nhs-redesignDid you know that 35% of shoppers who searched for homes on New Home Source visited a builder within a week? In March 2015, NewHomeSource.com, the #1 new home site, shattered a 15-year old record with more than 1 million unique visitors in a single month. That’s the highest traffic in a month in the site’s history – and an impressive audience, given that only 529,000 new single family homes are forecasted to be sold in 2015*.

These stats are not surprising. The authoritative and complete new home listings on NewHomeSource.com offer homebuyers access to far more builders, new home communities, buildable home plans, and spec or quick move-in homes than any other resource. And with an overwhelmingly 63% of New Home Source site visitors preferring new homes, builders are connecting with highly qualified shoppers.

In addition to world-class new home real estate listings, more than 350 inspiring and informative articles, slideshows and videos at NewHomeSource.com/ResourceCenter answer important questions that new home shoppers have. Combined, the authoritative new home listings on NewHomeSource.com and this unmatched article content on new homes have clearly established NewHomeSource.com as The New Home Authority.

Are you ready to put the power of The New Home Authority to work for you? Contact BDX at info@thebdx.com to learn more about our listing solutions.

*Source: NAHB Housing Forecast, April 2015

 

As an award winning developer out of California, Adroit Development is known for their quality, sustainability and expertise.

Adroit Development- Inside
Being a new client to BDX, Adroit Development immediately saw the value and support that everyone here offers. BDX strives to become a valued asset to a builder’s marketing team and cares about their success.

As a developer or general contractor, Adroit Development is a building company that manages projects from design concept thru construction completion and close out. With over 60 years of combined real estate experience, Adroit Development is committed to creating desireable communities and quality homes. Adroit places great importance on utilizing green building technologies and has achieved a Platinum rating. When asked about what BDX means to Adroit Development, Jeanette Rose, Sales & Marketing Director stated that, “Pam O’Malley, our Sales Representative, has been a true mentor and partner acting as an extension of our marketing team. Pam’s passion and knowledge of new home sales is invaluable, as she has gone above and beyond to help launch our new development in Patterson. She took the time to learn about our short and long term goals, made excellent suggestions, and helped to put an immediate marketing plan into action that works within our budget.”

We love to hear that BDX doesn’t just provide builders with cutting-edge products, but also provides real strategy to help builders sell more new homes with webinars, whitepapers, research studies, and more.Adroit Development takes advantage of several BDX products. They currently utilize our renderings and listings services, as well as eFlyers to target thousands of agents in their market to get the word out about their new developments or properties.

To highlight a BDX product, Adroit came to us with the below rendering, looking to really energize their project for prospective buyers. Check out the before and after shots of their newest development using our Photo-Real Renderings below:

Before:

Adroit Development- Before

After:

Adroit Development- After
Adroit’s BDX Account Manager, Tamara Prucha is also there to provide unwavering support. “Tamara created our BDX listing and has been very helpful training me on how to make changes to enhance the content and improve upon our results. I have noticed that the leads have increased as a result of the suggestions she has given me. Tamara is quick to respond to my questions, and truly cares about our success” Jeanette raved.

Adroit Development plans on utilizing other BDX products as they grow and acquire new developments  throughout California. With BDX’s un-matched industry knowledge and know-how, Adroit Development is in good hands. If you’re interested in moving the dial, BDX has the research, marketing solutions and experience to help your business succeed.

Contact info@thebdx.com for more information. Click here to download our Case Study.

ComputerBy Blair Kuhnen, BDX

This is the final blog in our online reputation management series.

The title of this post is a lie. You really can’t push negative reviews down in a way Google would approve. What you can do is make positive results more relevant so they outrank bad or negative items in the search results. When you get a highly ranked bad review, you want it to go away. Fair or not, this is unlikely to happen on its own and you probably cannot force a bad review to be removed. So, what are you to do?

It is time to promote the positive. Glowing third party reviews are the best reviews to promote, but you also have pages in your direct control that can be promoted. Third party reviews and your owned or controlled pages will rank higher if they are deemed more relevant in search engines for the consumer’s query.   Some basic on-page search engine optimization (SEO) can make a huge difference in getting these pages to rank better. For example, if you have a consumer reviews page on your site, make it consumer friendly and add appropriate copy, title tags, URL’s and header elements. Assuming the key on-page factors (URL’s, Title Tag, H1, Image Alt-tags, and body copy) are handled, you are half way there.

The more difficult task in improving search rank is getting highly authoritative and relevant sites to link to your landing pages. For every search query, what is relevant changes. Want a list of the most authoritative links for your search term? Getting links from pages that Google returns for a specific search term represents what Google considers to be relevant and authoritative. But how are you going to get these sites to link to you?

Search for “[Your Brand Term] Reviews.” What comes up? Shown below are the results for one of our clients, Pacesetter Homes. They have a good reputation and focus on addressing issues before they escalate, but they still need to manage a few things. They have two apparent negative links showing up. In both cases, these are not even companies associated with our Pacesetter. So the only thing they can do is promote the positive things about their brand to effectively push these less relevant links off of page one.

blair blog 6The good news is Pacesetter has several positive articles and pages they control that can be promoted by linking to them. First, the Edmonton Sun announced Pacesetter as a finalist for the excellence in housing award. While this is for their Canadian division, getting that on page one would be a great third party implied endorsement. They can ask consumers on their website to “review all our Pacesetter communities on NewHomeSource.com.” This page dedicated to Pacesetter on New Home Source should rank well with a link or two from them. If consumers click on any of the listings, the leads come straight to them.

When you do this type of search with your own brand term, most of what you will find are pages you own or control. Often there are aligned business partners willing to help you as well. So, where do you start?

Here’s how to do it.

  1. Review Your Audit. Get your reputation audit results together. If you have not completed your audit. Now is the time to do it. Review our previous post on “How to Audit Your Online Reputation Guide”.
  2. Handle any Negative Reviews. Review any negative reviews on page one or page two of the Google search results. Make sure you have responded to the reviews to mitigate any ongoing negative impacts. See our guide for responding to negative reviews. If there are slanderous items, you may be able to work with the site owners to get items removed or a disclaimer added.
  3. Make Sure You Have Solid Online Business Profiles. Check to see that you have robust profiles created for key builder and social sites. We recommend the following for home builders: Google MyBusiness (formerly Google+/Google Places), Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and your NewHomeSource.com Showcase page. If you are not linking to these from your main site, you need to. Consider also having a presence on Pinterest and Houzz. All of these sites should be optimized for SEO. While you will not always have direct control over on-page SEO elements (e.g., Meta Title Tags) on these sites, you can usually control much of the copy on the page and decide how and from which page to link.
  4. Add or Update Your Career and Review Pages. Make sure you have a content rich, SEO optimized pages for careers and reviews on your own website. There is no reason these pages should not rank highly within Google search results for career and review related searches. If you can link directly to these pages from other sites you own, that will help. Some businesses even have an “workat[company].com” site to help showcase employment opportunities.
  5. Promote Positive Pages by Linking to Them. Review your audit for positive links from third party sites. Positive articles or reviews are like gold. Promote these by linking to them. If you have glowing reviews on Glassdoor, link to them with a link that tells the user what to expect such as “Check out our employee reviews on Glassdoor.” Are your Glassdoor reviews a little shabby? Don’t link to them. Instead link to other third party and owned/controlled pages that are more reflective of your brand. This part of the process takes some careful planning. Map out the pages you will want to promote and from which sites/pages a link would be beneficial to consumers. Title the links in a way that makes it very clear what the user is likely to find by following the link.

Remember that the only way you can push a negative link down is to get other links to be considered more relevant. The important thing is to get started. Contact info@thebdx.com for more information.

Other articles in this series:

1)      Builder Online Reputation Management – Live, Die or Thrive

2)      How to Audit and Monitor Your Online Reputation

3)      Responding to Negative Online Reviews

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.

 

As technology continues to play a bigger and bigger role in the home shopping and sales process, it is important to have tools that allow home building sales professionals to showcase and sell new homes outside of the sales center.  Giving your sales team additional resources at their fingertips makes for a better home shopping experience and eliminates the awkward, “I’ll have to check on that when I get back to the sales center” conversation.

BDX’s salesArchitect iPad application is a portable solution that allows sales professionals to present builder and community marketing information while utilizing interactive maps and site plans to visually explore community inventory.  Showcase your community details with a presentation gallery, list of plans and/or specs that are available as well as videos.  Not sure if the lot your customer is interested in is still available or allows for the floor plan they like? No problem. By using the interactive site plan with lot status feature, lot information is updated in real time.  Clients can also browse interior images as well as use interactive floor plans to dynamically explore your homes.

If you are already listing your homes and communities with BDX, synchronization to the iPad is simple. All data is managed through our web based administration console, BDXLive, and any updates or changes made to lots, floor plans, images or videos will display on your online listings and iPad application.

This technology will keep your buyers engaged during the sales process with features specifically designed for them.  Customers have the ability to personalize their shopping experience by adding plans, notes and photos to “favorites” as well as receive personalized brochures via email after their meeting.  This will keep your homes at the top of their mind even after they leave.  All guest data can be exported from the application and imported into your CRM system so you can continue to nurture the relationship throughout the sales cycle.

The salesArchitect iPad application allows you to:

  • Display multiple communities and synchronize across devices;
  • Showcase community details by listing plans and specs and display images and videos in a presentation gallery;
  • Visually highlight the details of each plan through elevations, interior and floor plan images and interactive floor plans;
  • Personalize the shopping experience for buyers by adding plans and photos to “favorites” as well as the ability to send personalized e-brochures as a follow up to their meeting;
  • Update listings and images automatically via BDXLive.

SalesArchitect is both a customized solution and the premier sales product to showcase your brand and communities to on-the-go homebuyers.  To learn more about taking your sales pitch to the next level, contact us at info@theBDX.com.