236.5 Bonus Episode : 2024 Home Builder Digital Marketing Summit Preview - Greg Bray and Kevin Weitzel Sep 30 2024

Greg Bray: [00:00:00] Hello, everybody, and welcome to a special bonus episode of The Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine.

Kevin Weitzel: And it's Kevin Weitzel with OutHouse. And isn't it that most wonderful time of the year? Oh, wait a minute. No, that's the holidays. This is the most wonderful time of the year, Greg. What time is it?

Greg Bray: It's summit time, Kevin.

Kevin Weitzel: Oh, The Home Builder Digital Marketing Summit. That's right. Freakishly fantastic. I look forward to this every single year.

Greg Bray: I'm really excited. Last year I thought we had an amazing [00:01:00] event and I thought, man, how are we gonna top that? And I think, Kevin, we are on track to top it.

Kevin Weitzel: I think we are. Now, no slam to Denver by any means, but this is in Raleigh, baby.

Greg Bray: So logistically, just for those who have been living under a rock and haven't heard about it yet. All right. October 23rd and 24th in Raleigh, North Carolina, The Home Builder Digital Marketing Summit is coming up. Today we just want to take a few minutes and tell you about some of the things that are going to be happening, some of the people who are going to be there, the topics we're going to be talking about and addressing. So if you're still for some reason on the fence and haven't quite decided to come by the time you're done listening, you will have no excuse.

Kevin Weitzel: Zero. What are we kicking off with, Greg?

Greg Bray: So, really excited. Our big kickoff speaker, Alaina, show me the Money-Garman, is going to be there talking about how we make true connections with our buyers and just within all our relationships. She is someone who is well known in the industry. She's presented in many places, many times, and really excited to hear what she's got to say.

Kevin Weitzel: She's a rock star. And [00:02:00] PWIRC, P WB I forget which, one of those women building groups, named her Woman of the Year.

Greg Bray: And we knew she was probably worth that, but we didn't know she was going to get it when we invited her.

Kevin Weitzel: It's celebrity time. Well, if you're being a connector, you have to know what you're connecting to. And you really didn't know what home buyers really want. And we are being graced with Robin Habberley of the NAHB. He's coming in to do a segment on some of the data that shows us maybe are we building the right product. Are we building the wrong product? Are we building the right areas? That'll definitely be an eye-opener to a lot of people for sure.

Greg Bray: I'm excited about that one because this is formal research that they've actually published and they're going to give us a sneak peek. I think you actually have to buy the report if you want the full data. So, we're going to get to some behind the scenes access there to that information.

Kevin Weitzel: Absolutely.

Greg Bray: So Kevin, as most people who have come before have heard, we do have a breakout between a marketing track and an online sales counselor track, and that online sales counselor track is run by our friend, Leah Fellows at Blue [00:03:00] Gypsy Inc. She does a great job of helping those OSCs. So, after we hear from Robin, we're going to split. Right. And some of the groups going to go with Leah, and they're going to learn more about leads and how to process those and how to make sure they're connecting with those. They're going to talk about how to set appointments. They're going to dig in with the relationships, and it's going to be all kinds of great online sales counselor training from Leah.

Kevin Weitzel: And she has some fantastic guest instructors doing some segments on the OSC side. And that is Nick Chitty over at CommVersion and Heidi Schroeder over at ECI Lasso, talking about integrations with CRM and best practices, yada, yada, yada. You get the gist. But anyway, that's on the OSC side.

Greg Bray: On the marketing side, we're going to talk about digital strategy. We've got Paula Huggett from Bokka Group, going to help us out with our strategy. And this is going to be a great high level of what you should be including, the types of tactics and things that make the most sense, how you make those budget decisions. Really excited to hear what Paul's got to say about that strategy [00:04:00] piece.

Kevin Weitzel: Then we have the ever loving, awesome Cory Dotson of Blue Tangerine. He's going to be talking about A/B testing and maximizing that process to get the best out of your website success.

Greg Bray: And this is going to be a tutorial, Kevin. It's not going to be one of those not very useful, high-level overviews. He's going to get into the hands-on really quick, how do you do it, to just make sure that you've got something actionable. So, be sure you come ready to take notes.

Kevin Weitzel: So, wait a minute. We're not talking about a 50,000-foot elevation, we're talking about a strafing of the terrain and a fly-by and a breeze through past the comm tower.

Greg Bray: It's important to us that we make sure that people go home with things they can use right away. Have you ever been to a conference where you get these high-level things? You're like, well, that's nice, but I don't know what to do. I need some actionable things and we want to make sure we've got the mix for sure.

Kevin Weitzel: Love it.

Greg Bray: After Corey, we're going to have a discussion led by Cody Smith of NoviHome, where he's bringing in Jason Kipker from French Brothers Homes and Rachel Starrett from Red Door Homes. [00:05:00] And they're going to talk about the lessons that they've learned implementing various technologies into the marketing and purchase process of new homes. Because we all know that digital involves technology, and we have to be able to understand how to evaluate that technology when to make those decisions, some of the things that make a successful implementation or not. And so, Cody is going to really dig in and pull that out of our panelists there and really let us learn from their experiences. Really excited about that one.

Kevin Weitzel: And then one of my favorite parts of the day, lunch. We get to go to lunch. And then after lunch, we get to our round table breakouts, and that's something that we do that's a little different than some of the other summits to where you actually can go to a focus topic that applies to you as a builder. Greg, can you tell us a little bit more about some of those sessions?

Greg Bray: Yeah, we're going to have a bunch of round tables to choose from, too many to go into here as far as the exact titles, but you're going to get to sit at a table with between, you know, five to eight other attendees for about 25, 30 minutes and talk about the topic that you've chosen to [00:06:00] participate with so you can learn from each other.

So, this is where you get to not only receive but to give and be part of the event itself and understand what people are doing. And then, we're going to ring the bell and you're going to rotate and you're going to go to another table on a different topic with a different set of people. So, you get to really meet a lot of folks, understand what they're doing, get some ideas, get to share what you've been doing so that we can all learn together.

Kevin Weitzel: After that, we're going to have a little breakout led by Leah, correct?

Greg Bray: Leah will take the OSCs back into the training room, and she's going to keep working with them to help them continue their process improvement and being able to connect better with the onsite sales team, with the online sales team, and also about some of the tools that they can use to work well.

While Leah is over there, we've got the marketing track. We're going to be doing social media strategies with Courtney Stewart from Denim Marketing. And then we've got Stephani Alsop from Artisan Built Communities helping out with that presentation as well.

Kevin Weitzel: And then of course, the [00:07:00] ever awesome. I don't know why everybody's awesome today, but everybody's awesome today. We're talking about Mila Sorenson over at Blue Tangerine. She's going to be talking about creating some community tracking segmentations within GA4. And I know that GA4 has been kind of a sweet hot mess for a lot of builders, so this could be a nice eye opener for them as well.

Greg Bray: Again, there should be some real actionable ideas, things you can go home and do right away after that presentation. Following Mila, we're going to have a conversation about automation, right? This is the idea of how do you get your CRM tools and your emails to work harder for you and be able to have things happen automatically or automagically, as we like to say, sometimes. Jeff Schneider from Velocity23 is going to be sharing those insights with us and Jeff's really an expert in that area, done a lot of what we call, pipeline setup or drip campaign setups. So, real excited to hear what he's going to be able to share with us there.

Kevin Weitzel: Yeah, Jeff is a rock star there, Greg. You're right. On top of that, Leah Fellows will be doing a panel with three gals from Stevens Fine Homes, [00:08:00] Courtney Schmitter, Jenna Parker, and Naomi Wright Bellamy. They're going to be talking about integrating sales and marketing to make that happy customer environment.

Greg Bray: From what I understand, Kevin, Leah has been really impressed with what that team's been doing at Stevens Fine Homes. And so being able to learn from them and understand their successes is going to be really valuable for everybody.

Kevin Weitzel: Absolutely. And then once we wrap up that day, what are we doing?

Greg Bray: We are then just getting to fun, right? It's going to be a happy hour cocktail reception at Jimmy V's. For those of you who understand Raleigh history and know who Jimmy V is, the former head coach of the North Carolina State basketball team that won the national championship back in the late eighties. A guy that is well-known in the ESPN world because of some of the cancer stuff he's done. But we're excited to have everybody get together. Going to have some good food, going to share some drinks and some conversation, and be able to get to know each other in a more casual environment and be able to network and create some connections.

Kevin Weitzel: And if you don't party too hard [00:09:00] and eat too many oysters, then we get to start day two after a night of rest.

Greg Bray: And remember both days start with breakfast. So, we want to make sure you know that when you come, we're going to feed you. We're going to feed you well.

Kevin Weitzel: Absolutely. All right, so we get to start off with somebody that I consider an industry genius. An industry god, if you will, with a lowercase g, Greg. We have Greg Bray from Blue Tangerine starting off with Search, Click, and Sold. What is your session going to be about Greg?

Greg Bray: So, I'm going to be sharing some insights around selling homes online on the website and some of the best practices that will help builders really move toward that idea where you can actually close the sale completely on the website. And of course, everybody's not ready for that quite yet, so there's going to be some best practices that will help move you in the right direction that will help just with lead generation as well. So, really excited to share this, been working on it for a while. There's going to be something in there for everybody.

Kevin Weitzel: Right. And then after your session, we split the field again. The OSCs go one direction, our sales and marketing people head another, correct?

Greg Bray: Yeah, and we're going to have John [00:10:00] Peragine from Audience Town who's going to be talking about some of the analytics that they have been finding about buyers and then showing builders how they can actually use those analytics to be able to make better marketing decisions. This is going a lot deeper than what just Google Analytics has to offer. So, excited to see the data that John's got available for us.

Kevin Weitzel: Me too. Believe it or not, I know that we joke around a lot about me being the mouth-breathing knuckle dragger and Greg being kind of the nerdy internet type. But honestly, I love spreadsheets. I love data. I can pile through data like nobody's business. So yeah, I'm going to be a fly on the wall on that one, just watching and hanging on every word for sure. All right, immediately after John, we're going to have Erica Waddell over at Blue Tangerine talking about how to set up your budget for your paid media searches.

Greg Bray: Yeah, and that's again, gonna be really quick and actionable is our goal with that, to make sure that you're spending the right, investing the right amount, but not spending too much.

Kevin Weitzel: And I know we're kind of [00:11:00] alternating here, Greg, but I gotta lead this one in, because Cabe is one of those people, if you've never sat into a Cabe Vinson session, any kind of education session that he's put on, he will open your eyes to so many different things that you don't even think of. Fantastic speaker. What is he going to be talking about, Greg?

Greg Bray: He's getting into the depths of SEO. Everybody knows that your buyers are starting with search and you need to be optimizing for search engines. Cabe is the one on our team that is in that every day. He's up to speed and he's going to bring some new tips and insights that are going to be great to help you improve your search rankings.

Kevin Weitzel: No challenge to any of our other fantastic speakers, but Cabe is the current record holder for the most number of questions after a session.

Greg Bray: I believe that is correct.

Kevin Weitzel: Definitely correct because I was the one watching the clock there going, holy cow, these questions are still coming, but anyway, yeah, current record holder. If that means anything, I don't think we have a medal or a trophy for it, but.

Greg Bray: We could come up with one, I'm sure.

Kevin Weitzel: We should, we should come up with one of those.

Greg Bray: Well, of [00:12:00] course, after Cabe, we're going to have another great lunch. We mentioned feeding you. Right? And then we're going to do some more round table breakouts. Again, you'll get two more sessions on day two that you'll be able to pick. So, make sure that you realize that you get a lot of ability to customize the kind of topics that you want to talk about and participate in.

Kevin Weitzel: When you're done eating and you're done getting to enjoy the different roundtable sessions, what better subject than how to unlock ChatGPT to use to your advantage? And we're going to have Erik Martinez of Blue Tangerine talking to us about ChatGPT.

 

Greg Bray: Yeah, Erik has been doing a lot of research, a lot of experimenting on how to get the most out of it. So much of it has to do with what you put in determines what you get out. And so he's really going to help us understand that better.

But then Kevin, after that. We come to the grand finale, the moment that everybody has come, they just wish it was the only presentation they had to go to, because it is going to be a panel discussion led by the one, the only, the king of the sideburns, [00:13:00] Kevin Weitzel. Tell us, what are you going to be talking about?

Kevin Weitzel: Somebody should have told me about this. All right. So, I'm going to have. with me, the freakishly fantastic Matt Reilly of New Home Inc, as well as Katelin Austin from Lennar. We do have one other guest, but however, they're still working out the details on how they're going to be able to make this happen, but uh, we're going to have three panelists up there.

Anyway, long story short, we're going to be talking about the ups and the downs of the market, how you can capture your future homeowners in today's crazy market, because it really is a crazy market. You know, are you talking about percentage points? Are you talking about pricing ups and downs? Are you talking about the politics that are out there? All these things come into play and these experts will give you a nice roadmap on how to navigate that craziness.

Greg Bray: Kevin, I just love it when we get to hear directly from the builders who do this every day, in these discussions, and they are so willing to share in all these presentations that we've talked about. These folks were very willing to come. We didn't have to beg them. We just had to feed them. They will work for food, I guess. But so exciting for them to to be willing to share [00:14:00] with us their insights, their experiences, because we can all learn together.

Kevin Weitzel: And then before we wrap up, I think we're having an autograph and hug session with Channing Tatum and Brad Pitt. Is that correct?

Greg Bray: I was not aware of that, but if you've arranged for that, then we'll need to get it added to the agenda for sure.

Kevin Weitzel: I don't know if it was going to hit the budgets. I don't think we were able to get them to come. But I think we're going to get some random homeless guy that's willing to take their place.

Greg Bray: Okay, then. Now that everyone has turned us off and is no longer interested in coming, Don't leave too early though, Kevin, because at the end every year, we make sure that we have some fun games and some great giveaway prizes, and you must be present to win, as they say. So, make sure you plan to stay to the very end, because that's when all the good stuff gets handed out.

Kevin Weitzel: Absolutely. And those fantastic door prizes are provided by sponsors. So, could we take a quick second to go over our top sponsors there?

Greg Bray: Yeah, absolutely. This would never happen without the support of our sponsors. We appreciate them so much. This year we've [00:15:00] got New Home Source, New Homes Directory, who are our platinum sponsors. We've got Audience Town and CommVersion, who are gold sponsors. We've got Home Builder Ops, atlasRTX, who are also gold sponsors. And then we've got ECI Lasso and NterNow rounding out those gold sponsors.

So, we are so appreciative to all of them. Please be sure you spend time with them. They all bring a lot of value with the services that they provide to the industry. They make events like this possible and you're going to get a lot of opportunity to meet with them and understand what they have and see how their tools and software might be able to help you do a better job. All right, Kevin, let's remind people. They want to come. How do they get there? When is it?

Kevin Weitzel: It is October 23rd and 24th in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Greg Bray: And the place for all the information, all the details and the registration form is found at buildermarketingsummit.com. Just how it sounds, buildermarketingsummit.com. We really would love to see you there. Kevin and [00:16:00] I'll be there too. In case you didn't pick up on that, and we're excited to meet everybody and have you join us for a great time in Raleigh, learning together, networking together, and having a little fun together too. So, thank you everybody for listening today. This wraps up this bonus episode of The Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine.

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