I’ve had something on my mind for the last few months; something that I think is currently revolutionizing your world.
You the home builder. You the new home marketer. You in the C-Suite. You in the sales office. You in Sales and Marketing Management. The collective we of the industry.
I admit that I haven’t completely figured out all of the places that this shift will take us as an industry, but I am intrigued by the question. I think it holds some significant promise for how all of us will operate in the next decade. To understand what I mean, let me first ask you…
With a Quick Show of Hands, Have You Ever…
Spent thousands of dollars on a new home builder website that took months to develop, but failed to show up high in the search engines or convert more than 3% of your website visitors to leads?
Spent hundreds of dollars on simple web updates such as price changes, new promotions and incentives, or new home community updates (typically with a delay of a few hours, days, or even weeks)?
Invested thousands of dollars on a home builder advertising campaign idea that fell completely flat?
Spent five figures in marketing collateral only to have the market change and the materials outdated?
The truth is, many of us have experienced these things at some point. Why? The answer is simple: most of us have never had complete hands-on control of all of our marketing channels.
The Hands-On Homebuilder Web
In contrast, imagine that you could design and launch a home builder website in just a few hours.
Imagine that every time you needed a change on your website it was done in minutes for free. Imagine that your website was completely flexible with the ability to update photos, promotions, pricing, availability, disclaimers, agent information, housing news, financing information, floor plan updates, on page SEO, press releases and more in minutes, and in-house. Would that kind of control be valuable to you?
Imagine that you could create a different landing page for each eBlast, or marketing channel, or Pay Per Click campaign, or home builder social media pages. Would that enable you to personalize the buyer experience and provide insight into your marketing effectiveness?
Imagine that it was free, accessible, and required no designers or programmers or agencies. Would that mean a significant cost savings for your company?
How much more effective would your relationship be with potential homebuyers if you could communicate in real time through every aspect of your website? How much more dynamic and compelling would that experience be for potential buyers?
What’s Brand New About the Hey-So-What?
Of course, the ability to have all of this at your fingertips is not new or particularly revolutionary in and of itself. Bloggers have enjoyed this freedom for years, and so have companies that have Content Management Systems (CMS) on their websites. But until recently blogging platforms have been designed for blogs, not business websites. And CMS systems could only be installed by programmers or designers.
Today the ease and simplicity of blog platforms such as WordPress have been updated with drag and drop themes such as Headway (affiliate) and Pagelines. These platforms enable non-designers and non-programmers to create company websites (and unlimited additional website pages throughout the life of the sales cycle) simply and affordably.
Watch the Headway Themes video (affiliate):
Beyond WordPress, companies like Squarespace are also delivering high performance website tools that are completely customizable to create a unique, professional looking website quickly and affordably.
Okay, So How Does This Help Me Sell More Houses?
Here are a few things that these new platforms enable you to do:
Remember the thousands of dollars and delays of hiring someone to create a website? This can now be done in just a few hours for a fraction of the cost. This saves time and money.
Low conversion rates? Test different conversion strategies for a fraction of the time and cost that it would take through a third party. Improve conversion rates to drive more leads into your pipeline without spending more marketing dollars.
Expensive, delayed website updates? Done in minutes from your desktop. Announce a sellout release or new pricing to drive urgency for immediate action.
Risky and expensive ad campaigns? Take control of your own web presence and test messaging before your big spend. Testing first creates better response and lowers Cost Per Lead.
Outdated marketing materials? Create a website with PDF downloads that can be modified and uploaded on the fly to gain complete control over your message in any market condition and lower Cost Per Sale.
Outsourced Marketing: The Plumber and the Housewife
Does this mean that the need for outsourced website design and marketing companies (like yours truly) is a thing of the past? Not exactly. Marketing expertise will always be as valuable to home builders as expert plumbers, roofers, and framers (whether in house or outsourced). Knowing where to drag and drop a widget to build a website is not the same as developing a multi-tiered conversion strategy or gaining top placement in the search engines.
It’s like the story of the housewife who calls a plumber because her kitchen pipe is clogged. The plumber taps the pipe a few times, fixes the clog, and charges the housewife $100. “One hundred dollars for tapping a pipe?” she asks indignantly. “No,” he replies, “It’s $10 for tapping the pipe. It’s $90 for knowing where to tap.”
Outsourcing website design and strategic online marketing is still the most effective business model for many home builders. But home builders should have hands on access to their websites. This allows home builders to work in partnership with marketing teams to plan and execute the best and most direct strategy for selling homes without time or cost being prohibitive factors for getting results.
Sounds pretty good to me, how about you?
