Three Ways to Make Sure Your Website is Attracting Potential Home Buyers

In this new economy, investing in social media is part and parcel of a successful marketing campaign. When it comes to home buying, all kinds of media need to be engaged, but there is no doubt that a development’s website is the meat of the media meal.

People will spend hours searching websites before they start hitting the pavement on a hunt for their dream home. It’s the biggest purchase a person will make in their lifetime, so even if you’re selling beautifully crafted, quality homes, if your website isn’t up to snuff you’ll have lost a potential home buyer right there at the click of a mouse.

As Marketing Campaign Builders, we set out to help real estate developers ensure their websites – and more – are attracting potential homebuyers. And in our experience there are three must-dos:

1)   Customize a development’s website to showcase its key features. It seems like such an obvious thing to say, but it’s crucial that the website isn’t looked over. Beyond the pretty colours and carefully selected fonts the basic structural design of a project’s website needs to complement the development itself. If community is a keyword for a project, as a developer you need to think about how that sense of community will be presented on your site. Perhaps there will be an online forum for the exchange of ideas, or a series of blog posts that highlight community events in the area. Is it easy to leave comments on the site? Does it make sense to force people to register if you’re trying to promote a place for open and frequent discussion?

By way of example, our client Ledingham McAllister pride themselves on stunning showrooms, and giving potential homebuyers a look at what living in a Ledingham McAllister development can be like. The visual aspect is extremely important to them, so it was essential that their sites include a video component whereby potential homebuyers could actually see and virtually explore their showrooms.

2)   Even if you’re not face-to-face with homebuyers you still need listen to them. What are homebuyers saying, and where are they going? Note which areas of the site visitors are most interested in, and then give them more of what they want. Are they curious about floorplans? Or are they more concerned with the space’s features and amenities?

What comments are being left on the site? Are these comments being properly monitored? Queries should be answered, thank-yous sent and general interest acknowledged.

3)   Be real, authentic and more than just a corporate entity to your audience. Give people some good old-fashioned humanness so they can engage and relate. Be honest and sell the truth about your development and your work as a developer.

We’ve been working with Macdonald Development Corporation in Phoenix on a project called ONE Lexington. Phoenix was hit particularly hard in the recession, and it was important that this was acknowledged on the website. We explained that ONE Lexington was originally known as Century Plaza until the economic slump caused the development to buckle. We introduced Rob Macdonald and his partner Rob Hubbard by video, as the new developer and let them talk about their enthusiasm for the project and the city. We like to think this approach, and all our other tactics combined, helped this project in some small way hit the initial sales milestone of 30 sales in the first 30 days, in a market where five sales a month was considered a win.

Avoid the company jargon and hyperbole. Talk one-on-one even though your talking one-to-many. It’s an old ’80s cliché, but now is the time to “Get Real.”

Real estate development websites need to step up and be more: more engaging, more interesting, more complete and more human. Do that, and you’ll not just get a few random browsers skimming through floorplans, but honest-to-goodness fans who come back over and over to see what’s new, and soak up the stories you have to tell. These story-soaked, engaged and enamoured folks will not just be prospects anymore, you’ll have moved them along the scale to being believers. And believers are buyers.

Social is Changing the Media Mix

This video blog is a clip from an upcoming documentary about social media. The documentary is being produced by BBN3, and we’ll be sure to let you know when it is finished and available for viewing. Meanwhile, watch this video of Braun/Allison’s David Allison talking about the philosophy behind a good social media program, while simultaneously balancing an empty coffee cup in one hand. Enjoy.

Facebook, Older Canadians, and Real Estate Campaigns

We’ve all heard the statistics on social media. But they have a way of mounting. And mounting. So we thought a check in was in order.

As of December 2009, there are over 14,000,000 Facebook user profiles in Canada. This is almost half of Canada’s entire population. To put these numbers in perspective, the national monthly circulation of the Financial Post Magazine is 201,603.

The accelerated growth of Facebook and its significance to the business sector are often overstated. But there is no doubt that social media is growing exponentially – or that it’s creating entirely new approaches to business.

Until now, social media has been largely a youth movement.  But, hugely, the largest growth segment in the Canadian market for Facebook in 2009 was the over-55 crowd.  Last year, the baby boomer’s Facebook population grew by an astonishing 70%.

What does this mean to us? Boomers still drive the real estate industry, to a large degree. And they are headed to social networks, en masse. So it means a whole lot.

ROI in emerging markets is difficult to define, and there is no single metric that can clearly demonstrate value at this point. (The truth is, this ambiguity has been there all along, in every medium.)

But we all sense that, with these kinds of numbers online – and the kinds of corporate presence that’s building there, in all industries – the good money is headed to social networks.

Everyone thinks this platform is a low-cost broadcasting tool. And it is, at least in a media-buy sense. Compare: A full-page 4 Colour national 1x ad insertion rate in the FP is $21,125 gross*. (*2009 rate card).

True, at the moment, most of your prospects will still learn about your offering for sale through traditional methods like our full-page ad in the Financial Post.

But in the next stage in the buying process, when the prospect chooses to explore the offering further online, having a strategic digital presence is crucial. As a developer, it is in your best interest to provide as much information as possible to your online audience. By giving them the tools to make an informed purchase decision you are building trust.

And in this business, in this market, trust is everything.
NB – The Financial Post now has a Facebook Fan Page.

Thinking Long Term

This is a duplicate post from David Allison’s blog on RENX.ca, a Canadian Real Estate news website.

Anyone who has been a real estate developer for more than a few weeks remembers the “good old days” when investors and a few end-users could be counted on to line-up the night before a project sales centre opening. In some places in Canada the line-ups are back, but my guess is this is a temporary response driven by fears of rising interest rates. So, fine, enjoy it while it lasts, but let’s think about a more long-term, sustainable approach to real estate project marketing; one that ensures the right people for your project find you regardless of the interest rates, and one that ensures your own corporate brand is burnished and made more valuable as each project is launched, sold and completed.

In the old days, standard methodology for marketing a real estate project relied on what I call a “drip-feed” of information. Some mysterious advertising and hoarding would hit the market, usually with a snappy or provocative headline and a sexy picture of a stunning view or an architectural detail. During this time period you were urged to pre-register, and more often than not you had very little idea what you were registering for, or how much it was going to cost. The promise was that if you gave us your contact information we’d give you a bit more information; and in the heady days of guaranteed rapid equity growth, that’s all it took. People would pre-register in droves.

Next would begin the dance. New versions of the promotional campaign would include a bit more information, and urge further registrations. When the flow of registrations slowed, more information was released. Simultaneously, the sales team worked the leads, emailing and/or calling the registrants to determine the level of interest. Leads were ranked, and the best ones, who were the most motivated, were promised a package with a lot more information in exchange for converting to a “reservation,” which meant sending a cheque for a substantial albeit refundable deposit.

The reservation system purportedly “held your place in line” as there were so many people scrambling to buy a piece of the dream, and your financial commitment would ensure that your option to buy was secured. At the time of the reservation you were asked to indicate your first, second and third choice of suite, and the sales team promised to do everything they could to make sure you got something that was on your list. Opening day was a frenzy of buyers writing contracts as fast as they could, according to a pre-determined time schedule designed by the sales team to ensure maximum absorption. Everyone was happy. The developer achieved rapid sales, and the investor-buyers had a piece of paper they could assign to someone else in 6 months for a 20% lift on the purchase price.

Today, when the majority of the buyers for a project will actually take ownership of the home they buy, and will, more often than not, live in that home, the old system is broken. Except in rare cases, people want to know a lot more about a home and a lot more about the developer than in days gone by. We are all being far more careful with our money, and the sheer volume of information we require before we trust a seller is exponentially larger.

So, what’s a better way?

I call it Marketing Journalism. Marketers need to stop acting like marketers and start acting more like journalists. For every project, unearth and tell all the stories you can possible find about why the project is great. Stories about the region, the neighbourhood, the building, the suite features of course. But also tell stories and share information about demographic predictions for credible third-party sources for the area; stories about the neighbours, the shopkeepers, the civic plans for the surrounding city blocks. And don’t forget the micro stories; why did you choose those appliances, that soundproofing system, that construction company? Who are the people at the engineering firm working on the rain-screen technology and how innovative is their system? What kind of thought has gone into the placement of the doors in the suite? Where are the electrical outlets? Why?

Providing all the “news” about a project up front, through a blended media package that includes traditional and online channels (and yes, even social media) will give prospects a lot of facts to consider. The prospects who review this information will see how credible and passionate you are about your project. And they will register if they think the project is a good fit for them. Be warned, however, because you will attract fewer registrations. On the other hand, the people who do register will be self-qualified, and the conversion ratio will be much higher. Your sales team will initially be worried, as they are accustomed to having thousands and thousands of leads. Instead, they will find that everyone who they talk to is knowledgeable, and to some degree already more than vaguely interested in buying. It’s more honest. More real. And more satisfying for everyone involved.

Perhaps the most important benefit? People will come to trust your company. They will see that you care about the buildings you build. They will come to associate your brand with quality and credibility. It will make all your projects easier to sell, regardless of economic conditions. Finally, it means that you are selling the right people into the right projects. They will be happier with the home they buy. And they will thank you for it.