Home builders have access to various strategies to help them generate construction leads. The strategies range from digital marketing to traditional marketing methods such as referrals and TV ads. One problem remains, though – how do you know which are the most efficient home build lead generation strategies today?
How do new home builds get leads, then? Below you can find the most efficient home builder marketing strategies you can use conveniently categorised by different marketing channels.
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How can new home builds generate leads online?
The success of every home construction project depends on how efficiently the construction company can sell a new home. Digital marketing remains one of the most commonly used strategies that promises tangible ROI and high success rates.
In fact, according to the National Association of REALTORS report, 90 per cent of home buyers use the Internet to research houses on the market, with real-estate-related searches on Google growing 22% year over year. Here are the best strategies you can use to boost leads.
Build a Website for the Development
Having an official website for your home builder business goes without question in this day and age. However, just having a website is not enough. To efficiently generate leads and keep them in the funnel, you need to engage them with relevant information at the early stages of the buyer’s journey.
One of the best ways to do it is to launch a builder website for development. That’s where you can lay out the blueprint of your projects, lay out the development plan, and include 3D visualisations of the homes built at a location. You can also add an email subscription option and send your subscribers important project updates, including photos, to keep the leads engaged.
A website will put you in a better position since you can gather more actionable insights. For instance, with the Prospect Generator lead generation reporting, you can determine the percentage of your website visitors who are the real movers and identify the best marketing channels to focus on.
Independent property listing websites
During their research, home buyers tend to use more than one resource. It enables them to gather more information and make better decisions. They also frequently visit property listing websites and sites offering property price advice. Custom home building firms should not solely rely on their official website to do the job – they should also list their properties on independent property listing websites.
It can help you reach out to more prospects and inform them in great detail about your plots. Additionally, you can leverage the popularity of these sites to launch highly-targeted marketing campaigns and reach prospects with the intent to buy, thus generating high-quality leads.
In case you need more leads, Prospect Generator can help you re-target buyers with AD2 campaigns who have buying intent. We will display your ads to prospects who visit the relevant sites and use Budget Calculator and Home Valuation Tools, thus enabling you to reach home movers with high intent to buy a house.
Social media advertising
Social media advertising is one of the most popular marketing channels. Businesses across industries use social media to reach prospects with custom messaging. There are two main reasons behind it. First, social media platforms have billions of users, and second, major social media platforms have sophisticated targeting options to help you reach the right person with the right ad at the right time.
Custom home builders should have an official social media profile to excel at social media marketing. Besides launching highly-targeted campaigns, home builders’ social media presence can also help engage prospects. If you are inexperienced with marketing via social media, Prospect Generator can help you launch sales lead boost campaigns targeting your ideal home buyers.
SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimisation. The primary goal of SEO is to help your site climb ranks in search engine result pages and boost your organic traffic. SEO is great for construction lead generation as it can help you attract ideal prospects. The process is quite simple. It all starts with keyword research.
Keyword research will enable you to identify keywords that your projects use when researching available market properties. With a list of relevant keywords, you can custom-tailor your content strategy. You can add these keywords to your website copy and blog articles to pop up in the search results of your ideal customers.
PPC
Pay-per-click or PPC is a quite popular model of internet marketing that can help boost home builder sales. It all boils down to letting the advertising platform find construction leads for you and then display your ad. The model is quite simple to understand. You only pay once a prospect clicks on your ad link in the search results. PPC is similar to SEO in terms of identifying and targeting relevant keywords.
You will find out that not all keywords are the same in terms of search volume and competition. Your goal is to find keywords with high search volume and low competition. However, given how competitive the home builders market is, the chances are that you will have to target some quite competitive keywords.
One of the essential things regarding PPC campaigns is monitoring. You must monitor your campaigns to ensure your budget is efficiently spent. Most often, you will need to make fine tunes on the go to ensure the success of your paid ads campaigns. Luckily, most PPC platforms offer comprehensive dashboards and reporting tools to enable you to achieve your goals.
PPC is a rather complex marketing strategy, and you should consider aligning with an experienced agency to help you launch and fine-tune your PPC efforts.
How can new home builds get leads through other advertising?
While digital marketing can help you find construction leads and reach them with your message, it’s not the only course of action you can take. There are other lead generation strategies that you can add to your mix. Some of the traditional strategies still work. Here are some of the noteworthy options you have.
Local TV advertising
Local TV advertising is a viable method to generate leads. People still watch the good old telly. You can leverage this opportunity to grab the viewers’ attention and inspire them to take action. There are several things you need to consider here.
First, you need to select the right TV channel. It calls for research to identify which channel is the most popular among your ideal customers. Then, you will have to record the ad. Meanwhile, you have to ensure that you don’t break your budget.
The best practices indicate that you should have at least a couple of commercials to show to a focus group. It can help you choose the most engaging commercial that inspires people to take action. A focus group can also help you decide whether your CTA should include a QR code, email address, website address, or phone number.
Local radio advertising
Local radio advertising is generally cheaper compared to TV advertising. It’s a unique form of marketing as it doesn’t rely on visuals. Instead, your brand will be paired with a voice, and you will be able to address the listeners. You can work with voice actors and incorporate a jingle and sound effects to achieve the best results.
Given the cost-efficiency of radio advertising, you can go with longer ads. With more time for an ad, you can embrace storytelling to encaptivate listeners’ attention and inspire them to take action.
When it comes to your bottom line, it’s really important to find the right audience for your radio commercials. If you have access to several local radio stations, you must research their audience to identify a station that your prospects enjoy listening to. Simply reach out to stations and ask them about the advertising rates and information about their audience.
Local press advertising
The local press refers to newspapers that target a specific region, city, area, or town. Advertising through a local press can help you reach out to a specific demographic in a certain location. Ideally, you want to choose a local press agency available both in print and online.
The local press attracts loyal audiences who trust the local press and buy it regularly. You can leverage this relationship between the press and its readership to convey your message and generate leads.
The online version of the local press can help you a lot too. Local press websites are often highly ranked on search result pages. Getting your brand mentioned on these portals and having a link that leads back to your site can help you increase your site authority, boost its ranking, and generate more leads.
Leaflets
A leaflet is a folded piece of paper that presents your offer in great detail. Unlike previously mentioned lead generation strategies, this one involves direct contact with your prospects as you or your marketers will be handing out leaflets in public spaces.
Leaflets are perhaps the most affordable advertising method. You can get some affordable designs online and have a printing company bulk print your leaflets at affordable rates. The best thing about a leaflet is that you can communicate a lot of information, including the unique values you offer. You can also add high-quality pictures to enable prospects to see how it will look at the end and include a map with a pinpointed construction site.
The most challenging part would be strategically choosing the locations to hand out your leaflets. It shouldn’t just be a busy place but also a place your ideal customers frequently pass through. You can even reuse the design for your postal campaigns. With the Prospect Generator’s help, you will be able to launch a highly targeted AD2 Postal Campaign and reach your ultimate prospects.
How can new home builds get leads in the local community?
Cutting through the local noise as new home builds can be challenging. That’s why you need to consider adding various lead generation strategies to your mix. Here are some efficient ways to find construction leads in the local community.
Referrals from local estate agents
Local estate agents can play a pivotal role in your lead generation effort. They are the ones that are in direct contact with leads that are at the final stages of the buyer’s journey. With their help, you can get access to high-quality leads. You should consider building your own network of local estate agents. There are a couple of ways to do it.
You can research all local real estate offices and attend sales meetings in offices that specialise in selling houses. Attending a sales meeting will enable you to build your contact list and even enter long-lasting partnerships with local estate agents.
If you want more control and help local estate agents understand your value proposition, you should invite them to your office. They can have a meeting with your sales team where you can arrange the commission rates and create a referral program that benefits both your company and agents.
Instead of working with agents from multiple offices, you can also decide to work with only one local real estate office. The benefits of this strategy would include getting referrals from estate agents that understand your processes and have a good work ethic.
Development Signage
Development signage can also help you generate more leads. First, putting professionally designed development signage on display communicates to everyone who passes by that you run a safe, well-organised site. It can help you paint your brand as trustworthy and professional in the eyes of prospects.
Development signage for lead generation purposes has one role: to encourage potential buyers to learn more about what’s behind it. You can choose from various dependable solutions, including acrylic signs and vinyl windows decals. Either way, use a high-quality design and powerful graphics and messaging.
Local newspaper press release
Besides publishing ads in local newspapers, you can also publish a press release. A press release can help you engage local home buyers and make them want to learn more. It can also help you increase brand awareness. You can leverage go for a press release during the several stages of your project.
First, you can publish a press release when you start the construction project. It should be a brief copy, highlighting only the essential project information and answering the simple what, when, where, who, and why questions. Then you can reach out to the local public right before the project completion to keep them in the loop and inform them how they can learn more about purchasing the property.
Show homes
One of the most straightforward strategies that can help you boost lead generation is to show the homes you’ve built. Generally speaking, this hands-on experience offers many benefits as prospects can experience the look and feel of the homes. They can see the build quality and design and assess how practical it would be to live in any given home you made available for a walkthrough.
Plus, you stand to benefit from word-of-mouth marketing. The prospects who visit your homes will talk to their friends and acquaintances, thus getting more people interested in your offer and future projects. You can even invite the visitors to take shots and freely share them on social media, which is another way to get some free exposure.
Development Launch Open Days
When it comes to how new home builds get leads, one of the commonly used traditional strategies is scheduling development launch open days. It allows prospects to come to the construction site and check a home for themselves.
This sneak-peak experience is a great way to get more leads and keep people on their toes, waiting to see the building when it’s complete. When you have scheduled development launch open days, you should launch a small advertising campaign to make sure prospects know about your event.
Conclusion
Hopefully, we’ve answered the main question: “How do new home builds get leads?” As you can see, home builders have plenty of opportunities to advertise their projects and completed homes. You can choose from more traditional approaches and modern ones. Or, you can combine several strategies to generate as many leads as possible.
Before making your final decision, you should ensure you understand your target customers, as it will help you fine-tune your marketing message and ensure success.
