For Maronda Homes, Business Partnerships Are As Important As Client Relationships

Founded in 1972, Maronda Homes is a private business, owned and operated by the Wolf family, building new homes in Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Kentucky and Georgia. Maronda Homes has built more than 70,000 new homes, and its goal from the start has been to provide families with cost-effective homes that stand the test of time.

Matthew Wilson, Maronda Homes’ director of digital marketing, realized that building relationships was crucial to achieving that goal.

Learning who Maronda Homes’ typical customer is posed his biggest challenge, because the buyer profile is constantly evolving. Wilson was used to targeting first-time home buyers. But today, Maronda Homes targets not only first-time home buyers but also repeat buyers and move-up buyers who are looking for their second or third home.

And then there’s the age of today’s home shoppers. Learning that the biggest segment of buyers is millennials (ages 18-37) — but still seeing a large portion of Gen X (ages 38-52) and leading-edge baby boomers (ages 53-72) and how they are searching for homes — was “an eye-opener” for Wilson.

“A lot of longtime builders fret about disenfranchising older buyers while still marketing to millennials,” Wilson remarked. “But I’m sitting there thinking, ‘We’re not a different breed: It’s deep inside every person to want a family and house with the white picket fence.’”

Maronda Homes’ key to building relationships is to speak the buyer’s language. That means offering as much information as possible so they can find the best house for them without all the hassle. Wilson believes that valuable data, presented correctly, puts Maronda Homes squarely in front of home buyers who are much further along in the decision process.

“People think that if you give consumers all the information up front, they won’t come in,” Wilson said. “But I think that if you give them all the info, when they come in, they’re ready to buy.”

Maronda Homes partnered with Zillow Group to help elevate its visibility and engage buyers.

Data informs good decisions

Maronda Homes turned to Zillow Group data to help identify and reach qualified contacts. The Maronda marketing team used the data to review its communities and update its buyer profiles so that the digital marketing messages resonated with the target consumer.

“On the buyer profile side, we get so much more of a global picture from Zillow Group,” Wilson noted. “They aggregate so much data from their sites, and when we merge it with our data, we find out exactly who our buyers are and what we need to improve to earn their business.”

Products promote discoverability

For Maronda Homes, the Promoted Communities platform increases the number of its quality leads and generates more contacts who Wilson categorizes as being further down the sales funnel. Maronda Homes also uses the Community Pages function to highlight features of entire communities — something resale home listings don’t do.

“Our competition isn’t other builders; resale is always our competition,” Wilson explained. “When Maronda Homes is bumped up in the search results, we find so many buyers who fit our category. And even if they’re not an ideal fit for the community they’re asking about, we still get the qualified lead because they’re coming to our website.”

Virtual reality and 3D home tours are another way Wilson builds the buyer relationship by helping shoppers visualize themselves living in the home. Wilson sees the future financial benefit for Maronda Homes in money saved by not building and decorating models, but the immersive tools also help increase his visibility among other prospective buyers.

“The thought is that once a home buyer’s contract is processed, you give them a virtual tour and renderings of their home with the options and colors they chose, and they’ll share it on social media,” he explained. “So, you’re engaging not only them, but their family and friends, too, which is always a positive referral.”

But Maronda Homes doesn’t rely only on arbitrary social media likes and shares; it takes advantage of Zillow Group’s Boost with Precision Targeting, which elevates Maronda Homes’ presence on Facebook and drives traffic to its listings.

“After buyers see us on Zillow Group, it’s not going to take as many touches to generate a viable sales contact,” Wilson remarked. “The beauty is, once buyers see us on Zillow Group, a trusted website, they’re ready to set up an appointment and come in. That outcome is, hands down, the best benefit there is.”

Giving builders a voice

The biggest benefits Wilson sees in working with Zillow Group are having “a seat at the table” and being asked for his feedback on products designed to help builders sell homes.

“Over the past year, we’ve been looking for a partner to help us with goals Maronda Homes wanted to achieve, and Zillow Group’s been that partner,” Wilson pointed out. “The nature of our relationship is more of a consultative one than a selling one — which is better because Zillow Group wants to make you a better builder and marketer.”

His business consultant, Kyle, works toward the same goal.

“Each builder has a different market, unique needs and limited time, so when I reach out to Matthew, it’s always, ‘Hey, I’ve got something for you,’” Kyle explained. “You’re like an individual business within your builder’s business, so you have to be strategic and ask, ‘What else can we do?’”

Wilson continues to collaborate with Zillow Group, but he’s pragmatic about keeping the partnership beneficial to both Maronda Homes and its buyers.

“At the end of the day, the one fact we’re taking away from all this is to make it easier to buy a home,” Wilson stated. “I think great relationships go a long way in business, and if you can prove working with Zillow Group works, we’re going to invest in it.”

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