Best Practices

leadsYou’ve made an investment to drive leads to your business, but do not stop there! Implementing a strong lead follow-up process is critical to getting a strong return on your investment. This is especially important since the home buying cycle has gotten longer and many shoppers will take 9-12 months before making a purchase decision. Continually nurturing leads throughout the sales cycle is critically important. Read on for helpful tips to connect with buyers from click to close.

Did you know that 48% of sales agents never follow up on a lead that comes in? This is a huge missed opportunity for your sales pipeline! Can you afford to not engage with these potential buyers? 25% of sales agents will only make 2 contacts with the home shopper. If a buyer is not planning to make a purchase decision until 9 months down the road, 2 contacts is simply not going to cut it! 80% of sales are made between the 5th and 12th contact. Call and email multiple times – you will thank us later!

Tracking Leads
How are you keeping track of your leads? If you sell more than 50 homes a year, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a must. There are many cost effective CRM solutions available today such as Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, Sales Simplicity, Sales 1440 and Builder Trend. These systems allow you to track and nurture leads in an efficient and organized manner.

Following Up
Time is money and the quicker you follow up the better first impression the buyer will have of your company. When you respond to leads within 15 minutes of submission, you are 4 times more likely to contact and qualify the lead. Having an internet sales counselor or someone that is dedicated to monitoring the online leads is a great way to make contact in a timely manner.

In your first initial contact make sure you use a catchy subject line, personalize the email by using the customer’s name, include links to interactive media, have a strong call to action (i.e. come to an open house or make an appointment) and include all contact information so the customer can choose any which way they would like to connect with you. Above all else – keep it professional!

Nurturing Leads
As we mentioned previously, since the buying cycle is longer, you will need to nurture the leads that come in for a much longer period of time. BDX has great content and messaging for builder clients to use from the Start Fresh. Buy New. initiative that shows why buying a new home is better than resale. It is important to highlight the benefits that a new construction home provides: the low cost of ownership, quality construction, energy efficiency and better floor plans. Remember, your competition isn’t the builder down the street, it is resale homes.

Interactive content keeps prospects engaged and builds trust in your brand. To accomplish this, use videos to tour the community, highlight company history or showcase green features. Videos don’t have to be of high production quality and can even be done from your phone.

Additional ways to nurture leads throughout the sales cycle include:

  • Adding the prospect to your community e-newsletter
  • Create social media campaigns targeted to home buyers to get them to engage with your brand
  • Invite prospects to open houses/community events

Implementing some of these simple tips will keep your homes and brand at the top of your buyer’s mind when they are ready to purchase. Be sure to check out our recent webinar for more best practices and strategies for following up.  Also, see this article from online marketing expert, Mike Lyon, about how to turn online leads into buyers.

Unsure if your lead follow-up strategy is making the mark? Contact BDX at Info@theBDX.com today for an assessment.

 

By Jamie Lintner, BDX Advertising Manager 

IP Targeting vs. Geo Targeting. This war has been waged in the online space since the inception of banner advertising. On one hand you have the publishers who stand by IP targeting, the idea that targeting the unique location that a user is browsing from increases the relevancy of the ad itself. On the other you have targeted ads based off of the search parameters of that same user. Both have extreme merit depending on the type of product being advertised.

In the home building vertical, this targeting can have a significant impact on performance.  Consumers moving from Austin to San Francisco want to see homes and builders in San Francisco. We pulled the stats below to help quantify this lift and better understand the impact of ONLY running an IP targeted campaign via Google or other exchange.

To calculate these numbers, I pulled a 3 month sample that included 15 of BDX’s largest advertisers from all parts of the country. I then subdivided traffic into 3 unique performance buckets of data; impressions served in market (Consumers in Austin looking for Austin Homes), targeted delivery to the state (Consumers living in Texas looking for Austin Homes), and targeted delivery to users out of state (isolating people with a desire to relocate across state lines). No data-group contains any duplicate areas.

I assumed that performance would be equivalent for all areas regardless of the geography where the ad was served. In reality, performance is far stronger for users shopping for a home in a different state. As a home builder your ad is 42% more likely to be clicked on by a user out of state than by one in-state, meaning that an IP targeting campaign completely ignores the group of users that is statistically far more likely to engage with your brand.

On average, impressions to the local geo-area (bucket #1) delivered 55% of total delivery and 47% of total clicks. Users in the remainder of the state (bucket #2) were served 12% of total impressions and represented 11% of all clicks. Lastly, users across the nation were served 33% of all geo-targeted impressions but they represented an astonishing 41% of total clicks.

 

 

 

 

 

My best guess as to why there are different levels of performance between data groups is the vast difference in shopping urgency. Home shoppers already in the market will casually browse for a new home. Maybe they have strong intentions to move in the coming months or maybe they’re like my wife; just looking around for that perfect home in ten years. By comparison, out of state users appear to have a much stronger sense of urgency when shopping for a home, potentially due to a job relocation or change in lifestyle.

I’m a perfect case study for an out of state shopper. My wife recently took an out of state job and we had two weeks to find a home. Naturally we reached out to countless communities, apartment complexes, and anyone with a bedroom. Our search was more intentful and motivated than in-state shoppers who weren’t in such dire straits. What home builder wouldn’t dream of such a client?

Is your ad campaign effectively being tailored to the right audience through other online sources? At BDX we are constantly striving  to improve all ad campaigns for home builders and provide guidance on where your ads will perform best.  To learn more about the different types of campaign targeting, please see our previous blog post, Getting the Most from your Exchange Network. For information on starting your own ad campaign contact Info@theBDX.com.

Want to get off to a great start for 2014? For the past two weeks, we have posted marketing resolutions for the New Year.  We hope you have enjoyed these tips and use them throughout the year.

#10: I will improve my listing photos so I can be chosen as the NewHomeSource Home of the Day and/or Home of the Week.

Let’s face it, we’ve all judged a book by its cover a time or two before. And, we’re not the only ones — that’s why it’s important for you to put your best foot forward in your listings — you’ll get more traffic and leads with listing photos that showcase your homes in the best way possible.

NewHomeSource Home of the Day

Another benefit to high-quality photos in your listings is the opportunity for one of your homes to be a NewHomeSource Home of the Day and a NewHomeSource Home of the Week. Every day, a superior home plan is posted on the NewHomeSource Facebook page to give fans a taste of some of the great homes offered by our builders — that’s the NHS Home of the Day. Each Home of the Day is selected from an active listing on NewHomeSource.com. Since we’ve started posting, the Homes of the Day have been liked by our fans more than 29,000 times and shared more than 4,000 times – that’s great exposure that leads to, well, leads.

One way for your homes to be considered for a Home of the Day or a Home of the Week is to include really great listing photos — we’re talking well-lit professionally photographed furnished models and include lots of them. What better way to help a buyer imagine living in the home than to include a picture of each room?

NewHomeSource Home of the Week

Which brings us to the Home of the Week: Each week, a home whose listing includes at least 8-12 truly exceptional photos of inspiring, fully furnished models is showcased in a slideshow on our New Home Guide on NewHomeSource. The Home of the Week is also featured in our weekly Home of the Week e-newsletter that reaches thousands of subscribers nationwide. Both the slideshow and the e-newsletter include a link to the builder’s listing. Better yet, this is free editorial content, so there’s no cost to builders for this exposure.

So, what are you waiting for? We look forward to featuring your home(s) — and showing NewHomeSource visitors just what new homes are all about.

Want to get off to a great start for 2014? Each day for the next two weeks, we will be posting a marketing resolution for the New Year.

#9: I will stay educated about the latest Digital Marketing trends

The online marketplace is one that is constantly evolving. Trends and best practices that were all the rage a couple of years ago are already outdated.  BDX University is one of many resources builders can use to stay current with the latest trends in digital marketing.  From webinars and case studies to whitepapers, infographics and live speaking events, we’ve got you covered.

We cover a broad variety of Digital Marketing topics each month: website best practices, lead follow up tips, advertising tracking and ROI to name a few.  We will soon be releasing our spring webinar calendar that includes a full sweep of  trends and best practices in digital marketing.

Book mark the BDX University page and the BDX Blog – And check back with us frequently!

Want to get off to a great start for 2014? Each day for the next two weeks, we will be posting a marketing resolution for the New Year.

#6: I will publish our agent policy as well as upload promos and events

Our Start Fresh. Buy New. research shows that 48% of agents prefer selling “New” homes but often feel it is hard to learn about new properties, inventories and promotions.  Agents crave information, and before they bring a buyer to your community, they want to understand your commission policy.   Publish your policy on both your website and your listings on New Home Source Professional, and when possible, make sure you include buyer registration guidelines and standard commission percentages.

By keeping your listings up to date with this information, an agent is more informed and knows what to expect when working with you.  This transparency will both endear you to agents in your market and get their buyers into your sales office.