5 Ways Analytics Can Guide Your Homebuilding Marketing Strategy

For homebuilders, interactive tool analytics is a powerful ally in crafting winning marketing strategies.

When properly employed, these tools serve a role similar to a focus group. They perform market research for you in real-time—no need to send out surveys and wait for responses. By leveraging insights about your site visitors, the products, options or homesites that grab the most attention, and who actually converts into a lead, you’ll make better business decisions and craft smarter marketing initiatives.

Following the customer journey: Interactive floor plans and site maps

For those of us in the world of real estate, two of the most effective tools for tracking prospective buyers are interactive floor plans and site maps. Once considered a “plus” for homebuilders, interactive floor plans and site maps have evolved into essential parts of the customer journey—particularly since the pandemic made onsite visits rather complicated.

Visitor data from interactive floor plans and homesite maps can measure, among other metrics:

• Number of visits
• Number of unique visitors
• Most popular plans
• Most popular options
• Most popular homesites
• Most popular amenities

Of course, these numbers are only useful if you act on them. So, to offer some pointers and better illustrate the power of these digital tools, we’re sharing the top 5 ways that interactive tool analytics can improve your homebuilding marketing strategy.

1) Tailor sales presentations to each demographic

By observing the behavior of prospects browsing your site, you’ll be better equipped to know what they’re looking for in a home or community. Here’s where interactive floor plans, particularly those that include furniture, are incredibly useful.

For example, say an IFP lead looking at floor plans opts for a fourth bedroom rather than a den, and further, furnishes it with bunk beds. This lead is likely a family in search of improving their lifestyle. Knowing this, you can tailor marketing materials and sales presentations to the family accordingly. Paint an evocative picture of neighborhood life with school district data, and you’ll evoke a stronger emotional response you would in a cookie-cutter sales presentation.

2) Design better products—and better communities!

Do site visitors spend 30+ minutes on some of your floor plans while completely ignoring others? Leverage analytics related to time spent on each page to identify trends. This data can help you decide which demographics and associated home plans to focus on developing and selling.

If certain options aren’t moving the needle, they’re not worth your marketing dollars. Similarly, if specific amenities create more buzz than others, you know to highlight them in your sales materials.

3) Predict sales results

Analytics can be used to drive better decision-making in all aspects of your business, including sales. The ability to trace a client’s journey from the moment they land on your website to the moment they sign a contract provides powerful insight into how sales are generated. Use historical data such as conversion rates to predict your leads’ behaviors, adjust your strategy accordingly, and plan more effectively.

4) Fine-tune pricing

Use analytics to discover what drives value for your potential customers. There’s no need to bet on which homesites will be the most popular—you’ll discover early on which ones are getting the most clicks and use that data to further level your lot premiums. When you use real data in addition to market trends for pricing your products, your strategy can better reflect industry realities and consumer expectations.

5) Assess and act

One best practice for integrating analytics into your marketing strategy is to leverage data from each sold-out community to plan for the next. Each completed sales cycle offers a treasure trove of insights to use in future marketing strategies. And during the early phase of each new cycle, use real-time data analytics to fine-tune this strategy, ensuring it actually works!

Gain powerful insights with Alpha Vision

The analytics generated by interactive floor plans, site maps, virtual model homes, and other online features creates enormous value for home builders. When you master the art of understanding your customers and their behaviors, you’re better equipped to develop a message that cuts through the chatter and speaks directly to them.

With our suite of consumer engagement solutions for the industry, Alpha Vision assists you in making better marketing decisions and helps your customers purchase the home of their dreams.

Want to learn more? Contact our experts today and learn how Alpha Vision equips you with the insights you need for an A+ marketing strategy!