Off-Season? Keep Marketing Your Homes

Spring and summer might be the peak home-buying season, but the off-season is no time to put your marketing on the shelf while you wait for sales to pick up again. Builders need to stay relevant and top of mind with home shoppers, so think long-term and act today to attract buyers tomorrow.

Here are four ways you can keep marketing your homes during the off-season:

1. Grow and nurture your contacts
2. Engage with home shoppers
3. Improve your listing quality
4. Ask for customer reviews

1. Grow and nurture your contacts

Winter is an ideal time to grow your contacts list so that home shoppers are primed and ready to make a home purchase. Even if people aren’t buying, they’re still looking — especially during the holidays. Shoppers like to explore and dream about their future homes at any time of year, after all.

Personal connections

Reach out to past buyers. The Zillow Group New Construction Consumer Housing Trends Report 2018 shows that 71 percent of new construction home buyers are repeat home buyers. Your homeowners want to know they were more than just a lot number to you. Get personal: Ask if they’re enjoying the backyard they specifically wanted or the gourmet kitchen they helped design.

Cultivate shoppers who toured a model home or stopped by a grand opening event. Which floor plan caught their eye? What other home questions can you answer for them? Make a connection with these contacts while learning valuable insights about your home shoppers’ wants and needs.

Does your community offer seasonal events like a local theater production of “A Christmas Carol” or “The Nutcracker”? Talk to the organizer and ask for an exclusive discount code. Post the codes on your website and use them to drive prospective buyers to your community.

Send out ornaments featuring your logo or website. It’s a unique way to remind past buyers and current home shoppers about your community as they decorate for the holidays.

2. Engage with home shoppers

Website updates

The off-season is a great time to refresh the information on your website. Swap out renderings for photos, upload new floor plans, showcase new communities, curate your blog articles and revisit anything else that’s more than a month old.

It’s also a great time to update your calls to action (CTAs) everywhere you’re online — including your home page, blog and social media channels.

Don’t be afraid to be detailed — it’ll set you apart from the ineffective requests to “contact us” or “stop by.” Try these CTAs:

• Free download: new construction home buyer’s checklist
• Subscribe to our monthly newsletter
• Explore these creative sources for down payments

Snail mail

Reach out to potential buyers the old-fashioned way! What better time than winter to send holiday greetings while also reminding them that you’ve got the keys to their dream home?

Social media

Use your social media feeds to share quality shots of your homes and neighborhoods decorated for the season, as well as area celebrations like sleigh rides and lighting ceremonies. You can encourage home shoppers to comment on your posts with their favorite holiday tradition. Remember to use relevant hashtags so buyers can find your content.

Email

In the off-season editions of your newsletter, invite shoppers to enjoy hot cocoa and cookies at a model home that you’ve staged for the holidays. Share a countdown to a grand opening, or make early-bird and off-season offers to get home shoppers excited about exploring floor plans for entertaining in their new home.

Consider a drip campaign that includes helpful info, such as:

• How to know when you’re ready to buy
• The ABCs of new construction
• How new construction compares to resale
• First-time home buyer’s checklist

Sales center

A festively decorated sales center is a slam-dunk opportunity to draw buyers in for seasonal refreshments while marketing your homes during the off-season. Host a gingerbread house decorating contest with the designs based on your own floor plans, then invite sales center visitors to vote on the winner. The home theme will remind potential buyers that you can help get them into the home of their dreams.

Host a tree trimming party to support families in need in your area. Send invitations and the wish list to all your home-buyer contacts. It’s a great opportunity to showcase your investment in the community and its residents.

3. Improve your listing quality

Having a strong online presence is key: 76 percent of new construction buyers search online to find a home. So when home shoppers are looking, they want all the details you’ve got. And there’s no shortage of ways to attract and inform buyers while still making your listings stand out.

Lot availability

Nearly 1 in 5 (17 percent) new construction home buyers consider purchasing a lot or land with no existing home on it, so showcase all your available inventory.

Pictures and floor plans

When shopping for homes, buyers look at photos first, so include plenty of them.

Keywords

Be direct, descriptive and detailed: If you offer stainless steel farm sinks or luxurious hardwood floors, say so.

Serving a niche market? Include language that highlights, for example, your green homes, pet-friendly communities or expertise with first-time buyers.

Tailor your messages to different generations — find out what matters most to each and let those details shine in your listings.

4. Ask for customer reviews

As shoppers research your homes and communities during the off-season, what could be more powerful than having them read the latest reviews about what it’s like to work with you and live in one of your homes? The end of the year is the perfect time to reward buyers, home shoppers and sales center visitors who review you. For a limited time, make every new review a chance to win a holiday gift basket full of goodies.

Testimonials and success stories

Even if buyers aren’t visiting model homes or driving through neighborhoods in the off-season, they’re still shopping and exploring — especially online. It doesn’t take much to keep your marketing mojo going in the downtime so that home shoppers remember you when buying season heats up again.