Top New Home Marketing Tips for 2022

It’s been another incredible year in the home building industry, so we asked some of the top industry experts for their thoughts and advice on how to tackle 2022. We hope you get inspired to try something new and start planning where to take your brand into the New Year!

For sales insight, check out the article, Top New Home Sales Tips for 2022.

Cheers to a successful year ahead!

Kevin Weitzel, Outhouse

Yes, You Can Incorporate VR into Your Marketing

I often hear, ‘We can’t afford Virtual Reality,” and to that I say, you absolutely can! A typical neighborhood has 2–3 models. For the cost of much less, astronomically less than even one model and only slightly more than a staged Matterport, you can have a Rendered Virtual Tour. Your potential buyers can tour the home 24 hours a day…and bonus! You can give it a facelift with new décor and/or color and material schemes for a fraction of the cost. Show it basic in your start up communities and fully decked out for your move up communities. Yes, all from one Rendered Virtual Tour.

When it comes down to it, your customers demand it… sure, you can pass, but beware, your potential customer will eventually get it… it will simply come from your competition.

Kody Smith, NoviHome

Mobile Apps Will Change the Marketing Landscape

Today, every company has its own app – buyers expect it and want it. People have their smartphones on them 24/7 and they love the simplicity they offer them. No one wants to go to Safari, then to Google, then to the Starbucks website to find the daily deals. They want to tap on the app and have the information immediately. With an app you earn valuable real estate on the buyer’s smartphone.  If you don’t have an app, your competition is beating you and you will be stuck playing catch up. Having an app will be the best decision you make this year! Read more.

Carly Sickles, M/I Homes

Review and Reset in 2022

The last two years involved unconventional ideas, fast-paced decisions, strategy pivots, and shifted budgets. As simple as it may sound, as marketers, we need to take some time as we move into 2022 to review and reset foundational items.

Does your advertising spend stand up to today’s market demand, or does it reflect your needs from 6 months ago? Does your content align with today’s customer needs and your builder’s availability? Have you established ongoing routines to stay informed of changing trends and metrics?

As you fine-tune your game plan for the upcoming year, don’t forget to always leave some wiggle room in your marketing strategy for the unknown: for the campaign you thought of at 2:00 am and have always wanted to test, for new content creation, and for fueling the fire on things that are working well.

Jon Sherman, VC Productions

Think Like a Photographer When Filming a DIY Video

Here’s a practical tip for anyone filming a DIY video: think like a photographer. So often, we see folks filming B-roll (watch this video to learn the difference between A-roll and B-roll) swinging the camera around, panning, tilting, and zooming through the shoot. Professional production crews use expensive fluid-head tripods, jibs, cranes, sliders, and electronically stabilized gimbals to achieve those camera movements. It’s no wonder your handheld property progress walkthrough videos look unprofessional, and your viewers are experiencing vertigo. Thinking like a photographer means:

• Framing your shot
• Keeping the camera still
• Letting the action unfold in front of the lens

This basic principle will elevate the quality of your videos and allow you to focus on proper framing, white balance, and exposure. So the next time you shoot a video, think like a photographer.

Bassam Salem, AtlasRTX

Your Customers Expect the Best Experience

As consumers, our expectations have never been higher from a customer experience perspective. We expect the best—a real-time experience (RTX):

• The best channel is digital: Gone are the days of low-tech, bureaucratic, paper-based experiences; they’re too clunky for us. We want digital. We want on-demand. We want it on our mobile phone. We want it personalized to us. Mobile messaging has quickly become the most intimate form of communication; we text our family and friends because that’s our preferred channel. We expect the same experience from our interaction with the businesses and brands we interact with.
• The best time is now: Gone are the days when we were willing to call a 1-800 number, wait for 18 to 25 minutes to talk to someone, and accidentally drop the call because our cell phone goes out of range temporarily. We expect immediacy in every experience and will look for alternative channels (or alternative companies) in order to fulfill those expectations. And we expect that immediacy 24 hours a day because “business hours” is no longer an excuse.
• The best service is self-service: Gone are the days when a luxurious experience meant one that involved a concierge; thanks to the likes of Amazon and Tesla, the best experiences are the ones with the least friction, most automation, and minimal need for human intercedence. We consumers want to control our own customer journey, guiding ourselves through discovering our options, deciding which ones we prefer, and expecting an experience focused completely on delighting us at every step.

Matt Riley, New Home Inc & Group Two

Focus on SEO-Generating Content

As more tech giants roll out new privacy features and consumers opt out of online tracking faster than you can blink, builders will have to rethink the game of paid advertising. While there will always be a place for PPC and CPC, the acronym to focus on for 2022 is SEO.

If it’s harder to reach our audiences with paid content, the answer is to create more organic content that will attract them based on their own search activity. Create user-first content that answers the questions buyers are asking online. Make sure your website is properly set up so that it guides them along the buyer’s journey to the point of conversion, giving them interesting, useful, and relevant content along the way.

Andrew Peek, Do You Convert

Google Ads Likely to Increase in Costs in 2022

Your cost per click in Google Ads is determined by a few factors—the most influential is what other builders are willing to pay for each click (their bid). As the market normalizes, most builders will not like to see their traffic decrease and will increase their bids for Google Ads. Since Google Ads pricing is based on an Auction, over time, this will cause the cost per click to rise, depending on the market. The only way to counteract this is to have better performance than your competitors. Either way, Google is going to show ads after someone searches for a keyword you would like your ad to show up for. If twice as many people click your ads rather than a competitor’s, you likely have a more relevant ad, and Google will “reward” you with a lower cost per click. This optimization process of adjusting bids up or down while increasing performance can be a nuanced and tedious process, but anyone is capable of doing it if they are willing to put in the time. The effort is worth the reward.

Stuart Platt, Outhouse

The Lifespan of Social Media Posts

Nothing on social media will live longer than this blog you are reading, with an estimated lifespan of over 1 year. Posts on TikTok and Snapchat start decaying immediately unless they go viral. The next worst is Twitter, with about a 15-minute lifespan.

Not every industry needs every type of social media, but I’ve personally witnessed home builders on every single one listed in this paragraph. Determining which social media platform is a whole other level of complication, but knowing the lifespans of those posts is critically important in that decision. There are always exceptions, but as a general rule of thumb, consider Facebook posts are good for 6 hours, LinkedIn 1 business day, Instagram 2 days, YouTube 20 days or more and Pinterest is good for around 4 months.

Steve Ormonde, Focus 360

Rethink Self-Service

Customers in 2022 will have growing expectations on how they want to search for information about future purchases. They want autonomy and a full-service experience on their own terms. Web “surfing” has moved to deep-dive web immersion when it comes to data, reviews, and product comparison options. Consumers can also choose how they connect with a seller of any kind of good or service through various means. Nearly anything can be purchased without driving up to a storefront these days. The time of self-service is changing. Consumers want to have all of the information at their fingertips so they can move through product exploration on their own self-service terms with a full-service experience. Homebuilders need to keep the consumer of all things in mind. How will you offer a fully integrated and transparent self-service experience? Consider not only how to create high-quality visuals and product navigation options but how to use data from your self-service home shopping journey to further craft your online experience and your product lines.

Dennis O’Neil, ONeil Interactive

“Buy Online” is About Customer Experience, Not Technology

The technology required for an online home purchase is far from new. Website shopping carts, credit card processing, and e-signatures have all existed for a very long time. It’s never been about the tech. It’s always been about the industry’s hesitation to experiment.

If your 2022 plans include enabling some or all of the purchasing process online, I urge you to work through the unglamorous details of the process first. What happens after the customer initiates the process on your website? Who on your team responds? How fast? Are deposits refundable? How long does a lot hold last? What happens next?

Start by designing the best customer experience your company can support. That experience will dictate where technology best plays a supporting role.

Kevin Oakley, Do You Convert

First-Party Data Collection Will Separate the Real Digital Marketers from The Pack

This year it is time for builders to get more serious about acquiring, storing, and using first-party data to improve their results—not just for this year, but for the years to come. Privacy updates from Apple and government entities doesn’t mean that digital advertising is on life support. The data from 3rd parties has been dramatically reduced, but having your own first party data puts you back in the driver’s seat. While other builders scale back their digital efforts or pivot to brand building, this is an opportunity for you to pull ahead from the pack.

Collecting this kind of data for builders requires micro-conversions of personal data. This data, even when it contains similar information that a lead provides – IS NOT A LEAD. It is building a profile of the individual for better advertising, better messaging, and better use of your technology and systems. Heavily investing in your own path toward a 100% “buy online” opportunity still needs your attention and investment, but getting to that panacea and then realizing you don’t have good first party data from the top of the funnel to power your new sales engine… would be a sad outcome indeed.

Connect with your website and marketing partners and ask them to educate you on their first party data collection methods. Consider the best path forward for your builder, and then get to work.

Tom Nelson, UTour

You Can’t Use Yesterday’s Thinking to Solve Tomorrow’s Problems

With the unprecedented market conditions of the last 18 months, the pace and volume were, at times, overwhelming. Several markets are beginning to experience a contraction to pre-2020 levels. With that comes a natural desire for new home marketers to want things to “return to normal.”

With the recent historical lead and sales volumes, it’s easy to want to slow down the pace of change we’ve experienced since the pandemic began. Yet, constant change is the “new normal,” and the demand for rapid innovation is driven—and expected—by today’s homebuyer.

My advice for the coming year is to remember that previous success can create complacency — and complacency is the enemy of great. What produced results last year may be obsolete next year. Consumers demand both customer service and speed. To meet those expectations, we must continue to innovate scalable and repeatable strategies for virtual and A.I. experiences, automation and self-service technology to support personalized, human customer service.

Carol Morgan, Denim Marketing

Speak to Your Buyer’s Personal Communication Style

Mom, dad, boyfriend, girlfriend, boot-cut, straight-leg, flared, and baggy—anything and everything goes when it comes to denim styles. Wondering why? It is actually quite simple: people want to create and showcase their personal style. And with the wide range of colors and options available these days, it has never been easier to do.

The same is true for communication and engagement styles. Consumers vary wildly in the ways they engage and communicate with brands while shopping. You must be where your buyers are. Make sure your marketing mix includes social media (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and for those who are a little trendier – TikTok), blogging, email marketing, digital ads, video (a staple for your website and social media), a robust Google My Business presence, etc. These are all places where buyers connect, communicate and engage. Once the buyer has reached out, make a note of their style and respond via their preferred method, whether that is a phone call, text, email, Facebook Messenger IM, or Instagram comment.

Is your company’s personal style fresh and relatable? Make your marketing memorable and fun. Your customer is an individual with their own style, and your company should be too.

Angela McKay, ONeil Interactive

Listen Up: Leveraging Audio Content

Throughout the searching and buying process, home shoppers are looking for confirmation that they are making the right decision. As they narrow down their choices, they are educating themselves about what they can afford, the building timeframes, the differences in construction process and materials, and the pros and cons of new vs. old. What can builders do to assist?

Provide education in formats that match prospects’ consumption preferences. 2022 is going to see a rise in video AND audio content. Builders who commit to some form of regular video/audio content, podcasting, or vlogging will see significant benefit not only in building prospect and buyer trust and respect, but also in market reach.

John Lee, Anewgo/Rendering House

2022 will be all about “You”!

Online shopping shifts power to consumers. For builders, this marks a permanent shift from general Presentation Marketing to individual Personalization Marketing. Unique interactive visual experiences will replace generic static renderings. Traditional websites with pre-built static pages built around the builder will give way to modern web apps, which look just like websites, but with web pages and content dynamically-generated around each buyer’s actions like Facebook.

Unlike websites, web apps enable buyers to design and buy new homes online. Buyers will control their own online shopping journey – with helpful AI virtual assistants and OSCs just a click-away.

New home shopping online has finally arrived! For a successful 2022 and beyond, begin the switch from builder-centric to buyer-centric sales and marketing now!

Chelsey Keenan, Group Two

It’s About TikTok Time

In 2022, let’s all agree to step out of our comfort zone and try something new! And what could be more new and exciting than a social media platform you’ve never used before?

TikTok has officially reached 1 billion users and is quickly growing out of its reputation of just being used for teen dance crazes. With everything from dog training to actual home building tips, more people are using TikTok for educational purposes. Hashtags about home building and home buying tips have hundreds of millions of views and are here to stay.

Use trendy videos to show off your homes while staying relevant, and add popular music as the background to your video to garner more views. Need help thinking of fun and creative ideas? Reach out to our social media team; we know them all too well.

Chip Johnson, Builder Designs

Opportunities Abound in 2022

Buyer behavior has changed, providing new ways to attract and engage. Lean into technology and create intuitive ways to sell online. Early adoption is key, but mitigate risk by understanding the best practices of implementation.

Greg Bray, Blue Tangerine

How Will It Feel in 2022?

The decision to purchase a new home is at its core an emotional one, which is then backed up and supported by rationality and logic. Great new home sales teams already know and understand this key principle. It can be easy to forget that the emotional nature of this purchase is the same regardless of whether the sale takes place in person or online.

In 2021 there has been a lot of discussion and movement forward around buying new homes online. Often this effort gets focused on more technical topics and issues like product selection, data integration, and payment processing. Of course, you need all the technical infrastructure in place to make online buying work, but if you skip the part about creating an emotional connection with the buyer on your website, then having buy online features and functions won’t achieve the desired sale.

There are two key parts to emotional connection online:

1. Preventing the negative emotion of frustration that comes from slow-loading pages, the inability to find what you are looking for, and being overwhelmed with options and choices.
2. Fostering the positive connection to your homes that comes from engaging visuals, interactive tools, and content that allows your prospective buyer to see themselves living in your home and loving it.

In 2022, take time to evaluate and improve the emotional impact of your website on your prospective buyer. Your sales, both offline and online, will thank you for it.

Anya Chrisanthon

Find the Best Way to Serve Your Customers

The home building industry is not exactly known for being an early adopter of technology. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how we rose to the challenge and found an entirely new way to sell homes during the pandemic. For the first time in history, people became free to move wherever they want, they’re not tied to a specific location. This opens a world of opportunities for us to innovate not only where and how we build, but also how we sell.

Going forward, we need to keep an eye on the consumer’s behavior and gauge their comfort level for how they want to do business. We need to offer services to match their expectations instead of just doing what other builders do. A hotel company didn’t disrupt the hotel business, Airbnb did, just like a taxi company didn’t disrupt the taxi business, Uber did. Disruption in the home building industry will likely come from an outside technology company. We should look outside of our own industry for examples to follow on how we can best serve our customers.

Mollie Elkman, Group Two

Dive into Experiential Marketing

In 2022, more than ever, people will be craving more personal connections and experiences. Every touchpoint along the new home buying journey is an opportunity to pull customers deeper into your brand story.

What experience does your website offer? Do your marketing emails convey who you are as a company, rather than just give pricing and availability? Are you the “face of new home construction” in your local community? Does your brand carry through to your sales office and models?

Delight is often found in the details, so be extremely thoughtful with your points of communication—online and IRL—and do your best to impress your audience at each one with your brand’s voice, story, and purpose.

Jennifer Cooper, Evolution Marketing

Find Your “Why” First

I see builder marketing teams not really understanding what they are measuring, are not setting goals, or simply do not understand the numbers in their reports. Why? Many times, it’s simply due to a lack of knowledge or a lack of leadership with respect to digital marketing experience in the marketing department. Also, many times I see several marketers wearing too many hats with a growing list of responsibilities spread thin amongst a small marketing team. Analytics and digital strategy are gritty. It’s hard work and typically gets brushed aside for signage requests, schwag orders, or smaller tasks that clutter a marketing team’s plate. I would encourage marketers to “try to learn what you don’t know.” Get certified in Google Analytics, follow marketing gurus, attend online seminars, connect and link in with other strong digital marketers. Last, but not least, ask the questions you need answers to. Ask your vendors, ask peers, befriend others in the industry that are kicking butt and understand the metrics. Know what is good, what is bad and understand the benchmarks. I think that many times “you don’t know what you don’t know” is a valid statement, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. If you don’t set a goal for your digital lead generation and understand the “why” behind the path to generate those leads, how do you know where you will end up? Figure out the why to make your ROI shine and your team look like superstars in the game plan to engage future customers.

Tim Bailey, Avid Ratings

Customer Experience Trends for 2022

Customer Experience (CX) has evolved from “nice to have feedback” to “need to have data” with roles, and even entire departments dedicated to this critical business area. There are numerous trends in CX that are gaining traction and two that I am following closely as we head into 2022 are:

Balancing digitalization/automation with humanization — As digitalization and automation embed deeper into every facet of the building industry, leading companies are increasingly seeking ways to also leverage high-touch human elements in the customer experience. Multi-channel, “auto-magical” sophistication can certainly enhance customer ease, however, understanding when and where to add human interaction is vital for building strong customer relationships.

Servitization — In the quest for ongoing customer engagement and advocacy, many “product-only” companies are creating “product-service” offerings. The idea is to add value to core offerings through additional services. This not only creates additional opportunities for longer-term customer relationships, but it creates completely new business models in some cases. Many disruptive companies have become wildly successful utilizing “subscription” versus “purchase” strategy and servitization is a natural fit in today’s subscription-based world.

Beyond any CX trends, it is most important to remain aware of how deeply connected customer experience is to every part of a business, from marketing and sales through to warranty service.