Lasso has scheduled the first of a series of educational webinars specifically focused on helping home builders, developers and real estate sales and marketing professionals sell more real estate. The first webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, December 8th and will cover Lead Intelligence and Online Lead Behaviour . . .
We've all heard over and over again that 75-80% of new home buyers are starting their search on the internet. Using tracking and analytics software, you can learn a lot about your website visitors and leads - how they found you, how much time they spent on your website, what interests them and when they come back.
This information is valuable to sales representatives to help determine the interest level of a prospect so that messages can be specifically targeted. To learn more and to register for this webinar, click here.
We know time is tight these days so this webinar and ones in the future will be short (30 minutes) and are designed to help you with many of the challenges faced today in marketing and selling new homes. Upcoming webinars will include:
- Email Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization
- Lead Nurturing and Sales Process Management
Let us know what interests you and what topics you'd like to see us cover.
Startling, but true! 64% of sales agents did not follow-up even though these were ‘motivated' prospects who visited the sales center. This, according to a blog post written by Mike Lyon that includes a whitepaper from a study by Qgenisys and Red Tree Resultants conducted in the Denver area in 2008.
This study was conducted at mostly US big production home builder sale center sites and may not be indicative of your company.
But interestingly, the results are similar to ad hoc tests Lasso conducts every few months in which we register on new home project websites ‘Register here' and Contact us' pages in cities across North America. Often, upon registration, there is an email confirmation (not always) stating ‘you will be contacted' by the sales team. Too often, there is never another follow up, by phone or by email.
The findings are troubling because builders spend $1000's in marketing and advertising to attract the interest of potential buyers. And companies like ours exist to help builder marketing & sales teams:
- Capture every lead, then;
- Nurture prospects from interest to occupancy, and;
- Deliver ‘prospect intelligence' so the marketing or sales person can differentiate themselves (and their company) from the competition.
First let me state that CRM software for home builders should never attempt to replace good people or processes. But it can and should be the plumbing, the infrastructure to at the very least:
- Deliver a high quality thank you email.
- Support a step-by-step sales activity process to nurture the prospect from interest toward close.
- Provide key information about website visits (and repeat visits) and page popularity (think of it as online digital body language).
- Inform about who opened your emails (and who did not) from your latest campaign.
- Report on whom and what was the last contact date and activity.
- Provide a history of every prospect communication.
Changing tradition and old habits in marketing and sales can be challenging. But recurring studies like the one above reiterate that change is a needed recipe for sales success. The recipe includes some leadership, some discipline and a little time. It costs a little too, but literally a fraction of what is spent on advertising and promotion to attract potential buyers in the first place.
We all know that email marketing is a powerful way to generate leads and build lists. Email marketing can also be used to increase conversion rates. I'm not referring to massive email blasts to everyone in your database, but rather a careful, thought-out email strategy that keeps your prospects engaged and moves them along the sales process.
Research has shown that many leads are not adequately followed up on and in market conditions where there is fierce competition over leads, many homebuilders and real estate marketing and sales professionals have developed, or need to develop, lead nurturing strategies that keep the prospect interested; and, importantly, build a system where leads are not able to fall through the cracks. We have come to accept low conversion rates for various marketing efforts. In the new home development industry, it's very apparent that marketing efforts like print advertising and sales center launches that may have worked a couple of years ago, are not as effective today. Using a Real Estate CRM system, like Lasso, can ensure that leads are being managed and consistent sales processes are in place for lead nurturing and targeted email campaigns. Marketing efforts can be tracked and analyzed and adjustments made as you learn what works and what doesn't work as well.
Prospects should be nurtured using email marketing (Lasso combines email marketing and lead management into one integrated solution). But an email marketing strategy does not consist of sending email after email to your entire database to see what sticks. Relevancy is the key to the success, along with timing and frequency. Segment your lists and put yourself in your prospects' shoes. What's important to them?
Lead Nurturing is a powerful strategy to be used with email marketing. Lead ratings (such as A, B, C, etc ) and scoring methods can be used while using email marketing as a follow-up communication tool. You can also review the ‘behaviour' of the prospects such as whether they have been opening emails, what they have clicked on and if they've forwarded the emails on.
Don't forget the human touch. What did we do before email? We made more phone calls, visits and used direct mail. Email provides a great mechanism to get information out quickly and at a fraction of the cost, however, it doesn't mean that human intervention is not needed. But if you incorporate effective email communication and take time to analyze and gain intelligence about prospect online behaviors such as website session tracking and email analytics, sales professionals can determine when they should pick up the phone and will be able to engage in home buyer prospect in a much more effective, relevant and personal way. And sell more at higher conversion rate!
Once someone has registered on your new home project website, what do you? Is there a defined sales process (logical steps from interest list through to purchase)? Does your sales team get involved right away?
In most cases, the leads go into a CRM system, and then get assigned to sales reps. who are then alerted to new leads. One of the challenges that arises is that a significant number of the leads may not be "sales-ready" yet. It's a common fact that 4 out of 5 new home buyers are starting their research on the web and will register for more information but many are at the very early stages of the buying process. Therefore, keeping these prospects engaged and informed throughout their buying cycle is an important part of your real estate marketing strategy.
Let's first take a step back and define Lead Nurturing. Lead Nurturing or lead management is the process of following up with leads in a consistent manner, gradually moving them through their buying cycle along the path towards becoming a purchaser. The idea is to create a strategy to provide enough information to engage, provide interest and develop trust so that when they are ready to purchase, you have met their needs and they will buy from you (sounds simple!) Realistically, not everyone who signs up to get more information about your project is going to be a perfect match for your project but the concept of lead nurturing is to put these leads into an ongoing marketing program that will provide some triggers and indicators showing when and if they are getting ready to buy. Then the sales reps can get involved and convert these prospects into purchasers.
A key aspect of marketing includes keeping the prospects engaged. Most online registrants are looking for information right away, but may not be ready to purchase. A creative marketing strategy that keeps these prospects engaged and gaining confidence in your new project is important. The tendency is often to just keep sending mass mails and although this can be effective, always ensure that there is a clear call to action in the email and that there is value to the prospect - otherwise, you will lose their interest and when you do send a mass mail of importance, they may dismiss it as not relevant.
Use the technology you have available to help you! Often the old 80/20 rule comes into play - perhaps you're not using all the features available to you. For example, functionality just released in Lasso now provides you with the ability for you to track the behaviour of your prospects on your project website. Not only can you see what specific pages they are visiting but also track when they return to your site. This form of lead intelligence is powerful - especially when you tailor an email message or a phone message to a prospect and you make specific reference to something that they were viewing online!
Use Lasso's Self Serve Registrant Update (SSRU) to further qualify your leads and prospects. Nowadays, many home builders and developers are making it easier to complete registration forms by reducing the number of questions asked. The strategy is to make it really easy to register and then ask more qualifying questions throughout the sales cycle. If you've gone that route, Lasso provides you with the ability to use mass mail functionality to survey or ask additional questions via email. This allows you to engage your Registrants - if they responded that they enjoy skiing, then send them an email with pictures of your recreational development in the winter. If they select golf, customize one with pictures taken in summer.
To nurture something means to take care of it (to cultivate, cherish, develop) - that's exactly what needs to be done with leads; whether they are in the early home buying research stage or ready to buy now, the technology is available for you to achieve this.