The New Year is just around the corner. For most people, it’s a time of celebration. For others, it’s an opportunity to set both short-term and long-term goals. And for builders, it’s a time to reevaluate what’s worked and what can be improved upon. Here at BDX, we’re gearing up for 2020, and since the digital space is ever-evolving, we wanted to dive deeper into some of the trends on the horizon for next year.
Make Customer Experience Part of Your Marketing Strategy
Our very own Melissa Morman touched on this topic during the Digital Transformation Summit (DCX) this past May. But since this is a trending buzzword, we wanted to emphasize its importance. Defined by Hubspot as the impression you leave with your customer, resulting in how they think of your brand, across every stage of the customer journey. In other words, CX is the new way to market to your customers. If you take customer experience out of your marketing strategy, what do you have? A normal product or service. If you add customer experience back into your marketing strategy, you’ve just created raving fans. 73 percent of people say that customer experience is an important factor in their buying decisions. So why wouldn’t you jump on this trend?
Visual Content IS the Content Your Consumers Want
Gone are the days of text-based content. Here to stay is visuals, visuals and more visuals. Visual search is growing. In fact, 62 percent of Millennials say they are more interested in visual search than any other new technology. And for builders, this means going beyond the standard images and wowing your customers with 3D renderings, interactive floorplans, video walkthroughs, and more. Still not convinced? Here are a few fun facts about visual content:
Fact #1: People are 85 percent more likely to buy your product after watching a video about it.
What You Can Do: Add videos alongside your new home listings to increase leads by 28 percent and click-throughs by 36 percent.
Fact #2: Posts with images produce 180 percent more engagement.
What You Can Do: Make sure your social media/blog posts include visuals in order to increase post engagement.
Fact #3: Images are already returned for 19 percent of searches on Google.
What You Can Do: Take advantage of BDX’s visual search platform, HomLuv, in order to match your home shoppers to their dream home.
Live Video is the Way to Go
Why pre-record a video when you can live-stream it? Well, for starters, 82 percent of users prefer live stream video to social posts and 67 percent of live stream video viewers are more likely to take a further action. Video itself is the most popular way for consumers to learn about new products, but when you live-stream, you’re giving your audience the ability to participate rather than just passively watch. And with New Home Lifestyles, powered by NewHomeSource.com, builders have the opportunity to showcase their model homes through live-stream broadcasts – an out-of-the-box approach that will increase organic social media reach and drive new home shoppers to your sales centers.
SEO is Changing
There’s no doubt that search engine optimization is a vital part of a company’s marketing strategy. And there’s no doubt that will continue to trickle over into 2020. But with recent updates to Google’s algorithm and the way users search for information, the number one spot in search engine result pages (SERPs) is no longer a priority. Users want instant results and with featured snippets, they’re able to get the information they want without having to click through to a website. And just like the number one search result was a highly sought out position in years past, “position zero” is now the most sought out position for on-SERP information. Located right at the top of the page before the organic listings, this spot is no easy feat. Over 60 percent of search results returned by Google are now position zero search results.
Utilize Chatbots to Enhance Your Marketing Efforts
Today’s home builders want real-time experiences. And with the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI), builders are able to offload some of the grunt work by providing shoppers 24/7 access to an automated bot that provides them with information about a home or community. In fact, 82 percent of consumers rate an “immediate response” as very important to them in a new home buying experience. But remember, use this technology to strengthen your marketing and not to replace actual people.
If you haven’t thought about your 2020 marketing plan, don’t fret! Take a look at the above mentioned trends to figure out where you need to start. And if you need help with any of your digital marketing needs, contact one of our BDXperts.
