How Does COVID-19 Affect Marketing for Homebuilders?

Make no mistake – COVID-19 and the new normal will change homebuilding. Home is everything now – these days, home is where you work, entertain and educate your children, and stay safe in an ever-changing world.

The lasting effects will make their way into new home construction. Below are some ways that we believe will help homeowners live healthier and safer lives.

A New Homebuying Experience – Virtual Tours

Did you know that 41% of Millennials put an offer on a home without seeing it? It’s because the new generation of homebuyer can find out almost everything they need to know about a home online, and they want to be able to complete most of their customer journey online.

This bodes well for your digital marketing strategy for two reasons:

1. Facebook and Google Ads can reach your audience where they are already shopping.
2. Streamlined user experiences on the website help capture leads and nurture them into homebuyers.

Virtual tours are no longer optional. It is no longer “this would be nice” value-add on. Your buyers want to be able to experience potential new homes from the comfort of their current home.

5 Tips to Make the Most from the Virtual Home Experience:

1. Add highly visible buttons to your model homes and spec homes for “Take a Virtual Tour” linking to virtual tour partners like Matterport.
   
   
2. Ensure that forms are on the same page as the Virtual Tour pages to quickly capture your prospects while their interest is high
   
   
3. Provide interactive virtual tours and have your sales rep schedule a time to take your prospects through the model home (or spec home) via Zoom, Facetime, or Google Hangouts.
   
   
4. Can AI help you launch an unattended visit to a model home or spec home, similar to OpenDoor?
   
   
5. Launch a chatbot – home buyers are reluctant to speak to a human early in the shopping journey. This is an opportunity to have a touchpoint outside of office hours.

What Will Homebuyers Want After COVID-19?

A new home is not a new address – it’s a new lifestyle—a new chapter in your Prospect’s life story— and that story has changed in the wake of the pandemic. Needs have changed, and the home is already changing to accommodate those needs.

Here are a few marketing messages we anticipate homebuyers will need to hear to be interested in your product.

New Homes are Healthy Homes

New homes mean newer systems for the purest air, water, and materials. New construction homebuyers want to know that they are building a safe haven for their families in a world that can be ravaged by disease. New home = safe home.

Outdoor Living Spaces

Outdoor spaces became a safe place to be social and take in a new view, and after 2020, we predict that significantly fewer people will purchase a new construction home if it doesn’t have an outdoor living space built in.

Wi-Fi Everywhere

If your builds are not Wi-Fi Certified… why not? The bare minimum of entertainment and work in the home is linked to internet access. Plan to build homes with tastefully placed plugs for all manner of electronic devices and Smart Home features.

Home Office

In an age where home is the office during this pandemic, can home builders create a professional office? What options can the floor plan offer to make the home office more productive? Can you offer sound-proof walls? The best internet connection? Better natural light? How can you market the home office as the best place to work?

Self-Healing Materials

We believe that marketing sustainable and self-healing materials will be important in the wake of the pandemic. Offering materials with antiviral capabilities, like Microban, makes the home safer by design.

Transition Spaces

The transition from outside to inside will need to be built in. Rethink the mudroom as a decontamination space to remove shoes, spritz hand sanitizer, and keep the outside from getting in. Can you build in ways to organize the transition space for your buyers?

Marketing for New Construction Homes

Are you a home builder or developer? Blue Sky Marketing has kept a pulse on the homebuying industry for 10 years, and we’re watching closely as demands change in the wake of the pandemic.

If you want more qualified leads, let’s chat about how a strong digital marketing strategy can help. Let’s craft a marketing message and plan that’s all about you. Start the conversation today.