FloorPop Form Conversion Formula

I have been working the past week on completing the January 2006 issue of FloorPop.  Click on this link to subscribe to FloorPop: http://lb.bcentral.com/ex/manage/subscriberprefs.aspx?customerid=31923 

The January 2006 issue is all about improving online registration form completion rates.  Toward this end, I offer a formula I use as a tool for my clients when designing and improving online direct response forms.  I call it the FloorPop Form Conversion Formula.  It is:
Expected Conversion = Value of Call Action + Imbedded Value – Effort to Complete – Fear

Here’s how it works.  First, we brainstorm with your team over each of the variables above to come up with an initial form that we believe has a great call to action, is loaded with imbedded value, is easy to complete, and is designed to reduce online shopper fear.  Context is everything and no one best practice form exists.  So, each form is different for each client.  Next, we measure the baseline Online Form Conversion Rate using:

Visitor to Registration page / Visitors Completing Form = Online Form Conversion Rate

Next, we come up with a prioritized list of change recommendations.  Finally, we re-measure the Online Form Conversion Rate following making each prioritized change.  The goal is order of magnitude improvements.  That’s it.  It may be a simple online direct marketing principle, but we see it creating tremendous results.

 

Please let me know what you think. 

 

Homebuilders and Blogs

What follows is the body of this month’s FloorPop email newsletter sent today (December 7, 2005).  A blog entry talking about blogs?  I know it seems a little redundant, but your comments would be most welcomed.

>>>>>>>

Customers are excited. They come back to your website, buy more upgrades, tell friends, and are more satisfied. You are more connected to your market place and easily keep abreast of changing market conditions. These are some of the benefits of understanding and using blogs.

First, let me give you my layman's definition of a blog. A blog is a web journal or log, hence "blog." They allow just about anyone with a PC and a fleeting thought to publish on the world wide web with ease and zero costs. According to Business Week, 9 million are already out there and 40,000 are sprouting up each day. If we count the Xangas and MySpace blogs of just my Daughter's friends, the true count is likely much higher. The quality of most blogs leave much to be desired. However, I believe they can be of great benefit to many business.

A few months ago, one of my designers who keeps up with technology trends far better than I do was explaining to me why blogs were already "the big thing" and that it was time for us to get on board. The excitement and animation in his explanation was sincere, but I was not yet convinced. About the same time Business Week ran a cover feature (see May 2, 2005) about how blogs were going to be critical to business, they said "blogs are not a business elective. They're a prerequisite." So, what does it mean for builders?

Blogs are not just for political campaigns and soapboxes for disgruntled employees or customers. They can be of great business marketing value. They can help us sell homes and deliver better care to our customers. In addition to customer related benefits, they are powerful tools to help track trends in our industry. Let me start with how you can use blogs to track trends and see how blogs are linked into a network of related topics and authors,

Staying on Top of the Market and Trends

I am a big fan of Seth Godin and permission marketing. So, I subscribe to Seth's blog. Through his blog I am also exposed to a network of authors also inclined to practice permission marketing. Ideas spread faster as a network is formed among blogs and authors. Let's look closer to your home.

Are there homebuilder blogs you should be aware of? Let's say you may have an interest in the local Phoenix housing market. Have a look at http://www.blogarizona.com/. Perhaps you are interested in the possibility of a housing bubble? Here's a network of blogs and articles I ran across when searching for housing bubble commentary:

• Big Housing Bubble
• The Housing Bubble
• Bubble Meter
• Bubble Tracking
• Think Glink
• Washington Monthly Article
• Business Week Article

In a matter of minutes, I was connected to dozens of related articles, blogs, and other musings that all had the benefit of human editorial. Unlike search engines, someone (unfortunately, perhaps someone with a bias) made an editorial decision to link to an article or other source.

Communicating Community Lifestyle

I started this article because I ran across the Michael Rich's blog about his HarborHills community in Florida http://harborhills.blogspot.com/. Rich is General Partner Harbor Hills Development, LP. Here was a developer/builder posting every few days pictures, events, celebrations and other news from the community of Harbor Hills. Through the blog, the lifestyle of the community comes alive in a way that is hard to accomplish online.

I asked Rich why he put this blog up. "It's hard to update your website. We can get a posting up on our blog easily." Not only was it much easier, it was much quicker, "After we won an award, we had it [the notice] up in 10 minutes. Within minutes, 3 or 4 people [blog subscribers] were congratulating us." How connected is that?

Rich sees his blog being used by homeowners, clients under contract, and by prospects. He sees a number of key benefits:

• It helps him keep in touch with customers in the build process,
• He uses it to communicate "Club" news, and
• He uses it as a sales tool for both prospects and buyers choosing options.

How to Get Started or Learn More

Blogs and blogging are hard to describe. You have to experience them. You can easily set up your own free blog on http://www.blogger.com in abut 10 minutes. Or just go there and do a little searching on a topic of interest to you.

 

Improve Your Profits by Developing a Pre-Grand Opening Process

I spent last week at the Pacific Coast Builders Conference (PCBC). This is one awesome show. I wish I could have been at more of the educational seminars and workshops. It validates comments I often hear about the many great homebuilding ideas originating in California.

Many of you may have read about VIP programs and other advanced lead management approaches. Some of the best programs were developed by California builders. But, these are not just programs for managing leads in under supplied markets. They can work anywhere to maximize demand and pricing power.

The Benefits

On Tuesday we held a pre-conference workshop at PCBC with 65 marketing and sales professionals. The focus of the session was interactive marketing and creating a pre-grand opening sales processes. Our participants were given an exercise of developing a pre-grand opening process for a community. You can do the same thing in your market. Key to the process is holding off on pre-sales until you are ready to open (usually after models are complete). You work your interest list carefully though to your opening event. Now is a good time for you to consider developing a program or refining your current program. Here are a few key benefits:

·         Demand is intensified

·         Profits are improved

·         Sales momentum is established

·         Customer satisfaction improves

Demand is intensified simply because of human nature. People want what they can't have. When people realize others are also waiting, demand can intensify. However, prospects need to have confidence that their place on your priority list is secure so they don't decide to buy elsewhere.

Profit is improved by reducing pre-sale discounts and higher option purchases by buyers who have a chance to see options demonstrated in your completed models. According to Bill Probert, Executive Vice President Sales & Marketing of John Laing Homes, "We think we can make 2, 3, 4% more by waiting and also create momentum."

Sales momentum is established by driving all buyers to an initial event that can far exceed typical pre-selling results. We all hear about fantastic openings in hot markets, but such momentum building openings can happen in more typical markets. In Atlanta, Bowen Family Communities has had a string of successful community openings. According to Bowen's Regional Marketing Director, Kelly Fink, "Being able to say 'we sold 65 in our first week' helps build the momentum."

Finally, customer satisfaction improves because potential buyers are better informed, and more involved in the process. They feel like they are on the inside track. Why do builders take the time to develop an effective process in hot markets such as Southern California? According to Probert, "Primarily because it's what the customer deserves." To do otherwise would be inconsistent with their brand. For many builders this is prime justification for putting a process in place.

The Process

To get started, map out how you want to touch the customer via email, phone, and direct mail from the time the potential buyer becomes a lead until they contract with you. You probably have an idea of when you can open or when the models will be complete. Just back it up. Here are a few example touch-points:

·         Sending an auto-response to the interest list sign-up

·         Sending a email note about your VIP process shortly thereafter

·         Mailing a letter and a making a phone call following pre-approval

·         Sending an email RSVP invitation to the event

·         Mailing a postal invitation to your event

·         Sending a reminder email and making a phone call the day before the event

The process has to fit your culture, brand, resources, and the community being marketed. Once you know how you want to touch the customer, adding automation to facilitate the process will be easy and you will quickly see results. Your first attempt at an effective process may not be perfect, but you can evolve your program over time and tweak it for local community considerations. The important thing to do is to get started and put a process in place that is repeatable.

Try it. Remarkable results are possible. If you need help developing a process or marketing tools to make it easy to implement, give us a call (972-661-3559). We would be glad to help.

Originally Published: June 1, 2005 - http://www.floorpop.com/Floorpop060105.html  

 

Make Your Redesign Payoff

Okay, so you have decided to upgrade your Web site. You are probably getting advice from any number of people. If you want to really dig into it, here are a few good books to help get you started:

- Don't Make Me Think

- Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites

- The Design of Everyday Things

- Designing Web Usability

Define Goals

What makes a great Web site? Surely you will want to follow good Web design and usability principles, but you also want marketing results. When I was at Travelocity, marketing results were easily measured in terms of airline bookings and other reservations. When I moved to Ameritrade, we looked at accounts being opened and trading volume. Homebuilders can look at leads, dialogues, and physical traffic. But how can you design your site to yield the most leads, dialogues, and physical traffic to communities?

First, agree among your team about priorities. You can't be all things for all users. Which Web site users do you want to serve without fail? For most builders, these are home shoppers. If the purpose of your Web site is to serve the needs of home shoppers, then design your site to meet their goals. Ask users what they are trying to accomplish. If you ask them, they will likely tell you a limited number of things. High on the list is viewing floorplans, elevations, and prices. They also want to learn about your communities and farther down the list many want to learn about your company. Few Web site users are seeking to be entertained or to be slowed down. They want answers and they want them now.

The User Experience

Improve your Web site user experience starting with speed, accuracy, and ease of use. Here are a few proven methods to improve your Web site:

·         Make your pages fast. Visitors leave Web sites when pages are slow to load or they are forced to navigate through content not directly related to their goals. Rich media can create excitement and interest. It can be used to create compelling interactive sales tools, but rich media on your homepage (e.g., Flash introductions) will drive away more people than it drives in. Use rich media to help enrich your content or create excitement, but not as a barrier for Web site visitors to cross. Also, make your pages lighter by compressing graphics and avoid using graphics for displaying textual information.

·         Ensure your content is up-to-date. If you have the resources to integrate your pricing with your accounting system, do so. Most builders do not have this luxury, but you can let local marketing folks control and update your content. Make your administrative system easy to use. Test it in the same way you would test the consumer facing Web site. If it's not quick and easy to update your plans and pricing, accuracy will be lost.

·         Make the site easy for visitors to use. Start with your visitors' goals and how they decide what to buy. Focus on location, product, and price. This means the page that lists your communities should have both a map and a table of information so visitors can compare location, product, and price without digging into each community page. It means your plans are arranged in tables, often with pictures. Test your site using simple visitor scenarios. Make sure this is part of your vendor's plan for developing your new website.

If you are successful in these first three items and your content is good, consumers are likely to have a good experience and accomplish their goals. Now, layer in your goals: driving, leads, physical traffic, and physical traffic.

Leads, Dialogues, and Physical Traffic

All of the following will substantially improve leads and dialogues that will lead to improved qualified physical traffic.

·         Make it easy for users to ask a question and start a dialogue. Encourage it. Here's one of my favorite examples of encouraging dialogue: Royce Builders in Houston, TX has a novel approach to encouraging dialogue: You can Talk to "The Fox" -

According to Gary Latz, VP Marketing, for Royce Builders, "When we established the position, it made sense to merchandise it strongly. Making the person a focus of the new service seemed natural at the time."

·         If you are not yet using a toll free number on your Web site, it's time to start. At Royce, you can find the toll free number on every page. You are not calling the Internet Department, you are calling Stephanie. "For some buyers it is probably comforting to know that they are communicating with a real person. However, as an organization grows larger, it becomes impossible to handle all leads with one person." said Latz.

·         Integrate your advertising and promotions on-line to drive physical traffic and leads. Simply replicating your off-line promotions for use on the Web can give a big boost to interest in your Web site. Placing your effective promotions online will encourage visitors to return, to become leads, and to show up as physical traffic at your models.

·         Coax Website visitors to give their personal information so you can start a dialogue. Give something away (e.g., a FREE brochure, a book of plans, a Video/DVD, a first time homebuyer guide). For a few dollars, you can convert a browser into a lead.

·         Allow users to interact and customize their experience (e.g., e-brochures, my favorites) on your Web site. Click here to try out D.R. Horton's custom e-brochure link (the green button on the right). Users can create a customized electronic brochure without effort. The builder not only generates a lead, but learns about the users' preferences (e.g., specific plans, quick delivery).

·         Add coming soon community subscriptions to facilitate successful launches and phase releases. Let consumers sign up for your exclusive pre-sales club. In strong homebuilding markets you can rapidly build your database to feed your marketing system. Not only can you have more successful events, but you will be able to manage more of them as you move your pre-sales activities online.

 

Making Your Web Site Part of Your Marketing System

Integrating your Web site with your other marketing channels (i.e., online, radio, TV, direct mail, print advertising, outdoor advertising, public relations, promotional events) can make your overall marketing much more effective. The payoff is higher sales velocity, lower marketing costs, and building momentum for community marketing programs. Make your Web site the hub of your interactive marketing strategy.

First, one caveat before making recommendations. I am assuming you already have taken the time to develop an effective Web site and are able to convert Web site visitors into leads. If your Web site is not your number one source of electronic leads, it is a good clue that changes are necessary to improve its performance. These two articles might help you if you are upgrading or replacing your Web site:

The User-Centered Web Site (pdf 127k)

Eight Ways to Drive Internet Leads and Sales

As always, I am happy to provide you with a private consultation at no charge. Just give me a call at 866-923-4026. With that said, let's get specific.

Two things will help you make your Web site a more effective part of your marketing system for driving qualified traffic: Integrating upstream / downstream and using your Web site to reinforce other advertising.

Integrate Upstream and Downstream

Upstream is your online and offline marketing that drives visitors to your Web site. Downstream is your lead follow-up system. Many large builders aggressively promote their Web site in their media buys and provide listing sites with data feeds of their Web content. They then feed leads back into their follow-up system. "It was important to integrate leads between our CRM application and listing sites and Beazer.com for both effectiveness and efficiency. We attract thousands of leads per month so having those leads integrated with the tools our New Home Information Managers and New Home Counselors utilize ensures we do not waste time re-keying information but it also gives us the ability to more effectively follow up and track the lead from inception to sale to closing." said Jonathan Smoke, CIO for Beazer Homes. Integrating upstream also means using your media buys to generate Web site traffic.

Do promote your Web site in other media buys. Does it mean every ad is an ad for your Web site? No. Recognize that space is limited in many media forms, but you have no such limits on your Web site. Consider how your home shoppers can learn more when they are not yet ready to visit in person. D.R. Horton does this quite well in the Dallas / Fort Worth market. As the largest builder in the DFW metro area, Horton leverages many media (e.g., TV, Print) to build traffic. "We try to direct all our advertising; TV, Print, and direct mail at our Web site." said Todd Horton, Division President, D.R. Horton. Why? "We have a better success rate with buyers who have been to our Web site." added Horton.

Integrate downstream by feeding leads into your system for follow-up. Many large builders are masters of this. They generate leads on their Web site or with third parties and have automatic routines for importing these leads into sophisticated follow-up systems and further into point-of-sale applications. There are several affordable tools for doing this. That sounds great, but what can I do now if I don't have this type of system today? The important thing is to put a process in place for handling leads. If you have no process and methodology from responding, automating the delivery will do no good. In our next issue, we will explore these tools further.

Reinforce Your Advertising

Reinforce your print and other advertising media buys (i.e., Web, TV, radio, outdoor, online). Consumers need to easily find the details of promotions or featured communities on your Web site. Put your key promotions on your homepage or a noticeable link to them. Make communities and events featured in other media easy to find on your site. Simply reinforcing these offline promotions and advertising on your Web site will cause an immediate improvement in lead results and qualified traffic to your communities.

If you have an ad or advertorial running in the local newspaper or on TV, put a process in place to get the creative to those who help with your Web site. If you are sending a pdf to the local newspaper for an ad, send a copy to your Web team. Re-purposing the ad or advertorial for a Web feature or promotion can be done at a nominal cost since you have already have content and creative. The key is to make this part of your routine.

Going to IBS?

Come join us for an advanced Interactive marketing seminar.

"Profit from Your Web Site Investment" - 1/14/05 9:00am-10:00am (Room W300)
This program demonstrates how savvy builders are turning their website visitors into leads and sales. Executives will leave the session with practical field-tested methods to immediately improve their web results.

"Are Your Website & Sales Center Integrated? Selling Homes Online" - 1/16/05 8:30am-10:00am
Are you a web-savvy executive looking to extend your sales, marketing, and design center to the Internet? Builders are converting web traffic into sales and are selling homes online today!

Originally Published – 1/5/05: http://www.floorpop.com/Floorpop010505.html

Builder Internet Marketing Getting Savvy

Builders are taking their Internet marketing to new levels. Some builders are finding that they can improve leads and sales to Internet buyers, not by 20% or 40%, but often by several hundred percent.

How are they doing it? Three areas of focus have led many builders to extraordinary returns. First, they recognize their Web site does not stand alone. It is part of a larger marketing system that drives qualified leads and physical traffic. Second, they execute well on a number of proven best practices when redeveloping their Web site. Finally, they put people, processes, and tools in place to follow up with leads, prospects, and buyers.

Building a Marketing System

Your Web site is part of a larger marketing system that may include radio, TV, direct mail, print advertising, outdoor advertising, public relations, and promotional events. It's time to treat interactive efforts as part of your marketing system. The payoff can mean higher sales velocity, lower marketing costs, and momentum that can take your communities through multiple phase releases.

·         Integrate Upstream - Your Web site should be integrated with your external marketing. This means, your Web site should feed third parties you may use for advertising (e.g., http://www.homebuilder.com, http://www.newhomesource.com, http://www.americanhomeguides.com). Your off-line media should encourage Web site visits.

·         Reinforce off-line advertising - You may be running promotions or advertising, reinforce these on your Web site and your leads and traffic will improve.

·         Integrate downstream - Now that your leads are coming in, you need to deal with them. Leads should automatically feed into your system for follow-up.

Design Your Web Site for Results

When redesigning or redeveloping your Web site, following a number of proven best practices can produce industry leading results. D.R. Horton in South Florida recently went through the process of upgrading their Web site. More than a face-lift, it was a well planned and executed combination of form and function.

"Our new site Web site is fast, easy to navigate, has clear calls to action, and provides browsers with more interaction through customizable e-brochures. It creates a more enjoyable and informative experience for our customers." said Candy Sharpsteen, Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

Here are a few proven methods to improve your Web site performance:

·         Make your pages light. More than 1/3 of Web site users still access the Internet through dial-up accounts. If your average page download is more than 75K, don't expect these users to stick around.

·         Make the site easy to use and test it before you build it to make sure users can accomplish their goals. Try this: Ask an assistant to complete a scenario. For example, "You are relocating to [Your market]. Find a neighborhood/home you like, get directions, find the schools, and ask for a brochure." Now watch and learn.

·         Make it easy for users to ask a question and start a dialogue. Encourage it.

·         Integrate your advertising and promotions on-line to drive physical traffic and leads.

·         Add coming soon community subscriptions to facilitate successful launches and phase releases.

·         Allow users to interact and customize their experience (e.g., e-brochures, my favorites) on your Web site.

Does it work? "While we are in a very favorable market, we have seen our traditional lead volume improve more than 400% and our coming soon subscriptions by even more." said Sharpsteen.

Following Up

The keys to converting all those leads into physical traffic and sales is a combination of people, processes, and tools that support a smooth transition from browser to buyer.

·         Make someone responsible for handling leads

·         Come up with a standardized method for handling all leads and make sure your on-site sales consultants understand it.

·         Put tools in place to support your methodology that may include email campaign management, lead/prospect tracking, and reporting.

T o learn more about what savvy builders are doing to get extraordinary results, please plan on attending IBS and "Profit From Your Web Site Investment," on January 14th, 2005 at 9:00 a.m. which promises to teach you the secrets of getting industry leading results from your Web site.

Originally Published: December 1, 2005 - http://www.floorpop.com/Floorpop120104.html

 

Getting Personal Can Improve Traffic 200% or More

Do you get lots of leads but find that most of them won't even respond to you? How are you going to convince Web site visitors to visit your communities when they don't even respond to your communications? There's a trade secret you should be aware of.

Get Personal and Consumers Respond.

Consumers respond to those who treat them as individuals. If you treat your leads as individuals and get personal, they will respond to you remarkably well. If you are going to get personal, you need to know something about your leads and be aware of what you don't know about them.

Start collecting more information about those who visit your website and take the time to consider what you can learn from each and every lead. Doing this takes an investment, but most of it is just taking the time to get personal.

Let me explain…

First, let me assume you already have someone responsible for following up on Internet leads. If you don't you might read this and consider putting a process in place for the future. To many builders this is the critical step. I asked Natalie Harris, Vice President of Marketing for David Weekley Homes, why putting such people and a process in place was necessary. According to Harris, "We've created a position (about 2 years ago) whose sole purpose is to develop dialog with these leads, creating a more personal contact, while establishing the lead's needs and in turn a more qualified prospect for our Sales Consultants. In our case, developing the Internet Neighborhood Advisor is necessary and has proven to be a strong value to David Weekley Homes' and continues to add sales to our bottom line."

How to Get More Personal

Many builders have implemented auto-responders on their Web sites, but most auto-responders simply don't cut it. "Auto-responses tend to be frustrating for prospects requesting information from a Web site. By opting to not have canned auto-responses, our leads are able to get to the 'real' information quicker, therefore making the Web experience more satisfying and informative.", said Harris.

Now, let's talk about how you can get personal and start getting better results today. First look at all the objective information you have about each lead. They gave you their name and email address, but what else did they tell you? Did they tell you where they live, their phone number, or leave comments? Use this to tailor your message and appeal to your visitors needs.

You could ask these and many questions, but if you ask too many things, don't expect to get folks to complete your online registration form (unless you are blessed with a hot market). You can get much more personal by improving your Web site tracking. What might you track?

·         Which communities did they look at?

·         How many communities did they request information about?

·         Did they print out driving directions or printer friendly community / plan pages?

·         Did they look at quick delivery homes?

By using this information, you can respond in a systematic, yet individualized way. If you can be systematic and you have a methodology, then using a system to respond becomes possible. Auto-responses can become individualized.

The Payoff

If you take the time to get personal with your Internet leads they will be much more likely to respond or show up as physical traffic. Builders with personalized responses have demonstrated that they can improve responses and ultimately traffic by 200% or more. Are you getting too many leads to be able to give this level of personalization? Look at systems that can help you do this. Use what your system learns about your users to personalize your messages. If you would like to see a demonstration of one such system we call FOCUS, please call us at 972-661-1975.

Originally Published: November 3, 2004 - http://www.floorpop.com/Floorpop110304.html

 

Four Keys to Developing Effective Marketing Systems

This month we start the topic of developing your interactive marketing system. It is a broad topic that could fill a book. We will start by describing the components of effective marketing systems.

Builders are dealing with tremendous increases in lead volume. Strong markets, more effective portals, better websites, more opportunities to ask for permission, and savvy marketing have all contributed to this increase in lead volume. If you are not getting enough lead volume, there are plenty of ways you can easily improve your results. First, look at your own website. It should be your primary driver of lead volume. If it's not, you need to find out why. These are not only your best Internet leads, but you also have the most upside here. Also, consider your online advertising and distribution options. I asked Rob Cohen, President & CEO of BeHomeWise what advice he would give to those of you looking to increase their lead volume. He said "My best advice would be to develop a comprehensive Internet strategy leveraging a number of Internet portals with an eye towards identifying what works best for them." Simply put, you need to be where the home shoppers are.

More people use the Web for information about new homes than any other source. Leads and sales related to those sales are up. However, not every builder performs at the same level. I asked Beau Ingman, CEO BuildTopia, how his clients (those using BT Sales) compared in terms of lead generation and sales conversion. Were similar sized builders in similar markets performing at the same level? According to Ingman, "Some builders get zero value [from the Internet] and for others it is their primary marketing channel." Cohen echoed this observation, "We have builders who have next to none [leads] and others who are overwhelmed." So, what drives this difference? "It all comes down to attention and focus. Builders who have taken the time to understand and measure this channel, those are the ones that see the benefit," said Ingman.

If you want to be kept on a home shopper's short list, you need to have an adequate website and solid content, but the key to turning your website visitors into sales is to turn your Internet marketing efforts into a system.

What is a marketing system? The key to turning your Internet marketing efforts into a marketing system is straight forward. The goal is to generate more visitor traffic, turn more visitors into leads, and have technology and processes in place to turn leads into sales. You need to be thinking about the entire process from the time a consumer first visits your website until the time they decide to buy from you a second time.

Let us highlight four things we believe you need to transition your interactive marketing efforts into an effective marketing system. You must:

·         Aggregate leads and information about them,

·         Define your methodology for responding to individual leads,

·         Implement technology and processes supporting your methodology, and

·         Measure everything.

Aggregate Leads and Information About Them

Good websites don't stand alone. They are integrated upstream (your advertising) and downstream (your sales and marketing process). This means connecting your website to distribution networks, search engines, and your offline advertising. It also means that what you learn from your website about your leads, needs to be integrated into your lead management and follow up systems. Start by putting systems in place to aggregate all your leads into a central repository. Once you have done this, you can begin the processing of communicating from one storehouse of leads.

Define Your Methodology for Responding to Leads Individually

Most good websites have auto-response capabilities. And these are good for setting consumer expectations (e.g., "Thanks, Jane will be getting back to shortly. A brochure is in the mail"). However, with the right technology, your automated responses can become personal, freeing your salespeople up to focus on what they do best, close sales. As you develop your business rules and a methodology for handling leads, your personalization will begin to payoff. Your messages can start to speak directly to the consumer reflecting what consumers looked at on your website. One company trying to address this opportunity is RealtyInfolinks, the interactive marketing arm of Crozier & Henderson Productions. They have developed a lead follow-up system they call FOCUS. Clint Henderson, President of RealtyInfolinks believes "You must develop a methodology for treating people differently based on what they are doing on your website."

Your system today may be as simple as routing leads based on communities of interest. As you learn more about your leads, you can get more sophisticated in your responses and campaigns. One rule we always insist upon is to give special treatment to leads who offer their phone numbers. You may have an online sales counselor to follow-up immediately with these leads and then use automated systems for further follow-up. Once you define your methodology, you can use systems to automatically qualify your leads for campaigns.

Start by defining everything you know about your leads and then flowchart your method for handling the leads. For example, a lead may come in from www.homebuilder.com asking about a specific community, providing a phone number, and is relocating, then give them message #22 immediately, do "X" within 24 hours, and send message #34 on day 7 if you still have no response. It will seem daunting at first, but soon it will flow and you will have defined a method for responding to each and every lead individually.

Implement Tools and Processes that Support Your Methodology

Technology by itself does not make a marketing system. When you put an effective process in place with technology that supports your processing of leads, prospects, and referrals, you have rounded out your marketing system. Once you have defined your methodology, automation can help you handle your growing lead volume. There are lots of tools out there to handle leads and automate your follow-up. Your system will be able to classify leads so that an individualized set of responses can be sent. Ideally, this is done without human intervention to classify every lead. When you are in a hot market and your resources are tight, you need to find a way to minimize the number of leads that need significant human qualification.

With the right tools you can manage communications with thousands of individuals and begin treating them as individuals based on their preferences. You might want to start pushing content to individuals based upon their preferences. One of my favorite examples of this is Centex's Realtor Newsletter. Realtors sign up to receive inventory information and Centex sends the inventory information on a regular schedule along with Realtor incentives, consumer incentive, new communities, grand opening information, closeouts, and new products.

Measure Everything

No marketing system is complete without solid measurement. It is your measurements that will allow you to hone your system into a uniquely effective system. It begins with measuring every campaign and looking at your responses. By making these measurements you can quickly adjust to develop more effective communications. At a minimum, you need to measure visitors, responses, leads, physical traffic, and sales. Without good measures, you wont be able to see what is working.

You can't expect every campaign to be a homerun. As Henderson put it, "Some things are going to work and others are not. The exciting thing about Internet marketing is that they [campaigns] can be changed on the fly."

If you would like to learn more about implementing an interactive marketing system that gets results at your company, give us a call at 866-923-4026. We would be glad to take a look at what you are doing now and provide you with a few simple recommendations. Just like this newsletter, "No risk, no obligation, nothing to buy."

Originally Published: September 1, 2004 - http://www.floorpop.com/Floorpop090104.html

 

Guidelines for Using the Internet to Improve Pre-sales

In the past 5 months we have discussed:

·         Changing the Marketing "Coming Soon" Communities,

·         Leveraging Virtual Reality in Marketing "Coming Soon" Communities,

·         Leveraging Video in Marketing "Coming Soon" Communities,

·         Building Your "Coming Soon" Interest Lists, and

·         Making Your "Coming Soon" Interest Lists Work.

This is the final installment in our six-part series covering advances in coming soon community marketing. In this issue, we summarize the key points of the series and leave you with a few simple guidelines for immediately improving your pre-sales.

Do these things and you will generate immediate results that will build over time.

1.      Focus on your media mix and interactive marketing efforts during your new community kick-off meetings. Starting with your target market, create an outreach chart to plan your media mix. The goal is to increase your points of contact with your target market to improve both your reach and frequency. There's not a single template for this no more than there is a single way to design your community amenities. You will need to take into account your target market, market conditions, and other factors. Review the first article in this series "Changing the Marketing 'Coming Soon' Communities" to learn more.

2.      Encourage consumers to visit your Web site to learn more and to register for your interest lists. For communities with strong amenities or in niche markets (e.g., urban in fill projects) it may make sense to build a dedicated site with its own URL tied back to your main site.

3.      Get the word out fast and develop interest lists quickly. Announce new communities to past leads, visitor traffic, and buyers through email and/or direct mail.

4.      Sell "new," "new," "new"! Consumers have favorite words, and a preferred on is "new." New community, new release, or new plans will all drive interest and physical traffic. Put your new communities on your Web site as quickly as you can and highlight them on your community map. Promote them through highly visible links.

5.      Make is easy to sign up for your new community interest lists. Do more than just provide information about the community and a "more information" link. Provide consumers with a link to your coming soon interest lists within each market with registration on the same page and watch your lists grow.

6.      Consider improving pre-visit experience and your on-site sales process with virtual reality ("VR") and video. Showing what will be through VR and delivering the raw emotion of a testimonial through video can help seal your sales.

7.      Build and manage your database. Make sure all your leads and interest list participants are in a common database and you have a way to track communications and physical traffic. Interested buyers are likely to sign up for more than one interest list. So, you need to manage the communications to avoid redundancy.

8.      Invest in e-mail campaign management tools or outsource to a trusted vendor who has experience managing pre-sale marketing campaigns.

None of these steps are difficult to learn. We can help you get started in a program that pays great dividends. Call us at 866-923-4026 to learn more.

SPECIAL NOTE: We also invite you to explore Lux Solutions' latest website project for D.R. Horton Homes at http://sfl.drhorton.com.

Originally Published: August 5, 2005 - http://www.floorpop.com/Floorpop080504.html

 

Changing the Marketing Coming Soon Communities

This month, we begin a 6 part series of articles. In these articles we will explore how marketing coming soon communities is changing. The series focuses on leveraging alternative media, new technology, and research tools to improve your marketing and sales performance.

For many builders marketing new homes is a product-driven exercise. They buy land, build product to model, promote communities through newspaper and/or directional signage, and then sell based on the model.

A number of market changes are leading some forward looking builders to consider alternatives to traditional media. Some of these changes include: the increase in number of in-fill projects, the high cost of land, higher cost of media, media shift toward the Internet, and tighter management of phase releases. Each of these changes has implications for marketing new homes.

At the same time, consumers are changing. They are shopping differently. The Media Audit reports that newspaper readership has declined from 60.7% in 1997 to 49% today. Reaching your target is becoming more difficult.

Layer Your Marketing to Improve Results

Layering your media and using alternative media can help you reach your prospects more directly. Using a combination of media, you can increase your reach and your frequency. You increase your qualified traffic, but it takes planning.

Up-front, when you are putting together your marketing budgets is when you need to do this planning. You may spend more on marketing up-front, but your payoff is higher initial sales velocity and sustained demand. As a side benefit, your efforts will likely stay under the radar screen of your competitors.

A Layered Approach

About a year ago, Taylor Woodrow, a major North American homebuilder, acquired a land position in Colma, California. Colma is in the South San Francisco area, but it is not what most homebuilders would consider +A land. Colma is the burying ground for San Francisco. Shortly after the great San Francisco earthquake nearly all the cemeteries in San Francisco were moved. They were moved to Colma. I'm told Woodrow's development increased the living population of Colma by more than 10%. Further, the land was adjacent to BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) rail and bordered blue collar business enterprises.

Taylor Woodrow spent much time defining their target audience and weighing their marketing options for their new development called Verano. They wanted to reach sophisticated urban buyers who might be considering lofts in the city. The challenge was to gain sufficient reach and frequency that would drive interest. They were confident that if they could get prospects to see Verano, they would become buyers. Which media could target most effectively their audience and what were the relative costs? They had to have a way to cut through the clutter to reach these sophisticated urban buyers.

In addition to on-site signage, they had several media types in their mix, including: targeted outdoor advertising on the BART and bus shelters, select magazines, direct mail, radio, and San Francisco Chronicle inserts. With strong and focused imagery, they tried to grab the attention of their likely buyers. As Toni Leance, Marketing Director for Northern California, put it "You have to cut through the clutter." All this off-line media pointed prospects to a website developed for Verano (http://www.visitverano.com). Here they educated and informed their buyers. The site became their primary means of beginning a dialogue with their prospective buyers.

While Verano had its marketing and operational challenges, Taylor Woodrow was able to quickly generate more than 300 high-quality prospects on their Interest list before opening and sold all but 3 of their homes in their initial release to those who registered at the website. While they had front-loaded their marketing investment, they were able to shut off the marketing through close-out by continuing to work their website interest list.

The Key to the Approach

The key to this approach is to fully understand your target audience. With this knowledge, a layered media approach can increases your points of contact with the buyers and your overall reach. We are not talking simply about leveraging the Web, but a combination of media that may include:

·         Newspaper - consider buying space outside the real-estate section if there is a fit with your targeted audience and your property.

·         Newspaper inserts - you can target specific demographic groups and provide much more information with a much better cost profile than a traditional ad.

·         Print magazines - consider the editorial focus, readers, and shelf life of the magazine. You may be able to drive significant lead volume. Track these with reader response cards and 800 numbers.

·         Broadcast radio/cable TV - with both radio and cable TV you can zero in on your target market by age, gender, and income.

·         Targeted Outdoor - outdoor advertising can generate millions of impressions. Transit signage and surface street signage can put you in the path of your prospects and drive more traffic to your website and community. The drawback is that you need to plan well in advance.

·         Direct Mail - when you can truly target your audience, direct mail can be very effective. Again tracking is critical.

·         Internet -targeting is the key. Among the major builder portals and segment targeted websites, the cost per lead performance can be tremendous. If you have a highly targeted segment (e.g., active adult), explore the niche websites to drive traffic. Additionally you can buy key words and phrases on search engines to drive qualified traffic to your site.

·         E-mail - very low cost once you have your interest list. This becomes your key for keeping prospects informed.

What's the right mix? Every community will be different, but with careful planning up-front, builders can drive qualified traffic more efficiently.

According to Leance "This approach works better for two reasons: First, you are reaching the non-newspaper reader. Second, it increases your overall reach and frequency."

What to Do

·         Invite your agency or in-house creative team in when you are developing your budget.

·         Then, create an outreach chart to weigh the benefits and costs of each media choice against your goals for reaching that target.

·         Put together a targeted website or pages on your main site with a URL that is positioned with the search engines. Drive all your marketing responses towards this expanded information source and registration vehicle.

·         Use the site and e-mail to communicate with your growing list of prospects

The goal is to drive qualified and informed prospects to your community. "If you can reach your prospects more directly by cutting through the clutter, and sending the right message to your targeted audience, you are going to see an increase in qualified traffic." Said, Leance.

Originally Published: March 3, 2004 - http://www.floorpop.com/Floorpop030304.html