About a week ago we told you about a survey of more than 6,000 consumers on our new home shopping site, NewHomeSource.com. We lamented that less than 10% of consumers would fill out lead forms. While we were encouraged that 23.5% said they took action, this still left 76.5% not taking action. SO, WHY NOT?!
Of course we asked this question as well. While some consumers really took no action, some merely took no action we could measure from our website. What do you think was the #1 reason consumers told us that took no action? The #1 reason consumers gave us for not taking action was "I might later, but I’m just looking today." Have you heard this one before? That group really took no action ... at least that day.
More interesting was the #2 response. 22.0% said that they would prefer to visit the community in person. The chart below shows the breakdown of why consumers took actions other than those we could measure.
The consumers in this survey were motivated shoppers. After bouncing around NewHomeSource.com (i.e., they are motivated), they then opted into the survey. So, the absolute percentage taking action or giving a reason for not doing so is less meaningful than the ratios.
In my blog entry about the actions consumers take on listing websites on the November 20th, I reported that 23.5% of 4,245 consumers surveyed said they took some form of action on NewHomesource.com. 32.3% of these, or 7.6% of the total, filled out a form asking for information. While 76.5% took an action we could not measure, 22.0% of these or 16.8% overall, said they preferred to visit the community in person. So, for every person filling out a lead form on NewHomesource, 2.2 times as many said they would rather just showing up.
I always thought it was 3-4 times that number showing up as physical traffic relative to leads (early, presumably less scientific research), but I am okay with 2.2 times as many shoppers showing up as physical traffic as those filling out a lead form. Think about this when considering the number of lead request you get from your website. 2X the number may just show up instead. This has huge implications for any internet marketing expenditure.
Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics:
- 12.9% of new home shoppers in this survey (19.9% of 76.5%) really don’t want to be contacted. That does not mean they will not show up in person, but that they are not ready to talk to you. Does this mean that the other 87.1% are waiting for your call and wondering why you are ignoring them?
- 10.3% of new home shoppers in this survey (13.4% of 76.5%) couldn’t find a community they were interested in. We either have the wrong builders 10% of the time or maybe these consumers don’t know your community well enough. Give them some pictures, video, and tell them why they should want to live there.
- 2.1% of new homes shoppers in this survey (2.7% x 76.5%) aren’t even interested in buying a new home. To heck with that half-full mentality! 97.9% are actively shopping for a new home.
Come on you market research types, tell me how it is. Let me know what you think.
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-- Blair Kuhnen, Builders Digital Experience, bkuhnen@thebdx.com, 512-289-7370
Isn't that what we want all consumers to do when they get to our websites? Builders like getting internet leads. With a good follow-up program, builders I have worked with tend to convert about 4% of leads into sales. Unfortunately, not all consumers fill out lead forms. This is a gross understatement. In fact, the number of online shoppers requesting information is well under 10%. So, how do you know if your online advertising on NewHomeSource.com, Google, or Yahoo! is working?
If you can't measure leads alone to assess value, what should you measure to see if exposure to the other 90% of online shoppers were of any value to you?
Obviously, you have to measure something else. Let us help you out with some objective benchmarks. We completed a consumer survey of NewHomeSource.com users on October 31, 2009. 6,044 consumers participated in the survey. They were only asked to participate once they had bumped around the site a bit. So, these could be called "engaged home shoppers." We pared this down to 4,245 that answered all our key questions. One of the things we asked is what actions consumers actually take:
23.5% of consumers took at least one of these actions. Keep in mind a consumer can take multiple actions. Here's how they broke down:
So, what does this really mean? Well, if 23.5% took at least one of these actions, then of all the consumers answering the survey 17.6% clicked over to the builder's website, 5.6% printed off the driving directions, 5% called or are planning on calling you, and 7.6% filled out a lead form. How can you track this?
Tracking is always an issue. First, make sure you track through Google Analytics or whatever you are using, users coming to your website. You can even track their path and whether referred traffic converts into leads on your site. Next, you must modify your registration cards on site to capture the real source and ask the question in the right way.
23.5% of engaged shoppers are taking action we can measure on NewHomeSoruce.com. What about the other 76.5%? Come read about it in a week or two. In the meantime, let me know what you think by responding to this post or sending me a note.
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-- Blair Kuhnen, Builders Digital Experience, bkuhnen@thebdx.com, 512-289-7370
 Besides keeping track of how many of us live in the U.S. (281,421,906 as of April 1, 2000), the U.S. Census Bureau also tracks, on a monthly basis, a wealth of construction and housing statistics.
Specifically, the Bureau measures the number of housing units authorized by permits, started, sold or completed, and the dollar value of all construction put in place that month. It also tracks residential construction in 30 metropolitan areas across the country each quarter and the sales of new single-family homes in those areas each year; and keeps tabs on the dollar value of residential improvement and repair work each quarter.
In addition, the Bureau’s Census of Construction Industries, taken every five years, gives a comprehensive overview of the construction industry. For more information and links to other industry-related resources, log on to: http://www.census.gov/const/www/index.html.
(Photo credit: Woodsy, Stock Exchange. Thanks!)
 The Inman Innovator Awards were announced just minutes ago, and BHI Insights was there. Here is a list of the winners. Be sure to check out the winner's web sites to get up-to-date on the latest products and services in the Real Estate Technology Industry:
Most Innovative Brokerage: Coldwell Banker
Most Innovative Web Service: vFlyer
 Most Innovative Technology: Altos Research
Most Innovative Blog: Mortgage Fraud Blog
Most Innovative Media Site: Active Rain
Innovator of the Year: The Craigslist Community and Craig Newmark
 Sellsius Real Estate took the long way to Inman Connect 2007. They toured the country in an RV, visiting 30 cities along the way. In each city, they hooked up with local real estate bloggers and documented their travels, culminating on stage at the last day of the conference. Check out their blog and video below for the whole crazy story.
 This afternoon, the conference broke out into smaller, intensive workshops on various topics including lead management, video, blogging, and mapping. BHI Insights attended the blogging and video sessions.
Video: So, why is video gaining so much traction, and becoming so common on the Internet? And why should we care about video when marketing real estate? Video has become ubiquitous on the Web for a number of reasons: The proliferation of broadband access, more efficient compression and streaming technologies, and a new breed of embeddable video players. What can video do for real estate marketing? Well-made video content creates an emotional response, regardless of the subject matter. The video can be about a builder, a community, or a specific floor plan. The goal is to create an emotional response from the consumer. Be on the lookout for some innovative video products from BHI in the near future.
 The Keynote Address just finished up. The speaker was Hugh MacLeod, a person that defies categorization in my opinion. Hugh is a cartoonist (those are his on the right), ad industry veteran, viral marketing specialist, blogger, motivator (the list goes on). He is most famous for his blog, gapingvoid.com and also for putting a small South African wine maker, Stormhoek on the map through an amazing viral marketing campaign that utilized blogging and the power of the Internet. Hugh MacLeod made some excellent points in his hilarious 25 mintue address. The key takeaway was the importance of Social Objects on the Web. Social Objects are anything that encourage social interactions and sharing. This is at the heart of the Web 2.0 movement. Humans love to share themselves and their experiences. The most successful Web 2.0 products empower users to interact and share. The video tells the story of Hugh's most famous cartoon: The Blue Monster. Be sure to watch it.
 Brad Inman (far left) kicked off the Conference by relating the key themes to be explored over the next 3 days. The first is the interplay between the current state of the real estate market and the current explosion of new technology providers in the space. The market is slow with few buyers but, the industry is finally ready to totally embrace the wide array of technologies becoming available. At the same time, we are experiencing a "Web 2.0" explosion of Internet innovation. These new innovations center around Community, User-Generated Content, and Social Media. We are also in the age of 24/7 connectivity with Blogs, video and social networking keeping us connected to the Internet and each other around the clock, instantly.
The first round table discussion was a very lively one with Brad Inman (left) Dale Stinton, CEO of The National Association of Realtors (center) and Rich Barton, CEO of Zillow. Dale Stinton had some very interesting insights and news about the industry:
First, he's predicting the Fed will drop interest rates in the coming months to counteract the effects of the slow market and the sub-prime financing "debacle". He also announced that NAR is investing heavily in the technology business. They plan to create and incubate new technologies to directly help their constituency. Third, the NAR will begin marketing directly to consumers. They want to be a trusted adviser on a national level, and are striving to be the first resource consumers use when they research and search for homes. Over $100 Million will be put towards this effort. Realtor.com will also get a major overhaul that will feature new and innovative features.
Everyone on the panel agreed that Mobile Content will be the next huge thing to hit the industry. The iPhone is expected to be a real game changer. Once the kinks are worked out of the first 2 generations of the iPhone, expect consumer real estate to radically change. Consumers will be able to search and connect with homes and Realtors in real time, on the fly, from anywhere.
 The team at BHI Insights will be blogging live from the Inman Real Estate Connect Conference in San Francisco August 1 - August 3. This is a great conference that brings together the entire Real Estate Technology industry for 3 days of featured speakers, seminars, networking and a large trade show. Can't make it to San Francisco? BHI Insights will be there to bring you the all the highlights from this years' event. Featured Speakers this year include Pete Flint, Founder & CEO Trulia, Craig Newmark, Founder of craigslist, and Doug Lebda, President, COO of IAC, to name just a few. Expect numerous posts this week live from the Conference including summaries of workshops, commentary on the latest trends, and photos from the trade show floor.
No suprises here, but The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported today that home construction in June '07 continued to trail activity from '06, as building permits, housing starts and completions were down an average of 24 percent. In the single-family sector, building permit authorizations in June dropped to a rate of 1.02 million, down 4.1 percent month to month For buildings with five units or more, authorizations were at a rate of 335,000 last month.
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