Hot Homes Increases Consumer Response

Since the launch of our Hot Homes feature a few months ago, more and more builders have utilized this unique merchandising opportunity to create increased awareness, exposure, and inquiries for their new home communities.  Best of all, it’s free and easy to add Hot Homes.

Are you are on the sidelines waiting to see if it’s worth the effort?

Well, it’s time to get off the sidelines and into the game – it works!  And we have the numbers to prove it.  More on that in a bit.

 

Separate yourself from the crowd

There are several ways for consumers to respond to Hot Homes as they  search and browse new homes on NewHomeSource.com.  Here, on a search results page, those communities with Hot Homes feature a special “HOT HOMES” emblem:

(By the way, promotions are also merchandised with a “SPECIAL OFFER” emblem.  Together with Hot Homes, we call these “Hot Deals” on the New Home Source website.)

Visitors to NHS are also invited to go directly to “Hot Deals” in their market, either by doing a dedicated Hot Deals search, or by clicking the Hot Deals tab from their search results page.  In either case, this search results view is shown:

Here, the consumer sees the Hot Homes title and description data fields you created to induce the visitor to investigate further and to request more information.

 

Results

On average across market areas on New Home Source, builders who have one or more communities featuring a Hot Home get 20% MORE consumer inquiries per community (AKA leads) versus builders who don’t have a hot home in that market area.

 

Your “action items"

• Learn how to input Hot Homes Data
• Log-in to BHI Live and go to the manage homes screen, select 'Yes' in the "Hot Home?" column and follow the prompts to enter a title and description.
• If you feed data to us, contact us for information on how to add the data to your feed
• For each of your communities, find two homes that you can feature as Hot Homes and create marketing copy that highlights the home or plan's uniqueness, value, or scarcity
• Ask questions -- we love to help you use our listing and advertising features to the fullest!  Contact buildersupport@newhomesource.com

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Paul Gruber, Senior Product Manager, leads product planning and development for BHI’s Consumer Products and Websites including www.newhomesource.com

Online Banners Supporting Social Media Efforts

The value of real-time performance metrics in online banners have been obvious for some time. At NewHomeSource, we’ve encouraged builders to design creative to initiate consumer action. The best performing banners help consumers narrow and refine their home search by advertising the number of communities, and range in price. We’ve seen other banners drive traffic to sales promotions or featured listings.

This week, Pacific Communities launched a campaign with a secondary call to action to their social media page on Facebook. The main banner advertises their communities while a second button links to Facebook. With friends, Pacific Communities has an opportunity to collect a different type of lead. One they can continue to message even beyond the home search and one that provides feedback, consumer perspective and referrals. I’ve seen the proliferation of advertising social networks on email signatures, business cards and home pages. It makes since to include it in online banners where consumers are already engaged with your brand.

Pacific Communities “Staycation” promotion keeps the consumer engaged by offering prizes like an IPOD Nano to friends who upload their staycation pics. It will be interesting to see the fans generated from this effort and how Pacific Communities continues to speak to that audience. Still, I can see the Facebook Tag becoming a staple in most online call to actions.

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For more information on how you can take advantage of Display Advertising, contact Thane Tennison, Ad Operations Manager for NewHomeSource at 866-651-8868 or at ttennison@builderhomesite.com. You can also follow Thane on Twitter at @t_tennison.

He Said/She Said: The Builder/Buyer Relationship Dynamic

The relationship between a builder and the buyer is a lot like the relationship between husband and wife. Sometimes the buyer is telling us exactly what they need in their new home, and we are just not listening. I could take you down the humorous and trite path of male-bashing, such as the tendency of men to leave the toilet seat up. And I could even imbed some branding by highlighting some of our great manufacturer brands, such as Kohler, into it. But this really is not about the inadequacies of the male species! (Though this topic certainly does need to be covered, it's probably not appropriate here.)

Here are some high level analogies that do seem worth considering:

• Buyers are often about "how they feel" whereas builders are often all about schedules and quality tolerances. How often do we say to a hysterical new home homeowner, "But that crack is within tolerance, Maam." Meanwhile, the buyer is replaying scenes from that movie "The Money Pit" in their minds and thinking that their lives are going to end in a complete disaster of bankruptcy and divorce... all due to that crack. And yet it's not even about that specific crack at all.
• Eggshell and Cream are not just shades of white paint for buyers, but rather the single pivotal decision between a beautiful designer home and living in the trailer park of their childhoods. So builders need to give them all of the tools and time (and that does not have to be "our time" ...use Envision for goshsakes!) to make those decisions.
• As is often the case between husbands and wives, buyers love the "experience" of shopping and designing their new homes, whereas builders are often just concerned about how quickly they can get back on schedule, sort of like how husbands are trying to get out of the mall and back to the football game.
• As in many relationships, builders are great in the "dating phase." They are attentive and on time and send special little love notes. But as soon as that contract is signed, they often become lackadaisical and take the relationship for granted. Suddenly their spouse (the buyer) is discontented, and no matter how hard they try, the builder can do nothing right. Hmm...sound familiar?

So, as you go through your day today, treat that buyer as you would the love of your life on your honeymoon, and see if your satisfaction ratings don't go up!

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Melissa Morman, VP & GM, is one of the Founding Executives of Builder Homesite and New Home Technologies