It goes without saying that the last 10 years have been a very transitional time in the world of marketing. The old rules of mass reach and frequency have not been washed away completely, but undeniably diluted by the ever-expanding choices available to both the consumer and the advertiser. Thanks to technology, the more interesting news is that the end of this "transitional" period is no where in sight. The flood gates of new mediums are wide open and they continue to pour in on us.
With ad budgets shrinking on a daily basis, it's more crucial than ever to make the right choices. One of my favorite quotes that I'm unfortunately unable to credit is 'More is not better. Better is better.'
The problem with a mass media, or 'more' approach to homebuilder marketing has not changed. You need super high exposure numbers to reach your buyer through mass media if you don't have a mainstream product. Coca-Cola can advertise on any number of TV shows and stations (and they do), but that's because every man, woman, and child on the planet is a likely purchaser of their product. This is not the case for two-bedroom multi-level condos from the low $200's on the east side of town.
There's a smaller buyer pool for our product. Homebuilders don't need more advertising now. They need better advertising now. This is good news. More advertising costs more, but better advertising may not. So how do you make your advertising better? Here are just a few thoughts:
- Spend your budget on people actively looking for a home first. Don't pull money out of your Google campaign to run generic radio spots. Your keyword targeted ads are only showing to those actively searching for a home. Your radio spot may, or may not, be hitting people who are in the market.
- Ask publishers for targeting or segmenting options. If you're currently running banners or video ads on a local media site, ask them for how you can better target your buyer profile. You may pay a higher rate per impression to only target a particular geographic region, behavior pattern, or income level, but you'll probably be able to reduce your total impressions to offset the cost and end up with better quality traffic.
- Interview your current buyers. Pick a sampling of your current buyers and offer them a free gas card if they'll sit with you for a 30 minute interview. Ask them questions to learn about their media consumption. What tools did they use in their search? What websites do they visit daily? What information do they expect to get from their cell phone? If it's a representative sample of your buyer profile, chances are you'll learn how to reach your next buyers.
- Measure. Test. Measure. Test. Measure. You get the point. One of the most beneficial aspects of technology based advertising is its measurability. Before spending any money on advertising, you must invest in a website analytics platform. With this information, you can determine not just where your traffic is coming from, but where your better traffic is coming from. This information allows you to make decisions about what's working and what's not. This is a key component to spending your ad budget on better advertising.
The byproduct of technology is more choices for you - most of them offer solid targeting options allowing you to drill down to location, age, income, and behavior of your ad recipients. Embracing new technology allows you to segment your marketing based on your target profile and focus your budget in the right place.
No need to wait until its time for budget cutting. Take a look at your media plan today. Analyze closely where your dollars go and look for ways to target each penny.
Dennis O'Neil heads up ONeil Interactive LLC, an online marketing and strategy company for the new home industry. You can learn more about Dennis O'Neil and ONeil Interactive by visiting www.oneilinteractive.com.
Email marketing is truly an industry in itself. There are many nuances to the effective uses of email marketing, lots of it is beyond the “need-to-know” scope of today’s marketing managers. However, understanding the most basic principles will ensure you’re getting the most from your email delivery provider and your designer. Designing for email delivery is not the same as designing for the web. Have you ever been to a website and been asked to download an update to see the website’s content? Are you a Mac user and been served a message that says your Safari Browser is not supported? Content on the internet is not always seen by the user the way we intend it to be. Variables such as computer speed, internet connection speed, Windows vs. Mac, browser type, among others affect the way a visitor sees content. Experienced designers know how to compensate for these differences to make a generally identical experience. The same things must be considered for email marketing.
This post will discuss just one law of email marketing, but it’s one I see broken very often. Most email software blocks the automatic download of pictures in emails. You probably have opened an email and seen white boxes with little red X’s in the corner. You have to click and specifically allow those pictures to appear unless you’ve previously added the sender to your “trusted sender” list. Maybe some of your recipients have made you a trusted sender, but there’s no way to know. And why not maximize the impact of your email to all of your subscribers. Why is it important to understand this? See this example:
The above example email was sent to me, and as you can see, is completely blank. The entire email is made up of images, or red X’s. You took the time and effort to build a campaign and send an email blast. You wrote a subject line compelling enough to make your prospect open it. This empty screen above is not what you want them to see. Of course, your prospect can just click and allow the pictures to be seen and display the intended message, but why give the recipient yet another opportunity to decide not to read your message? You’ve already made it past the spam filter and the [delete] button, don’t blow your opportunity.
So how do you fix this? Your email blasts should always be designed as a combination of images and text. When an email with this format is opened, the pictures may still appear as red X’s, but the text content appears as intended. See this example:
Now your recipient has the opportunity to read the main content of the email without clicking anything else. They may read it, decide the message is not for them, and delete the message. Most likely though, assuming your message is well targeted, they’ll read your text and then click to see the images and the rest of your message.
Additionally, they can still click on something (the text links) without the pictures. In the first example, there was nothing clickable or actionable about the email.
As an aside, some users still download their emails and disconnect from the internet before reading them. Albeit not very many people, users like these will not be able to see your images ever, as they must be connected to the Internet for those images to appear in your email. This is also the case for users whose Internet connection fails intermittently.
Emails in the proper mixture of text and images allow you the opportunity to communicate some of your message despite that fact that your images may be blocked. This simple design format will ensure that the maximum number of recipients have the opportunity to read your message and act on it. Be sure your designer is following this basic principle for your next campaign.
Dennis O’Neil heads up ONeil Interactive LLC, an online marketing strategy company for the new home industry. You can learn more about Dennis and ONeil Interactive by visiting www.oneilinteractive.com.
This graph represents a study comparing advertising on websites with search terms (gray), display ads (orange), and both (blue) and the effect they have on sales versus a control group seeing no online advertising. According to the article, 18 separate businesses were tested to determine what type of advertising affects sales online and offline. Since our sites are database driven, think of the term “search ads” to include new home listings, location searches, and/or price range searches on a site like www.NewHomeSource.com. “Display ads” are simply banner ads which show up with the results of a user’s search.
Note** -- the most successful increase is offline sales when display and search term ads were presented to the potential customer online within the same time period. This is the first study we’ve seen effectively measuring what online marketing does for offline sales.
We know, based on our reporting, driving directions are requested more often than leads or website click throughs; this is, however, an independent third party, testing online-to-offline conversions through 4 business sectors, showing that Internet advertising brings more people to your door than to your website. You don’t have a product to sell online, so picture these results in your industry, where they must come to your door to buy…
A link to the original article online is below the graph:
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?ml_action=get-article&articleID=F0804H&ml_issueid=BR0804&ml_subscriber=true&pageNumber=1&_requestid=294432
So what does this mean? You should be listing online with more than one website (our service places you on more than 15 other industry sites); you should run banner advertising; you should use engagement tools including video and interactivity, and you should be sure your onsite sales agents are asking the hard questions. With gas at $4.50 per gallon, your signs aren’t bringing them in… signs are just the last thing they saw.
We know the market is a little rough right now, but this kind of research is encouraging as Internet marketing is so much more affordable than offline efforts. If there is anything I can do to assist you in your marketing online or off, please don’t hesitate to call or email me.
Chad Bria
Sales Manager
Builder Homesite, Inc.
cbria@builderhomesite.com
480-370-3141
 Builders are looking for cheap marketing options with major impact these days, and now BHI's New Home Source Professional team has created a way to reach buyers across multiple media outlets and still have change to spare. BHI's latest innovation, "Mobile Marketing," allows potential homebuyers to text message (SMS) a customizable code to BHI from their phone, which builders can use over and over again on billboards, TV, print ads, and more.
Buyers instantly receive a text with a mobile web URL to view high-res community photos, community descriptions, floor plans, and even request a salesperson's call. The website is custom designed for easy phone navigation. This new opportunity is a great way to attract interested passers-by and generate leads for a relatively low cost. Text the code 3529 to phone number 49469 to see a sample.
With traditional advertising dollars now transferring on-line, this is the question that most companies are now scrambling to discover. And with the rising costs of Pay Per Click Advertising, the opportunity to receive free traffic (not cost per click) from Search Engine Optimization Initiatives is more attractive now than ever before. It is no secret that Google owns most of the market share in this space (Google - 69% Market Share, Yahoo - 14% Market Share, & MSN - 10% Market Share). They revolutionized the search industry and their search algorithm is as much as a mystery as the coca-cola formula.
Or is it?
There is rumored to be over 200 different attributes to the Google Search Algorithm. Each differently weighted and having a different effect dependent on the age and competitiveness of your industry. Most understand the importance of keywords and their ability to highlight to the search engine spiders what each of your web pages is actually about. But what most have yet to grasp is the very foundation that the Google Search Algorithm was built on: the measurement (PageRank) of each web page based on the overall value of links pointing to that page. Google's ability to calculate each page's value based on it's Internet Popularity was what set Google apart from Yahoo and AOL at the turn of the century and to dominating the search space today. They do not hide this from all of us, publicizing it on their site and in every interview, but marketing professionals and SEO's alike still tend to focus primarily on keywords, meta tags and on page optimization. Why?
Because that is all that we can control. Is is impossible to control external factors and it is extremely difficult to build links - there are no guarantees. But if you do work with us as a BHI customer/partner - there are options. Please contact us now to learn more...
by Blair Kuhnen
Can you make customer service capabilities a competitive advantage? Are you a little self-conscious about competition on customer service? Let me suggest that it may be one of the most effective marketing strategies you can implement. Consumers, particularly American consumers, have come to expect poor customer service. The bar for acceptable customer service has been lowered to a level where just doing the right thing becomes remarkable. Think of the last time you called your cable operator, wireless carrier, or Internet service provider. It does not have to be that way, and when it is not, it is often remarkable. Let me share with you a few examples to illustrate the point.
Let’s start with my cell phone company. Wait - that story would take far too long and I don’t want to lose you. All I can say is that in one dispute my bill was wrong 5 months in a row. After a 20 minute wait each month, a pleasant representative would assure me that it was “no problem” and that they would credit me for my misunderstanding of how their billing worked. Can you relate to this with your cable operator or Internet provider? What if it was vastly different?
First, a story of recovery that made me a customer for life. I have a Garmin GPS (Forerunner 201) that I use for running. The buttons stopped working correctly, and while out of warranty, Gamin offered to repair it for $56 plus shipping. Sold. Not sure what really happened, but they had no record of my order 3 weeks later. I worked with their customer service folks (all of which behaved as if they really did care). I had to call a couple of times, but never with a long wait. Knowing that I had paid, but having no real evidence of my order, they handled the issue by hand until resolved. When the representative had left for vacation, the manager called me (that’s right, they called me). When a brand new unit was shipped, Darla (my original representative) called me to let me know and give me the UPS tracking number. Two days later the new Forerunner 201 showed up at my door.
One more story. At work we have a Saeco Expresso machine. We called their customer service line when it malfunctioned and we could not seem to fix it on our own. With little wait, a pleasant and quite knowledgeable representative was on the phone. She not only was understanding, but skillfully led us through dismantling the machine and running a few checks. It turned out to be a bigger issue. She asked, “Can you find a couple of chopsticks?” Surprisingly we had some nearby. She artfully told us where to poke, what buttons to push, and what steps to take. No luck. Was I mad? Far from it - I was impressed. They sent us a self-addressed shipping label. I totally understood why it had to go back, knew the vendor did all they could and had 100% confidence that the machine would come back fixed properly.
Why not do the same thing with your homes? Think about the last time a homeowner burnt out part of their new sod. Yes, it was their fault, but what would it cost to have your sod vendor stop by and do a quick replacement when they are laying sod a block away? What might that homeowner have to say about you? Turn your issues into opportunities. The bar of expectations is so low, you are bound to soar over it if you try.
by Martha Baumgarten
A prevailing theme in most any personal or professional effectiveness program is the shout-out to “be proactive!” These days, I work with clients who find it difficult to understand what that really means when it comes to the uphill battle for more new home sales. There is no single solution to all our challenges today, but there are some great ideas that are helping proactive builders who are willing to adopt some amazingly simple, customer-focused practices.
Take some of the ideas I’ve heard from participants in Eliant’s National Roundtable on Customer Satisfaction and other conferences. Somewhat counter to the prevailing pessimism in the industry, we have some great examples from innovative design center professionals. In many instances, the business of design options is flourishing. At one conference, I moderated a session on design center operations, and I was delighted to learn the extent to which many design centers had just undergone expansions or strategic relocation. Since my obsession is achieving better practices in the new home industry, my question of these designers and managers was, “What are you doing to assist builders with selling more homes and with retaining the sales that they do get?” Continue Reading...
Continue reading "The 2008 Homebuyer Experience: Becoming Consumer-Focused in a 21st Century Market" »
 When it comes to Search Engine Optimization the most common buzz word used is "PageRank". PageRank is at the core of Google Technology and ulitimately attaches a value or "PageRank" to each page within a web-site. This term can often get confused with the actual ranking of a page on the search engine. So just to be clear, when someone speaks of PageRank they are referring to the Google assigned value to that page on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best) independant of how it may rank on Google for a specific search phrase. You can find a web page's PageRank by downloading the Google Toolbar and activating the PageRank button or using an on-line tool that will fetch it for you. The picture to the upper left is a screenshot of NewHomeSource.com with the PageRank Toolbar located in the upper right.
 Here is a blown up picture of the little PageRank Bar that will be displayed once you install the Google Toolbar. If you mouse over it, it will actually give you a Google snippet where it will tell you the score or PageRank out of ten. PageRank is essentially derived or computed by the number of Inbound links a site has from other websites on the Internet. These links are seen as citations or votes for that page for the anchor text associated with that link. What is anchor text one might ask? Anchor text is the clickable text that contains the link. Examples of anchor text above would be "PageRank", "Google Toolbar", and "on-line tool that will fetch it for you", because they are all clickable.
Now a high PageRank alone will not guarantee you a top ranking for competitive terms but it is a very powerful indicator of the potential for a page or website to rank on a search engine. It is then the search engine marketers job to optimize those pages to take advantage of the high page rank in order for it to show up in Google for the appropriate search queries.
by Kay Green
Savvy builders know that options and upgrades can translate into big profits in the homebuilding industry. Your design centers (and model homes) can make or break your sales. The presentation of your options and upgrades is equally important to the products you choose to offer. So…to help you maximize your profits, here are a few of the basics of “design center design.”
Continue reading "Transforming Design Centers into Profit Centers" »
When optimizing a page or website for search engine placement a marketer needs to consider both on-page and off-page attributes. When search engine optimization first started several years ago, the major focus was on on-page attributes such as Title Tags, Meta Keywords, Meta Descriptions, Keyword Density and Header Titles. Due to the abuse of most of these practices, namingly keyword stuffing, it has become very difficult to acquire high rankings for competitive words based on on-page attributes alone. In fact, most would argue that meta keywords have very little if any effect on a pages ranking at all anymore.
Within the last year, 25 of the nations top SEOs were interviewed in an attempt to better understand what the experts believe to be the most important aspect of search engine optimization. Their opinions or weightings varied amongst most attributes but an overwhelmingly majority rated the proper use of Title Tags as the most important on-page attribute for search engine placement. This isn't about over stuffing keywords into the page title but rather making sure that every page has a unique title that defines the page as well as pursuades users to click on them from the search engine results page. You want to keep the Title Tags short, sweet, and to the point as well as include those ever important search query terms. For an example of what I'm talking about please visit the "Washington DC New Homes" market page and examine how we've structured the Title Tags for NewHomeSource.com.
Check back later to learn about Off-Page Attributes or more commonly known as In-Bound Links.
Part 2 of Search Engine Marketing Strategies will focus on Search Engine Optimization.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the process of increasing your website's visibility within a search engine by implementing best practices that consider search engine algorithms in a site's architecture and content.
 When it comes to implementing a SEO strategy - your end goal is to maintain the #1 position within the organic results of a SERP for your key phrases. Everyone is competing for this #1 position because the top spot gets the most FREE TRAFFIC (free in terms of no variable costs per click) driven to their website. Optimizing your website for industry relevant keyword phrases is a long term search engine marketing strategy that takes a lot of time and expertise to implement, and since Google is consistently updating their algorithm - a years worth of progress can be lost rather quickly if a major update to the algorithm is released. (Note: Google is a $162 Billion dollar company that only makes money if you click on the sponsored listings so it is in their best interest to make it very difficult for you to achieve first page results in the organic listings.)
As the search industry space continues to grow from a users perspective, a firm's ability to maintain a top position for broad search terms such as "new homes", "new homes phoenix","Washington DC new homes", "cars for sale", "vacation rentals", etc... is becoming more and more difficult. Everyone wants to be #1 on Google, they just don't understand the time and commitment it takes to get there.
Check back soon to learn the most important on page attribute to SEO.
by Blair Kuhnen
Are you looking at tighter marketing budgets in 2007? Faced with tougher markets, more aggressive competition, and apathetic consumers, we all have to become smarter about how we spend marketing dollars. To become smarter, you have to do two things. First, you need to assess the performance of each dollar you spend. Second, you have to reallocate your spending to where your company gets its best results.
Continue reading "Getting Bang Out of Your Marketing Bucks" »
by S. Robert August
Buyers are more educated and savvier today than ever before! They know what they want and will buy what they want more quickly when the salesperson does her/his job to present the product and close the sale. Salespeople should be trained to qualify and close each prospective buyer on the first visit, because if they don’t, they may lose the sale to a competitor.
Continue reading "Dialing into Your Sales Traffic" »
Search, search, search......it seems as though that is all we talk about these days. With web search continuing to rise and over 80% of new home shoppers using the web, you would think the story would have been pretty much told by now. But, to the contrary, it is a story that has only just begun to be told. Every day it seems as though there is another important aspect of online marketing uncovered in the homebuilder world. Over the next few weeks, I will delve into several emerging issues pertinent to the world of online new home marketing.
Part 1: The Journey of Discovery
Today’s thought is the term “search” itself and the disservice it lends to our craft and trade. Search implies a level of precision and confidence that belies most home shoppers. We search for the nearest Starbucks location. We search for a gallon of milk in the grocery. We search for the best rate on car insurance. I hope you are getting my point; we search for things which we are very clear and certain about, commodities which we are familiar with, known products and brands. The process of search is well supported by the web and leverages the inherent advantages available by applying the capabilities of today’s information technology. However, it also constrains and denigrates the home shopping experience. Moreover, it does not get the consumer across the emotional threshold required to make a purchase decision.
People don’t “search” for a new home. No one types in 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and $225,000, finds the first home on the list and then presses the buy now button. Finding your new home is a journey of discovery. Creating a “short list” of affordable options which meet basic criteria is tremendously valuable, but from that point the journey must support the emotional, psychological and physical needs of the buyer. For the builder community, web 2.0 offers us the opportunity to expand our online engagement to include the journey of discovery. In the weeks to come we will be discussing creating trust, creating a sense of place, using rich media to tell stories, and how to create assistance/recommendations, along with many other elements of the journey.
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