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Your Ultimate Home Builder Marketing Guide
If you’re a home builder and you found this blog post, chances are, you understand the importance of having a well-developed web presence in order to attract those low-cost leads and sales from the internet. After all, if someone is looking for a new home, she’s certainly not going to go dig the latest copy of the Yellow Pages out of her recycling bin.
Instead, she’s going to consult the Internet via a search engine query or try and find a friend-recommended design-build company on a site like Facebook, Yelp!, Nextdoor, etc.
The way people look for and purchase homes has changed drastically over recent years—90% of buyers now turn to the internet to solve all their housing needs, from finding out how to get a mortgage to making that final decision. In fact, 53% of buyers start their search online, frequently on a search engine.
Below, we’ll detail our top online marketing strategies for home builders–the same strategies we used to help one home builder increase web traffic by 79%.
Content Marketing and SEO for Home Builders
We already mentioned that 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine. Not only that but each month there are more than 4.2 million online searches for your services:
In order to convert these searchers to new customers, you need to occupy as many spots on the first page of Google as you can.
To do this, invest in content marketing and SEO for home builders.
While there are more than 200 actual search ranking signals, here’s what you should focus on if you want your company to show up on the first page of Google:
- Secured sites (HTTPS vs. HTTP)
- Websites that are mobile-friendly
- Schema markup
- Webpage content quality
- Webpage content length
- Page speed
- Social signals
- Quality backlinks
- Optimized images
- Domain age
Each page of content on your site gives you an opportunity to rank for a specific set of relevant keywords, so the more content you have, the more likely you are to rank.
It might be helpful to think of your website as if it were a fishing boat, each page of content is like a baited line thrown into the internet sea of fish. More lines in the water (pages on your website) equals more fish (visits, leads and sales!)! The content of your website must be targeted to your top keywords, but it also must establish your company as THE authority for what you do in markets you do it.
It also needs to be helpful, quality content—60% of consumers won’t purchase from a brand with poorly written content. Not only that, but compelling copy draws 7.8 times more site traffic and produces brand recall which brings higher engagement rates.
One of our clients—a custom home builder in Northern Virginia—is a great example of this. The company understood that a lot of their potential clients were looking for their services online, but they weren’t ranking for keywords related to these services. With all of their marketing dollars dedicated to print advertising, they weren’t receiving business leads from the Web—largely due to their minimal online presence.
With Blue Corona’s content marketing and SEO services, the client was able to drastically increase their number one rankings, as well see a 133% increase in non-branded organic traffic year-over-year for three years:
Pay Per Click (PPC) for Home Builders
In a competitive industry like yours, we highly recommend investing in both SEO and PPC. Think of the web as real estate – you want to cost-effectively maximize as many listings on the first page of search results as possible. If you have both a paid listing and an organic listing on the first page of search results for a given query, you reduce the likelihood that any of your competitors will win the click for that query.
A few other things worth noting is that 75% of people say paid ads make it easier to find the online information they’re looking for, and 63% of online searchers say they click on paid ads. If you’re not investing in PPC, you’re basically giving those clicks to your competitors. For architects and home builders, this is a pretty big deal.
Remarketing a Great Way to Increase Home Builder Leads
If you own a home building company, you know that the buying cycle for individuals looking for your services is probably longer than those looking for other types of remodeling services. A new, custom home is quite the investment, and most users probably aren’t willing to make a purchasing decision upon the first visit.
Instead, they’ll go pin or post some more dream homes on Pinterest, Houzz, or Instagram, make a grilled cheese sandwich, watch an entire series of a show they didn’t even know they were interested in on Netflix, log on to Facebook, etc. etc. etc. With remarketing, you can remind these qualified visitors that they’re still looking for the custom home of their dreams and that you’re the design-build company that can help them get it.
In case you’re unaware, remarketing (also known as retargeting), allows you to show your ad to users who’ve previously visited your website as they browse the Web. Remarketing works similarly to pay per click advertising—by creating a campaign in Google Ads. Once you’ve created a campaign and users visit your website, Google will install a cookie on their browsers—allowing Google to follow those users around the Web and display your advertisement on sites that permit Google AdWords.
One final benefit of remarketing for remodeling companies? The cost per click is typically lower than other search network campaigns. Because remodeling jobs are generally big ticket items, remarketing can be an extremely cost-effective way for remodelers to get more qualified leads and sales from the Web.
Email Marketing for Home Builders
Email marketing can be extremely effective for home builders. Not only can monthly email newsletters with valuable tips and information help build your authority, but they can help drive more traffic to your website and even lead to conversions!
Email marketing can help you generate more sales by allowing you to:
- Keep in touch with customers
- Advertise specials, coupons, and exclusive rebates
- Improve brand awareness
Stay connected to your entire customer base and increase customer loyalty with the click of a button. Email marketing is one home builder marketing strategy you don’t want to miss—44% of email recipients made at least one purchase last year based on a promotional email. If you want to generate and close leads with minimal investment, include email marketing in your online marketing strategy.
Want More Online Marketing Tips for Home Builders?
We live for this stuff. Give us a call and we’ll answer any additional questions you may have.
We have extensive experience helping home builders just like you get more custom home leads and sales from the web, and we have a home builder marketing playbook we KNOW works. Call us today and we’ll refer you to our happy design-build clients!
About The Author: Blue Corona's Editorial Staff is determined to help you increase your leads and sales, optimize your marketing costs, and differentiate your brand by passing on our tribal knowledge. The team vigilantly stays on top of the latest in digital marketing, bringing you the top insights with expert commentary. Want to see something on our blog you haven't seen yet? Shoot us an email and our marketing team will get to work.
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The information on this website is for informational purposes only; it is deemed accurate but not guaranteed. It does not constitute professional advice. All information is subject to change at any time without notice. Contact us for complete details.
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