Month: December 2013

By Katelyn Kellam, BDX Digital Advertising Coordinator

Over the past year more and more builders are looking to BDX to help them plan and execute their display advertising campaigns. Providing high quality customized service is critical to what we do and why we have some of the highest performing advertising campaigns in the industry. So, as our client list grows, so do our internal resources to support them. Katelyn Kellam recently joined BDX as Digital Advertising Coordinator and we thought you would enjoy this perspective from the newest member of our team.

I began working at BDX almost two months ago, and I can say with certainty that there is not a “typical day” in the advertising department. I’m responsible for trafficking campaigns, keeping track of new contracts, producing the NewHomeSource Professional community map, and fielding questions from sales reps and coworkers, while enjoying the occasional breakfast taco.

I’m taking it all in stride – learning to navigate the world of three-letter acronyms (BDX, RDC, VAN, RET, CRM, NHS…and the list goes on.  Click here for our Acronym Cheat Sheet) and the host of different products we offer and how they work together. Each day provides at least one learning opportunity, whether it is attending a webinar or troubleshooting a new campaign. Because of this, I truly admire the rest of the advertising team for having such a handle on the hundreds of clients that advertise with us.

The most notable aspect of the advertising team is its desire to make every client successful – whether it is optimizing current campaigns, testing new techniques, or communicating campaign results, Thane and Jamie never cease to work in the client’s best interest. By definition, digital advertising is ever-changing and our team seeks to stay in front of the latest technology and trends. Clients are constantly updating creative, sending new click-thru URLs, and extending flight dates, among other things. It is our job to anticipate these changes in order to better serve the client and maintain an efficient workflow.

BDX provides a unique service to its clients, ensuring that builders are utilizing the best possible means of communicating their message to prospective homebuyers. I look forward to learning more about the homebuilding industry and new ways of providing value for our clients as time progresses, as well as enjoying a few more breakfast tacos with the team.

To learn more about BDX advertising services, please contact Info@thebdx.com.

Katelyn Kellam is the Digital Advertising Coordinator for Builders Digital Experience and manages both traditional and digital advertising for BDX and affiliate channels.

 

101 Blog Post Ideas For Home BuildersBy Patricia Garcia, BDX Content Manager

Now that you’ve created a blog for your website and have been posting regularly, you’ve probably found that it’s getting … harder! Do you feel as though you’ve written all there is to know about your company and new homes? Don’t worry — it happens to the best of us: writers’ block or just plain writer’s fatigue plagues every writer.

There’s no doubt that you can offer your buyers with pertinent information about their home or fun facts, but if you’re coming up short on blog topics, we have compiled 101 ideas to help keep your blog filled with timely content (set up by topic, no less):

It’s All About You, Your Buyers and New Homes:

  1. Meet Our Team: Spotlight team members by asking them to answer questions like, “What are your hobbies?”, to bring a human face to the company.
  2. Who Are We? (Write about the company’s history, heritage, philosophy, awards, etc.)
  3. Ask Our Experts (Interview subject-matter experts from your company to offer useful information to homebuyers and homeowners on financing, designing, etc.)
  4. Model Home Spotlight
  5. Spotlight on Community Amenities/Features (What are some of the most attractive features of your community?)
  6. How We Work with Independent Realtors
  7. Did You Know … ? (Fun facts about the company and newly built homes — you can create your own infographics with Infogram (http://infogr.am/) or other similar sites.)
  8. Connect with Us Online! (Include all of the ways buyers and prospective clients can follow you on social media.)
  9. How Do You Compare? (Use the metrics in your Local Market Toolkit to compare your stats. Don’t have a Local Market Toolkit? Email info@thebdx.com.
  10. Where Do Our Buyers Come From? (Create a map with pins showing where your buyers hail from.)
  11. Start Fresh. Buy New. (Use the factoids, graphics and videos on http://startfresh.newhomesource.com/ to help buyers learn about the benefits of newly built homes.)
  12. Room of the Week (Buyer-generated content: ask homeowners to send photos of a certain room in the home, then post the top 3 to show examples of great design, etc.)
  13. What’s Your Favorite Part of Your New Home? (Collect stories and comments or survey new homeowners.)
  14. My Town, My Street: Why Moving to Your Town/City is a Good Bet for Relocating Buyers
  15. Hottest Upgrades and Options (Buyer preference stats)
  16. Mythbusting: The Truth About New Homes
  17. It’s Not Just Pretty: What are the design and construction techniques you use in the building process
  18. Top 10 Upgrades That Pay Off at Resale
  19. Meet the Folks Who Run Your Homeowners Association
  20. Our Favorite Homes from TV and the Movies
  21. What Do Homebuyers Typically Buy After Moving In?
  22. Share the Love: Cite content from sister or partner sites that support newly constructed homes or offer guest posts from reputable partners.
  23. Lights, Camera, Action: Sharing the Excitement of Your New Home’s Construction (Encourage your buyers to document and share their new home journey through online tools such as Facebook and Pinterest.)

The Nuts & Bolts of Homeownership:

  1. Simple Scheduled Maintenance (Include monthly or seasonal tips for maintaining a new home — how-to videos, anyone?)
  2. What does a new home buyer’s tool kit look like? (Tools new home buyers need!)
  3. Glossary of Common Terms New Homebuyers Should Know
  4. We’ve Got Your Covered: What to Know About Your Warranties
  5. What to Know About Builder Allowances
  6. Why You Should Welcome the New Neighbors (And How)
  7. What to Know About Warranty Requests
  8. Are Solar Panels Right for My Home?
  9. Inspections and Walkthroughs (What buyers need to know, what to expect and what to look for)
  10. What’s a Punch List?
  11. Pests: What to Know and How to Keep Them at Bay
  12. Parade of Homes (Getting the most from your local POH and spotlight any of the company’s homes being featured.)
  13. Get It Sold: Tips for a Selling Your Old Home Faster
  14. Protecting Your New Home from Inclement Weather
  15. Emergency Preparedness: Create a Plan for the Family
  16. Flooring for Your Lifestyle (What are some things to consider when choosing flooring: spouse or child with asthma, pets, etc.)
  17. Is a Finished Basement Right for You?
  18. What Buyers Should Know about Energy Efficiency (Explain what a HERS score is and why it’s important for their home.)
  19. Heat It Up: How to Safely Heat Your Home
  20. Specialty Housing: Over 50 Housing, Multigenerational Housing, Universal Design, etc.
  21. Dust, Allergens and Other Things That Make You Feel Miserable (what to know and how to fight it)
  22. Creating Community Groups
  23. Home Hacks (Buyer-generated content: Ask buyers for any home & garden tips/tricks. Example: Use fake spider webs for a spooky effect during Halloween— and for collecting fallen leaves after.)

 Show Me the Money:

  1. Financing 101
  2. Understanding Credit Scores
  3. Insurance 101
  4. First-time Buyer? What Your Need to Know About Financing a New Home
  5. New Homes and Taxes (What to know about taxes, credit, etc.)
  6. What to Know About Closing Costs
  7. Types of Home Loans – And Which Is the Best One for You?

‘Tis the Season:

  1. How to Protect Your Home This Holiday Season
  2. Preparing Your Lawn for the Winter, Spring, Fall and Summer
  3. Spring Cleaning Made Easy
  4. Earth Day feature: Let Us Count the Ways: Your Eco-Conscious Efforts
  5. Earth Day feature: Household Products That Will Help You Save Water
  6. Happy New Year: Creating a Home Gym in your New Home
  7. Holiday Hosting: A Survival Guide for You and Your New Home
  8. Holiday Guide to Hosting in Your New Home
  9. Tastefully Decorating Your New Home for Halloween and Christmas

Designing/Decorating:

  1. Pet-Washing Stations and Other Pet-Friendly Home Features
  2. Creating an Accent Wall That Creates Pop, Not Headaches
  3. The Change-up: Changing Your Walls Without Paint, Wallpaper or a Headache
  4. How to Organize Your New Home
  5. How to Design a Hip and Cool Kids Room
  6. Designing on a Budget
  7. What’s the Difference? (Explain the difference in architectural styles and design styles.)
  8. Is Your Home Kid-Safe?
  9. Is Your Home Pet-Safe?
  10. Color Trends (Paint, upholstery, etc.)
  11. Trends in Master Bathrooms
  12. Laundry Rooms to Make You Swoon
  13. Design Trend of the Moment (Animals, gray, distressed wood looks, etc.)
  14. Mud Rooms: What Are They and How to Best Utilize Them in Your Home
  15. What’s the Right Kind of Lighting for Your Home?
  16. The Coolest Home Automation Products
  17. It’s Easy Being Green: Products that Will Save Energy, Water — and Money
  18. Home Design Sites We Love

Outdoor Living:

  1. Enhancing Your Patio with an Outdoor Kitchen
  2. Is Rain Harvesting For You?
  3. What Plants Work with Your Home and Area
  4. Grass Not for You? Alternatives to a Grass Lawn
  5. What’s Hot in Outdoor Living
  6. Curb Appeal: How a Well-Landscaped Yard Can Add Value to Your Home
  7. To Deck or Not to Deck?
  8. Garden Tools You Should Never Be Without
  9. Zoned Out: What Zone Are You? (Guide to hardiness zones with links to local nurseries.)
  10. Water Fun: Is a Swimming Pool a Good Bet?

What’s Next?

  1. Recipes and Ideas for the Ultimate Housewarming Party
  2. Tips for Moving to a New City
  3. Tips for Spending the First Night in Your New Home
  4. Moving with Kids
  5. Moving with Pets
  6. How to Move In Without Destroying Your New Home
  7. Getting to Know You: Meeting the Neighbors
  8. Getting Acquainted with the Neighborhood
  9. Living Naturally: All-Natural Cleaning Products You Already Have in Your Home
  10. Best Apps for Your Home
  11. Avoiding Clutter in Your New Home

Don’t underestimate the news and pop culture for inspiration too. Remember the hubbub about the mortgage interest deduction a few months back? As a home builder, you are at the forefront of the industry and can best deliver a thoughtful and informative post about what homeowners should know — and you can help dispel any misinformation at the same time.

Finding inspiration for your blog can come from anywhere, so always be on the lookout for good fodder, especially success stories from homebuyers. Happy writing!

Patricia Garcia is the content manager for BDX.

By Thane Tennison, BDX Senior Advertising Manager

As a publisher, I work with hundreds of different builders and agencies all trying to gain a competitive edge in the online space. Sometimes that edge is obvious like adjusting creative to improve Click Through Rate (CTR) and drive lower Cost Per Clicks (CPCs).  Sometimes, it’s less revealing like understanding which channel yields better conversions and ultimately a lower $/lead regardless of the upfront spend.

Oftentimes agencies ask, “Why should I buy display advertising from you when I can get it from Google?”  It’s a legitimate question, Google and other Ad Exchanges provide a wealth of sites and a range of products from paid search and “contextually relevant” placement to keyword targeting and a seemingly attractive pricing model for Pay Per Click.

If I were a marketing team looking to drive traffic at the very top of the funnel display, an exchange like Google might make sense. However, for a more targeted media placement I often find that a direct buy has significant advantages.

PREMIUM PLACEMENT:

The main difference between a direct buy and a remnant network exchange is just that – it is remnant inventory. Publishers with direct clients are incentivized to provide the best placements for optimal performance and there are a number of tools at their disposal to help optimize the campaign. Publishers can optimize a buy by booking premium positions, managing ad priorities, frequency capping, day parting etc.

The exchange networks simply look at impressions available as well as the yield opportunity that your ad will get clicked vs. another ad in their network. This means if you’re not constantly managing your bid, keywords and testing new creative you could be at a significant disadvantage. At the BDX we have insights into creative that works and creative that doesn’t. A few times a month we help a builder achieve 4x lift in click thru just by making adjustments to the art.  With exchanges, the art would run as is and you might find that you’re having to pay more for that click since the exchange is going to need to serve more impressions to secure that revenue. A low CTR not only means you may pay more per click but you’re also competing against the yield they can make from every other advertiser competing for that customer.

TARGETING:

Networks have limitations in their targeting abilities by relying on keywords and the contextual relevancy of the website. However in real estate – especially new home construction – these networks alienate about 50% of the home shoppers who are relocating into a market.  If I’m a local builder in Austin advertising on Google targeting real estate websites I’ll reach consumers in Austin but I won’t reach consumers moving from Dallas, Houston, L.A., Chicago or D.C. into the Austin market.

We recently ran an analysis of traffic by market and the results are clear; traffic on a market level works in concentric circles. In Austin, about 50% of the traffic is within market (people moving from one side of town to the other) another 30% of the traffic is from neighboring cities (i.e. Dallas, San Antonio, Houston) and 20% from consumers outside of Texas.  In Texas, these markets are hundreds of miles apart and if I’m a local builder I have zero brand equity with a consumer from Dallas or Houston and much less from someone moving from Atlanta or LA.

What was even more interesting is when we looked at clicks by each of these groups. People living in Austin were the least likely to click the ad.  We saw the greatest click thru from consumers out of market looking for information and shopping home builders in Austin.

PERFORMANCE:

We’ve looked at the Google Analytics of several builders and have a predictable level of performance across each of our advertising channels. This allows us to keep pricing competitive and ensure we’re delivering meaningful value to our clients. With Ad Networks, a builder might receive a low CPC but we typically see much higher bounce rates and fewer meaningful actions. So while you might save on the front end it could cost you more on the backend where it really counts.  Obviously at some point the economics will work but it’s important to differentiate quantity vs. quality.

These factors are some of the reasons many exchanges have reverted to focusing on retargeting which shows significantly stronger conversion vs. blanketing a host of sites with ads.  The metrics simply didn’t warrant continuation and they’ve had to create solutions that provide better value. Even with the impact of Retargeting for the online exchanges we’ve identified a whole set of nuances specific to that medium.

Exchanges do have their place and may make sense for specific campaigns or clients that can afford continued active management. However, I think most builders who try to “save” by taking their advertising in house often lose out in reach and performance.

For information regarding online marketing and a review of your current digital marketing plan please contact us at info@thebdx.com.

Thane Tennison is the Senior Advertising Manager for the BDX and manages hundreds of home builder brands across a network of over a dozen real estate websites.

Congratulations Nationals Silver Awards WinnersLast week, Silver Award winners were announced for the building industry’s prestigious Nationals Awards.

The Nationals is the largest awards program for our industry and BDX was proud to see so many of our builder clients and industry partners and friends honored with these awards — including Van Metre homes for a recent hologram project that we worked on for their sales center. We were also excited that our own Start Fresh. Buy New. campaign and website was recognized.

For 33 years, the Nationals have been recognizing superior sales and marketing achievement in the home building industry. This year, builders and individuals received awards in over 40 categories. Silver award recipients are now nominated for The Nationals Gold awards which will be presented in conjunction with the International Builders Show, on February 4th, 2014.

For more information, visit www.thenationals.com or click here for a full list of winners.