SmartTouch® Week In Review | Integrating Marketing, Sales, and the Homebuyer

Integrating Marketing and Sales has been a longterm struggle in every industry, not just home building, but another valuable lesson that came out of this week for the SmartTouch® team was reaffirming the homebuyer into our campaign strategy and our thought process. The homebuyer’s process is so unique, that we called in an expert to explain not just the struggle of finding a home, but actually buying and getting into a home.

We know how to market homes to sell faster, but the specific life details of our buyers can often be lost in a marketing strategy when we become “too familiar” with our taget audience because we don’t always know when we’re not aware of something.

But first, let’s start with our marketing recap for the week, integrating sales and marketing, and then bring in the homebuyer.

This week’s Week in Review we’ll cover:

1. Visiting Veramendi, New Braunfels’ Newest Master‑Planned Community 
2. Email Marketing Deliverability Recap from the CEO
3. Integrating Sales and Marketing to Create a Conversion Driven Culture presented at the HBA of Greater Austin
4. The Homebuyer’s Perspective of Borrowing and Getting into a Home Presented by Norma Guerrero Cowes (Loan Officer, DHI Mortgage) 

Veramendi in New Braunfels | Grand Opening Announcement

Kickoff to Grand Opening Promotions with Veramendi and SmartTouch® Team

Veramendi in New Braunfels, TX, has set June 1, 2019, as the date for their Grand Opening! Many have been biting their nails in anticipation, and this week the team met up with Max Harford (Development Manager) and Emily Lane (Development Coordinator) to discuss promotions and strategy for this awaited day.

If you’ve been following along with Veramendi’s development, Phase 1 will be featuring homes from 5 acclaimed Central Texas builders from the mid‑200s, Veramendi Elementary that was opened in August 2017, a Christus Santa Rosa Health Systems location, boundless nature and open spaces, and a 5 minute drive to Downtown New Braunfels with endless other amenities to be built out. 

(Left to Right: Emily Lane, Letitia Guttierez, Tanner Ross, Leslie Roach, Keenan Burke‑Pitts, Max Harford, Robert Cowes)

Home Builder Email Marketing Deliverability from the CEO

Presented by Robert Cowes, SmartTouch® Interactive, President and CEO

Email marketing isn’t going anywhere. Even as inboxes and spam laws make it harder and harder for marketers, email marketing still remains one of the top marketing channels over Facebook and Google.

This week’s company Lunch and Learn covered not only what creative and copy elements make a great looking campaign but restablished the importance of sender reputation, list management, subject lines and sender names, image/text ratio, and times/days of the week we send.

No matter if you create and send one of the Best Home Builder Marketing Emails to Send in 2019, if a homebuyer never sees it, did you send it?

Tips from our CEO:

1. The more active your users, the better your sender reputation.
2. Scrubbing your list is hard to do (in terms that we don’t want to scrub a possible future lead), but it will keep your list clean and active and ensure a higher deliverability rate.
3. Subject lines should be clear and creative and avoid spam words, special characters, and all caps. Ex: Save $$ With FREE Upgrades on New Homes. Limited Time Only.
4. Spam Assassin recommends 60% text and 40% image (Unless you have a really active and engaged list.)
5. Time of day and the day you send has a major impact on open rates. For homebuyer campaigns, we’ve found Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9 am – 1:30 pm to be the best days and times to send.

Integrating Sales and Marketing to Create a Conversion Driven Culture

Presented by Robert Cowes, SmartTouch® Interactive, President and CEO & Shant Samtani, Esperanza Homes, Sales Manager

When a lead gen marketer and sales manager put their heads together to present how integrating the knowledge and power of Sales and Marketing create a conversion driven culture, a standing ovation is likely to occur! Ok, maybe not standing, but there was applauding.

In an hour and a half, Robert and Shant went through Sales and Marketing’s combine role in strategy ideation of a community that just broke ground to the day‑to‑day roles in an established community. But first, they established the challenge these two groups face in communicating with one another and why it is important that home builder Marketing and Sales teams change this exclusive culture into an inclusive, conversion driven one.

Download the Presentation Slides

Download the Presentation Slides

Buying a Home, the Homebuyer’s Perspective

Guest SmartTouch® LnL Speaker Norma Guerrero Cowes (Loan Officer, DHI Mortgage)

Without going into too many of the gritty details that were shared (such as the 3 types of homeowner loans, downpayment assistance, quick and easy credit preparation, how much interest rates actually affect a monthly payment, the implications of adding custom features on a monthly payment, and the benefits of investing early in new build areas) DHI Mortgage’s top Loan Officer, Norma Guerrero Cowes, helped the team understand that picking the perfect floor plan and community, isn’t the end of the road for homeowners. They have not truly bought a home yet.

So we have to ask ourselves as marketers, “Is our job truly over when a lead is generated, or when an initial contract is signed, or is there a way for us to provide additional value to our clients and homebuyers?”

The simple answer is yes, the more complicated answer is yes, but how?

We all know this is one of the largest purchases and most nerve‑racking experiences for homebuyers, not because they are unsure if they will still love their home in 10 years, but because it’s a LOT of money that they are borrowing. Even 2nd‑time homeowners have trouble navigating the best loan to use, general yes and no behavior before applying for a home loan, and what loan officers and mortgage companies look for in credit reports.

Incorporating easy to understand and navigatable content into the homebuyer’s journey not only makes the process smoother (and faster) for them, but it also builds trust and positions the builder as a knowledgeable resource.

Many builders put their preferred lenders on their website, but how much does that help a homebuyer? Many home builders add first‑time homebuyer tips to their drip campaigns and blogs, but how much of this information is about the actual application of a loan? And how much of these tips are actually doable for a homebuyer? Like paying off ALL debt and saving their entire down payment? These two “tips” are longterm goals that could prevent a buyer from getting into a home for years. As a builder, do you want to wait years for buyers to be “ready” to buy? And do we want to prevent buyers from getting into a home for years with these unrealistic goals?

The simple answer is no, the more complicated answer is no, but how?

Ask your preferred lenders if you’re unsure of the right answer. And create useful, detailed content for your buyers. Or, contact SmartTouch® Interactive, and we’ll create the content for you.