QUICK AND EASY

Help buyers find your Web site—and then keep them there.

Before a prospective customer can make any kind of connection with an online sales counselor, they have to find your site and have a reason to hang out there. Every element of marketing—from print ads and billboards to radio spots and company cars—should drive customers to your Web site.

Doing a local search is a central part of the process for most new-home shoppers, so search engine optimization has to be part of the marketing budget, says Blair Kuhnen, president of Lux Solutions. Search engine optimization is an Internet marketing strategy to push your site to the top of the results when a prospective buyer searches for new homes in the cities where you have active communities. The goal is to have your site show up in the first page of results.

Of course, the ultimate goal is to have a Web address that is so memorable, people skip the search engines (and the competition) completely. When Mattamy Homes opened its North Carolina division, the sales and marketing team created a new tag line, “Mattamy Homes—We're listening.” So it used www.mattamylistening.com as its Web address. The name spoke to the builder's brand message of listening to what its customers wanted and needed in a home and the home-buying experience—and it was unique and memorable. As a result, the number of clicks to the site tripled, says executive vice president Scott Elliott.

Once on the site, the premium is on ease of use, Kuhnen says. Make it usable, quick, and interactive. Visitors shouldn't have to dig through several layers of pages for floor plans, sales center hours, driving directions, or available inventory. Give them tools they can use, such as mortgage calculators, commuter calculators, interactive floor plans, or maps of nearby amenities, such as shopping, schools, parks, and restaurants.

Make it very clear what you want people to do next. Instead of a generic “Contact Us” button, give guests specific options, such as, “Request a Free Brochure,” “Schedule a VIP tour,” or “Ask About Special Financing Programs for First-Time Home Buyers.”

And if you want people to give you accurate personal information, reward them by giving them something in return, such as a report card on local schools. Just make sure the visitors know what you're going to do with the information.

“We've [had] some success in asking gentle and respectful questions and being really candid, saying, ‘Look, we're not going to misuse this information,'” says Leighton Collis, president of Liquid Advertising. “All builders have to be good Internet citizens today.”