Skip to main content
All Posts By

lesliebridgeswriter

Leslie is a partner in Builder Promotions Marketing firm, a company devoted to making life better at work for the Marketing professionals who work tirelessly to deliver New Home Communities that provide a place for families to live and thrive. She loves being a Mom and keeps a suitcase packed for the next travel adventure with her family.

When do you reward a digital house hunter for engaging with your brand?

By Rewarding Prospect Engagement No Comments
When does it pay to reward engagement on the buyer’s journey to becoming a happy homeowner? Ultimately, you decide that, but here’s our list of touchpoints  where a well-placed reward might nurture your next happy homeowner.
  • Reward event registration when you are trying to capture specific segments. (in a previous blog post, we share one Builder's success with this)
  • Thank Realtors who promote new home communities.  They can multiply your sales efforts.
  • Reward digital shoppers who click to call for a model home tour.
  • Host a 48 hour Facebook Event where users share photos of life in their new home.  Reward each entry and make a permanent album for Facebook.
  • Recognize customers who tell their stories in video testimonials. They are credible to digital house hunters browsing your site at 10pm.
  • Ask customers for online reviews and reward them for taking the time.  Google will reward you with better ranking because today’s house hunters expect to validate their findings with reviews.
  • Reward prospects  with a digital gift when they download your Mobile APP.  Your mobile channel is the next new sales channel.
  • Ask new homeowners for a family selfie on move-in day.  Give them a branded selfie stick to inspire a playful photo shoot.  Prospective home buyers want to imagine themselves having a happy life in their new home.
Check out BP Digital Tech Store for cost-effective tech gear that provides the ideal real estate to give prospects an easy way to return to your digital content. Thanks for stopping by! Cheers, Leslie Bridges, Chief Blogger cropped-img_6516_pp.jpg

When does it pay to reward conversions? Ask Jared Weggeland of Southern Homes.

By Customer Stories 2 Comments
The other day our new Production Manager received a call from a builder who had heard Jared Weggeland of Southern Homes, speak about how he is building engagement with home buyer prospects.  The builder was inquiring about Builder Promotions' Cruise Ship Certificates, which Jared had used successfully in his event marketing. This made me curious about what went so well that Jared shared his success with other builders during a public speaking engagement. So I interviewed Jared, and what I learned is that our promotion was one piece of a well-constructed marketing effort to reward prospective homebuyers for their engagement with his brand.   He covered several sales success stories with quantifiable results, and I wanted to share them with our blog community. Southern Homes attended a Bridal Event where they were pursuing a strategy of attracting “life changes” home buying prospects.  Jared was challenged with stiff competition from cake-tastings, wedding photographers, dress designers, and other wedding planning resources. Couples attending the Bridal event needed a reason to give  mindshare to their future home. Jared tapped Builder Promotions Customer Gift Collection to reward every couple who registered at his booth with an entry to win a Honeymoon Cruise. Jared used the Cruise theme to transport young couples away from the details of planning their wedding, to dream about their Honeymoon.  And it worked.  The results: Jared and his team captured close to 300 quality prospects through registrations, and they are now being nurtured in a targeted email campaign for the "life changes" segment of their home buyer prospect list.

Now if you have read Jared’s book about selling homes on Facebook, you’d know that he didn’t stop there! He expanded the cruise idea to engage Southern Homes' Fan Page friends in a Valentine’s day event where  Southern Homes "friends" (prospects and homeowners whom the brand had connected with) could submit their love stories, and the Southern Homes Facebook community would vote for the best story.  The winner took a romantic cruise compliments of Southern Homes. The results: The winning couple alone, accumulated 1400 Facebook interactions all within the real estate of Southern Homes' Facebook page.  Social media is nurturing brand friends through this and other Facebook promotions at Southern Homes.

But that wasn’t enough, Jared then ran a publishers clearing house style promotion to reward referrals.  Southern Homes rewarded referrals from their business community in addition to specific stakeholders in the home buying process:

  • Homeowners who referred a friend
  • Realtors who referred a client
  • Sales Model visitors who posted a photo of their visit on the FB page
  • Homeowners who recorded and posted a video testimonial on the FB page

Anyone who took these actions was entered into a drawing for a $2000 luxury cruise.  The results: Over 20 Referral Sales. The surprise visit to personally deliver the award to unsuspecting winners, created even more social currency for Southern Homes, and the winner is still referring homebuyers today!

What’s impressive about these tactics is  that they support a strategy by Southern Homes, to build and refine a list of quality prospects in order to reach more narrowly targeted homebuyer segments.  Sales results speak for themselves. For instance, it used to be that 9% of online sales were tied to a generalized e-blast sent to 9000 Southern Homes prospects.  After an 18-month effort to refine and segment their list with groups like the "life events and life stages" prospects, the number jumped from 9% to 20% of online sales contracts tied directly to email outreach.  Jared also shared with me that he and his team sold out a community that a national builder was previously unable to market.  How? You guessed it -- through Facebook. Friends told friends, and the Southern Homes team posted on Facebook to reinforce everything from construction milestones to move-in day celebrations.  It’s a digital home selling dream. When does it pay to reward engagement on the buyer's journey to becoming a happy homeowner? Ultimately, you decide that, but here's our list of touchpoints where a well-placed reward might nurture your next happy homeowner.
  • Reward event registration when you are trying to capture specific segments.
  • Thank Realtors who promote new home communities.  They can multiply your sales efforts.
  • Reward digital shoppers who click to call for a model home tour.
  • Host a 48 hour Facebook Event where users share photos of life in their new home.  Reward each entry and make a permanent album for Facebook.
  • Recognize customers who tell their stories in video testimonials. They are credible to digital house hunters browsing your site at 10pm.
  • Ask customers for online reviews and reward them for taking the time.  Google will reward you with better ranking because today's house hunters expect to validate their findings with reviews.
  • Reward prospects  with a digital gift when they download your Mobile APP.  Your mobile channel is the next new sales channel.
  • Ask new homeowners for a family selfie on move-in day.  Give them a branded selfie stick to inspire a playful photo shoot.  Prospective home buyers want to imagine themselves having a happy life in their new home.
What are you doing to invite engagement? How is it working?  We'd love to interview you if you'd like to share your successes. Cheers, Leslie Bridges, Chief Blogger Marketing Blueprints is sponsored by Builder Promotions.  

Branded Tech Gifts You Can't Live Without?

By BP News No Comments
21377273Knowing when to reward customer engagement can be tricky, in the age of the digital house hunter.  Do you reward every conversion or only milestone behaviors like the move from online browser to sales center visitor?  What are the most effective touchpoints where a reward might nurture a prospective home buyer one step closer to becoming a happy homeowner? Builder Marketers are testing these kinds of tactics to better define and predict the home selling cycle. To help you reward customer engagement and keep home buying prospects connected during the sales cycle,  we just launched the BP Digital Tech Collection.  How many times have you been somewhere and wondered frantically where the nearest socket is so you can charge a device? When we are at the airport, my family begins a quiet race for the nearest electrical outlet to plug-in and charge.  As anyone reading this blog knows, there are never enough. I recently solved this problem bysamsung-wallhugger-2 getting a purse-size portable power bank which I love because I have the security of a charge option and connection anywhere. BP Digital features more of these cool compact power banks and other portable tech gifts that help you keep prospective homebuyers connected to your content while they are on-the-go. Wander over and take a look when you're in the mood to shop. Thanks for stopping by.  We'd love to hear your stories about keeping prospects connected along their journey to purchase one of your new homes. Cheers! Leslie Bridges, Chief Blogger Marketing Blueprints is sponsored by Builder Promotions, Inc.

"How to 2X Your Email Marketing Results with Pay Per Click" A Webinar you won't want to miss.

By Digital Marketing Resources No Comments
cropped-img_6516_pp.jpgBuilders are using email marketing to generate leads, and there is no sign that this form of marketing is about to slow down.  I've been looking at resources to help our builder clients get the best email marketing results, and I couldn't resist sharing this with you. I think this webinar is worth a look"How to 2x Your Email Marketing Results with Pay Per Click", by leading PPC innovator, Larry Kim of Wordstream.  It took place today, so here are links for the SlideShare and youtube recording. I am obsessed with inbound marketing tactics because they invite digital shoppers to engage with your brand, and they are evolving to provide the majority of presale support.  I've followed Larry Kim's company, Wordstream because he's a thought-leader in PPC, and he aligns with our mission to make work-life easy for marketing and sales professionals. There is a reason to be especially interested in Pay-Per-Click (aka google Adwords or PPC) if you are a builder. As some of you may know, one of Google's recent algorithm updates (nicknamed "Pigeon") has had a major impact on real estate related search results. We are now seeing significantly fewer local map search results for real estate related terms and most keywords are only displaying results from the top real estate aggregators. In an upcoming blog post, we'll hear from organic search expert, Julien Brandt who is the founder and CEO of Organik SEO. Julien will discuss the impact of Google's algorithm changes and how they impact real estate rankings. He will also give insights and suggestions on how your digital teams can best adjust in the continually evolving SEO landscape. My recent conversation with Julien got me thinking about the many benefits of PPC in a world where it's getting harder to occupy page one real estate in Google. Do you have a favorite resource?  We'd love to hear from you if so.  Stop by again for our upcoming series about the unstoppable power of email marketing when it connects to a total CRM eco-system.  (Remember if we are talking about CRM, it's simple, centralized and cost-effective).   Cheers! Leslie Bridges, Chief Blogger Marketing Blueprints is sponsored by Builder Promotions, a centralized procurement platform to help coordinate the myriad of branding products used throughout the home selling cycle.  We deliver work-life simplicity for our clients and brand consistency for their new home communities.

Pssst… it's easier than you think to acquire, curate and manage customer reviews.

By Digital Marketing Resources One Comment
images (10) Builder Promotions' clients are building some of the most thoughtfully designed and referral worthy homes in the nation. But when I look at local Google listings for new home communities, it's hard to find a lot of current customer reviews. I have spoken to builder marketers who would like to implement a review system but simply don't have the time. Our amazing clients are running very lean marketing departments and managing an ever-growing list of digital tactics to advance the conversion from digital shopper to actual buyer! So I decided to find out how customer reviews are being automated to make life easier for builder marketers who want to mine the marketing gold held by their happy new homeowners. We recently interviewed Henri Isenberg, COO of  a leading reputation management platform, Reviewinc.com,  about the business of delivering easy Customer Review management to Homebuilder Marketers.   Here are his thoughts about why reviews are important, and what you want to be thinking about when you consider automating this important marketing asset. Marketing Blueprints:  Why customer reviews? What's important about them today? Henri Isenberg, COO Reviewinc:  It's in our tagline, "where reviews mean business".  Reviews generate business for enterprises who capture and amplify them.  We now know that a majority of customers search customer reviews before making a purchase.  This is especially true of the first-time homebuyer demographic who skews younger. We've done some research to illustrate this, and marketers will be interested in the growth of search among the 65+ group, too. This signals a much broader adoption of review search from my perspective. Marketing Blueprints: Referrals vs. Reviews - what's more important? Henri Isenberg, COO Reviewinc:  The answer is both! Referrals are given by someone you know.  For instance, if you tell a friend, "I love the Del Sur Community because the location offers larger homes, and you are still only 20 minutes from one of the best beaches in Southern California.", that's a vote of confidence from a trusted person you know.  People have been referring their friends to neighborhoods forever, so the idea of referrals is well understood in the home selling process.  Today, when you hear this from a friend,  you automatically check out Del Sur online. In your digital journey, you validate what you are hearing from one person with reviews from many people. That's the expectation from consumers now. Reviews are earned media in which a collective group of customers talk about your brand.  If you aren't soliciting them and amplifying to every possible relevant review source,  you are missing an opportunity to influence and convert digital shoppers browsing your communities. Marketing Blueprints - Can you speak to the value of customer review management for negative reviews? Henri Isenberg, Reviewinc: If someone has something bad to say about your business, would you rather they tell you directly or would rather they amplify it without your knowing? With a review management system, you are empowered to insert yourself into the process and engage with unhappy customers to avert a negative PR event.  Review management platforms are a necessary tool for today's customer service teams. Marketing Blueprints:  download (4)What are three key points Builder Marketers should be thinking about when they assess an automated customer review system? Henri Isenberg, Reviewinc: 1). My top piece of advice is to get a comprehensive system, and don't be lured into a solution that has a few features.  You have to  capture reviews, solicit reviews, curate reviews, engage with reviewers and amplify reviews to all relevant sources without hiring a new marketing person or taking more time from your already busy schedule.  To do this, you need a simple and comprehensive platform. 2.).  Integration is key.  You want to be able to integrate with your CRM and your email contact management along with customer service and PR systems.  Again; integration saves time, and we know builder marketers have a full plate. 3.) Automation is essential.  This is the business of delivering fast, simple, easy and actionable results for busy Marketing professionals.  I don't think people realize that you can manage large volumes of reviews in minutes per day. 114c84cMarketing Blueprints asked Reviewinc to create a special offer for Builder Promotions' clients and prospects.  If managing reviews more effectively has been on your marketing wish list, please be our guest and Use this code - BPVIP to receive a discounted subscription to try Reviewinc's solution. To make it easy for you, feel free to call or email info@reviewinc.com/877-9REVIEW, and they'll take you for a test drive.  Just let them know you are using the Builder Promotions invitation code. Thanks for joining in the conversation!  I love sharing good marketing finds and hocropped-img_6516_pp.jpgpe that, with customer review management, you can convert more digital shoppers into happy homeowners for your brand. Cheers, Leslie Bridges, Chief Blogger Marketing Blueprints is sponsored by Builder Promotions.

Customer Reviews – Marketing Gold if you can mine them.

By Digital Marketing Resources No Comments
114c84c According
 to Nielsen’s 2013 “Global Trust in Advertising Survey,” 70% of consumers trust online reviews from people they don’t know, up 15% from four years earlier. Ninety-two percent of consumers around the world say they trust word-of-mouth recommendations, whether from strangers or friends and family, above all, other forms of advertising. I benefited from a word-of-mouth review this week, and it tipped my purchasing decision in favor of the brand.  Here's my story.cropped-img_6516_pp.jpg To set the stage, I’m having a quick lunch with a close friend and we are talking about the perils of giving a teen boy their own set of car keys.  Our boys are 15 ½ and chomping at the bit to get behind the wheel. My friend, a Scientist who prefers to have evidence and data to support all her choices, waxed eloquently as follows. “DriversEd.com was great. I know the name sounds cheesy, but they bundled our online course with driving lessons, gave us a discount, and Wil could use their mobile app to take the course while he rides the bus to school.  They followed up with me to set up driving classes the minute he finished the online course, and a professional driver trainer showed up at our house for the first scheduled lesson yesterday.  Robbi did this with Jared too.” Done!  I could cease my search for a highly rated driving school.  But that wasn't all.  As a marketing professional, I was intrigued with how concisely my friend hit on the value points for their product.  Unfortunately for the brand, I’m the only person who heard that story. Great customer review systems make it effortless for you to tap happy homeowners and amplify their stories to thousands of digital house hunters. Share KeyHappy homeowners are experiencing life's milestones in your communities.  In your brand's homes, they welcome babies,  enjoy career growth, nurture their families and experience a whole spectrum of firsts - walking, running, kindergarten, graduations, college and yes, handing over the car keys to a teen. At the core of a customer review is a human being willing to share their experience, like my friend did over lunch.  If you can tap their stories and make them shareable, you have marketing gold that has the power to convert digital shoppers into sales center visitors. I understand why new home consumers focus their reviews on the presale experience (selecting their model and options), closing and post-sale service. We have expectations of a new home that it will be built immaculately and that the customer service will be as pristine.  But what if builder marketers could easily solicit reviews that focus on the experience of living in their communities? When we shop for a home we are imagining how our life will fit into a new environment.  So, why not solicit reviews about what it's like to live life in your new homes?  Reviews can offer rich content if you have a good system for soliciting the feedback. In an upcoming interview with customer review expert, Henri Isenberg, of Reviewinc.com, we'll take a look at how customer reviews drive homebuyers to your community and discuss "must have" features for any review system you implement. We'll also feature a special invitation for Homebuilders to help you centralize, simplify and shape your customer review content. Thanks for visiting. Cheers! Leslie Bridges, Chief Blogger Marketing Blueprints is delivered compliments of Builder Promotions.