Drive Time Marketing: by Matt Riley and Brandon Barelmann

Most of the time when we talk about marketing, we're focused on the amounts of traffic and how many conversions we have. But what doesn't normally come up is a public relations plan - and we think it should. We all know the internet can be a weird and somewhat incendiary place, so we should all have a plan in place for when someone leaves a negative (and positive) review, for when the press comes calling, and for when someone trolls your social media accounts. This is PR for Homebuilders on #DriveTimeMarketing!

Local SEO, what is it, how do you harness it, and what can it do for you? BD SEO expert Elizabeth Humburg explains on episode 32 of #DriveTimeMarketing!   Don't miss NAR's Realtor statistic which can be found here.

Email marketing is one of the oldest digital practices out there. But as a homebuilder, is it still worth the money? Kathleen and Brandon think so. On episode 31 of Drive Time Marketing, we go into the strategies of broadcast email and email as a sales tool. But first, we talk about new Facebook changes and how over 50% of Google searches don't end in a click.    

Episode Summary How does Facebook fit into your marketing plan? Is judging your Facebook success based on conversions a good idea? Brandon and Kathleen dive into social media conversions on episode 30 of #DriveTimeMarketing! What We're Reading: PPC and machine learning: Where do we draw the line on automation? Facebook Updates News Feed Algorithm to Demote Misleading Health Claims

Mozilla Firefox is now blocking Google Analytics and other third-party cookies by default. While this doesn't affect the numbers reported in Google Analytics, it does limit the ability for companies to target based on behavioral characteristics.  So we ask the question, where should companies draw the line at practical privacy?

Welcome to the new Drive Time Marketing!   You’ll hear more tech, more SEO, and more marketing tips and information curated solely for the homebuilding industry from the professionals at Builder Designs who are doing the work day in and day-out. Quick programming note, Matt Riley has moved on from his position at Builder Designs. Today, we’re talking about advanced SEO and what exactly that means.   Here are today’s takeaways SEO is a constantly moving target. We’re all following Google’s changes. Good web content is the key to maintaining good SEO. Link building is a long-term play that leverages the popularity and authority of other websites to boost traffic and rankings. Organic traffic always converts at higher rates.   Want more Drive Time Marketing? Find us on Apple iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. If you have any questions about the content of this episode, feel free to reach out to us on social media or builderdesigns.com

This week we dive into the world of call tracking, and why you need it! Find out how better understanding your call volume and what is happening can impact the decisions you make. In The News: Brandon dives into the world of Facebook and all the changes coming down the pipe. Should you be worried? https://mklnd.com/2U0mype  Matt talks about Googles new Core Algorithm update and what that means for your SEO efforts! https://selnd.com/2TZXe2t   

This week we dive into some real live case study's of "When Marketing Can't Fix It"... And then what to do next. Put on your thinking caps as we dive deep!   In The News Brandon talks about Facebook's new features... and intention to change some metric measuring tools they have had for quite a while. Is it a good thing? https://mklnd.com/2TVFnJk  Matt gives a rundown of our upcoming conference homebuilderTECH. Make sure you listen to the beginning to get a special code! https://homebuildertech.net/   

This week - Post IBS recovery we dive into and unpack some of the "Metrics That Matter" with the best answer you can get... "It Depends" What metric matters? Well, it depends... Is it all by itself or does it accompany another piece of important data? In Episode 25 we dive into what that might mean... In the News: Brandon helps shed some light on the new Facebook Migration of Ad Campaigns into one singular source. http://bit.ly/2IU6vnG    Matt is trying to get on the Instagram bandwagon and use it more (Personally). Plus we talk about the growth Instagram is seeing as well as what percentage of people are using it now and what percentage of people plan to use it more in the coming year. http://bit.ly/2ISz4SJ    Bonus content... We talk about homebuilderTECH our new conference coming this May 9th and 10th in Nashville TN. https://homebuildertech.net/ 

We are wrapping up our pre-IBS series with none other than John Lee of Rendering House. John stopped by to talk a little Homebuilder Martech and the customer journey, and some insight to his talk at IBS Sales Central Day 2.  In the News Brandon breaks down some upcoming changes from Facebook coming this September regarding ad-set spending. https://mklnd.com/2SBlgzB    Matt talks about making sure your company and software are set up to receive text messages from customers, and the frustrations they have when they try to text you but can't' get through! https://mklnd.com/2SF0O0z     

In episode 23 Chip Johnson and Matt Riley discuss their upcoming talk at IBS Sales Central: How to Build a Killer Website that ACTUALLY sells homes Matt and Chip give some insights that will not be covered in their talk at IBS and also go into more detail about some things that will be covered!! In The News: Brandon says "goodbye" to Google +.... Finally!!! https://cnet.co/2GkuUQs  Matt breaks down some of the latest news from Google: Google is going to take over your ads account, that is unless you opt out! https://selnd.com/2Gn8C0D  Also, Matt gives an update on the Cross-Device Paths feature in Google Analytics that is still in BETA.

This weeks episode we chat with Kevin Oakley, of Do You Convert and get a pulse on social media as well as a pulse on Kevin's upcoming talk on Day 2 of Sales Central at IBS this year! In The News: Brandon dives into Facebooks newest "beta" feature, Page Quality Metrics. Facebook has decided to be ever so nice and let us know of any Page violations you might have. Yet we are unsure of what the rules may be since Facebook didn't lay those out!! Check out the article here http://bit.ly/2G0TTbh  Matt talks about some interesting numbers regarding Google Organic search CTR's dropping and what that ACTUALLY means to homebuilders. https://selnd.com/2G0C8ZD     

Our first episode of 2019 after a few weeks off for the holidays and New Year is a great one! Will Duderstadt of MI Homes joins us to break a few myths about Marketing Metrics that people may care a little too much about. Plus we give a sneak peek into our Will and Matt's session at Sales Central Day 2 IBS 2019.   In The News Brandon is excited about Facebook diving into more Cross Posting options that better connects Instagram and Facebook http://bit.ly/2sB4m5r  Matt talks about a new feature from Facebook that has launched in some areas in beta: Driving in-store visits through paid ads http://bit.ly/2sD9mGF, Zillow is getting ready to award 1 Million dollars to the team of people who have improved the Zillow Zestimate algorithm to help its accuracy. http://bit.ly/2sF902m  And Facebook has a new podcast they just released. Three and a Half Degrees https://apple.co/2sEEoOw     

Episode 20 and our last episode of 2018!! Our special guest this week was David Allison of Valuegraphics, and he breaks down a new way to understand and predict what people are going to do based on what they VALUE, not their age "brackets". This is an absolute must listen to episode!!   In the News: Matt does a review on the new DJI Osmo Pocket! And shares 7 Content Marketing Trends You Can't Ignore, from Social Media Today! Brandon is SUPER pumped about the new Twitter app update that allows you to switch how you would like to view info in your news feed! http://bit.ly/2EJaGQh         

Episode 19!! How to Identify (and Fix) A Broken Community Hiding in Plain Sight!! After many many conversations with builders all around the country, we thought this episode would be helpful to you!! We know how easy it is for us to get blinders on and stop seeing things like a buyer, as well as sometimes not knowing where to even begin when it comes to finding what is wrong with a community when it's underperforming.   In the News: Brandon dives into Facebook now getting ready to roll out Search Ads into the mix!! I wonder where they got that info :) !! https://mklnd.com/2EzwRZ9  Matt talks about an article from Havard Business Review and how we as builders should replace the traditional "Buyer Funnel" with the "Fly Wheel" and think more about the lifetime value of a customer instead of the one sale calculation model. http://bit.ly/2EzwXzZ     

Episode 18 is JAMMED with cool tech bits with our special guest John Lee from Rendering House. We get into how AR and VR are going to drive homebuilding into 2019 and beyond.   In the News: Brandon breaks down YouTubes newest announcement... YouTube Stories. They are trying to take a page from Facebook and Instagram. Take a look for yourself. http://bit.ly/2rjbDpN  Matt talks about the Payless shoes social experiment. Video to the news story here https://youtu.be/LPLWTT3ZVMo       

In this first-ever Thanksgiving episode, we decided to jump in and talk about how SEO has changed and give a little insight into what we think 2019 is going to look like from an SEO perspective. Here are the articles that we reference in the show: Google Planning to let users leave comments in search results!! http://bit.ly/2FxtYcK    Google makes an update to Google My Business to make it easier for us to manage our "profile" http://bit.ly/2FvV9Vt    The 5 SEO trends looking into 2019 https://selnd.com/2FtpUKn     

Topic of the Day: In episode 16 Matt breaks down how to close the pricing gap between new homes and used homes and some tips on creating urgency with your customers! In the News: Brandon breaks down his latest blog article on how 5 Tips to Improve your Facebook Ads http://bit.ly/2Fe4FvZ  Matt talks about BombBomb's new iOS email client app that lets you send video emails right from a normal email app just like iOS mail and 7 tips for going live on Facebook. Are you utilizing this free tool that notifies everyone when you jump on? http://bit.ly/2Fhl7Mj 

This week is Episode 15 and we give 4 tips to help sell that year-end inventory before it's too late! Hint: It involves pretending to be a customer! Brandon continues his personal love for Twitter :) and discusses Twitter giving you the choice between seeing posts via their algorithm or choosing a chronological timeline. Personally, we love that you now get a choice! Let's see if Facebook follows suit. http://bit.ly/2CZ22vk  Matt recaps his visit to NYC for the SMX conference by Search Engine Land. Lots of great SEO and SEM topics discussed! https://selnd.com/2D1xeKo 

This week we are incredibly lucky to feature Ronda Conger of CBH Homes in Boise, ID. She give all of us a few invaluable tips on how you can build a team and create a culture that loves getting up in the morning to sell homes.   In the HeadlinesFacebook sets new restrictions on low quality ads. This is good news and help reduce the amount of annoying ads you see that aren't relevant to you. Make sure your Facebook ads don't include engagement bait, withhold information in the ad creative, or use crazy and sensationalized language. As with anything in social media, keep it honest and genuine. Matt dives into this recent article by Google, detailing the importance of video in the auto industry. Seventy-five percent of car shoppers say video has influenced their purchase decision. Is the home buyer's journey all that different? We believe video is just as - if not more- important in the home buyer's journey.Also, Matt can't get enough of Facebook's 3D photos. As always, thanks for listening and don't forget to join our Drive Time Marketing Facebook group!

Topic of the Week: This week we were honored to have Kimber Gabryszak from Atlas RTX with us to discuss Artificial Intelligence, and the role it plays in today's homebuilding world. This episode is packed with information that ranges from creating a better buying experience, better communication during and after the sale, and shortening the sales cycle with your prospects. Connect with Kimber and Atlas RTX here http://bit.ly/2pSh26x    In the News: Brandon discusses the importance of the email subject line and engagement. Here is the article https://mklnd.com/2pQwkZw and if you want to hear more about email marketing, be sure to listen to Episode 3 of Drive Time Marketing: Is email marketing dead? Matt talks about Pandora Radio's new analytics tool and how it can help you target your prospects and track more efficiently. https://mklnd.com/2pRZx6v 

This week we dive DEEP into all the recent changes with Google Adwords. Strap in, because this episode gets pretty nerdy as we break down all the new changes happening inside the world of Google. Our special guest this week is Builder Designs very own, Jon Hurst. Even though Jon was having some microphone volume issues we still managed to get some great content in as we break down the big "list o changes" inside the world of Google Ads. In the News Matt talks about the role that Marketing Executives now play in companies boardrooms all across the United States. Marketing is no longer a "nice to have" it is the driver of top-line revenues for the company. Check out this article: https://mklnd.com/2zVufRM  Brandon talks about how Facebook is tackling web browsers ad blocking systems with their new "first party" pixel roll out.  https://mklnd.com/2zVr9xf   

Four Steps to Develop a Championship Sales Team - Special Guest Roland Nairnsey This weeks episode is so jam-packed with information from our Special Guest Roland, we decided to dedicate the entire episode to this sales topic.  Here are Rolands four steps: 1. Evaluate 2. Recruit 3. Train 4. Accountability Check out the entire podcast to hear these four steps broken down in great detail. Roland mentioned the resource he uses for personality assessments for his sales teams. Here it is https://www.tonyrobbins.com/disc/   

How To Partner with Brokers This week we dive into some fantastic sales topics with our special guest Quint Lears. Quint is a "boots on the ground" New Home Sales Professional for one of the largest homebuilders in the state of New Mexico. With over 15 years of New Home Sales experience, Quint has learned the hard way how to be successful in this business. From those experiences, Quint has published a book, "Partnering with Brokers to Win More Sales".  In today's episode, Quint shares some of those experiences with us. This is an action-packed episode that is fast-paced and filled with fantastic content for Sales Managers and New Home Sales Professionals.    In the News Digital advertising spends now makes up more than 51% of all U.S. ad spend. As a local home builder, your digital ad spend should be well over 51% of your advertising budget. It should be about 90% of your actual ad spend. Check out the article here https://mklnd.com/2zr4Q2f  Shopify now lets stores create AR experiences for iOS12. https://mklnd.com/2zqUbEW It's gut check time... Take a look at your content. If a bicycle shop is producing Augmented Reality content, what do you think the expectations of consumers will be for buying a home from a builder? More than just a couple of photos?? Amazon is deepening its grasp into the consumer's homes. Now with all kinds of new tech, ranging from a microwave to an analog wall clock. If you are not getting on the smart home bus now you are getting left behind. Consumers are going to be able to buy used homes and put better technology in them than your brand new home!! https://cnet.co/2zpJUc3   

A super nerdy episode this week! If you like tech and toys you will love this episode!! Brandon dives into best practices for using drone technology to drive online engagement of your content!! In The News Facebook now fact-checking photos, videos as it fights fake news!! Facebook is using AI to scan video and photos for content that could be considered "fake news" in an effort to prevent the spread of fake news on its platform. I think this is welcomed news for most of us for sure!!  Check out the article here: https://cnet.co/2D33UVD  Also, Matt breaks down his latest article: Are Organic Facebook Posts the New Print Advertising http://bit.ly/FbPrintBlog  Here is an excerpt: So, how does the shift in how consumers are using Facebook relate to print advertising?  If you were in pre-2012 homebuilding marketing (or for some people pre-2018), the owner of the building company and others who worked outside of the marketing department decided the marketing was “working” by grabbing the latest Homes & Land Magazine or local newspaper, finding a billboard or viewing the signage. Why? Because that's what they could actually see. It was tangible evidence of their marketing expenditure. Back in my “previous life” working at a homebuilding company, I would get the question all the time: “Where are we advertising right now? I don’t see any of our advertisements. What are you working on?”I would always respond with, “Are you currently looking for a new home in the price range we build in?” The answer was always “no.” I would then reply with, “Great! Then our advertising is working just as it should be.”With confusion in their eyes, I would tell them that we don’t want to spend our money getting in front of people who aren’t in the market for a new home in our price point.  

This week we fought through bad internet connections and Brandon's cold, but we still managed to have an AMAZING show today with tons of help from Steve Pacinelli, CMO of Bomb Bomb. Steve shared with us some great ways that we as builders can communicate better with our prospects and buyers through the use of video email.   In the News Brandon talks about Facebook refreshing their canvas ads with some better templates to work from. And oh by the way... They are renaming the experience, "Instant Experience". (Sound Familiar aka Google Ad Words is now Google Ads) Here is the Article   Matt breaks down the next newest and greatest thing out there... Getting good at the basics!! Would you buy a $50 product on Amazon if there was only 1 image and hardly any description of it? No... So why do we as homebuilders continue to ask people to do just that on the biggest investment of their lives!! Have a listen while Matt pulls up his soapbox for a little while! :)

Topic of the Week This week we dive into Sales Team CRM Adoption best practices with our friend Dave Betcher from Lasso CRM. Dave gave some awesome tips for getting your sales team to fully embrace and use their CRM system. In the Headlines: Brooke just hung up the phone with Facebook as they start the rollout process of a new "Video First" mobile ads addition. This goes right along with Facebook's push for more video content... Why? Because people are consuming video content over standard text-based content by leaps and bounds. Here is the link that was just published to support her phone call. https://www.facebook.com/business/news/making-it-easier-to-build-mobile-first-video-ads    Google wants to make it easier for you to spend money... And they are going to help give you pointers on how to make better ads. With Google's new responsive Ads they are giving you an easy to understand "grade" on your actual Ad, and they are going to give you some tips on how to make it better!?!? We will have to see how good their "suggestions" are. Check out the article here. https://searchengineland.com/google-ads-introduces-ad-strength-indicator-reporting-for-responsive-search-ads-304472     

In Episode 6 we tackle the advantages and challenges you can expect when converting your Sales Centers to all digital.   Get rid of all that paper collateral and marketing cut-sheets, and get your customers what they experience in the year 2018; a personalized experience with your company. Renee Carlson Marketing Director at Royal Oaks Homes (Now Mattamy Homes), talks about when Royal Oaks Homes made the decision to go to ALL digital Sales Centers. She shares feedback from their customers and employees and gets "real" about what to expect when making this move. This is a must hear episode!   In The News Headlines 3 Free Tools to Comprehensively Test Page Speed How important is page speed? Well, it's so important that Google uses it as an SEO factor when displaying results. Make sure that your website isn't getting lost in the fray of your competitor's sites. Use the free tools above to get started seeing where your site compares. Hashtags for Instagram are a REAL thing. But what is the best practice to use, and how many should you use? This article from Social Media today breaks down that question. Listen to what Brandon thinks about Hashtags and other ways you could use them across your different social media channels.

7 Video Ideas You Can Make Right Now - Special Guest: Alex Ferguson with Your Local Studio  In The Headlines: Google Extends Extra Characters of Responsive Search Ads to text ads Responsive text ads are making their way into the wild and should make a big difference in your PPC campaigns. Not only will you be able to have longer descriptions (now 90 characters) you will be able to have three headlines with two descriptions. Google will be using machine learning to determine which combination of headlines and descriptions to show to a user. In the game of mobile search, this valuable "verticle" real estate is quite important. Check out the article from the podcast above.   Facebook Teste Replacing "Share" button with "Message" option on News Feed Posts Here goes Facebook testing more options on your news feed! This time they are tinkering with the idea of replacing the share button with a message option. We aren't big fans of this idea (obviously), but it will be interesting to see what Facebook user tests tell them and us. We will keep our eyes out and let you know how this unfolds.   Topic of the Week: Alex Ferguson of Your Local Studio breaks down 7 video ideas you can be (And should be) creating right now. Alex also gives us some tips and questions you can ask a video professional in your local area about getting the right person for the job. You can find this bonus content in our Drive Time Marketing Facebook Page  You can connect with Alex at https://yourlocalstudio.com/ and you can find his awesome book The Marketers Guide to Video HERE

Something that comes up ALL THE TIME is what type of content should we be creating? Where do we even start? What is good quality content even look like? In The Headlines News Articles and Links We tackle that question in this episode along with several other things. The linked articles we reference are below. 1. More Facebook changes... The first change; Facebook is adding "recommendations" to your page, but in order to make the recommendations more "meaningful," the user has to use at least 25 characters in their recommendation. They can use text, photos, and related business tags (new). This is rolling out to your business pages over the next couple weeks. You may have already seen these notifications on your pages already. You can see the article from Social Media Today HERE.   2. The second national builder(Pulte) has added "Smart Home" tech to their list of standard features. Builder Online article HERE.  Matt shares his product knowledge from taking his previous company into the realm of Smart Homes. In case your interested here are some great products to check out. Ring Pro August Smart Locks Nest Thermostats  Lutron Caseta    

Topic Of The Day In episode 3 we tackle the question: Is email marketing dead? (Spoiler alert... It is NOT) With all the different forms of digital marketing available, it becomes too easy to forget about the low hanging fruit. In fact, email marketing is such a simple task (if you know what you're doing) it is easy to forget to do it.  Just like anything else that you do, it takes discipline and consistency. Your customers (and Realtors too) will want to hear from you but you have to make it relevant to them, AND consistent.  If you are as consistent as Christmas and only come around once per year you will be quickly forgotten. (Only sending one email a year doesn't have the same effect as Christmas!)  Check out the article we referenced in this episode about benchmark stats for email marketing, by industry HERE In The News A survey done by Clutch found that SEO was the least popular digital marketing channel among the choices offered. While we may not agree with the article, it is something that is interesting. What topped the list? Social Media, Website, and Email. Number 6 on the list was content. Here is the article so you can read more! Google updates!! Last week Google confirmed yet ANOTHER "Broad Search Algorithm Update"  What the heck does that mean? Well nobody really knows!! But what we do know is it's all about content, and good content! Google also confirmed that the previous update they did a few months ago has "no fix" if it negatively affected your search results. They say go create better content for your users and it will take care of itself. Here is the article. 

With all of the different marketing channels like email, Google Ads, and your website, it can be easy to miss the value of social media. We get this question every now and again: "Do I really need Facebook to sell homes?" So we answered the question last month in a blog post on BuilderDesigns.com. For episode two of #DriveTimeMarketing, we go deeper into how social media should still be a focal point in your marketing strategy. In The Headlines Instagram continues to pick up steam. In an article in Social Media Land, it was reported that Instagram ad revenue grew by 177% YOY, outgrowing its parent company, Facebook. In a wake of the data scandal, Instagram has received a nice bump in daily active users (DAU) and now ad revenue. It may be unrelated, but Facebook is trying to capitalize on the success of the Instagram Stories feature by rolling out ads on the Facebook side of the feature. Instagram Stories can be shared directly to a Facebook Story, which will now have ads. Good? Bad? Indifferent? We'll see. Our Main Topic It starts with numbers. Buying a house is a high-involvement purchase, not like buying toothpaste. It's one that buyer's don't take lightly. That decision to buy any product goes beyond having an affinity for the product or brand, but the capacity to purchase it. That means the access and the means (aka, money). When it comes to social media, it's crucial that you’re marketing new homes to the right people—you know, the ones with jobs and good credit. When it comes to Facebook, 79% of its users are over 25. And would you guess that Facebook has an average reach of 85% across all income ranges, with slightly higher reach with people making more than $70,000.  Social media is also how your customers find content.That's why you invest in a professional photographer and videographer to showcase your beautiful homes. When it comes to the list of marketing channels to share the content you work hard to produce, social media continues to be one of the most critical. And don't forget, social media is social. It's important to remember that social media is the best way for your customers and future customers to get to know your brand. Each brand should have a voice, and social media is the best way to showcase it. Like, how do you respond to negative feedback? How quickly do you respond to inquiries? And how do you interact with others in your community? Social media is super important, but it's part of a comprehensive digital marketing effort, one that takes planning and a lot of hard work to see results. Marrying your Adwords, broadcast email, blogging, and social media into one effort funneling traffic back to your website is the key, and giving one channel less attention (or getting rid of it altogether) will result in fewer leads and fewer sold signs on your homes.

Search engine optimization is so vital to your new home marketing strategy. What if there was a way to give your SEO a boost by being a good content marketer? Producing blogs, videos, photos on social, email, and a good website can have a huge impact. Don't take it from us, one of our marketing clients went from page three to page one in Google organic search and more than doubled their organic traffic. How'd they do that? Simple. They invested in relevant content creation and worked diligently to get it to their intended audience.

Welcome to Drive Time Marketing by Builder Designs! Let's get this thing started! We'll keep you busy on your drive to or from work with the latest in the world of new homes sales, marketing, and tech. Matt Riley is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Builder Designs and has over 15 years in new homes construction. Starting in the model home and he's held just about every sales and marketing position for builders of different sizes. Brandon Barelmann is an Account Manager specializing in social media and content creation. He's been a marketer since graduating, focusing on how people consume digital content. Join us on your drive to work or home every Wednesday on Apple iTunes and the Google Play Store as we tackle the latest in new homebuilder sales and marketing.