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The 2020 State of Home Builder Marketing Report has arrived! We’ve pulled out our biggest takeaways from the report to give a brief overview of the biggest construction industry trends this year.
New Marketing Tactics for Home Builders
There is a diversity of opinions on what marketing for construction companies should look like, but according to this survey, there are a lot of tactics construction companies generally agree upon for this upcoming year.
For example, the majority of home builders are now using social media, email marketing, and even SEO. And a few other content types are surfacing too, though at a lower percentage, including podcasts, webinars, and long form content.
Home builders are posting to social media much more often, too. Only 27% of those surveyed this year said they post less than several times per week — as opposed to a whopping 38% last year.
This is similar with blogs: last year half of those surveyed said they post blogs occasionally or never. This year that number reduced to 36%!
The social platforms home builders are using the most for their marketing this year are the same as last year: Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube (at least half of home builders are using each of these). But a few unique platforms, such as TikTok and even podcasts, are starting to gain some traction. Time will tell whether this trend continues.
To reiterate, home builders’ biggest content marketing focuses this year include:
- More consistent social media posting
- More consistent blog creation
- Experimenting with new content types and platforms such as TikTok, podcasts, and webinars
Which Tactics Home Builders Are Avoiding
The most overrated marketing tactic, according to those surveyed, is still paid advertising by a wide margin — 30% responded with this answer. But 5% less people responded this way compared to last year.
The next “most overrated” tactics were online paid advertising, public relations, and collateral development, according to 10% of home builders in each category.
Sales Focuses for Home Builders this Year
For sales, the majority of home builders are focused on two things: getting more leads and closing those leads, based on survey results. (In fact, converting leads is also one of the biggest marketing priorities too, according to 69% of those surveyed.)
CRMs seem to be a topic that home builders are mostly divided on — there is no clear winner in terms of which CRM is used the most. But one thing is certain: the number of those who don’t use CRM is shrinking year after year. This year it is down by 6%, to a mere 12% of home builders who still don’t have CRM. But CRM is apparently still misunderstood and under-utilized: 36% say under-usage is their biggest CRM problem.
In regard to sales, inbound practices are the highest quality source for leads, according to 39% of home builders; whereas 24% still prefer outbound practices and 36% say they prefer self-sourced leads from their sales team.
Marketing Mistakes Home Builders Are Making
The most noteworthy mistakes home builders are still making are related to reviewing the value of their marketing practices. In other words, home builders are often neglecting their marketing analytics and ROI.
Only 43% of those surveyed said they check their analytics weekly. The rest of the 57% check less often or not at all. To provide perspective: we’d recommend checking your analytics at least weekly so that you know what impact your marketing practices are actually having on getting your company leads.
Similarly, ROI is often still ignored. A whole 40% of those surveyed said they don’t even know which marketing approach gives their company the most ROI.
Download the 2020 State of Home Builder Marketing Report
Those are our biggest takeaways from the 2020 State of Home Builder Marketing Report. But if you want the full perspective, download the report below and jump start your marketing strategy for 2020 and beyond.
