By Element-360
In the wild west of digital lead generation, there are endless digital marketing opportunities for communities & builders to leverage in their strategy. And while generating a ton of leads can be accomplished fairly easily, generating a significant amount of high-quality leads requires a much more refined strategy. Check out these tactics for improving lead quality that we’ve compiled based on 10 years of lead data benchmarks.
Ad/Landing Page Creative Tactics
Price. Include price in your ads and/or your landing pages. Filter out people who aren’t looking for your $750,000 home simply by letting them know the price tag. This is a consideration for some builders and developers because they get concerned about the over-commoditization of the product. However, the buying process has changed with the evolution of data being made available online by PCR, Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, and Realtor.com.
Product. Include product in your headlines. Sounds simple, but in the world of branding, you’d be surprised on how hard it can be to figure out what is for sale.
Location. Include location in your headlines and overall creative. Someone looking for a home in Florida will quickly disqualify themselves if your ad and landing page clearly state that you’re selling homes in Texas.
Photography. You need great photography to sell homes and communities, period. Our highest performing ads and landing pages feature high-resolution photography that shows a clear picture of product type, lifestyle, and what’s possible with ownership.
Brand Positioning. Having a well-positioned brand means that you’ve clearly distinguished your community or product in the market. The goal is to leave an impression in the mind of your target market by stating your unique value proposition, which gets them to return and creates loyalty. The more well-positioned your brand, the more likely you are to attract qualified leads.
Lead Form Tactics
Open-Ended Question. Over multiple A/B tests, we found that leading with an open-ended question on your lead form increases conversion rate by double digits while also increasing the amount of detail the lead is willing to share. When you make it about them, they’re happy to tell you exactly what they’re looking for.
Preferred Method of Contact. This gives your sales team the best information, and also gives the lead a more comfortable experience knowing that you care about their communication preferences. Also, if someone prefers a call, that signals a hot lead!
Campaign Targeting Tactics
Income Targeting. At the time of publication, some digital channels still offer the ability to target people by income, such as Google Ads. Your target audience likely falls into a specific range of annual income, so layer on this data to reach that target.
Location Targeting. Another option offered by several digital channels, which can be done by radius around a specific point of interest or by zip code. Geo-targeting, when combined with additional layers of demographic targeting, improves lead quality by reaching the most relevant audiences where they live, shop, and travel.
Marketing Channel Optimization Tactics
Engagement. Look at your Google Analytics account by channel. Look at UX metrics such as average session duration (time on site), page views, and bounce rate. What channels are producing the most engaged traffic? If a specific channel is producing a 90% bounce rate and average session duration of 5 seconds, you’ll want to reduce spend on this channel. If a channel is generating traffic with a 3-minute session duration, 20% bounce rate, and multiple page views, you know that you’re reaching your target audience through this channel. We consider these UX metrics as the leading indicator of lead quality. Pro tip: the more engaged the user is, the more likely they are to want to do business with you.
Conversion Rate. After considering UX metrics, take a look at conversion rate. Of the traffic that was sent to your site from a specific channel, how many people registered for more information? If conversion rate is low across the board, your site may need conversion rate optimization. If certain channels are producing significantly higher conversion rates than others, consider shifting budget to the higher performing channels. If this is new information, look to industry experts who know the benchmarks for average page views, session duration and conversion rates.
If your current digital strategy isn’t generating leads from your target market, and you’re looking to improve lead quality, consider leveraging these tactics in your digital campaigns.
About Element-360
Since 2009, Element-360 has partnered with real estate clients across 16 countries including community developers, builders, and brokerages. We create custom digital marketing strategies to drive quality traffic & leads for our clients. Strategy recommendations are based on the unique needs & goals of each individual client & project, and campaigns are continuously optimized for lead quality. Our passion is to accelerate growth for our clients by understanding the journeys, behaviors, and motivations of their buyers. For more information, visit https://element-360.com/.