Why isn’t your home builder or remodeler website capturing more high-quality leads?

There are 4 secrets every builder needs to know about capturing high-quality leads on their website. In this episode “Custom Builder & Remodeler Website Secrets to Capture High-Quality Leads”, we reveal them AND go into detail on how to update your website so it’s a lead generation machine.

Secret #1: What information to provide right away and what things to hold back

Secret #2: How to be added to your lead’s “short list” of builders on their very first website visit

Secret #3: The type of website content that keeps you from capturing leads

Secret #4: How to create an offer your lead can’t refuse.

So watch/listen/read on to discover how these secrets will help you turn your website from a postcard into your top source of high-quality leads!

Builder Lead Converter ATTRACTS, CAPTURES & CONVERTS high-quality leads for builders so they can pick & choose their clients & jobs. Find out how at https://www.builderleadconverter.com

 

Transcript:

 Today on Conversations That Convert, we will be talking about custom builder and remodeler website secrets that capture high-quality leads.

Welcome to conversations that convert every week, we’ll spend about 10 to 15 minutes tackling relevant lead generation, marketing, and sales topics for remodelers home improvement companies, and home builders, Conversions that Convert is brought to you by builder lead converter, your perfect sales assistant.

And now here’s Rick and Daiana. 

Rick: Welcome everyone to Conversations That Convert. Welcome Daiana. You look lovely as ever today. 

Daiana: Thank you. Thank you. Good to see you and welcome everybody. 

Rick: Daiana, I understand you are refreshed, fresh off a two week holiday in Turkey. 

Daiana: Yes, I am very well rested, refreshed, and ready to jump into a conversation that can generate true leads.

Rick: That’s what we’re after today. Yes. And again, that is our topic today is we’re looking at custom building remodeler website secrets to capture high quality leads. And this is all part of our series, digital lead generation secrets. Which is all based on the, according to the Association of Professional Builders, 2022 State of the Residential Construction Industry Survey. Now that’s a mouthful. The number one marketing challenge for custom builders and design build remodelers is generating high quality leads. So we have broken this down and look at digital lead generation.

And the most important thing to to understand here is that digital leads, high quality digital leads, they don’t fall off the trees. They’re really developed over, over time. So we have to not only attract them, we have to capture them, but then we have to convert them. There’s a very much a process to do with that. And what we are really trying to do is we are trying to create value. And we’re trying to establish trust. In our previous episode, we talked about 70 to 90 percent of that buyer’s journey is made before they ever talk to you on the phone or meet you for the first time. So there’s so much that your digital footprint can do. So, Daiana, alright, I know we’ve been working on this. The three questions every custom home and remodeling lead has are…

Daiana: Let’s capture leads. So product, they need to know about the product, about the price and about location. 

Rick: Absolutely. And the product is designed. They cannot visualize right what their project will look like or what their new home will look like. So we call that product. So product, price, place. Location is also placed here. We talk about the five P’s of marketing. Those are three of the five, the five P’s. So we will walk through today four secrets. That you as a home builder, you was a remodeler need to implement in order to convert an opportunity. Now, this is somebody who’s just visiting your website and they’re checking you out into an actual lead. So this is the capture process. So what do you say, Daiana? Should we get started? 

Daiana: Yes, I’m so curious. I’m having a pen here to take some notes, and let’s hear the four secrets. 

Rick: You’re such a great student. 

Daiana: Thank you. 

Rick: All right, secret number one. Now, I’m an old school sales guy. That’s how I started many, many years ago, and as we were selling, my mentors, my trainers, they taught us this technique, and it was called a controlled release of information, so C. R. I. Controlled release of information. And what this means is, is that you give your lead just enough, give them just enough information so that they want more. Human nature says is that we were, we’re very service oriented and this is actually something that has to be learned. We want to provide all the information right away because we want to be a good service. When we do that, we disincentivize the lead to come back and get more information.

So by using a technique called controlled release information, we give them just enough so that they want more, not too much so they want more. So that is secret number one on your website is I see two issues with, with websites. Sometimes there’s way too much information and it’s overwhelming and it turns the lead off and then go away. Sometimes there’s not enough information, specifically with a lot of remodelers and custom builders, they just do not have enough information on their website, so there’s no compelling reason for the lead to come back and they’re gone. You lose that opportunity to convert them into a lead. Daiana, any other thoughts on that? 

Daiana: Well, that’s interesting. I just, I’m just thinking that how I start and I, my, in my mind is to your right to serve the client, but by serving and giving them a lot of information actually. I’m not serving them and they will just leave without without coming back. So that, that’s true. And it’s so true. I didn’t realize that until now because I want to give them everything. So they have in my mind is okay if they have everything, all the information, they will take the right decision and then they will buy and they come back. But it seems that it, maybe it’s too much for them.

Rick: Absolutely. You know, there’s the the fire hose effect, right? You drink from the fire hose. Our little brains, we can only handle so much information at one time. So if we give too much information, we will overwhelm you. And we’ve all been there. If you’ve sold long enough, you can think back of when you. And you kind of, you know, as you reflect on the conversation, like, Oh, I sure screwed that one up. I gave way too much information. So when we control it and give them just enough, we create a compelling reason to get them to come back. So whether we are following up, which normally that would happen, of course, after the conversation, we can use the enticement of getting more information that they did not get the first time is a reason to reconnect.

And that’s what’s really most, most important. Now, we also have to look at this in the, from a platform standpoint, almost all of your conversations will start out. through messaging. So that could be social media messaging. That could be SMS or text messaging. That could be email, but almost all of them will start out on messaging, the natural ascension to that conversation would be to move from messaging to a phone call. So we have to. So we’re looking ahead here a little bit. But when we get to the conversion standpoint is if we want to convert a lead into a phone appointment, we have to be thinking about what we’re giving them now, because that will determine how we will adjust our messaging going forward.

We’re gonna talk about market market segmentation or segmenting your leads here as we get into our next step of this process of where we need to understand what is most important that lead so that we can tailor our messaging or segment it so that it is super relevant to that lead and it’s going to give them a really compelling reason to want to pick up the phone and have a conversation with you. So it’s a process here and we just have to be patient as we work through the process. 

Daiana: Yes, that’s true. I’m curious about the secret number two. 

Rick: So secret number two is most leads are not ready to talk to you. And I think that we assume that, well, somebody took the time to go on my website, so therefore they want to talk to me. The opposite is true. Probably about 90 percent of the leads on your website do not want to talk to you. Now, that does not mean they’re not open to hearing from you. Okay. And that’s an important distinction. There may be just not ready to sit down. Some of them at that time, while they’re on your website, they may not even be ready to have a phone call, which is fine. We have the ability to start that conversation, to start that relationship. Through messaging. Now, the other thing that’s important to note here, Daiana, is that when that opportunity is on your website, are they trying to include you to their shortlist of builders to consider? Or are they trying to cross you off the list and exclude you? What do you think is true? 

Daiana: I think they will exclude me. 

Rick: Exactly. That is how people shop. So when they’re on your website, they’re not looking for reasons to add you to the shortlist. They’re looking for reasons to cross you off the shortlist. Again, because I research online, this is the funnel aspect of it. I gather information here and I start to narrow things down. And when I get things to a narrow part of the funnel here, that’s where I might have one, two or three builders. I’m actually going to have a conversation. And that’s where you want to be. It’s that one, two or three builders that you can have the conversation. So when they’re on their website, they’re trying to cross you off the list. Any other thoughts on that, Daiana? 

Daiana: Yeah, so that’s interesting because you will think that they will include you so that, but it seems that it’s exactly the opposite. They will just exclude you and they stay with something that they, they really want and they’re interested in. So it’s actually, it’s counterintuitive. I think…

Rick: If you think about it, I just purchased a new car recently and I bought used cars. 99 percent of my research was done online. But as I was shopping for those cars and they have websites now where you can, you know, all the cars are aggregate into one website and I can go through and I can filter the cars out and then I can pick my favorites. And so what happened was, is that I had at first a list of maybe eight or ten favorites. And then I would go through and I would reexamine those and I would start to learn more about the features I did or didn’t want or maybe some of them had more miles than I wanted or they didn’t have the right color or the interior was wrong.

So what I noticed happened was I, I whittled that down to two and then I was actually physically scheduled to go look at those two cars. Now this is a large purchase obviously not as large as say remodeling your home or building your home But that’s how the process went. I just whittled, whittled, whittled, whittled, whittled I got down to the narrow part of the funnel. There were two, I went to go visit one of the cars and on the way there The salesperson called me for a car number two and said oh, by the way, I just discovered this Well, it was some rust, you know, where there was some wear and tear on the car that you truly couldn’t see in the picture.

So kudos to him, you know, he wanted to give me full disclosure because it was a bit of a drive for me to go see the car. So I only went and looked at one car and that’s the car I bought, you know, after looking at dozens and dozens of cars in the geographic area here. So again, that’s the process that your leads are using to find a home builder or to find a remodeler. Is there going to start looking at a lot and then they’re going to say, Hey, I like this. I like this. I like this. I like this. They will create a short list and then they’ll even narrow that short list down before they’ll actually move to the next step, which is, which is a phone call. 

Daiana: Yeah. That’s interesting because you never think that, you think that they’re all want to talk to you. Right?

Rick: But they really don’t. And the younger the demographic today, the less they want to talk to you, you know, they, they, they want to use this, you know, for, for everything. Right. So secret number three, and this is just, I guess this is to understand human nature. Leads don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care. I see a lot of builders make a huge mistake. They put too much content on your website, especially about process, internal systems, technical information, awards, that sort of thing. They don’t care about that until they know how much you care. They have to feel like you are the best fit for their problem. Not every lead has a problem.

Their problem is… the home or location they are living in does not fulfill a hoped-for lifestyle. It’s really important. They have a hoped for lifestyle. You need to understand that. All we are is in a lifestyle business. They are not able to do something either because of the location they’re living in or because of the physical layout of their current home or a home that Oh, I should say this is their current home, whether it’s remodeling or they want to build a home. So that’s the issue. That’s the problem they have. So they’re looking for a solution to that. So that’s how we go back to is that you have to show them what they could build through design

You have to show them a budget range of how much things do cost so they’re because they’re they’re intimidated and reach out to you because If their budget is 100, 000 and what they’re thinking of is 200, 000, they really don’t want to look dumb. They want to have a pretty good idea of what I would like to do is the budget I’ve set aside realistic? That’s the question. So you have to be able to give them those tools online. So again, a lot again, just a quick critique of builders websites. I see out there. Oftentimes there’s too much information. It’s too cluttered. It’s too wordy. It’s too technical. It turns leads off and they will cross you off the list. What do you think of that, Daiana? 

Daiana: Well, I thought it’s exactly the opposite. But now with your secrets, you are turning my world down. It seems that those are really secrets that do, then you will see some differences and you’ll know what’s happening behind and you can act accordingly. So…

Rick: And, and I think it’s, less is more. Okay. That’s it. You’ve heard that before. Less is more is that just show them. That’s why what is so important. Reviews are so important. Third party content that focuses on a client you have served. So some sort of a public relations news article. But those testimonials are so important along with your design, along with giving them location information, along with giving them basic pricing information on the website, all of those things, and you have to be able to offer the stick with them for the long term to say, Hey, if you are planning this, here’s tools and materials you can use to educate yourself to make a well informed choice.

And that’s all they’re trying to do is make a well informed choice. You’re not selling them. You’re simply educating them and hopefully positioning yourself that they look at you as the best option to solve their lifestyle problem. Alright, so secret number four and, and this is so, so important is you have to give them a compelling reason to opt in. When I say opt in, what we are discussing here is what’s called inbound marketing. They are looking for information. So they go out to you and you bring them in. So these are people looking to build a home, looking to remodel a home. They come to you, now I have to give them a compelling reason to take the next step. That’s the capture process.

I’m on opportunity right now because I’m on your website, but I have to give them a compelling reason to go to the next step. So some ideas, and we’ll get into more of these next week. Some ideas is just to be able to answer a quick question over text or SMS. A lot of builders are just floored when we go in and we started, we start with them and we will do some campaigns using just SMS or text messaging and we’re selling 500, 000 remodels or million dollar plus custom homes, you know, and they’re like, I can’t believe text, you know, text message. It seems so unprofessional. It’s like, yeah, but that’s what works. That’s what gets people’s attention. And yeah.

I can keep the message short and sweet and I can give them a compelling reason to go to the next step. So on your website, having the ability for someone to start a text messaging conversation with you is very important. Secondly offer to let them create a project scope, let them start to design or put together their dream kitchen or their custom home. We call that a scope budget and booking wizard. So they can start to put this together and then you will provide a budget for them. Again, they’re just researching at this point. They’re dreaming a lot of the time, enhanced resources to help with design that came across this, this tool recently called a lookbook or a design book where it’s a digital book and I can give them inspiration on different types of architectural motifs or it’s great for remodeling to for kitchens and bathrooms and additions and that sort of thing.

And then, most importantly is I need to I still need to be able to take a phone call. Somebody wants to call because there will be people that will just call. They prefer that. That’s great. But I have to be prepared to use all mediums, including social media messaging, including Google, my business messaging. I have to have that all linked in there because I just do not know. Where this lead up number one is coming from and number two, how they prefer to communicate again. The vast majority leads today. They don’t want to talk on the phone. They prefer to communicate through through messaging. Final thoughts, Daiana?

Daiana: Well, I think those secrets are truly secrets and they work and probably they’re tested and yeah, it’s if you just pay attention to them, then you will you’ll see some immediate results. I truly believe that.

Rick: And that’s important that everyone understands that this is the this is the formula. This is the method behind the madness. So when you look at your website, what content you’re putting on there, where you’re putting that content, where you are putting your lead magnets. What are the lead magnets? And then all of that is ultimately based on the conversion process. That’s converting that lead into a phone appointment. That’s really the ultimate where the rubber meets the road. Because who cares if you generate leads if you’re never able to talk to them or they don’t convert into sales. We’re talking about high quality leads.

So this is the process to get high-quality leads into your pipeline and ultimately into your production schedule. So if you would like to learn more on how we could help you attract capture and convert high-quality leads, so you can pick and choose your clients and jobs Go ahead and click the link below. Schedule a strategy call with me and be happy to learn more about your company and more about you know, what your needs are, what your goals are in the future, and see if we might be able to help. Until then for my brothers and sisters in Christ, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of god, and the fellowship of the holy spirit, be with you all always. We will see you next time on Conversations that Convert. Bye. Bye