Sat 8 Mar 2008
The view from here
Digital marketing in the housebuilding industry.Timing is everything, and in a tough market it’s definitely time to make every penny of marketing spend count, says Simon Melaniphy of Refreshed Media.
Two major problems are the spend not counting enough, and not knowing how to count it. It has been recently reported that 80 per cent of house hunters turn to the internet first when looking for a home – so integrating digital effectively within your marketing mix is essential.
Housebuilders have been slow to adapt to digital marketing – particularly at regional level. It is easier to stay with local press ads that have worked for years, rather than open the door to learning about SEO, PPC, mobile, email and online media. There is more to digital marketing than meets the eye, and this is why just putting a copy of your brochure online does not work. And, while you will be pushed to find a housebuilder without a website, the quality and effectiveness vary massively.
One of the easiest ways to start generating targeted potential customers to your site, and a technique that most major housebuilders are now adopting, is through paid search, or “pay per click”. PPC is quick to set up and easy to expand, or contract, as business conditions dictate. However, it is very easy to waste large sums if it is not managed and optimised properly. So ensure a qualified expert or agency is at the wheel.
The other big problem is a lack of effective tracking, when there is no excuse not to know which campaigns are generating sales, through a medium that is simple to measure.
A potential customer has been to your website after clicking on an email you sent. A few days later they see one of your banner adverts and come through to your site again. The following week they decide to view that two-bedroom flat but cannot find the email. What do they do? Search for your brand name in Google and come through to your site again. Do you actually know which of these campaigns has worked?
At a minimum, using Google Analytics, or similar, will place you ahead of a number of Top 20 housebuilders. Think of this as advanced website statistics which can track where visitors come from and what they do on your site, such as reaching a “goal” page. For example you can find out that last week your £10,000 spend on Google paid adverts generated 500 brochure requests and online account sign-ups or enquiries.
If you’re one of the few more advanced players in the game, your tracking software will tell you all three of those campaigns added value in contributing to the lead; and in what order.
Take this a stage further. We know this has generated a lead, but if we knew which leads actually resulted in sales we could reduce our spend elsewhere. To achieve this, leads generated online need to go automatically into your customer relationship management (CRM) system along with the marketing source.
If you get to this stage, you’ll be beating most of the Top 20, but just tracking your campaigns to goal pages in analytics is a good start. It’s certainly better than the 43 per cent of paid search advertisers that E-consultancy.com reports have no idea what their Return On Investment is.
If you want to maximise your spend, get clever in targeting your customers. Modern email systems can tell which links we choose in the email, so if a customer clicks the deposit paid incentive, or the two-bedroom flat link, your CRM can know their preference – thus helping you design future personalised communications. This is one way the web is moving, making it easy for people to get what they want, so consider customising the content you deliver to fit their profile.
There is little point investing in driving website traffic if your site isn't converting customers properly – and how would you know unless you were using analytics? A glance over some housebuilders’ sites finds key pages without a clear call to action and no drive to capture valuable email data.
Perhaps the biggest missed opportunity is the lack of video or “rich media”, such as talking customer testimonials or 360 degree tours – with or without a human presenter.
However sites such as Barratt, McCarthy & Stone and George Wimpey show searching made easy with an interactive Microsoft or Google map. Or Bryant with clear display of current incentives and clear access to the search options. Running analytics on one major site we found well over 60 per cent of people came to do a property search, so why not make it easy for them?
Come to think of it, why not make it easy on yourself? Tracking and optimising your website and online campaigns is only going to help you make a difference in a tough market.
Top Tips - from www.refreshedmedia.com
- Track website and digital campaigns using analytics
- Know how to interpret and action analytics data
- Use qualified experts to manage PPC accounts to avoid wasting budget
- Ensure website calls to action and email address capture
- Personalise your campaigns and website content
- Consider “rich media” such as walkthroughs and video presenters
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