builder Success

By Thane Tennison, Advertising Manager, BDX

You may have heard about the newly updated NewHomeSourceProfessional.com (NHS Pro).   The site has recently gone through a complete overhaul and looks great.  The new format, similar to the New Home Source platform, allows builders to better showcase their homes and communicate offers to agents.

Agent outreach is a priority for the BDX in 2013 and a big priority for builders.  Agents represent the “repeat home buyer” and as the BDX expands its relationships with local MLS organizations we’ve seen an increase in traffic and ad impressions.

By advertising on NHS Pro builders have an opportunity to reach this typically “local” audience with unique and relevant advertising. Promoting an agent sales program or grand opening event can convert web traffic to foot traffic and provide measurable results. More importantly, builders are reaching active agents with buyers that need a home, which is a great advantage of subscribing to NHS Pro or one of our MLS partners.

For the past few days we’ve been testing ad performance for local builders and while volume is still building for some markets, we’re seeing consistent performance of a .20 click through rate (CTR).  Performance for individual campaigns ranged from a .44 to a .07 and a median performance of a .19 CTR.  I’m pleased to see that non-agent specific messages would perform so well and anticipate more targeted messagin to show stronger results.

The new NHS Pro allows BDX to clearly identify and isolate active local agents.  This means we can target agents with specific messages and by using re-targeting we can reach them on the sites they visit the most such as celebrity gossip or college football.

If you’ve done online advertising to reach local agents, I’d love to hear about it. Whether it’s Facebook or a pay per click campaign I am interested in the goal and results.  If you’d like to discuss marketing strategies to reach area realty professionals please contact us.

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

 

By Eleanor Bowman, Director of Marketing, BDX

BDX recently completed a study of over 1,000 potential home buyers and one of the most surprising data points was the timeframe for home purchase. Almost two-thirds of those surveyed were unsure about when they would purchase or expect to take at least 9 months to make a decision.

Now compare this to the conversations we are having with many of our builders who work leads for 30 days and then consider them to be cold. Think about the impact this can have on your marketing campaigns? It means that if you’re throwing out leads because they haven’t converted in 30 days, you’re probably missing out on sales.

Putting these leads into a nurturing campaign can pay off months down the road when the buyer is ready to make a buying decision.

What is lead nurturing and how can home builders run successful campaigns?

Lead nurturing simply means creating a series of communications to stay in touch with those prospective buyers. These may not be the leads that your sales team is working aggressively, but it is important to keep your brand and your selling points top of mind. According to a recent report from Forrester Research, companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads, at 33% lower cost per lead.

Some ways builders can nurture leads through the sales cycle:

  • Create a weekly or monthly email newsletter.
  • Use marketing automation software that will automatically trigger communications at specific points in the process.
  • Use advertising retargeting programs to reach out to people who have visited your website.
  • Create social media campaigns to encourage people to engage with your brand.

Taking a few simple steps to keep these leads in your sales pipeline will pay off in the long run. Research has shown that 75% of companies basically drop leads who aren’t ready to purchase immediately. Make sure that your business is part of the 25% that will stay in touch and be top of mind when the consumer is ready to buy.

 

There is never a dull moment working with our builders at BDX. Each day presents new challenges and opportunities. I think it is this variety that makes me love my job and my builders even more.

I really enjoy showing my builders how much control they have over their listings success. It’s amazing what a difference great images or embedding a video can make!

In turn, my builders have helped me learn so much about the home building industry — a huge Win-Win situation.

Have a great week, Crystal

By: Jamie Lintner, BDX Advertising Accounts Manager

We have all read the analysis about the low click-thru rates for Facebook advertising.  Webtrends in particular has documented a downward shift from an already low click thru rate (CTR) over a span of three years, from a .063% in 2009 to a .041% average in 2011. This is half of the comScore recognized click thru average for all online display advertising — .10%. But what would the data look like if we were to measure the CTR of display ads against a previously engaged individual who already has some level of trust with a brand?

  In Q4 of 2012, Facebook launched a new Ad exchange that allows for advertisers to bid for placement in a real-time fashion. In order to avoid the historically low performance that Facebook has shown, we at the BDX have taken the exchange one step further and are now offering builders the opportunity to retarget visitors to their website and run banners with specific messages for those visitors. Similar to our BeBack program, we will cookie a builder’s site but will then retarget them only against the Facebook platform. These resulting ads fall within the same positions as a direct buy, with the same dimensions and specs and at the same cost, but they produce click thru and conversion rates that trump those of a non-retargeting campaign.  For example, in January, we ran our own internal campaigns and discovered that the CTR is roughly nine times the average of Facebook’s overall average with an incredible lift in backend conversions.

Not only that, but the results are just as strong when compared to traditional retargeting efforts. Here at the BDX we manage our own internal retargeting campaigns across 50 unique markets as well as unique BeBack retargeting campaigns for around 100 home builders. Without fail, a retargeted user is 10-15 times more likely to convert on the backend than one with no knowledge of the brand. Facebook ramps that up to another level. A user who has been on a particular site and has actively engaged with it is roughly 30% more likely to convert through the Facebook exchange than a typical retargeted user. While we were previously content with our cost/lead for retargeting, Facebook has provided a robust channel where we receive incremental traffic at a higher conversion rate. These numbers are hard to ignore.

Moving forward, as an added perk for BeBack advertisers we are now offering an additional campaign across only the Facebook exchange in order to improve backend lead conversion and drive clicks across a previously un-utilized platform. For additional information on how to set this up, please contact info@thebdx.com for additional details.

When:
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM CST

Register Here.

“We get leads but they just don’t seem to be very good?” How many times have you heard that from your sales team? Low lead conversion is usually the symptom and not the actual problem.

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Presented by Mike Lyon

Mike Lyon has “real world” knowledge and first-hand experience in the realm of online marketing and sales for homebuilders. He delivers his information from the trenches and draws from his diverse background in online advertising, digital design and internet sales.

With his energetic and entertaining speaking style, Mike has brought to life the topics of internet marketing, sales and technology at events across the country including the past 3 International Builders’ Show.

He is a highly sought after consultant and has contributed to the success of homebuilders and real estate companies all across the nation. He is the bestselling author of Browsers to Buyers: Proven Strategies for Selling New Homes Online and the recently released Social Media Guide for Real Estate

Learn more about Mike at www.doyouconvert.com or follow him on Twitter @mikelyon