Internet marketing was new to the building industry, and with the exception of a few national builders and some of the larger local new home groups, very few companies took advantage of this new and effective way to reach home buyers. Today, most home builders and new home marketing professionals have accepted the fact that they need a web site to have an effective marketing program. Unfortunately, many of their web sites are not effective marketing tools or part of an overall internet marketing strategy.

Does the creative message on a print ad influence a home buyer’s decision to visit or avoid a community? Does the color, the layout, the copy, the lifestyle photos or something else about the ad lower their interest about your new homes and new home neighborhoods? What about where the ad was placed?  What about the community entrance and model home? How would uncut grass, an unclean sales model, or trash at the entrance and throughout the neighborhood affect your sales?  An improperly designed or poorly managed web site has the same effect. There are a lot of web sites in our industry with poor navigation, minimal and outdated information, limited calls to action, and unprofessional designs.  Home builders and developers lose sales due to the images that their web sites project, especially if their top competitors have better web sites. 

According to the 2006 Institute of Residential Marketing (IRM) research study about the use of the internet in new home sales, the number of homes and communities home buyers look at is decreasing…home buyers look for ways to reduce the number of communities they visit.  In today's market, you cannot afford to be scratched off their short list because of your web site.

A lot of companies can build web sites and offer internet marketing services.  Most people know someone who can build them an inexpensive web site “on the side.”  The mistake a lot of companies make is that they believe they can cut corners on their web site and that their web site IS their internet marketing strategy.  The fact it is that your web site is only one component of an effective internet marketing strategy and, most times, your first impression for your home buyer.  You need an effective web site, but you also need to drive qualified and targeted traffic to your web site, you need your web site to drive traffic to your sales center, you need an effective follow-up and communication strategy to close sales, and you need to track and report on effectiveness of your strategy to gain competitive advantage…especially in today’s tough market.

If we look at each of these items individually, they simply mirror traditional marketing techniques.  Having a great looking billboard is important, but the amount of traffic it drives will differ depending on whether you display it on an old country farm road or on an interstate highway. 

To drive the best traffic to your web site, you need to:

• Buy the right advertising locations
• Have the correct links from referring sites
• Index your site in the search engines
• Have the right content on your site so it improves your page ranking

Your web site itself needs to be effective.  Were your web visitors able to find what they were looking for in fewer than three clicks?  Do they want to immediately jump in their car and drive to your sales center, or pick up the phone and call your sales consultant, or fill in the form to get more information? 

If they did contact you, was your response timely, personal, and effective?  How do you know?  Understanding Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and user behavior on your web site can give you specific analytic and detailed business intelligence, which can lead to significant competitive advantage.  For instance, knowing how many pages each 'session' visits when on your site is nice to know, but knowing that X% of your traffic visits only your home page and does not go deeper into your site tells you something about that page.  Tracking the number of times your contact page was displayed, but not the “thank you for submitting your information,” tells you something else. 

Take a look at your web site and overall internet marketing strategy.  Being one of the most cost effective and efficient tools for businesses today, the companies that use the internet most effectively will prove to be those that reap the benefits long term!

Mitch Levinson, MIRM, is the founder and principal of Mitch Levinson Consulting, which provides technology, sales, and marketing services to the real estate and construction industries. He can be reached at  847-259-7312. For more information, visit www.mitchlevinson.com or www.mlcnewhomemarketing.com.

Bo Gilbert, MIRM, Senior Consultant at MLC New Home Marketing, has over 13 years of experience working in the new home construction industry. For the last 9 years, Bo has been assisting homebuilders, developers and new home sales professionals market their homes and new home communities on the Internet. He currently resides in Atlanta, GA and is an active member of the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association as well as the Atlanta Sales and Marketing Council.

To read Mitch Levinson's article "Customer Relationship Management for Home Builders," log in to the Sales and Marketing Channel and look under the "Customer Relations" topic. [ return to top ]