Leaving Referrals in their Proper Place

If you have built your business up entirely around referrals, you are in the company of almost half of the builder’s out there. Most believe their work will speak for themselves, and if they continue to do a good job, their name will eventually get out there.

To be fair: word-of-mouth is truly one of the best ways to bypass the initial trust issue that builders run into at the beginning of a customer relationship. As a home builder, you are entering people’s lives during one of the biggest single purchases they have ever made. And these days, a purchase like that will be accompanied with a lot research so they can sleep soundly knowing they have made the best decision possible with their hard-earned money. Customers are now going online and searching for all sorts of things in relation to their project. This right here, is where a major opportunity lies for builder’s out there who haven’t yet taken time to build up an online presence.

Where are the opportunities hiding?

The linchpin for builders lies in what’s known as content marketing. This strategy allows the builder to target potential customers in their ideal zip codes, who are searching for things that are indicators of their interest in projects related to what you do. The key to this strategy is to essentially enter the conversation going on in people’s minds when thy are thinking about starting a new project. Often times, these topics and questions are things that you address with clients all the time. With content marketing, you have the opportunity to address the concerns that your future clients probably have- as though you were on the phone with them walking them through your process.

If you haven’t picked up on the advantage of this approach already, consider how many minutes on the phone you spend answering the same questions over and over for clients. If you look into the research done on the topic, you will see how huge the difference can be for conversions. Take the book, “They ask, You Answer” for instance- that states that

...if someone had consumed 30 or more pieces of content from a swimming pool installer before a sales meeting, the conversion rate would jump from 10% (industry standard) to 80%. 

Why is that?

Well… try to think about the last time you made a big purchase yourself. Let’s say, this time you’re looking for an RV. The first thing you are going to do is hop online and try to find some helpful information about the type of RV you are interested in. Similarly, consumers are going online and searching for all sorts of things related to your building company services.

Now, it’s likely that you will have your eye on a couple different models with differing features. If you have the option to read 10 or 20 articles, guides, or pieces of content filling the gaps of your knowledge about the Model and Brand behind one specific RV, you’ll be much more comfortable about the level of practicality and trustworthiness of the company who provided you with the info you actually needed to help you make a decision.

Often, there are concerns that

potential customers all tend to have in common. When creating content, all you really need to do is address their concerns directly and provide practical solutions. For instance, if you frequently encounter questions about the cost of a renovation, write a detailed blog post explaining the factors that influence costs and offering a general pricing guide.

By creating high-quality, relevant content as a builder you can establish your company as an authority in your field, making you their top choice when they're ready to start a project.

This content then also serves as a trust building process while the customer is trying to figure out which builder to go with on their journey, so it serves in much the same way as referrals do - allowing builders to skip past the conversations they have had in the past with customers grilling them about process and price.

Now, you can build out this content yourself- but in our experience most builders out there aren’t necessarily looking to add more things to their plate when they get home from a jobsite. Quite the opposite actually.... But you still need to generate leads.

This is where outsourcing can come in. You can use experts to create high-quality, trustworthy content that operates as a lead generation tool. This allows you to quit hustling to stop being forced to cut costs and compete with bids that won’t make you any real money just for the sake of having work. Having a ‘presence’ online works much the same as having a PR agent for your business, building up the reputation that you actually want as a company. This means that when someone searches for “best builder in [your city],” your content could be at the top of their search results.

To go back to our earlier analogy of buying an RV, put yourself in the shoes of the customer. When you are looking to make a big purchase - is price really the only factor you consider? Absolutely not- everyone knows that you “get what you pay for.” And, keep this in mind for the future of your business: If you don’t have a reputation online when your customer is in the process of choosing their builder, the only thing you will have left to compete on will be price. People are more than willing to pay more if they know the quality of workmanship behind the brand. For you, that means you can think about balancing less low-balling & overly cost conscious customers. Instead you will be securing high-margin contracts with customers who need less babysitting because the trust they needed was already built up long in advance of the project.