Although we have barely closed the book on summer, the holidays are right around the corner. While this may leave many of us moaning at the sight of pumpkins and candy in the stores, for home builders it produces a different kind of dread: the seasonal holiday slowdown.
Although the holiday downturn is expected, in weak housing markets it can be particularly challenging both financially and mentally.
Fortunately, there are things that we can do now to create sales during the holidays.
Here’s our list of 9 things to do in the next 9 weeks to create traffic and sales through the end of the year:
1. Establish a Bi-Weekly Email Schedule.
The person most likely to buy a home from you during the holidays is someone who is already in your existing database. In addition to salesperson follow up, nurture this relationship with your existing leads by send bi-weekly HTML emails that feature community photographs, videos, testimonials, special promotions, and more. You can do this easily and inexpensively with tools like Constant Contact, iContact, aWeber, and more. Start this now and extend it through the holidays to keep your existing lead base engaged.
2. Prospect, Prospect, Prospect.
The next nine weeks are a great opportunity to fill the top of your sales funnel with new leads in order to produce results during the holidays. One way to prospect now is to increase your Craigslist home builder postings (and other free advertising sites) in order to generate more leads to work with now and through the holidays. Focus on specific models, specific move-in ready homes, and specific buyer profile messages. Increase your posting schedule today to increase your website traffic and new web leads before the holidays begin.
3. Romance Your Brokers.
There is nothing worse than a new home salesperson who only contacts their broker community when things have slowed down. It’s tacky and unlikely to produce any results. Tell your brokers now how much you appreciate them and ask them how you can help them make their next sale at your new home community. Create weekly broker email updates of inventory, visit their offices, and give them tools to talk to their buyers about your community.
4. Build Your SEO.
If you want to drive website traffic and leads during the holidays, focus now on your SEO efforts. What are the top keywords and phrases that buyers in your area type into search engines to look for a new home? Type those into a search engine. Do you appear on page one, above the fold? This is the primary source of information that internet shoppers see when searching for a new home. Capture more buyers who are looking for homes during the holidays by increasing your visibility on the first page of search results for popular terms. This can take weeks or months, so focus now on creating keyword rich content including home builder blog posts, SEO press releases, and video marketing.
5. Shop Your Competitor.
The cornerstone of any new home marketing plan is a well-positioned product. While we do not advocate slashing prices to reach buyers during the holidays, this is the time to shop the competition and find out about any pricing adjustments, negotiations, and unadvertised specials they may be offering. It’s also important to understand how they are positioning themselves against you with buyers. Share your results with sales, marketing, and management to anticipate any changes that may be needed in your pricing or positioning to stay competitive during the holidays. Do this now to give the organization enough time for planning, execution, and approvals.
6. Create a survey.
If you have an existing database of leads, create a survey quickly and easily using a service like Constant Contact. Ask people who have visited your community (online or offline) about their plans to buy a home. Include questions about their time frame, the most important factor in their new home purchase, and the biggest obstacle they are facing in making a buying decision. The insights that you gather can help you plan holiday promotions that resonate with prospects. Gather the information and share results within your organization now in order to give each department (sales, marketing, management) time to make any necessary adjustments before the holiday season starts.
7. Check Your Website Performance.
Maintaining consistent home builder website traffic during the holidays can be more challenging, so it’s important to capture as many of your website visitors as leads as possible. Audit your current opt-in conversion by determining your current conversion rate. To do this, divide the number of people who register online with an email address by the total number of unique visitors to your website. (For example, if you have 1,000 visitors in one month and 10 people register an email address requesting more information, you have a conversion rate of 1% – 10/1,000.) If your conversion rate is lower than 3%, consider offering visitors something for registering such a home buyers guide, brochure, or other value item. Improving your conversion rate can actually increase your new leads during the holidays even with lower website traffic. Develop your strategy now to give your organization enough time to write and design a download, receive approvals, and update all online touch points (website, social media accounts, etc) before the holidays.
8. Increase Your Social Media Presence.
Our research shows that many home builder Facebook pages are updated about once a week. Increase your Facebook postings to 2-3 times per week now and continue this schedule throughout the holidays to keep your new home community top of mind for prospective buyers. Facebook updates can include new homeowner announcements, positive housing news, new specials, or holiday wishes. Start increasing your frequency now to begin to move prospects though the sales process with information that is relevant to a buying decision.
9. Collect Buyer Testimonials.
Testimonials from current homeowners are a powerful marketing tool, but even your happiest homeowners are likely to be distracted and busy during the holidays. Reach out now to gather the testimonial photos, quotes, and videos that can be used for marketing before, during, and after the holidays.
Begin your holiday marketing strategy today to create results through the end of the year and a strong start to 2011.
