Have YOU shopped for a home lately?
Looking to increase conversions? Think like a customer.
O.K., so you’re a successful homebuilder. Fantastic. And you’re marketing online—and maybe even taking advantage of an Online Sales Counselor to increase prospect interaction, response and conversions. Even better.
Still, you’re probably starting to realize it’s no longer O.K. to just sit back and wait for homebuyers to come a-knocking. Today’s online marketing technologies evolve and improve almost hourly, so if you want to make sure you’re focusing your online marketing efforts in the right areas, it’s critical to keep up with what your competitors are up to, as well.
The alternative? Being left behind in a huge cloud of technology dust. Here are a few quick tips that every manager/OSC should be doing on a regular basis.
Google (yes it’s a verb) new homes in your areas—and see how you stack up.
In a few seconds, you can do a quick Google search for “new homes [your town]” and see how you rank in the search results (or if you rank at all). You’ll get a glimpse of your competitors’ offerings—and maybe even discover some new options for listing properties in other areas.
Just keep in mind: results and rankings change almost constantly, so make sure you constantly optimize your site for easy access by Google and other top search engines. Don’t forget Yahoo!, MSN and others.
Don’t trust third-party sources for accurate, up-to-date listings.
Do you list your homes on third-party sites like Homes.com or Move.com? Again, search these sites for homes in your area as if you’re a customer to make sure your listings are current and accurate. Try searches in different areas and investment ranges. These websites don’t have time to keep up with everyone’s inventory—so make sure you check back with them often to make sure your listings are up to date and correct.
Try to “break” your website with a critical test-drive.
Curious how your site performs when a potential customer is searching for a home? Again, put yourself in their shoes—or at least in their web browser. Fire up your site with a critical eye, as if you’re seeing it for the first time. Then, ask yourself:
- Is the navigation intuitive?
- Are communities and floorplans easily accessible?
- Are any of the links “dead”?
- Are any of the pages—or listed properties—outdated?
Nothing is more frustrating to a prospect than an outdated website. That means one of your most important online marketing jobs is to MONITOR AND UPDATE EVERYTHING constantly. At the same time, make sure your company’s important features and promotions are properly highlighted—and that navigation is part of the solution (instead of a sales-blocker).
Don’t forget to keep track of competitors, too.
It’s easy to become complacent and think that the online homebuilder marketing universe revolves around you. Don’t worry; it’s just human nature, but it’s also one of the great barriers to expanding your horizons—and your success. Keeping an eye on your competitors’ sites is one of the best ways to learn about new features, programs and marketing strategies you may be able to leverage for your business.
Submit a request—of your OWN company.
O.K., so you send out hundreds of emails a month. But are you on the receiving end of your own marketing campaigns? You should be. Just remember the old phrase “Out of sight, out of mind.” Make sure to include your own contact information in all your marketing campaigns—automated or otherwise—to make sure your messaging is concise, properly targeted and correctly delivered. In your new “consumer” mindset, you may realize you don’t like the tone, phrasing or even the overall content of the communications you’re sending out to represent your company.
Conduct period reviews of the online marketing landscape.
Over time, for various reasons, web-based programs and processes for marketing your business online will break down and stop working. By far, the best way to check your entire web-marketing ecosystem is to regularly conduct new-home searches via your own site—as well as those of your top competitors. Just make sure that SOMEONE in your organization is the “point person” for periodic reviews of the online marketing landscape.
Remember, today’s web-savvy customers are already comparing you to your online competitors—so you might as well be aware of what they’re seeing. That way, you can proactively plan new programs and quickly react to competitive developments.
Spinning Your Web – BuilderOnline Article
Check out this great article at BuilderOnline by Pat Curry. It gives an in-depth look at the Online Sales Process and the positive effect it can have. I appreciated the breadth of this article covering multiple builders and industry professionals. It’s exciting to see more success stories like this.
Synopsis
Connecting with prospective customers at a critical stage in their home-buying research, online concierges are driving as much as a third of the sales for large and small builders alike. Read The Article >>
Great contributions from the following:
Blair Kuhnen – Builder Homesite Inc.
Leighton Collis – Liquid Advertising
Kelly Kenton Fink, Mary Donald, Derece Williams – Bowen Family Homes
Leslie Loveless
Angie Huser – Estridge Homes
Online Marketing – Quick Start Guide
I am often asked “How and where should I spend my online marketing dollars?”
With so many options – I wanted to give a “quick start” guide for builders. After you decide on a budget (I would recommend at least 25% of your total marketing budget) you need get to work on the areas that will drive traffic to your site. If outside expertise is needed, higher a reputable SEO firm to handle the details for you.
A recent survey of homebuilders and new home buyers shows a gap between consumer and builder marketing behaviors. Of the builders surveyed, the total budget allocated for online advertising was one-fifth of the overall budget while consumers spent one-half of their time using 0nline media. This means that builders need to start allocating more time and money to the one place where customers prefer to shop for new homes – the internet. Online Marketing is comprised of many different avenues to drive the traffic to your site. Time and time again, it’s proven itself to be one of the most cost-effective advertising methods. Plus, it is easy to track results of marketing sources and dollars spent.
Search Engine Optimization
This is the core of the online marketing program. Your highest conversion rates and number of qualified leads will come from your website. Spend the time optimizing your website to rank high on organic search engine results. While it may cost more at the beginning – it will pay high returns in the long run. Plus – all the traffic is essentially free.
Pay-Per-Click
PPC is advertising on Google, Yahoo, MSN etc. You bid on specific keywords like “new homes Dallas” and pay each time that someone clicks on the link to your site. The benefits are that you don’t pay until someone clicks, the downside is that you pay every time someone clicks. You can get a campaign set up quickly and start driving traffic to your site immediately. However, once you stop paying, the traffic stops. You must strike a balance on your PPC and Search Engine Optimization. Watch the numbers closely and adjust as you go.
Third Party Referral Sources
This refers to the websites and portals set up specifically to advertise and drive traffic for new home builders. These sites are dedicated to finding targeted and qualified new home shoppers.
These sites include:
- Move.com
- NewHomeSource.com
- iNest.com
- NewHomeGuide.com
- Homes.com
- ServiceMagic.com (primarily for scattered site or custom builders)
More are emerging every day and there may even be regional sites that would be a good source. Nationally, these are the top performers and the best investment in any market. There are also crossover sites for traditional real estate that might be effective for listing completed or under-construction homes. These portal sites usually charge per community listed and might have options for featured listings.
Free Listing and Classified Services
Online classifieds are a great avenue for listing your inventory and driving traffic. The services below are free or basic listings. You will see great results if you have special offers or promotions that will attract buyers. These sites consist of:
- craigslist
- Google Base
- backpage.com
- HotPads
- edgeio
- LiveDeal
- Oodle
- Propsmart
- Vast
Personally, I have seen the results from Craigslist rival that of our PPC in both traffic and conversions. All this with no cost except the time it takes to create a compelling listing. I’m sure there are more out there and more being created every day. You will also find local listing services in your market. Sometimes, listings can be time consuming. Check out free services like Vflyer.com or Postlets.com will help you create online flyers and automatically post to most of these sites.
Also, if you are using third-party referral sites like Move.com or NewHomeSource.com, they will usually push your listings to many of the popular free sites as well. Check into that before you spend your time posting on these sites.
Unique Pay Service
Beyond the common listing services and advertising sources mentioned above, there are many unique sources and local listing services that you can discover in your own market. The best way to find these sources is to start searching for homes as a customer would.
Conclusion
Think of it this way – instead of waiting for customers to drive to your model home, you can take the initiative and advertise on websites that drive the traffic to you.
Action Steps
- Determine the budget
- Assess your capabilities
- Higher a reputable SEO company
- Track and adjust your strategy and budget
Happy Birthday Honey
I want to wish my beautiful wife a Happy Birthday today – one year older and twice as pretty as last year. I love you.
Managing Your Leads – Part 4 of 4 – Shopper Data Leads to More Informed Business Decisions
Shopper Data Leads to More Informed Business Decisions
By Robb Cohen – CEO, BeHomeWise Inc.
Using a more comprehensive lead management solution can also provide builders with business intelligence on their prospective shoppers and marketplace that helps them to make more informed decisions about their business and to increase profitability. By capturing shopper data in a central database, a sophisticated lead management system can give a builder the ability to:
- View and analyze more detailed data on prospective shoppers
- Provide up-to-the-minute reporting on current marketing initiatives
- Provide up-to-the-minute access to sales agent activities and progres
- Allow for real-time data sharing amongst sales staff and managers
- Increase communications across an organization
In addition to providing real-time insight into operations and sales team performance, this system will produce customized performance reports on aggregated shopper data to help builders understand which shoppers are buying, where, when and for how much. This information helps to drive future product planning, as well as to guide agents on their sales pitch and to direct the marketing department on their promotional efforts.
Sales reports, run separate prospect reports, and access performance metrics on the sales force. They can also “drill-down” and run more detailed reports to break down sales data by region, division or community. Builders can even gather specific marketing information such as: which advertisement drove more shopper traffic to a given community, OR which radio spot drove attendance to a recent Grand Opening. This data collection allows for continual monitoring and adjusting of marketing activities to maximize a buider’s marketing, sales / business development and operational expenditures.
The right lead management system will allow builders to collect and analyze this business intelligence in a way that helps them to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their business.
A Critical New Business Tool for Builders
Having a sophisticated lead management system, specifically designed to manage online leads as well as “off-line” leads, has become more critical to builders for many reasons beyond simply the ability to follow up with leads in a timely fashion. If the right system is selected, an effective online lead management system has become a critical business tool for prioritizing the company’s sales and marketing activities, gathering extensive business intelligence and making more informed operational decisions. The result for builders will be a reduction in expenses, improved operational efficiencies and maximized profits!
BeHomeWise is an Internet lead management system for home builders. Founded and developed by new home sales expert, Robb Cohen. Learn more about BeHomeWise by visiting www.BeHomeWise.com, or by calling (866) 246-6399
