Every time someone engages with your home builder blog, they get a little bit closer to becoming your customer. Naturally, the more people that see your blog on a regular basis means more opportunities to meet them where they’re at in their home buying journey.
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A quick search will show you hundreds of ways to promote a blog, but not all of them apply specifically to home builders. We break down some of the most effective ways for you to promote your home builder blog.
Optimizing for the Search Engines
We start with this one because most don’t feel search engine optimization is promotion. While many people think they do it, you need to make sure you’re actually doing it properly. SEO - designing your blog posts so they show up in the search results when someone searches for a particular term - doesn’t really feel like actually promoting your site.
But it is! It’s letting the search engines do the promotion for you.
There’s a lot that goes into optimizing your blog for search engines, but you need to choose keyword terms that your customers are searching for. You need to craft content that uses those terms in ways that are useful, then add those terms in the “hidden” parts of the website. We can help you learn more about this.
Building Your Email List
Your marketing strategy needs to include collecting the email addresses of people who might be interested in purchasing homes.
Typically, you do this by offering them something they want, such as a short guide with information that’s helpful for home buyers. Once they’re on your list, make sure that you periodically stay in touch. Remember, these people who joined your mailing list are interested in buying a home, so they’re going to be interested in your blog content.
You can send out an email every time you post something new; you could highlight some of the best blog posts in a once-a-month email; you have options here.
Your Email Signature
Your email signature offers another opportunity for promoting your home builder blog. Typically, people simply have a link to their company’s home page in the signature, but this doesn’t necessarily entice people to check out your blog. With a link to the home page, you’re counting on the fact that they have to have enough interest to go to the home page, then navigate to the blog.
People aren’t going to do that.
Instead, have your signature link to your blog with a teaser about what they can find.
Don’t Forget About Social Media Marketing
Whether it’s YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook, everyone has their favourite social media platform. You can use your connections through these sites to connect with potential customers.
Even better, these are the types of platforms people will share content through. If you’re writing blog articles that have useful information, someone could share it with their network, or with a specific friend in the same position as them.
Social Media Ads: Pay to Play
It almost sounds like a curse word… and there are marketers out there who feel that paying for ads on social media isn’t ‘fair’. But it’s really no different from any other form of advertising that came before - those who paid more got the front cover and those that didn’t, were buried in the back or not shown at all.
Ad buys through social media platforms can be quite affordable, and most platforms integrate seamlessly into the style of user-generated content, so people may not even realize that they’re looking at an ad right away.
If something catches their eye, they’ll click through to your content. From there, you can use internal linking strategies to keep them on the site or offer a freebie to get them to join your mailing list. Best of all, you can target your ads and only pay for certain types of people, such as those who live in your local area.
Create Share-Worthy Content
Ideally, you want to promote your own content using one of the above methods, but then have other people do the promoting for you. To make this happen, you need share-worthy content.
This is tricky, and there isn’t a formula that works 100% of the time. Essentially, your content needs to be focused on answering a question or solving a problem. In the home building arena, this could be things like:
- How to choose a builder
- Figuring out what your readers need in a new home
- Determining whether or not it’s the right time to move
- Choosing a community to build in
And so on.
Once you’ve chosen a topic, your piece needs to thoroughly cover the issue, offering information and advice that is useful and actionable.
In general, longer pieces tend to be more shareable, but remember that some people are drawn to content like video, and they would be more inclined to share that type of content. This is where you should take some time to play around to see what works for your business and your customers.
Your blog offers an excellent opportunity for potential customers to learn more about your company, but they also want to feel a connection with you. By offering a lot of free advice, you create a bond.
At Marketing Ninjas, we know all of the best ways of promoting home builder blogs, and we’d love to show you how. Call us today to schedule your appointment.
Originally published Sept 8, 2020
