2019 is well and truly upon us and if you’re like most custom home builders, securing clients and booking out your services are on the top of the priority list. In years gone by, a letterbox drop, print advertising piece or even word of mouth would likely do the trick. In this day and age, your digital presence is everything. If you haven’t yet invested in your digital footprint, the time is now. We’ve outlined the very best ways for professional builders to land more clients today.
1. Launch a professionally designed website
Nothing turns off potential clients quite as much as a slow, poorly designed website. Almost 53% of website traffic is mobile these days so your website needs to be mobile responsive. A DIY website likely doesn’t have the capabilities to capture your audience’s attention on mobile if you’ve done it yourself.
Hire a website developer who can design and code a professional piece. This will pay itself off in no time!
2. Get Social
79% of Australians are now using social media. That statistic has grown by 10% in a year alone. If you don’t have a social media presence, it’s likely your competitors do and you’re missing out on the gravy as a result.
The key is to grow an active and engaged audience by humanising your brand. Take them on a journey with you as you begin projects, complete homes and everything in between. 94% of social media users have a Facebook page and 46% are on Instagram. So if you’re going to concentrate on any platforms, make it those.
Further to this, almost 64% of consumers stated they would be more likely to trust a brand if they interact with followers in a positive way on social media.
3. Showcase Your Plans Online
Once you attract your ideal demographic to your website, you want to showcase what you can do for them. The very best way to do this is to upload your range of plans online. Visitors can browse and dream about their ideal home while online and hopefully, this will convert to a hot lead for you.
Organise your plans by type for example, 3 bedroom modern homes, 5 bedroom replica homes, apartments and so on. This will make it easy for them to find exactly what they’re looking for.
HINT: we have over 200 buildable, bankable designs readily available through our subscription service.
4. Create High-Quality Content
Producing high quality content is a must when enhancing your digital presence. Grainy images and sloppy copywriting just won’t cut it in this day and age. If you can’t create the content yourself, consider hiring a graphic designer and copywriter to help you.
The type of content every builder should be producing is:
- Social Media Content: a minimum of 4 posts per week
- A monthly blog
- Email marketing to current, prospective and past clients
5. SEO Is Important
As most prospective clients are searching for you online, you need to make it easy for them to find you. Your organic search engine optimisation covers your website. At the very least, each page should include a keyword such as ‘Builder Brisbane’ and have a meta description to compliment it.
You can also up the ante through paid Google Advertising. This is where you can select a range of keywords and pay for your website to be shown first when prospective clients are looking for you.
Remember, great content comes first with SEO being the icing on the cake.
Obtaining high quality, hot leads is imperative to every business owner but more-so for builders. As you know, as soon as a job finishes, you need another to replace it. Don’t get caught out constantly chasing leads, create a winning online presence that works for you.