Digital Marketing Resources

Builders 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.

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:  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. Marketing 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 hope 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.

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. 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. Happy 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.