Builder - January 2009 - (Page 60) SALES STRATEGIES different community every week, offering a barbecue lunch prepared by one of Hubbell’s vendors. The Wednesday before the event, Hubbell would invite Realtors and members of the Chamber of Commerce to a luncheon, enticing them with a free lunch and a drawing for a gas card. The block parties were also advertised in the local paper on Friday and Sunday, and invitations were sent to prospects. The fi nal part of the marketing was TV advertising on a local Sunday home show. Between four and seven homes were open to tour during the events, says Jarad Bernstein with Hubbell Realty. “We have a little passport program where the potential home buyers get a sticker at each house they visit. If the buyer visits all of the homes, they are entered into a drawing for a decently sized gift card to a local electronics and furniture store and other big prizes. We have seen traffic of anywhere from 50 to 175 people, and the program has directly resulted in home sales and lot sales.” Events don’t have to be elaborate, though. Gale Communities in Kansas City took a fairly typical event—Fourth of July fi reworks—and turned it into a marketing effort. “Residents in one of our communities were going to gather for a community-wide fi reworks display already, so we asked if prospective buyers could attend,” says Kevin Enyeart, vice president and general manager of Gale Communities. “They agreed and we sold a spec home out of it!”—P.C. W Mobile Apps hile it’s true that the vast majority of home buyers start their search online, they’re just as likely today to search via their iPhone, Blackberry, or other smartphone as they are a desktop or laptop computer. Several wellknown real estate Web sites have developed mobile applications to make it easier than ever for home buyers to find their dream homes. Trulia.com and Realtor.com have mobile applications for smartphones that give users a map of the area with red flags appearing on properties that are for sale, and a list of upcoming open houses. Zillow.com has a mobile browser version of its site that gives buyers—or newhome sales agents doing their competitive research—details on specific properties.—P.C. ONLINE TOOLS Work the Web To turn your Web Site into a workhorse, optimization and functionality are critical. T Multiply Contacts M arketing has always been a numbers game for new-home sales associates. The more contacts you make, the more opportunities you have to sell a home. To reach the widest segment of your market, Orlando, Fla.–based new-home sales consultant Melinda Brody recommends a “5-5-5-5 per week plan” of marketing to prospects, homeowners, Realtors, and the community at large. Contact five prospects, fi ve homeowners, fi ve Realtors, and five people in your surrounding community per week, and you’ll reach 1,000 people in one year, based on 50 weeks, Brody wrote in a recent article for Agent Direct News. “This will definitely improve your traffic count,” she wrote, “and if you’re good at target marketing, the traffic will be better qualified.”—P.C. here’s no question that a builder’s Web site is his top marketing tool for reaching today’s home buyer. Here are three tips to boost your Web presence: Optimize your site. People don’t search for a builder’s name; they search for “new homes Atlanta.” Your goal is to have your site come up at least on the first page of search results, says Carol Flammer, managing partner of mRelevance, an Atlanta-based online and social media marketing firm. The best way to do that is to keep your site fresh and relevant, “not just updating listings,” Flammer says. Check your site’s tracking report to see what search terms people use to find your site, and make sure the content on your site incorporates those terms. You also want plenty of external links to relevant Web sites. The good news is that if you don’t have the skill set to do this yourself, there are plenty of companies that do. Lose the fl ash intros. For Internet users without high-speed access, fl ash intros can take a significant amount of time to load—and we all know how impatient Web surfers are. “Nobody cares,” says Brian Flook, president of Hagerstown, Md.–based Power Marketing and Advertising, which specializes in online marketing for home builders. “They were cute fi ve years ago. If you have to have a button that says, ‘Skip this,’ just skip it.” Plus, Flash applications repel spiders that crawl through Web sites and fetch pages for search engines. Lose ’em. Give buyers the info they want. Flook says his default position on what information to put on a Web site is “if you have a piece of information, put it on there. Give them the square footage and the cost.” One thing buyers defi nitely want, Flook says, is photos of your houses. “Pictures need to be the best they can be. If you have crappy pictures, they think you’re a crappy builder. And make them big. And make it so the floor plans are readable.” Include addresses for your available homes, “because everyone has GPS now,” he notes. Finally, include an About Us section. “It lets you build credibility for yourself,” Flook says. “People need to know you’re going to be in business by the time they (see page 62) close.”—P.C. 60 ■ B U I LD E R ja n ua ry 2 0 0 9 W W W.BUILDERONLINE.COM http://www.Trulia.com http://www.Realtor.com http://www.Zillow.com http://WWW.BUILDERONLINE.COM
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