Attracting new home buyers can be a bigger struggle than actually building a home. Learn to reach more home buyers and close more new home deals with these proven builder marketing strategies:
1. Focus on Benefits, Not Features
You may know your target market very well. Who are they? Where do they work, and how much do they earn?
However, the most important question of all is “What do they want?” What benefits are important to them? What are their priorities? These will not necessarily be the same as what you want, what you think they need, or what you think they should want.
When talking about “the product”, it is very easy to become wrapped up in the features of the product (the interest rate, the building materials, etc.). Focus on the bundle of benefits that product offers to the target market – because that is what the customer cares about.
Look at the difference between stating a feature and describing a benefit:
2. Emphasize Tech
The most technologically adept generation of all time are now buying homes. They expect that their new home should enable and enhance the tech they use on a daily basis.
Every person living in the home will want easy access to electricity and Wi-Fi for their multiple electronic devices.
What tech-friendliness can a home builder offer beyond these baseline power and connectivity expectations? Is there wireless audio installed in the home? Are there internet-enabled security cameras? Smart thermostats? Emphasize the tech-friendliness of your home to stand out among your competitors.
Editor’s Note:
Tech-friendly doesn’t need to complicated… it just needs to be ready and available. Offering a tech feature can be a tipping point in a sales conversation. Click here to see how to enhance homes without being complicated.
3. Rank High in Search Results
Web visits are an important source for home buyer sales leads. An attractive, appealing is a must for every home building company. Caution, though: the web is not a “if you build it, they will come” marketing tool.
Each of your web pages need to be tailored so prospective home buyers see your link in their search results. When a customer searches for “new home builder in Florida” or “buy a new home in Chicago”, the search engine looks at three key items on your web page to determine if it should include the page in the search results.
PAGE TITLE
The search engine treats this is the most important indicator for what the web page is about. If your page title is “Acme Homes – building new homes in Chicago, IL” then chances are good that you will rank for searches about new home building in Chicago.
Google typically displays the first 50-60 characters of a title tag, so practice brevity.
PAGE DESCRIPTION
Each web page should have a meta description. This secondary description gives a customer a better idea about what they can expect on that page before they click on a search result.
Page descriptions can be any length, but search engines generally show only the first 160 characters in the search results page. Try to make the description long enough to be sufficiently descriptive, but shorter than the 160-character limit.
PAGE CONTENT
The page title and description only work if they accurately describe the text and image content that’s actually on the page.
When you write your web pages, use headings that nail the search keywords you’d like to rank for. Don’t overload the page with repeating keywords, but make sure those words and phrases are present on the page.
For the images on your page, give names and alt text tags that support the content. An image named “new-home-built-in-chicago.jpg” will help you more than this nondescript “image1.jpg”.
Practice these basic search optimization principles in mind to earn more web traffic from search engines.
4. Claim Your Business Listings
Business listings are online profiles that contains your business name, address, phone number, and other details. Marketing through local listings can have a major impact on your business. Be sure that your listings communicate the right message to prospective home buyers.
Google and Microsoft Bing offer business directory listings in their search databases. If your business has been around for more than a year, then chances are the search engines have already created a listing for you.
Find your listing by doing a search for “your business name”. One of the search results should be a business listing specific to your company. Take ownership of the listing by clicking “claim this business” and verifying ownership. Once verified, update the listing so it tells your brand story.
This is an easy way to add credibility to your brand, earn more search traffic for your web site, and drive more phone calls to your office.
5. Put Your Phone Number At The Top Of Every Web Page
If you want prospective customers to telephone your office, make it obvious that you want their call. Include your phone number in the heading of every page. This way, you save your visitors the trouble of digging for a “contact us” page to find your number.
The presence of a phone number serves a second purpose: it’s an assurance to visitors; it’s a cue that they can trust you. “Look, these guys have a phone number I can call!” The phone number proves you’re a real home building business with a real office.
6. Online Reviews
Customers inherently trust reviews that come from other customers over advertisements that come from the company itself. Given the prominence of Google local listings on search results pages, having multiple positive reviews can be incredibly helpful. The feedback will be displayed prominently right by your company name, encouraging people to click.
Reviews can also impact how well the business is listed on the search results page. Google understands the value that customers place on third party reviews. When a business has numerous positive reviews, the search engine assumes that this is a company that fulfills customers’ needs and should be featured more prominently.
Making an effort to collect positive customer reviews can offset a negative review. If you get a 1-star review, a preponderance of 4- and 5-star reviews will make the bad review seem like it’s not that serious. Getting a bad review every once in a while is OK – you can respond to the review and show prospective buyers how you made an effort to solve that customer’s issue.
Remind customers after their purchase or during regular communication that “reviews are appreciated”. If using email, give them a link directly to your business review profiles (Google Business, HomeAdvisor, Houzz, Angie’s List, etc) so they can easily add their own story.
7. Customer Testimonials
When you have a happy customer, ask them if you can share their story to show other new home buyers how to have success. The customer testimonial doesn’t have to include deep personal details, but it should answer the questions of “why they chose Home Builder X” and “what made Home Builder X worthwhile”. What were the home buyers fears during their search for a new home? What did they feel about Your Company that made them sign the deal?
Post the writeup on your blog and share the link on your social media channels.
Bonus Testimonial Content:
Affluent home buyers can influence the choice of other buyers in the market. A wealthy home buyer has more choice about where they can afford to live. When they choose your neighborhood, your home building company, that signals other buyers that you are offering something worthwhile.
If possible, provide hints about your customer’s wealth and purchasing power in your home buyer testimonial. “John and Jane practice patent law in the Chicago area”, or “Casey is a glass manufacturing executive”. Their choice can lead other customers to your door.
