Every stage in a home builder marketing funnel is important. If you think about it, your marketing system runs a lot like a car. When every part comes together in the right way, your leads and home sales are going to take off and your funnel will be able to fuel itself.
Wait... is this a Mechanic's forum or are we still talking about marketing funnels?!
If you haven't already read our first Funnel Basics for New Home Marketers post, where we covered the Top of the Funnel (TOFU), it's well worth the read. Now, we are headed from the Awareness Stage of the home buyer's journey and into the Consideration Stage.
Keep reading to learn more about this stage in your funnel and what you can do to move more of your leads in the right direction until they are ready to buy from you.
Reading time: 4 minutes
Level: Intermediate
Key Takeaways:
- segment your emails and keep them personalized
- don't give up on your unengaged contacts
- place smart CTAs after downloads for increased funnel movement
Congrats, You've Got New Leads! Now What?
By following the best practices in the Awareness Stage, you are able to successfully turn your website and blog visitors into real leads. This is where the fun part begins as a new home marketer because as they continue to interact with your brand, you'll learn more about them through the pages they're visiting. All of this information can be tracked with a great CRM like the one HubSpot has and should be used to help you move them into the Consideration Stage faster.
One of the most practical methods of moving leads through your funnel is via effective email marketing.
So let's dive into how you can use your email marketing to get those leads into the next stage of the funnel.
Segment Your Lists to Send Better Emails
What good is it to send your leads emails if they're receiving ones that don't match up with where they're at in the buyer's journey? You wouldn't send your current customers a promo email on the quick possession homes you're trying to sell this month. They're not interested in buying another home at this point! Receiving a bunch of sales emails could turn them off to the point that they either tune you out or unsubscribe altogether.
However, you could send your newsletter subscribers an email with some information on what the next step in the buying process is. That comes across as helpful and informative (not sales-y), along with showing them that your company understands what questions they have, even before they ask them.
When you segment your contacts into lists based on things like lifecycle stages or area of interest, along with practising lead scoring, you're able to send more personalized emails, the kind of emails that specific list wants to engage with. If you're looking for some other ideas on segmentation, check out this list of 50 ways you can segment your email list from OptinMonster.
Even "dead" contacts should be looked at as an opportunity for movement through your funnel! All it takes is one great email to capture their attention and move them from an inactive newsletter subscriber to an engaged contact who decides to download a new content offer. They're now thinking about buying a new home so they want to get more information about the process. If you don't keep trying to increase contact engagement through well-timed marketing emails then you could lose out on valuable future home sales!
There are other ways to move a contact through your funnel - next up is the marketing tactic of a Call-to-Action.
Use "Smart" CTAs to Move More Leads to the Consideration Stage
When someone converts on one of your Awareness Stage offers, point them forward to the next step you want them to take, with a call-to-action. They have submitted their info in exchange for a free content download or maybe signed up for your newsletter, so this is your chance to get them to move to the Consideration Stage while they're already on your site and taking action!
When they reach the "thank you" page where they can now download the offer they wanted, make sure you're putting a 'next step' somewhere on that page. HubSpot has a Smart CTA feature, where you can filter by contact lifecycle stages, device type, and more. This allows you to keep your marketing personalized to where your contacts are at in your funnel.
For example, let's say someone has downloaded a guide that goes into the details about the signs you're ready for a new home. On that thank you page, they're recognized as an Awareness Stage lead who is not yet marketing qualified, so they will see a Consideration Stage offer, such as a guide on the new home buying process. Having this CTA present on relevant thank you pages will help you to move more leads through your funnel. From there, your marketing team can nurture them, help answer any other questions until they're ready to move from the Consideration Stage and be passed on to your sales team.
With these tips in mind, and the goal of using marketing automation to make it easy for potential home buyers to move through your funnel, you're well on your way to mastering the Consideration Stage. Stay tuned for our next post where we talk about more funnel basics and tips you can put in place to move your leads to the Decision Stage and position yourself as the best option to build their new home.
Originally published May 21, 2019
