By: Spencer Powell, Builder Funnel
It’s a noisy world out there. Marketing your new community can be tough. Consumers are hit with so much information, so many ads, and they are bombarded with posts on social media.
So, how can you flip the script and have your potential buyers actually seeking you out?
Enter lifestyle content.
What Do I Mean By Content?
Generally, content is written, audio or visual and it takes the form of blog posts, website pages, podcasts, and videos on your website or social media.
Over the last decade or more, content has proven itself to be an extremely effective way to attract potential customers to your website and brand, but it also serves as a credibility builder.
As your prospects are looking for information on the web, they find content. So, the goal becomes having them find your content which means we have to create really helpful, valuable content.
Using Lifestyle Content to Attract Buyers
When someone is looking for a new home, she is looking at more than just the home. She wants to know what amenities the community has, but she also wants to know what’s nearby. What type of activities are there? Are there any good restaurants? What school district is the community in?
This is where you have a giant opportunity. By creating lifestyle content, you pull in potential buyers that are looking for these other factors.
Let’s look at some examples. Liberty Homes is a custom home builder in the Poconos. Their website is filled with helpful blog content and resources such as:
- Best Places to Live in PA
- Buying A Vacation Home in the Poconos
- Getting Over the Fear of Committing to a New House
- New to Buying a Home?
But, they also have a ton of lifestyle content:
- Poconos Water Parks
- Poconos Camping
- Hiking in the Poconos
- Poconos Ski Resorts
- Local Attractions in the Poconos
- Entertainment in the Poconos Area
Last year, six of their blog posts drove over 1,000 views to the website with one of them driving over 6,000 visitors. Because these resources are so helpful, the average time spent on these blog posts was around 4 minutes.
When buyers are researching, they aren’t just looking for phrases like “new homes in LOCATION”. They are looking for the best beaches, the best hiking spots, the best activities, nearby hospitals, attractions, schools, and more.
By putting ourselves in our prospects shoes, we’re better able to understand everything that matters to them. One of the best parts about this strategy is that not many builders think to spend time on this type of content, so the opportunity is large.
For another builder, their top viewed blog post on their website is titled “16 Nearby Winter Getaways in New Jersey” and it drove almost ten times the number of visitors that their second top blog did. It also had about three times the time spent on that page vs. other posts.
Even online master-planned community marketing resources like PCR have seen great success in driving traffic to their partner listings by developing a lifestyle content blog.
Creating the Content
Now that we’ve talked about some of thetypes of content you should be creating, let’s talk about best practices for creating this content. First, you want the title of these blog posts to be a combination of catchy and keyword focused.
Bad Example: 7 Denver Activities
Good Example: 7 Little Known Fun Things to Do in Denver, Colorado
Keyword Focus: Things to Do in Denver (or Denver Activities)
The first example is pretty generic and not very compelling. The second one has a bit of intrigue and adds a little spice.
Secondly, you want to make this post truly helpful and valuable. We don’t want to create any fluff pieces here. Strive to make this one of the best resources on the subject. You want your visitors to feel like this was exactly the information they were looking for. This helps you in Google’s eyes as well because they prioritize their users.
Finally, make sure to break up your content with subheadings, bullets and images. The content should be easy to digest and easy to scan because that’s what many people either do or prefer to do.
If you follow these three best practices, your content will shine next to your competitor’s.
Next Steps
So, where do you begin? I recommend talking to some buyers to see what was important to them outside of the community details and home details. From there, you can start creating blog posts or pages on your website with the type of information we discussed above.
Use the examples from Liberty Homes to brainstorm some initial ideas, and then put it in the schedule to build out two or three of these pages each month and get them added to your website.
This strategy has proved it can drive lots of prospects to your website based on the data we’ve gathered, and almost no one else is doing it.
Jump out in front of your competition and start creating more lifestyle content today!
About Spencer Powell
Spencer comes from a long line of builders who have been in business for over 100 years now. In 2010, Spencer started helping grow the family business by working on their digital marketing efforts. Today, Spencer’s award-winning digital marketing agency helps dozens of builders and remodelers around the United States and Canada. He is the current President of Builder Funnel, a digital marketing agency specializing in helping the construction industry generate more leads and sales using the power of their own company websites. Spencer also hosts a popular podcast, Builder Funnel Radio where he brings on industry experts and guests to share their insights with builders and remodelers.