Potential home owners spend more time researching home builders online than ever before. Traditional home builder marketing strategies like mailers, billboards, flyers, and TV or radio spots are quickly becoming obsolete.
But pivoting your home builder advertising to stay ahead of the digital curve may seem like a huge undertaking. This overview provides a roadmap for moving your marketing online.
Read on to learn more about home builder marketing, new home marketing ideas and strategies, and how to design a marketing plan.
What is Home Builder Marketing?
Effective home builder marketing can attract new clients, reinforce your brand, and grow your business. Successful marketing should also position your brand as professional and trustworthy.
A marketing strategy includes all your company’s promotional activities, like:
- Advertising campaigns
- Your website
- Content marketing
- Client testimonials
- Local networking
The secret to successful marketing is a home builder marketing plan. The best plans include:
- Your target demographic
- Short- and long-term goals
- Strategies and tactics to achieve those goals
Home Builder Marketing Ideas
Once your goals are set, it’s time to ideate tactics to achieve them. Here are a few ways to expand your home builder marketing online.
Build an Engaging Website
Your website is often the first point of contact for prospective clients. It’s like a digital showroom.
In addition to being easy to find, simple to navigate, and mobile-friendly, your site should be packed with informative, valuable content that reflects your brand as a reliable industry leader.
Pack your website with:
- High-quality images
- Virtual tours
- 3D renderings
- Expansive photo galleries
- Financing information
- Clear contact information and calls to action
- FAQs
- Client testimonials
Pro tip: Include a house listing feed that updates in real-time so potential buyers can see what homes are available.
SEO & Organic Search Best Practices
Once you’ve created an informative and engaging website, search engine marketing (SEO) will help prospects find you online.
Your SEO strategy should include:
- Determining relevant keywords and phrases
- Integrating keywords into your homepage copy and page titles
- Writing blog content that addresses focus keywords or phrases
- Proposing solutions for common home builder issues, with FAQs or video content
Another effective SEO practice is getting other authoritative sites in related industries to link back to your home builder’s website.
A few ways to build backlinks include:
- Contributing guest blog posts
- Granting interviews or sharing quotes from industry leaders or influencers
- Sharing other linkable content to reputable websites
Note: Backlink building should be about sharing valuable content and building connections rather than solely seeking out backlinks.
Social Media Marketing
Social media has become an important marketing tool in many industries, but this image-driven channel is especially suitable for home builder marketing.
Active Facebook and Instagram business accounts can attract prospective clients and reinforce your brand voice.
Showcase your listings on social media through:
- High-quality images and videos of new homes
- Relevant blog posts or media mentions
- Friendly and informative online exchanges with past and future clients
Social media platforms reward frequent, original content. Feeds with high activity get higher visibility. Set a posting schedule, so your account doesn’t look abandoned.
Then, regularly respond to questions and comments to boost engagement.
Pro tip: Be sure to include links to your social media accounts on your webpage and any email or newsletter campaigns to expand your audience and followers.
Email Marketing Strategies
Targeted email marketing is a great way to reach your demographic with tailored home builder content.
Get started with email marketing:
- Create a mailing list of prospective and existing clients, contacts in your network, and website subscribers.
- Incentivize mailing list sign-ups by offering an exclusive e-book or downloadable report about common residential construction issues.
- Segment your mailing list by category, sending different emails that have been tailored to prospective clients, existing clients, and local realtors, for example.
- Write and share messages and offers for each segment.
The success of an email marketing campaign is measured by how many emails are opened, not how many are sent. Increase the number of recipients who open the email and click through to the message with an attention-grabbing subject line and a clear, actionable offer.
Always follow best practices for permission to avoid being flagged as a spammer and running into problems with your email service provider.
Third-Party Real Estate Websites
In addition to maintaining your website and social media accounts, enhance your online presence by promoting your home builder company on real-estate marketplace websites like Zillow.com, Realtor.com, and Trulia.com.
These platforms offer one-stop-shopping for potential customers looking for homes in a specific geographic area. They’re a great way to reach a wider audience quickly.
Feature Customer Testimonials
Satisfied customers who share your company’s name with family and friends are one of the most effective advertising tools. However, word-of-mouth recommendations have a limited audience.
Feature positive testimonials from former clients on your website where they will catch the attention of prospective clients. Consider creating a “customer stories” section on your site that presents a handful of case studies.
The best testimonials include detailed quotes, high quality photos, and videos from satisfied customers highlighting their positive experience with your company.
Invest in Photo and Video
Dedicate marketing resources and budget to photos and video to really create a “wow” factor.
Incorporate new photography trends like:
- Aerial photos and videos taken by drone
- Virtual staging
- 3D renderings
- Virtual tours
Become a Master of Networking
Online marketing is an important component of your overall strategy, but don’t overlook face-to-face connection-building.
Actively participate in local public events, the chamber of commerce, and other business networking groups. Meet prospective clients in person to answer questions or set up consultations.
How to Create a Home Builder Marketing Plan
Before you start implementing these home builder marketing strategies, you need to create your plan. This plan should outline specific tactics needed to reach your overall goals.
A marketing plan begins by defining your company’s long-term mission and then works backward to set quantifiable short-term goals and incremental targets to guide the marketing campaign.
Your home builder marketing plan should include:
- Summary and theme: What do you want to achieve overall? More new clients? More referrals? Increased revenue per home?
- Demographic: Define your target customer and identify a value proposition.
- Pricing: What can your target customer afford? How will you provide them the most value?
- Channel and methods: Choose marketing channels you’ll invest in, from digital marketing to traditional channels like billboards, mailers, and TV.
- Partnerships: Outline your plan for expanding into new markets via networking
- Client testimonials: How do you plan to generate and share customer referrals?
- Budget: Establish a budget for each element of your plan.
Extend Your Marketing In Person
Your marketing plan will help customers find you online. But deals are closed (and homes are sold) in person.
To ensure each interaction is professional, friendly, and reinforces your brand, invest in an inviting office space.
One subtle element for boosting the atmosphere at your sales location is a custom playlist. At Pandora CloudCover, we offer a wide variety of ad-free streaming tracks that are licensed for businesses.
Choose a station by business type, mood, or genre. Or, create a custom playlist by combining stations and eliminating individual songs that don’t reflect your brand.
Start a 14-day free trial today, and try out our streaming service for yourself. Terms and conditions apply.