37 Recap - Home Builder Digital Marketing Summit Dec 2 2020

Greg Bray:  [00:00:00]Hello everybody. And welcome back to another episode of the  Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine 

Kevin Weitzel: and I'm Kevin Weitzel with Outhouse. 

Greg Bray: And, we are excited today to do something a little bit different. We do not have a guest on the show today, but Kevin and I really wanted to share with you some of the experiences that we just recently had at the Home Builder Digital Marketing Summit.

So Kevin, for those who weren't, you know, attending the summit, the people that just blew it and [00:01:00] totally missed out, you know, maybe, give them a little highlight of what it was and what we were trying to do. 

Kevin Weitzel: So basically what we'd run through on a regular basis is our summit is basically a collection of industry experts that we have either as panels or, individuals that discuss, at great length and into pretty good detail, their area of expertise and how it can apply to the builder's needs.

And, on this particular summit, it was pretty cool cause we broke it out into four different days. So you only have two hours per day, two sessions per day for over a four-week span. And, it allowed you to take it off in bite-sized chunks. And, it really makes it easy to just commit that time, listen to the content and then, you know, go on for the rest of your day and not interrupt like an entire day's worth of productivity.

Greg Bray: Yeah. I, I think, you know, we wanted to be in person of course, right. That had been our goal to have this thing in person and, you know, 2020 in-person events, they're just not happening folks, you know? Sorry. [00:02:00] Yeah. And, and so we had to try it a little differently, but we had so much great content.

We couldn't push it off. Right. And we, thought about, should we just wait until next year and do something then? But it was like, you know what? People need to know this stuff and need to know it now. So I'm really excited that we were able to do it 

And of course, our summit would not have been possible at all without our amazig support of our terrific sponsors. I just want to give them one last big Thank You to ECI Lasso, the Bokka Group, Nobi Home, 149 Photos, Nter Now, and Kovach Marketing. Thanks agin to all of them for their amazing support, financial support that made it possible. Please check them out and make sure you look at their websites and follow them on Facebook and Linkdin and learn more about what they have to offer. 

Kevin Weitzel: Well, in addition to that, is not only did it come together well, but I'd like to give kudos to your team.

You know, the Blue Tangerine team behind the scenes, you know, with the Josh's and the KT's and the Mila's that kept everything on point and had our guests there and tested everybody's microphones and everything ahead of time, you know, it literally went across about as flawless as humanly possible. And, I just like to give them a quick shout out that they did a fantastic job on the back end scenes.

You know, I mean, granted, I'm just the monkey on the camera or the guy behind the microphone with you. I'm not going to call you a monkey, Greg. 

Greg Bray: So what does that make me a monkey keeper? I don't know. 

Kevin Weitzel: You might be a monkey keeper for that day. You're the corraler guy, you know you're the curious? Who is Curious George's guy, the man with the yellow hat.

Greg Bray: Oh, I'm going to have to give me a yellow hat now.

Kevin Weitzel: You need to get a yellow hat now, but no, I [00:03:00] mean your team is fantastic. You know, we, you know, Tim and I helped a little bit on the back end, but for the most part, it was your team that really made the whole event happen. So we, 

Greg Bray: no, I agree that team did a great job and really appreciate their efforts too.

For sure, because there's a lot of work that goes into this folks, making these things happen. and it's just a lot of organization, a lot of details to keep straight, for sure. 

Kevin Weitzel: Absolutely.

Greg Bray: But Kevin, I thought it would be really good for the folks who missed it. If we just kind of go through some of our highlights.

Right. And let's share some things that stuck out and we're going to throw a few clips in here for those of you who missed it. And, of course, we are gonna have the recordings available on buildermarketingsummit.com 

So once you hear these, if you want to want to get some more details, listen to the whole presentations, they will be there. And we'll repeat that again later. 

Kevin Weitzel: Well, you know, Greg, to that point, just like any other summit that's out there. A lot of times they only make the content available to those that have paid to be there.

However, since our event was free, [00:04:00] literally anybody, even if you didn't register can get a hold of that content as well. 

Greg Bray: Yeah. It is going to be available free, so come and check it out. It's good stuff. And yeah, we don't have to just keep telling you, we're going to let you listen to some snippets so you can see how good it is.

So Kevin let's, let's start with day one. So on day one, who did we have up for day one?

Kevin Weitzel: Day one was pretty cool because we had Jimmy Diffee of Bokka Group and the cool thing, at least what I found so significant and unique about his presentation is that he chose to tie in and really open up his personal doors into his life, and how it relates to the struggles and the stripes that, homebuilders have to deal with on a regular basis.

So, you know, I really appreciate that he opened up his world like that to us. And, you know, let us kind of know what he and his family goes through. In addition to, again, how that applies to homebuilder issues. 

Greg Bray: Yeah. And of course, you can't forget the puppy pictures. He was [00:05:00] full of puppy pictures. Right. 

Who know, who knew the puppies had so much to do with the home builder buyer journey. Right. But he tied that together great. And Jimmy's with Bokka Group, of course in Bokka Group works really hard to help you map out that journey, to understand all those touchpoints that, that come into play as you interact with your customer all the way from early, from marketing through, after you, you close the sale and then during construction and into warranty, all those pieces.

And, one of the things that jumped out from, from Jimmy's comments for me was the way that there's emotional ups and downs throughout all of that. And so our goal is to figure out how we can, you know, raise up, you know, reduce the depth of the valleys, I guess, is what he called it and, and really kind of keep that excitement up.

Cause it's a long process buying a home and getting out.  

Kevin Weitzel: Absolutely. And you know, you've got all the different facets of website in marketing and digital and print and, you know, sales and sales approach and process, you know, [00:06:00] Bokka Group really is an industry expert in being the chief strategists out there.

So if you're in a home builder that doesn't have that, that strategical, person on your staffing, then, you know, Bokka Group is definitely a great, great place to outreach to. And actually, I think we actually have a couple of clips that, you know, Jimmy mentioned even that really applied directly to what we're talking about.

Greg Bray: Let's listen to what Jimmy has to say.

Jimmy Diffee: So talking about this journey, map, the buyer journey, you can explode any one of these phases to drill into just hundreds of touchpoints the buyers have throughout the home buying process. So, I mean, how do you even start improving this journey whenever it could be a year-long process of buying and building and moving into a home, and then you've got living in the home and the warranty process for one or two years.

 I mean, there's a lot to consider when you're considering this customer journey. So this is where a new perspective, I think it would be really [00:07:00] helpful. So you've probably heard this before that people will forget what you said. They'll forget what you did, but they'll never forget how you made them feel.

I think this was as true at home building as it is and relationships. So when you think about your customer experience and the stories people tell about buying a home from you, they're really not going to remember all the different steps in the process and every single little thing. They are going to remember how you made them feel at certain points in the process.

  So when you think about the future of buying homes online, which is another thing marketing is tasked with, which is buying online or buying completely, you know, visualizing the whole online. but to actually get to that buying process of the future reviews are what's going to help build up enough trust. So a person would be willing to do that without coming in. And that's what all the other disruptors have done. You look at Amazon, I mean, we would now order something I've ordered things that cost thousands of dollars off of Amazon site unseen, just because I know I could return it, just because [00:08:00] I know that it has great reviews and the chance of it being a lemon or so small.

So this user-generated content I think, is really coming into play. And when we look at the buy it now experience, and our we're going to be doing that with homes. We know that future generations are going to be buying homes differently. They're going to be looking for that, buy it now, but, it's just a matter of time, really.

And in fact, a recent study showed that millennials do more than 60% of their shopping online. This was before COVID. So I'm sure you can imagine where this is all going. So where are we right now? Today's digital buyer, it spans all demographics. It's not just the, the young millennials or, you know, the future we need to worry about.

But today is what we call the digital buyer is already expecting to find reviews about you. They're already searching online. Most of you or all of you know this, and you can bet that even your walk-in traffic, the ones that may not, you don't know that they've checked you out online, the product probably checked you out and looked at your reviews before [00:09:00] even stepping into a model.

So I've got a few statistics here. 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business. And the 88% of consumers trust online reviews, as much as personal recommendations, these are pretty powerful stats. I mean, these are, these really are the triggers that are going to be defining whether someone trusts you or not 

Greg Bray:   All right. And after Jimmy, we had Angela McKay and Angela from ECI Lasso. So Lasso CRM, if you know them better that way, and Angela did a presentation on email marketing and it was really interesting to me. Because of the idea that so many people are talking about how email is dead and Angela just really made it clear that there is still a great place for email marketing in your marketing plan, but it needs to be different.

It's not [00:10:00] email as you did a few years ago, you need, it's more personal. It's more one-on-one and she really dove in deep there. And of course, Angela is just an amazing expert in email marketing. She's been doing that for a while. I don't want to say she's been on it for a long time, cause that'll make her sound really old, but that, she's not. So well, Kevin what you learned from Angela.

Kevin Weitzel: What I really took from her was that, and I constantly, I love reaching out to her on a, on a professional basis and personal basis just for input because not only is she ridiculously positive herself, but she's genuine. And what I really took away from her session was that it's not just about being personable, but it's also about being genuine.

Greg Bray: Absolutely. So here's a couple of clips from Angela's presentation, here's some of the things she shared with us.

 Angela McKay: I've made mistakes and I've had to adapt to changes, and there's been lots of changes to email over the years. But email marketing has provided us with a consistent platform [00:11:00] to provide our followers with stories and visuals to engage them, peak their interest and build loyalty and trust. So we're going to cover a lot of ground today.

If nothing else, I hope you all walk away thinking about how you can improve communication to your buyers. And it's all about the buyer's experience and whether it's the lead nurturing stage or during purchase or post-purchase communication is key to developing trust. So we're talking about email marketing, not one-to-one communication, but rather mass mail or automated drip campaigns.

And why do we do it? I mean, it's pretty simple, right? We build connections with our customers through personalized engagement. And when someone makes the decision to open your email, you've got them. It may only be for a few seconds, but you've got them. So it can also generate awareness. of your brands, so that prospects have your company in mind when they're ready to make a purchasing decision. [00:12:00]

 So not all prospects are created equal and not all prospects will turn into buyers. You know, that said that's an important message. They can be referrals though, right? So your sales process or workflow can be targeted to each segment. And depending on the sources will determine how much they know about your company.

So, yeah. Here digital marketing leads from Facebook or from some other directories may not know very much about you. So these are marketing qualified leads, as opposed to sales qualified and a marketing qualified lead may sit in your marketing database for some time before they're actually interested. A sales qualified lead from your website or chat may move along at a faster rate.

They're likely more research and they better research. and they're more definitive in what they want. Alter your message. And you know, one of the things in you also really need to be aware of is that. Consumers [00:13:00]expect brands to know them and are really quick to act, when they receive miss targeted or inconsistent communications.

And, you know, Jimmy touched on this a little bit, you know, they're, they are used to the Amazon experience, right? They're they're used to getting everything that they want and people reading their mind, Facebook reading your mind. Right. So if they're receiving things that they don't think are applicable to them 68%, from a survey by e-marketer.

So they will delete the emails, 54% unsubscribed from emails, 45%. So almost half will actually mark it as junk, which is also really bad for your reputation. And, you know, almost 30% are less likely to buy products when they're receiving email, that's not relevant. And, you know, 13% visit the website less frequently and 10% will never visit again.

So you really want to targeting is super, super [00:14:00] important and being relatable. So real relate-ability is an important component to success.  

  Greg Bray: All right. So Kevin, let's take a look at day two because just, I mean, again, day one was so terrific and we were just getting started. So who do we have on day two? 

 Kevin Weitzel: So a day two starts off with a cannon shot of a bang with the Bassam Salem of AtlasRTX. His presentation went really deep-diving into the analytics that goes behind, all the different assets that go into the chat and email communication, text communication, and how you have to interact in, in very short periods of time.

At least for the perception of the clients, to make sure that that, to make sure that that communication goes smoothly and leads to the next step within the funnel. 

Greg Bray: What are the, one of the things that I really enjoyed learning from Bassam is, is he got into math, right. Which is a little scary for all of us, for there for a [00:15:00] second, you know, even put up a warning right.

About math. But, but the idea was is that when you multiply out all the different conversion points along that, that lead capture opportunity. It really only takes some minor improvements to make some huge dollar differences in the number of homes you sell and the amount of margin that you can add to the entire process.

So I thought that was really intriguing to step back from a marketing perspective and think about how return on investment plays into all of that. So I really enjoyed learning that from Sam as well. 

Kevin Weitzel: Well, not only that, but he gave up the secret behind the sauce he offered for free his spreadsheet that he uses as that tool.

So any of the people that attended or anybody that's going to listen to the after recording, you know, there'll be able to figure out, find out a way to get in touch with the Sam to get that spreadsheet. 

Greg Bray: Yeah. Well, here's a couple of clips from Bassam sharing a few of the insights that he had.

 [00:16:00]Bassam Salem: I wanted to talk to you a little bit about what it is the consumer of today expects. And we're going to talk about these six elements, that really define today's consumer. And we'll try to go through this quickly so I can jump into the meat of the presentation.

Today's consumer is, I think we'll all acknowledge here really are in control. We are the consumer, right? We want to do things when we want to do them the way we want to do them, we want to be able to explore on our own if we want to. We want to be able to engage a human, if we want to, we want to use the channels that we want.

We really are in control more so than ever, 10, 20, 30 years ago really it was brands. It was retailers who got to decide how a consumer engaged that is no longer acceptable. If we can't engage consumers the way they want to, they will go elsewhere.

 And I can tell you that two-thirds of chats are [00:17:00] happening after hours and on weekends and this is 24 seven three 65. And again, let me tell you, this is meant to support the human sales team because these are machines, right?

No one is under any misperception that this is going to be like a human interaction. However, it's 24, seven, three 65, and instantaneous. And because of that, two out of every three conversations are happening after hours. And these are conversations that today, most builders are not even having with potential buyers.

 Kevin Weitzel: Hey, Greg, I know, you know, about the next session, the second half or the second session of that day was you and Stewart talking about the emotional aspects of a website.

Greg Bray: Yeah, that was a really fun one to prepare for because it's a, it was really a different, take from me. I know Stuart's been talking about, emotional connection for a long time. That's one of [00:18:00] his, you know, I don't know if I want to call it his pet topics. Right. But that's something that he loves to talk about. I have never of, and I learned from him a lot as we prepared for that presentation, but we were really got in deep to some research too, about how so much of what we do in our purchase process is just emotional. It's not rational and logical. And there was this one statistic that just really hit me about how 95% of our purchase decision-making is unconscious. It's just that, that subconscious emotional connection level. And so how do we really make that work in a web environment where people can feel that connection with the homes and really want to know more and learn more.

So, yeah, that was, that was a fun one to prepare for and to talk about. 

Kevin Weitzel: And actually very interesting, you know, even, a Mongo, knuckle dragon mouth breather, like myself. I actually, I enjoyed all the content there and, [00:19:00] and it is true. We are very subject and beholden to emotional decision-making. You know, I look at real estate I mean, you could take any neighborhood in the country and plop down some mid-century modern architecture there, and I'm in. I'm paying attention, and that's whether I'm a buyer or not.

Greg Bray: Well, here's a couple clips. I know nobody wants to hear more from me, but you know, I'm going to share a little bit, and then we'll hear a little bit about what Stewart had to say as well.

  So Gerald Zaltman, he's a Harvard business school professor, author of How Customers Think, he says that 95% of our purchase decisions take place unconsciously. 95%. I found that number absolutely mind-blowing. How, how stunning that was so, so that is just crazy to me. So let's look at another, another number here are another statistic.

So this author, says the most startling truth is we don't even think our way [00:20:00] to logical solutions. We feel our way to reason and that just kind of, we feel our way to reason. Kind of interesting that our emotions are the substrate underneath, and, and how decisions are made all right. Jill Taylor, we live in a world where we are taught that we are thinking creatures that feel the truth is we are feeling creatures that think. We are feeling creatures that think, and of course, everybody's heard of Zig Ziglar I hope. but people don't buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons. They buy for emotional reasons. And then Seth Godin. I love, I love the way he phrases this right,  people don't buy goods and services, they buy relations stories and magic.

You guys remember at resales or one of your biggest competitors, right? Not the builder down the street. This helps remind us that. Well, why, why didn't they buy the new home instead? Well, 25% said that it was a challenge to understand what the home was going to look like. [00:21:00] All right. And Stuart's going to hit on that a bit more here in a minute, but then there was this other group that, that didn't buy new construction.

And they said that, that they were turned off by pricing. They were concerned that it was more expensive. They were turned off by the timing, I might have to wait to get the home I need. And then a whopping 37% just felt like it was a hassle, the process. They didn't understand it. They were concerned about it.

Stuart Platt: Now I'm going to ask that you put yourself in the shoes of a home buyer. Imagine, this is your first day of researching home builders. And like most people, it's going to start on the builder's website. In almost every situation, people aren't going to be in a mindset of research. As far as you're concerned, it's just about collecting data from one builder.

Then moving on to collect the same data from the next builder. You're going to be sitting at your computer, maybe grab a cup of coffee. Or, or maybe you're the kind of person motoring down the freeway on your phone, [00:22:00] checking out builders, hopefully not, but you know, you never know. You're going to be, you're going to have a checklist of your wants and needs checking off boxes of builders near your job, or in a good school district, or in your budget.

Then finding floor plans that work for you. So this research mindset is only about collecting data and information, and as soon as people get what they need from one builder, they go back to Google and click the next builder on the list. Right? So now imagine you click on the next builder and as you start collecting your data, you get a surprise.

This website not only gives you the data you're looking for but this one, somehow it creates an emotional response. It turns out this builder's website is effectively using what are called emotional motivators. Emotional motivators are psychological triggers that buyers connect with by last count, from this study, from the Harvard business review, when it comes to purchasing decisions.

And the [00:23:00] purpose of these five emotional motivators is to snap that home buyer out of their research mindset and shift them to a mindset of creativity and playing and fantasy. Being on your website is going to become more than just collecting the data on their checklist. People are going to find themselves spending significantly more time with you than they are on other builder's websites. And study after study shows, the longer a person spends on your website, the more likely they are to contact you or visit your community. So after I give a better explanation of these motivators, I'm going to show you some of the best tools to nurture these emotions. The most of the motivators, as you see, are freedom, excitement, ownership, security, and confidence.

  Greg Bray: Alright, Kevin. So now we're on day three and everybody's at this point, I know they're all thinking, man, how did I miss out on [00:24:00] this? Because of all this great stuff, right? And it just keeps getting better and better and better. Spencer Powell from Builder Funnel. One of my new favorite people. You know, I just, I just met Spencer about a year ago for the first time.

And once I got to know that, you know what, we got to have Spencer present at this thing, because he's got so much to say on content marketing, 

Kevin Weitzel: It's really cool because the science that he uses and the integration of, tactics that he puts into his presentation, you can extract so much information from what he plops out there.

Greg Bray: He really got into this idea that as marketers and as sales we're so interested in the person who's ready to buy today. Right. We want the sale today, but we have to, recognize that, especially with a home, a lot of people aren't ready to buy today and we have to nurture that along and he gave some great ideas, some great tips about how you prepare for the sale for next year, you know, [00:25:00] and keep that person in, in your, your database and contacting with them and nurturing them and giving them the kind of content that will pull them to your site when they're searching for things when they're not quite ready to buy it. Yeah. There was, there was so much practical stuff in Spencer's presentation that it was just terrific.

Kevin Weitzel: Well not just that, but action items. You know you can literally listen to his content and put action items into place in your own practices as a home builder.

Greg Bray: So here's a couple of tips that Spencer had to share with us in his presentation.

 Spencer Powell: So consumers again, going back to that traditional model, you'd see an ad on TV. You'd hear something on the radio, you'd go into a best buy or circuit city. You'd walk into a model home and you would talk to somebody and then that's where they would relay all of that information. All of that information is online now.

And so we've got this big gap [00:26:00] right there where, sales used to fill that, but now marketing is filling that role. and we have to, because if we don't. Somebody else is going to fill it. You know, as a consumer, we're going to go online. We're going to Google things. We're going to get the information, whether the information is good or bad, we can argue that.

and so that's why we're big advocates of having you guys create really amazing, helpful content that draws in your customers and educates them. And so we'll, we'll dig into the weeds on a little bit of that, but this is that big shift that we're seeing is, you know, consumers, we like to control the process.

We like to be armed with information. And so when we actually do get to that point of talking to a salesperson, then we feel confident. We feel good because we've done that research we're prepared. And so we feel more comfortable. So with that in mind, what do we do about it? And the answer really is we've got to match and mirror the [00:27:00] consumer buying process.

And so this whole concept here is really what we call education marketing. And so the core concept is that if we create really good information, that answers our prospect's questions, that kind of, indulges their research process. As they're looking for all of this stuff, we actually start to pull them in.

And so, we call that the attract phase, which we'll dive into. Okay. but you start to do some really powerful things. One, you built a lot of trust when you provide information. When you become the source of information, people are reading that they're consuming it. They're going, Hey, this is really helpful.

Hey, this is exactly what I was looking for. Now, your brand gets elevated in their mind. And the other thing is, as they're researching, it's not just going to be a day, a week process. And so content allows you to stay. Top of mind. 

  Kevin Weitzel: The second half of the day there, Greg [00:28:00] was pretty fantastic. He's one of my favorite people on the planet. Dana Kovach, Kovach Marketing, 

Greg Bray: Kovach Marketing, one of our sponsors as well, and we really appreciate them. They do amazing work, helping you with your brand decisions and really getting that message fine-tuned so that you can connect with your buyers.

So let's talk a little bit more about what Dana had to share. She was was talking about brand, right. And that's something that really, a lot of folks, I think don't pay enough attention to from staff. It just kind of becomes an accident for a lot of people, you know, and it's really. What is it that you want people to think of when they think about your company?

I think that's what Dana was really trying to get at. This idea that, that when people think of you, what is that reaction? And the fact that we can create that. We don't have to just accept it. We have ways that we can define that and decide what we want it to be. 

Kevin Weitzel: Well, it's a deeper concept than just [00:29:00] dropping in a house into your logo, right?

Greg Bray: Yeah, for sure. A logo is a part of a brand, but brand goes much deeper than a logo she made that clear. Absolutely. So here's, here's a couple of thoughts from Dana and her presentation. 

 Dana Kovach:  The brand is what your audience thinks and feels about you. It's, it, we have to ask ourselves, are we answering their questions? Is the collections of feelings and ideas they're derived from interacting with you and your company and your product. I mean, imagine, with every customer that you have to have this kind of reaction, as you are speaking with them and helping them find solutions to their world today.  

Harvard professor where 95% of purchasing decisions are subconscious. Well, that's what attraction is. 95% of our decisions are at a subconscious energy level. So our responsibility when we're [00:30:00] developing brand is to tap into that and nurture that and allow that to grow because. You know, there's just, there's no getting around it. That's where it happens. It happens in the heart. It happens in the guts. It happens in those conversations and the storytelling that you share with your friends. It it's that attraction. So when we speak to the create brand creation, first, the workshop and our creation and the attractions filter that. What is the intent? Well, the intent when we're building brand is to build that recognition than the equity. I think we were listing here earlier about everything that we are building is building on itself and make sure that's consistent that you're building that trust, but you are differentiating yourself. And then, of course, to, [00:31:00] solve for challenges, provide solutions. Our buyers today are looking for new solutions to the way they're living.    

Greg Bray: All right. And then Kevin, believe it or not, we still have one more day to go. And this day was one that I know you were really excited about, but before we get to your big excitement, you know, I, I enjoyed listening to Erik Martinez our first speaker of the day who shared some up and coming technologies that people need to be paying attention to that are really going to have an impact on the home builder marketing opportunities in the future.

Kevin Weitzel: Well process disruptors and marketing disruptors, you know, I always love listening to Erik. I actually heard him at IBS, during Tech Bytes and I mean, you know, yes, he does talk from more of an analytical and engineering type background.

It seems, but, the content that he has and the, just the, how the deep dive that he takes into [00:32:00] various aspects of you know, website design and the structure and strategy to websites is pretty intense. 

Greg Bray: And  Erik, he covered a lot of different topics, but I think the one that got the most interest from our audience when they ask their questions, cause we had a lot of good questions for his presentation. Really got into Geofencing and what Geofencing is all about.

And if folks aren't familiar with Geofencing, this is a presentation that you really want to pay attention to and get an idea of how that can really help you with your marketing. 

Kevin Weitzel: I think his was the one segment that we actually had to cut off the Q and A section. even though he even started Q &A early, we had to cut it off and we still had a question or two left.

Greg Bray: Yeah. Lots of questions on that one, for sure. As people are interested. So here's a couple of segments from Erik's presentation too, so you can get a taste for what he had to share.

  Erik Martinez: We're accelerating our push into digital technology because of the pandemic. So here's a little cartoon from the market tune ins [00:33:00] instead of risking anything new, let's play it safe by continuing our slow decline in the obsolescence. And basically that means we're not making any changes to invest in our future. Let's talk a little bit about geofence marketing, pretty cool new tool. Lots of things that you can do with it, but 

probably the most important thing is that we can target prospective customers. In physical locations. And so envision that your community sits across the street from two competitor communities, and those people are walking into a sales office. Now in today's case, it probably means they have an appointment. So these are people who are really deep in the Home buying funnel, they're deep in their journey. And they're absolutely looking at this particular community as a 

place to live. What happens if I can now serve them up an ad, come over to my community. And that's [00:34:00] basically the concept of geofencing is that we can draw these, these target ranges in any of our campaigns and draw customers that we know are deep in their consideration funnel. For buying a new home and bring them over to our, to our communities. So basically how this works is you got to use it with a mobile device and enters that geofence location, the GPS technology captures that device ID. They can open up a browser and basically there any. Of the apps running on your phone could be part of the, the network that serves up these ads. So generally it's an in-app experience. Um, So they can see that ad, um, on, on their phone. And then up to 30 days afterward, we can continue [00:35:00] serving them ads on that, on that device.

Greg Bray:   And now, Kevin, I know we come to the grand finale. This was the one that you were so excited about. I mean, when we were planning, you were like, Oh my goodness, this is going to be amazing.

This is going to be great. And this was you leading out, interviewing a panel of builders, the people that are in the trenches doing it every day. So why were you so excited about that, that presentation?

Kevin Weitzel: You know, for a couple of reasons, reason number one is that there was one thing that tied all of these builders together.

Even though they all suit different regions of the country and they are all from different, levels of number of homes built, or whether they're national or regional or local custom builder or semi-custom builder. But what it really comes down to is they're all forward-thinking in the various ways that they implement technology, the various ways they implement best practices into what they do. You know, they don't just give lip service and what they do, they actually put it into action.

so that was reason [00:36:00] number one, that I think that we, with the three people we had with Michelle Smallwood of Holiday Builders with Ashley De Young of De Young Properties and as well as, Chris Hartley with, K. Hovnanian I was extremely excited about them. For another reason, the fact that not only do they practice what they preach, but they also do AB testing.

They also, you know, try things and go out and think outside the box when they're, when they're putting things into action. So, and honestly got to put him on the hot seat. So the cool thing is you get to ask them, I get to ask them any question. Every question I wanted to, to kind of drive that focus.

Greg Bray: Yeah, I got to throw in a few of my own questions too, which was great. But the thing that I thought was even interesting is the way they were learning from each other during the conversations. And it just really showed that there's an opportunity for folks to share knowledge, you know, and I think that's one of the things we're trying to do on this podcast, right.

Is we're just trying to talk to people and get them to share some of their thoughts and insights. So, so everybody else can learn from them. And we saw that happening in real-time live, you know, during that, during that [00:37:00] discussion. And of course, they took a lot of questions from, from our audience as well.

Kevin Weitzel:  They did. And they took it really in stride. I mean, they handled every single question that we sent their way. There weren't any giant pauses of, Oh, let me think about that. It was, you know, a one, two punch followed with a one to a reaction. 

Greg Bray: And, and they were so generous with their time. They were not compensated in any way. They were just simply willing to share, and we really appreciate them, contributing, and being a big part. Cause I, I honestly think that for, from an attendee standpoint, you know, the ones that were there that day, I think really got a lot of value from that, that presentation by itself.

And some people missed out on that, but Hey, there's a recording. 

Kevin Weitzel: I don't know about the not being compensated because I did offer to show up at one of their community rollouts in a fat Elvis suit. 

Greg Bray: You know, I remember that now. And Kevin, is it safe to make that offer to other builders, or just you have to be on the panel?

Kevin Weitzel: I think you have to at least be on our Home Builder Digital Marketing podcast. 

Greg Bray: Cause you guys didn't hear it from me. But if [00:38:00] I'm sure there's a number at which Kevin will do this for you too. Right? He was willing to do a grand opening parachute jump in an Elvis outfit with the sideburns complete.

And I just, I want somebody, somebody calls me and let's get this set up. Cause I want to see it happen. Well, here's a couple of clips from that presentation, Kevin, just so people get an idea. Some of the things they had to say, which was great.

 Kevin Weitzel: So websites don't last forever. We all know that the content can get stale and stuff, but, does your marketing team manage the website content? And if so, how often do you read and how often do you revamp your entire website, Michelle? 

Michelle Smallwood: Well, we are actually in the process of doing that right now, we had, we have two websites. We have one for Holiday Builders and one for HB Value. The HB Value new site launched, at the end of August. The Holiday Builder site will probably launch I'm thinking the [00:39:00] week of November 30th, and our other websites three years old.

And we knew at the time when we, contracted the website that is out there today, we said, I budgeted two to three years from now we're going to need a new website because it's, you know, website technology is no different than cell phone technology or anything else. It's I don't want to say it's obsolete by the time it's launched, but. it changes very, very quickly and you just got to roll with it. And I would say two to three years is a shelf life for, a website 

Kevin Weitzel: Ashley.

Ashely De Young Seibert: We are actually doing the same thing. We're redoing our website right now. and I agree about every two to three years, I. I do kind of feel like a revamp or just redesign, maybe looking at that more once a year.

Just cause everything's changing so fast, but, we're we [00:40:00] cannot wait for a new website. I think what's different for us as a, as a local builder, we only have seven-floor plans and we build all seven at every community. They're all at the same community. And so the way our site was set up, now it's kind of confusing. If you're used to using Zillow, things like that, where it's, you know, they've got the map and you've got this list view. so I think it'll be helpful for us to switch because of that. So that people who are maybe not from the area can kind of see it more on the map and see that list and be able to filter through floor plans.

Even though currently we only have seven plans and that they're available at each community. So we're excited for the new website to see how that goes. But yeah, I agree. Every two years, at least. 

Kevin Weitzel: Chris

Chris Hartley: Yeah. So former place, we had two brands and we were in existence for seven years before we sold. And we redid the website four times.

So that is a belief that you're, you're redoing that at most or maximum year you're [00:41:00] lasting two years before you have a refresh. And just like the two gals that said, you, you have to do this. I mean, it's, it's the lifeblood of your first impression and it's just so simple. Yes. They're not cheap. But neither is building a model home and we know the effects of that.

And if your, your website needs to be, just spot on, it needs to be user-friendly. If you're not doing heat mapping, if you're not doing mystery, shopping on your own website, if you're not doing all of these tools that are available to see if your website is utilized to the best of its ability. Then you're failing big time.

And I do have to say, most national home builders do not have websites that are as good as what they probably should be. And I love watching the, the small to mid-sized builders because they are able to try this technology and move it at a fairly quick pace, to see how they can engage better for us larger.

You know, home builders. It does take a little bit of time because we do have so many communities, so many different divisions that you're having to change all around. And it's just like, it takes again, just takes a little bit longer to move the [00:42:00] big ship. 

  Greg Bray: All right, everybody. Well, we really are excited about what we pulled off with this summit, the kinds of content we had, and guess what, we're going to do it again. All right so just so everybody's aware, mark your calendars for April of 2021, still have that date totally finalized yet, but we're excited to do it.

 So keep an eye out for notices coming out. And if you want to get on the mailing list for that, you can sign up at buildermarketingsummit.com, just put in your email there, and we'll make sure that you get first notice of when we get that scheduled and all the amazing speakers that we're going to put together.

Again, we'll probably have a few back, but we'll probably have a few new ones just to kind of keep things mixed up because it's great stuff,

 All right, Kevin. And now it is the time that everybody's been waiting for. We have the winners of our drawing from the people who attended our summit. So who are the lucky ones today? 

Kevin Weitzel: This is one of my favorite parts because Greg, I get [00:43:00] to get a little silly. In third place, taking home a box of Carolina Cookie Company cookies is Ryann Buddhajudge from TruMark Co.

Greg Bray: All right. Congratulations. 

Kevin Weitzel:  And in second place, guess what? Mike Dill, your new home tours are going to be a lot smoother with your brand new gimbal.

That's right, a brand new gimbal from Mike Dill of Keystone Homes. 

Greg Bray: All right. And now the big one, Kevin, here we go. 

Kevin Weitzel: Here's the big one.  And in first place, Greg, this is the good one because this is the Apple AirPods Pro the grand prize, the finale of our whole endeavor here this week is going to Kelly Abeling of Landsea Homes. 

Greg Bray: All right. Congratulations, everybody. We really appreciate all of you who attended the summit.

And of course, wish we could give a prize to everybody, but hey, [00:44:00] the prize for everybody was just an amazing content, right? Kevin? 

Kevin Weitzel: Absolutely. Actually, there was a ton of really good stuff in there. So even a knuckle dragon, mouth breathers, such as myself, picked up some fantastic tips.

Greg Bray:  Well, everybody that does it for this episode of the Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast.

We really appreciate you listening and just take a minute and make sure you're subscribed on your favorite podcast platform and leave us a review that helps get the word out for those who haven't had a chance to learn about these amazing digital marketing opportunities and join us again next time.

And I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine

Kevin Weitzel: And I'm Kevin Weitzel with Outhouse. Thank you