start fresh buy new

By: Eleanor Bowman, Director of Marketing, BDX

What if you could get inside the minds of today’s home buyers and their real estate agents to better understand what motivates them, what inspires them, and what leads them to take action? Over the past year at BDX, we have conducted extensive home buyer and real estate agent research to help our builders do just that. Here are some of the highlights:

Most buyers start their home search with an interest in new homes. 54% of home buyers start the process with a preference for or interest in new homes but only 8% end up buying new. What a tremendous opportunity to inspire and educate this group about the advantages of new home construction! Our newly launched website, StartFreshBuyNew.com is a good place to go for ideas. The site is currently seeing over 50,000 visitors per week and driving over 10,000 searches for new homes. Also, if you’re a client with BDX, you get access to our “Start Fresh. Buy New.”  toolkit that’s full of useful statistics, videos and graphics about driving the benefits of a new home.

Home shoppers start their search with an open mind. 95% of all shoppers have no specific builder in mind when they start the buying process. Are your homes listed where they will find you? What messages are you sending to capture their mind-share? Make sure that you’re not only making a great first impression but that your marketing programs are keeping your brand top of mind.

One third of all shoppers say they are tired of their current home. When we identified the triggers that started buyers down the home search path, this was at the top of the list. “Favorable home prices” and “low interest rates” were also high ranking answers.

The buying cycle is longer than we thought. Two-thirds of all shoppers will take 9 months or more to purchase a home. What does this mean for your business? Builders who are disqualifying home buyer leads who are not ready to buy immediately may be missing out. This longer sales cycle makes lead nurturing critical so consider a steady stream of communications to your prospects.

Using video in your online marketing inspires buyers to take action. We found that builders who embedded video in their listings on NewHomeSource.com saw leads increase by 28% and click-throughs improve by 36%. So while we have known that video is an engaging marketing tool that can also impact Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it is now more important than ever as a lead conversion accelerant.

It’s important to showcase your communities, not just your homes. Builders who included community images along with their home renderings or photos saw a 28% lift in leads on NewHomeSource.com. So make sure you have the digital images to highlight your amenities and neighborhoods – buyers want to know what life will be like outside of the home’s four walls.

Most buyers will use a real estate agent to help them buy their home. 84% of buyers will engage the services of an agent to help find their next home. What is your agent outreach strategy? Do you have good communications and trainings for agents in your area so they are educated about your homes and buying process?

Consumer promotions are very important to real estate agents. We asked real estate agents, “How important is it to know about builder promotions when you are putting together recommendations for a buyer?” Half responded that consumer promotions were critically important.

These insights are just the tip of the iceberg. We have a full suite of research resources and tools that are available for our clients and are happy to talk with you about how this information can shape your business. For more information, contact BDX at Info@thebdx.com.

In order to connect with today’s home buyer, it is important to always keep your website and marketing materials up to date with the latest information and facts. But where do you find fresh and engaging content? Many builders are turning to our “Start Fresh. Buy New.” initiative and taking advantage of the campaign’s resources.

In case you haven’t heard, this year, BDX launched an initiative to promote new home advantages. The “Start Fresh. Buy New.” campaign is designed to educate and inspire home shoppers and encourage them to consider purchasing a new home (read more here). The campaign centers around the website: www.startfreshbuynew.com.

Including “Start Fresh. Buy New.” messages in your marketing can keep your buyers engaged and coming back for more. Here are some ways you can use “Start Fresh. Buy New.” in your next marketing campaign:

  • Include a new home statistic in your weekly/monthly newsletters. The “Start Fresh. Buy New.” site is packed with useful information, so you will have plenty to choose from!
  • Feature a link to the “Start Fresh. Buy New.” site on your homepage—it will not only drive the benefits of a new home, but also shows your commitment to your buyers to arm them with the most powerful information. Logos and other graphic elements are available in the Builder Toolkit that is available to all BDX clients from within our BDXLive client portal.
  • Connect with “Start Fresh. Buy New.” through your social media, and comment too! “Start Fresh. Buy New.” is an active participant in the social scene and frequently posts compelling content for you to share with your own followers. Click here for our facebook page to get started.
  • Download the “Start Fresh. Buy New.” videos via the BDX client Builder Toolkit and have them playing on a loop in your model home lobby. The videos are informative, humorous and most of all eye opening as they act as a great ice breaker for dialogue.
  • Implement a scavenger hunt game through your social media with incentives—featuring questions involving the real cost of a “used” home versus a new one; and have them search the “Start Fresh. Buy New.” site for the answers!

Nothing makes us happier than seeing these positive new home messages spread throughout your newsletters, websites and sales centers. How are you leveraging “Start Fresh. Buy New.”? Email us and let us know how you are using the Start Fresh. Buy New. campaign in your marketing — we can’t wait to hear from you.

If you are a builder and want to get involved in the campaign, your best resource is our Builder Toolkit created exclusively for BDX clients to leverage the campaign marketing resources and research. This toolkit can be found within BDXLive, our client portal. If you’re not a BDX client and are interested in finding out how we can help your business succeed, email us to learn more.

At BDX, we are always looking for new ways to connect with home buyers and show off our builders’ design talents and communities. That’s why NewHomeSource.com has recently launched a new email marketing campaign to help inspire subscribers to begin the search for their dream home.

Each week, we select a “Home of the Week” from active communities listed on NewHomeSource. Why “Home of the Week”? When we recently surveyed visitors to NewHomeSource.com about the type of new home content they would like to read, this idea was a clear winner!  The “Home of the Week” email is being promoted on every page in the New Home Source Resource Center, with the subscription list growing each day!

In order to deliver the richest content to subscribers, the weekly email is designed around three components. First, we include a spectacular photo of the featured home with a link to a detailed blog post about the community and plan.  Next, we provide a link to the specific plan’s listing on NewHomeSource.com so the reader can immediately start their new home search. And lastly, we include tid-bits from our “Start Fresh. Buy New.” campaign to highlight new home advantages. What more can you ask for?

We know there are builders off all different sizes across the nation, so we vary the price point of the featured homes each week. Remember, we’re seeking truly exceptional homes, designs and photos in order to create inspiring content that represents new homes at their best.

This week’s email highlights Ryland Homes and their truly stunning Prescott Plan in Woodbury, Minnesota. Ryland Homes’ awe-inspiring renderings and community features earned it a spot in our “Home of The Week” feature. (Check out the featured home here.)

So how do we choose the next “Home of The Week”? If you think one of your homes has what it takes, be sure that your NewHomeSource.com listing is up to date with photos of exceptional quality.  Not only will it help you to be considered for the next email, but also will help drive engage traffic on your listing. If you would like to be considered for Home of the Week and put the spotlight on your homes, contact us today.

When you list your homes with BDX, you can rest assured knowing that your communities are going to be showcased on over 300 real estate websites with one simple marketing decision. We deliver results – in the form of over 80,000 leads per month to our builders. And the home buyer connections don’t stop there – we also deliver website click-thrus, walk-in traffic, social shares, phone calls and more. Our average builder sees a 3X return on their BDX investment just through these trackable actions alone!

Our flagship new home websites, NewHomeSource.com and MoveNewHomes.com, are also attracting more attention than ever. These sites are receiving over 1.4 million visits a month and home buyer leads from the sites have grown over 32% year over year.  Potential home buyers who fill out lead forms on these sites are also highly qualified – 1 out of 3 will buy a home within a year and 1 in 4 will visit a new home community within a week.

Some of this success can be attributed to BHI’s recent “Start Fresh. Buy New.” marketing initiative. This campaign, centered around the website, www.StartFreshBuyNew.com, helps educate buyers about the benefits of buying a new home and then directs them to our sites to begin their search for their dream home. (Click here for more information on the campaign’s recent success)

Are you missing out on leads and home buyer interest? Do you want to find out how to list your homes with BDX? Contact us at info@thebdx.com to get started today.

Check back next week for another update on “What’s New At BDX”.

 

A first of its kind campaign in the home building industry, “Start Fresh. Buy New.” was launched in the spring of 2013 and already thousands of home shoppers each day are responding positively to the advertising and are engaging with the interactive website, StartFreshBuyNew.com. The campaign highlights the numerous advantages of buying a new construction vs. a “used” (i.e. existing) home. StartFreshBuyNew.com includes educational facts, useful features such as a Cost Savings Calculator as well as intriguing diagrams on how energy efficient appliances and features operate. BDX is promoting the site through over 37 million advertisement impressions each week and reaching nearly 50% of new home shoppers. With over 50,000 weekly visits to the “Start Fresh. Buy New.” website, potential home buyers are now equipped with the knowledge of what attributes really make a new home more desirable than a used one. (Click here for more background information about the new campaign.)

While the site is informative and has already been nominated for design awards, “Start Fresh. Buy New.” also boasts some impressive results which prove visitor interest in new homes. The campaign is driving over 10,000 visits per month to NewHomeSource.com, a site that connects new home buyers with builders. In fact, new home searchers who spend time on the “Start Fresh. Buy New.” site are converting to leads on NewHomeSource.com at a rate of 40% higher than the site’s average visitor. With research predicting the demand for new homes to grow to nearly 1.2 million each year, the market is clearly rebounding and will benefit from this focus on new home buyer education.

“Start Fresh. Buy New” has also connected with Pinterest users to drive awareness of the perks of owning a new home. Pinterest users had the opportunity to win a grand prize by creating a board of their favorite pins from NewHomeSource.com as well as answering a few trivia questions. With nearly 4,000 followers of NewHomeSource.com on Pinterest, the sweepstakes was a hit with over 2,300 Pinboards created to promote new homes. In fact, just last week the grand prize of $10,000 was awarded to a young mother in Chicago, Illinois. (See the “Start Fresh. Buy New.” Facebook page for more on the story.)

The “Start Fresh. Buy New.” Pinterest page isn’t the only social media site getting attention from buyers either. The campaign’s Facebook page and Twitter account have also grown into platforms for buyers to connect with builder professionals and other buyers to speak about their experiences with their own new homes. (Wanna get social with “Start Fresh. Buy New.”? Follow our Twitter account for daily new home buying tips and inspirational home designs.)

The campaign has also gained national coverage and attention from over 360 publications including spotlights in The New York Times, The Austin Business Journal, The Financial Times and Builder Online.

 So what’s next? Following the success of our previous study last summer, we are currently gearing up to start our annual Home Buyer Insight Study which is going to expand beyond our original 25 markets. This year we will add Portland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, Columbus and San Francisco to the study. So stay tuned! We will keep you posted on the results of this research and the progress of the campaign.

If you are a builder and want to get involved in the campaign, we have created a Builder Toolkit exclusively for BDX clients to leverage the campaign marketing resources and research. This toolkit can be found within BDXLive, our client portal. If you’re not a BDX client and are interested in finding out how we can help your business succeed, email us to learn more.