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Builders, Let’s Get SaaS-y

Just a few short years ago, setting up and maintaining a basic website was a substantial drain on the resources of most home builders. There are so many items to consider; design, hosting, maintenance, support, platform updates and the list continues on and on. However, for those builders who are implementing a website using Software as a Service (SAAS), many of these concerns are alleviated.

So What Is SaaS?

SaaS applications are web-based, otherwise known as on-demand or hosted software. Chances are you already work with many of these applications, including Basecamp, Google Docs, and the online version of Microsoft Office every day without even realizing it!

How Does SaaS Benefit Builders?

SaaS is the perfect solution for many builders. There are no servers or software to buy, install, update, or maintain. SaaS allows you to access your website content management system and more from anywhere on the internet.

BDX is the leading SaaS provider for the home building industry. The websites we build, Custom Technology Projects, Sales Center Displays, and Envision design center are all SaaS based.

You can access and manage content easily via web browsers, with no complicated software to learn. The applications run on secure BDX servers, and we manage their performance, security, and availability, so builders can focus on building their business.

The BDX SaaS Solution

For most builders, there is just not enough time in the day to build homes, keep up with attracting new clients, and at the same time manage and make sure a website CMS is boasting all the latest updates and website best practices. With a decade of experience as the industry’s digital technology provider, we are built to stretch your marketing dollars further.

Check out the look, feel, and functionality of our client sites including:

BDX low monthly SaaS fees include hosting, regular platform updates, and automatic access to new features. There is never anything for you to install or download, which dramatically reduces your IT and management resources for hardware, software, personnel, and time. Not to mention your frustration with the distraction from what you do best—building homes.

Isn’t it time for you to get SaaS-y?

The BYTE [10/24]

THE BYTE

Welcome to the BYTE, where we serve up the latest home and tech news from the last week for you to sink your teeth into.

This week we’re taking a BYTE out of new numbers showing a welcome shift for the home market, an internet shut-down, smart homes under attack, vacation homes changing the renting game, and a new way to display art. Dig in!

Generally

Shop Til You Drop

Realtor.com conducted a survey in September on the active home shoppers in the market. Big take-a-ways? First time buyers accounted for 52% which is up from 33% last year.

Tell Me More

The top goals for home ownership were the same across the age groups: privacy, family needs, and asset accumulation. The first time buyers percentage was dominated by the older millennials (age 25-34). This may be what we’ve all been waiting for…millennials buying homes. Most of these shoppers are looking to buy within the next 7 months. Could 2017 be the long awaited year of the millennials buyer?

New Realtor.com Current Home Shopper Research http://ow.ly/WbHM305uqg6 Click To Tweet

Dyn And Dash

System Overload

Over the weekend Dyn, a DNS provider, saw outages from several “distributed denial of service” (DDoS) attacks. In simpler terms their system was overloaded with so much traffic from fake IP addresses it caused several major sites to go down, Spotify, Twitter, Soundcloud, and Airbnb just to name a few. No one has taken credit for the attack but it was the first attack like this on this large a scale. Now everyone: Dyn, Homeland Security, and Dyn’s competitors, are working together to figure who was behind the attack and how they did it.

DDoS attack and how it happened http://ow.ly/LUQt305uqk1 Click To Tweet

Take Notes

A Little Less Home Security Please

The Internet of Things (IoT) isn’t quite safe, yet. People are concerned about the security of these devices because they are extremely easy to hack and few of them need a password of any kind. The focus so far has been on ease of use and not at all on securing the technologies so the IP addresses can be hacked. The concepts are here to stay and security will only improve, but it may be time to do a little more research before buying that smart home camera.

Where the security of the IoT is and where it should be http://ow.ly/GhCE305uqrX Click To Tweet

Airing It Out

Airbnb is getting so popular now that people are worried it is affecting rent prices and home/apartment availability. They might not be wrong. Initial studies show that especially in big cities with dense Airbnb listings the rent is higher and the availability is lower than usual. A lot of factors play into housing, so it is hard to say, this early on, if this is directly a result of Airbnb’s popularity or if they just play a small role in it. However with more home sharing happening every day the marketplace could start to change pretty quickly.

Airbnb might be raising rent prices... http://ow.ly/4zrj305uqCA Click To Tweet

Motion Pictures

E02 is the latest in thin video displays for hanging art on your wall. With the screen being very thin, crisp, and even dims when the lights are out in the room, you can display gifs, cinemographs, and basically any digital art seamlessly in your house. If you are a true art connoisseur you can subscribe to their Art Club and they will put museum worthy art work on the wall.

Check out this cool new way to display your art http://ow.ly/mJ5t305uqGx Click To Tweet

Totally Unrelated

Your Wildest Dreams Finally Came True

With Girl Scouts cookie season quickly approaching we will see an added bonus this year, Girl Scout cookie cereal. These hit the stores in January so be ready to stock up.

Girl Scout Cookie cereal is finally here http://ow.ly/qfT0305uqOC Click To Tweet

Call Tracking Closes the Marketing Intelligence Gap for Home Builders

Wise marketing investments can only be made reliably and consistently with solid marketing analytics. Most home builders measure the performance of digital advertising campaigns based upon a series of metrics, such as organic visits, page views, leads generated and conversions to sales. One piece that is usually missing is tracking the transition of prospects from online to offline. How do you know when someone visits your website and then calls your sales office number and talks with one of your representatives? The answer is call tracking.

We know that inbound telephone leads are serious leads.

Calls convert to revenue 10-15 times more than Web leads. A study by BIA Kelsey [2015] confirmed that inbound calls analyzed across dozens of industries revealing that 29% of all inbound phone calls led to a sale or appointment. In comparison, data from Web leads only converted at around 2%. That’s only one conversion for every 50 completed lead forms. Yet, for every 50 phone calls you receive you would be converting 14.5 inquiries with a conversion rate of 29%. Those statistics tell us that phone calls convert more than 10 times better than inquirers completing forms on websites. That is a staggering difference.

http://www.marketingprofs.com/opinions/2015/27264/the-human-voice-is-crucial-for-online-sales-heres-proof

Know where your marketing is falling short and where it’s bringing in business.

Call tracking gives you vision into every call that’s coming into your business, so you can determine if your advertising efforts are actually working for you.

BDX includes Call Tracking as a free benefit with all listings on New Home Source and Move New Homes. So how does it work? We assign a unique number to each of your listings and that number is displayed on the community and home detail pages. When a prospect dials the unique toll free number, it is routed through the call tracking service and passed through to your inbound team or office. From a home shopper’s perspective, this experience is seamless.

Call tracking is marketing intelligence for builders. It informs your marketing team about which channels are driving the most leads. It shows you what listings are working, and why. It helps you make better decisions about where to allocate marketing dollars, and how to make the most of each individual marketing investment. It’s increasingly hard to justify digital listings without being able to track performance and use these analytics.

Call tracking can help you:

Improve Customer Service
Optimize call center coaching
Identify the sources generating the highest volume or percentage of calls
Pinpoint the most effective channels
Build on the marketing campaigns with the highest response rates
Track sales conversions
Allocate resources in proportion to ROI

Maximize your ROI on each campaign:

Learn what listing information is common to your leads
Find out what features your callers cite as the reasons for their interest
Test the impact of variables, including virtual tours, 3-D renderings, and professional photography on listing performance
Get the phone numbers of all callers for follow-up campaigns
Get the phone numbers of missed calls for callbacks

Builders can access their call tracking reporting through BDXLive and see:

Total number of calls per source
Missed calls for callbacks
Caller ID
Date, time, and call duration
Recordings of each call – saved for up to 30 days

With these tools and analytics, your business gains insight into how employees handle inbound calls. You hear what prospective customers are calling about and understand their most common concerns and questions. You can also use the recordings for training and improving performance.

Just as important, legal compliance is handled through BDX Call Tracking. Both the caller and your sales team are automatically notified that the call is being recorded.

Builders are spending more of their budgets on digital marketing than ever before, and we’re excited to work together to close the online-offline marketing intelligence gap. BDX call tracking ensures that your marketing intelligence is complete and actionable, from the instant your prospects see your listing to the moment they sign a contract.

The BYTE [10/10]

Welcome to the BYTE, where we serve up the latest home and tech news from the last week for you to sink your teeth into.

This week we’ll take a BYTE out of a company searching for its way into the big game, many things being taken by storm, possibly the hottest fall in a decade, an entirely new way to social network, and a fun new way to watch college football when you can’t be there in person. Enjoy!

Generally

Welcome To The Show

Google had its big hardware event this week and in doing so went after Apple and Amazon in one fell swoop.

What Does Google Make Now?

Google announced many things at this event, a new phone called the Pixel and Pixel XL which some have called the smartest phone ever. The smartphone also come alongside a new VR viewer that looks like your new pair of sweatpants. Google Home will be hitting markets soon, which is attacking the Amazon Echo and is cheaper. Google Wifi will let you get better internet all through your house and the new Chromecast will let you stream 4K video. Google has had some products before that competed directly with their tech counterparts but now they seem to have stepped up their game in a big way.

Highlights from Google's event last week http://ow.ly/GYMq3052ip8 Click To Tweet

Be Safe Out There

Hurricane Matthew Is No Joke

Matthew is being seen as one of the worst storms in a long time. It hit Haiti and plenty of devastation. It cruised through the United States over the weekend and now and a state of emergency has been called in many states. The estimated property damage is as much as $326 billion dollars. We hope everyone is safe and damage is at a minimum.

Hurricane Matthew estimated damage to be as much as $326 million http://ow.ly/yCzL3052iAV Click To Tweet

Take Notes

Fall Is Heating Up

Realtor.com expects this fall to be the best for the housing market in 10 years. There are many factors playing into this: the expected days on the market decreased in September by 4% from last year, record high demand, and the average listing price is 9% higher than last year. All in all this shapes up to one fine looking fall for all of us in the housing market.

Realtor.com predicts hottest fall for housing market in 10 years http://ow.ly/Pbfx3052iGR Click To Tweet

Look At Me Now

Facebook showed off its new Oculus toy this week at Oculus Connect. Facebook hopes to redefine social media with VR. The presentation showed that with this Facebook VR app you can actually see and interact with your friends in the virtual world. You have a little character that represents you, and your friends have the same, you can talk, draw things and even fence each other. With VR becoming more common and innovations like this coming out it might be time to redefine how we work with social media.

Facebook shows off its new way to social media http://ow.ly/Cm8i3052iRB Click To Tweet

The Big Hit

This weekend in college football Oklahoma and Texas played. What made this game different from other years or even other games this weekend was that the game was live broadcasted in VR. This is the second game to do this and looks like it might be a huge hit allowing users to change cameras, instantly look at stats and rosters, and much more. The company behind it, LiveLike, received $5 million more in funding after the first game so it might be time to stock up on VR viewers before the next watch party.

Texas vs Oklahoma was broadcasted in VR http://ow.ly/Vxa53052iYB Click To Tweet

Totally Unrelated

Welcome To The Future

Nike is releasing less than 100 Nike Mag self-lacing shoes. Just like the ones from Back To The Future. The shoes are being raffled off and you can enter the raffle for $10 a ticket, all of the money goes to the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Nike is finally taking us Back To The Future http://ow.ly/jiB13052j5E Click To Tweet