outside the Marketing Bubble: What Writing a Novel Taught Me About Home Builder Marketing, Part 1

I have spent more than 25 years studying marketing, communications, buyer psychology, technology, and the homebuilding industry. I have written books about marketing and selling, spoken to thousands of industry professionals, and built a career around understanding why people pay attention, what earns their trust, and ultimately, what motivates them to take action.

Then I decided to write a novel.

I certainly didn’t start writing fiction because I thought it would make me a better home builder marketer. I started because I had a story I wanted to tell. But somewhere between learning how to build a fantasy world, develop characters, write dialogue, and figure out what on earth I’m supposed to do with all those commas, something unexpected happened. Writing a novel began sharpening the way I look at marketing.

Not because it revealed some giant hole in what I knew. Quite the opposite. It gave me a fresh perspective on many of the principles I’ve spent my career studying and teaching.

Some of my most unexpected, and valuable, lessons have come from #Bookstagram and #BookTok. If you’re new to the collective power of the online book community, here’s a quick look at the real numbers and real results behind it.

According to BookBub, “Bookstagram is shorthand for Instagram’s community of authors and readers, represented by the more than 127 million Instagram posts (as of August 2026) that use the hashtag #Bookstagram.”

#BookTok represents a massive community of readers on TikTok that dwarfs Bookstagram. The #BookTok hashtag has accumulated over 370 billion views and spans more than 52 million individual video posts globally.

Do Bookstagram and BookTok sell books or just create more social media noise?

The sales stats for BookTok alone are staggering:

• 59 Million Books Sold Annually
• $760 Million in Author Profits
• BookTok Authors” saw a 20% year-over-year surge in unit sales

What Happens When You Leave Your Marketing Bubble?

Writing fiction pulled me deeper into an online world of authors, audiobook narrators, BookTok and Bookstagram influencers, independent bookstores, indie authors, reviewers, and small entrepreneurs building businesses and audiences one piece of content at a time.

At first, I wasn’t studying any of them as a marketer. I was there because I love books, particularly audiobooks, and because I was learning an entirely new creative craft. I was experiencing their content the way their customers and followers experience it. 

Then my marketing brain inevitably kicked in.

I started noticing how extraordinarily good some of these creators are at earning attention. Many don’t have marketing departments, big advertising budgets, sophisticated technology stacks, or teams of content creators. Sound familiar? 

Yet they understand how to build communities around shared experiences, create recognizable content, inject personality into their brands, and make people want to share what they’ve created.

I wasn’t looking for marketing ideas. Maybe that’s exactly why I started finding so many of them.

It made me wonder how often we limit our own creativity by looking for inspiration in the same places. We attend homebuilding conferences, follow other builders, study award-winning campaigns, watch what competitors are doing, and keep up with industry trends. All of that is important, but when everyone studies everyone else, it’s remarkably easy for marketing to start looking and sounding the same.

The Marketing Power of “That’s Me”

Recently, an Instagram carousel stopped me mid-scroll. Its premise was simple: “The very specific life of an audiobook girl.”

The first slide showed how audiobook listeners suddenly have time to “read” everywhere: driving, walking, showering, getting ready, doing dishes. Another captured the moment you check how much time is left in a book and realize you have nine hours and 14 minutes remaining. One joked about the rage you experience when someone interrupts your audiobook, while another chronicled the inevitable progression from listening at normal speed to wondering why everyone at 1x suddenly sounds drunk. The final slide captured the audiobook hangover after finishing a great story and wondering how you’re supposed to simply go back to normal life.

As an audiobook junkie, I felt completely seen.

That reaction immediately reminded me of a principle I’ve been teaching for years. In FANtastic Marketing 3.0, the first element in the DNA of a SuperFan is Identity. The most effective brands understand that people are drawn to brands that see them, understand them, and reflect something about how they see themselves. That’s exactly what this carousel accomplished.

The Instagram post didn’t explain the benefits of audiobooks. It didn’t tell me where to buy one. It didn’t give me five reasons I should listen to more books. Instead, it captured a series of incredibly specific experiences that made audiobook listeners think, “That’s me.”

Then something even more interesting happened with the audiobook post. When I captured the post, it had more than 2,000 likes, 100 comments, 100 reposts, and more than 1,300 sends.

That last number caught my attention because sharing represents a different level of engagement. Someone didn’t simply enjoy the content. They saw it and thought, “That’s you, too,” and sent it to another person.

The psychology behind the post is beautifully simple:

Identity → Recognition → Emotion → Connection → Sharing

The best content doesn’t simply make someone stop scrolling. It makes them feel seen.

What Would Make Your Homebuyers Say, “That’s Me”?

Now let’s take that idea out of the audiobook world and bring it into yours. Imagine creating an Instagram carousel called:

The Very Specific Life of Someone Who Has Outgrown Their House

Instead of immediately showing beautiful model home photography and telling prospective buyers about your spacious floor plans, we start with the experiences that might have them thinking about moving in the first place.

Slide 1: The Hook

The very specific life of someone who has outgrown their house.

Slide 2: The Storage Situation

You buy another storage bin.

There is nowhere to put the storage bin.

You put it next to the other storage bins.

Problem solved. Sort of.

Slide 3: The Thermostat Wars

The thermostat says 72°.

Upstairs says 84°.

The downstairs bathroom is apparently February.

Slide 4: The Kitchen Traffic Jam

Someone opens the dishwasher.

No one can get through the kitchen.

We live here now.

Slide 5: The Moment

You see a beautiful new kitchen on Instagram.

You look at your kitchen.

You open Zillow.

And suddenly, we’re marketing new homes without talking about square footage, countertops, energy efficiency, or available homesites. We’ve started with the buyer’s life instead.

I would add one final slide that begins moving the audience from recognition toward possibility:

Maybe you haven’t outgrown homeownership. Maybe you’ve just outgrown this home.

Now your community, floor plan, available home, or call to action can become part of the solution.

Start With the Frustration, Not the Feature

This is an exercise you can take directly into your next content planning meeting. Instead of asking your team, “What should we post this week?” ask, “What everyday experience would make one of our prospective buyers immediately think, ‘That’s me’?”

Your sales team can be one of your best sources. Listen to the frustrations prospects describe when they visit your model homes, tour an available home, or submit an online inquiry. Then get more specific.

“Not enough storage” is a marketing topic. Buying Costco paper towels and realizing the guest room is the only place left to put them is a moment.

“Needs a home office” is a feature request. Starting a 10:00 a.m. video call just as someone begins unloading the dishwasher six feet away is a moment.

“Wants a larger kitchen” is a housing preference. Having everyone move out of the way because someone opened the refrigerator is a moment.

Those moments create recognition, and recognition creates emotional relevance. Once someone recognizes their own life in your marketing, you have earned something much more valuable than a fleeting impression. You’ve created a connection.

To try this with your own content, use a simple five-step process:

1. Identify the frustration. What problems or inconveniences do your prospects repeatedly describe?
2. Find the moment. What does that frustration actually look like during everyday life?
3. Make it specific. Details turn generic marketing messages into recognizable experiences.
4. Add personality. Humor, warmth, surprise, and a little exaggeration can make familiar moments worth sharing.
5. Connect the problem to possibility. Let your homes become the answer without turning the entire post into an advertisement.

That’s the distinction. You’re still marketing the storage, home office, energy efficiency, kitchen design, or flexible living space. You’re simply starting the story where your buyer is instead of where your product is.

Don’t Copy the Content. Study Why It Worked.

I’m not suggesting you fill your social calendar with Bookstagram-inspired graphics. The bigger opportunity is developing the habit of reverse-engineering the content that earns your attention.

Start following more people and brands outside homebuilding. Follow the author with a fiercely loyal community, the independent bookstore with hilarious Reels, the restaurant everyone tags their friends in, the local entrepreneur who somehow makes you watch every video, and the small business owner who has built an audience without a massive marketing budget.

When something stops your scroll, don’t simply save it. Ask yourself: Why did I stop? Why did I keep watching? What made this feel relevant to me? Would I send it to someone? How could I apply the principle without copying the execution?

That’s where creative cross-pollination happens.

Don’t copy what they create. Study why you care.

Next: From Social Media Attention to Business Growth

Of course, it’s one thing to earn likes, shares, and followers. It’s another to turn social media attention into actual business growth.

That’s where we’re going next.

In Part 2, I’m taking you to Utah, where a custom home builder has turned behind-the-scenes construction videos and a distinctive social media presence into hundreds of thousands of followers, national media attention, and significant business growth. More importantly, we’ll look at why his videos work and break down techniques you can apply to your own home builder social strategy, even if becoming an “influencer” is the last thing on your marketing plan.

Writing a novel reminded me that creative growth doesn’t always come from learning more about the world you already know. Sometimes it comes from wandering into an entirely different one and paying attention to what happens there.

Creativity grows when you stop studying only the people who do what you do.

Follow Me @Merrybooktrovert

If you’re a fan of romantic fantasy books, known as “Romantasy” by the fans, audiobooks, or simply want to follow my journey as I undertake my biggest creative project, join me @Merrybooktrovert on Instagram and TikTok. I’m new to these platforms, so my follower count is modest, but the followers I have are dedicated book lovers who enjoy “Romantasy’ as much as I do. The key lesson here: you don’t need thousands of followers to sell homes. Prioritizing quality over quantity is always the smarter approach.

Categorised in: Small Business Marketing, Working From Home