Builder Designs | Intelligent marketing for home builders

Google Analytics can help you keep track of how users interact with your website or app using their phones. You can use it to track the following:
User activity on your mobile website.
All the same data that you’ve come to expect from your Google Analytics reports is now available for mobile websites. Simply paste our server-side code snippets on each page you wish to track. Google Analytics then creates a profile for your mobile website, where you can view the same kind of information that’s in standard Analytics reports, like visitor information and traffic sources. You’ll be able to track users visiting your mobile website from both smartphones (like iPhones and Android devices) and WAP devices.

We’ve tested the server-side snippets in the following environments:
* PHP 5
* JSP on Jetty 6
* Perl 5.10
* ASP.NET on IIS 6.0
Users accessing your regular website from their high-end mobile device You can use Google Analytics to track traffic to your regular website that comes from high-end mobile devices like iPhones, Android devices, and the Palm Pre. All traffic from high-end mobile devices can be viewed by device or carrier under the ‘Visitors’ section in the ‘Mobile’ tab of your Analytics account, or in the ‘Mobile advanced’ section.

If you are a first-time home buyer, taking the plunge into the commitment of buying a home might seem like a daunting task. All first-time home buyers want to make sure they are taking the correct path to a major investment in their life.  Here are some guidelines to follow when beginning the search for your new home.

By the time you have decided to buy a home, you have already passed the major hurdle in the decision making process. Now you are focused and ready to take on the task of purchasing your first home.

The truth is, 80% off all home searches begin on the Internet.  Home buying has become so much easier considering by the time you get to the real estate agents office, you already have an good idea of the type of home and neighborhood you want. With some time spent with your search engine, you can look through hundreds of online listings, pictures and virtual tours of homes and neighborhoods. You can have all of the information about schools and the community before you even step foot into a potential home. The truth is, most of your search is done by the time you get to the actual looking process.

Most first-time home buyers wonder how long it should take them to buy their first home. Considering the fact that it is a seller’s market, many real estate agents only show one home. An unmotivated buyer will take months if not years to find a home. A motivated buyer will buy a home within a few weeks. Most motivated buyers buy a home within a few days.

So how many homes should a new buyer see before making a decision? It is best to limit the number of homes you see in a day to seven. Although it is possible to view 20 or 30 homes in a day, you will not remember specific details about any of them in doing so.  When shopping for a new home, do not treat it the same way you do shopping for a pair of shoes at the mall. When you find the right fit and price, buy it. Most home buyers start off finding a home in the beginning that fits the bill for them, but continue to look around at several more houses, only to come back to the home they originally liked in the first place.

While looking at homes, it is best to keep an inventory of them for yourself to look back at. Take a digital camera and begin a series of photos by taking a photo of the house number to begin with to create a starting place for each series of homes. Take notes of different elements in and around the house and when you leave, rate the home on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest.

After you feel like you have toured enough homes, you will most likely instinctively know which homes you are interested in buying. Ask to see these homes again because the second time around you will view the home differently than the first time around.  Also, make a point to call the listing agent to find out the sellers’ motivation and to make sure the homes are still available to purchase.

Once all these steps are completed, you should feel confident you made all of the necessary steps to go out and purchase your first home.

If you own a website, read on. If you have had your website for over three years and have not maintained the site or re-designed the site at all, it is time to start planning an update today.

There are three key reasons you should follow the three year update or re-design plan.

First, your business objectives changed. To put it simply, over time the objectives of your business will change.  If you want your website to reflect your business, your site must also change. When you talk to clients and tell them the objective of your company, it is crucial your website follows the same mindset you are selling to them.

Second, your site is based too heavily on Flash. This Web development technology prevented sites to be properly indexed by search engines. Now, search engines can index Flash files as long as they are properly optimized. If you are wondering if your website falls under this category, ask yourself this: When your website was created, did you have to watch a loading video that re-sized your browser, or made all kinds of clicking sounds when placing your cursor on something? Those are bad sites because they are still invisible to search engines since they were not created with user-friendly search parameters for Flash. If a customer cannot find you on a search engine, or is irritated by your out of date website, your business relationships will suffer.

Third, your site suffers from the “Frankenstein’s syndrome.” Most companies make a major investment in creating a website. Unfortunately, many think that this is a one-time expense. The truth is, just as companies evolve, technology is also evolving at a rapid pace. This requires any company that owns a website to regularly update and enhance their site in order to compete with other companies. If you do not update frequently or only update one part of your site at a time, this can leave your site looking patched and un-uniform. A re-design is often the best way to ensure your company gives off a professional image to the public and provides users with optimal experience, which in the end leads to business.

Its easy to understand what makes a good builder website. Users need easily understand the navigation, have well-written text to read and always have a way to get in touch with you or your sales team from a click of a button. Once you have the user engaged, why not give them something else to enhance their experience and to help you create even more leads. Its really a win/win situation. Here are some of the best interactive features for homebuilders to have on their websites.

Search Function – Having a good working custom search tool that will help a buyer find the perfect home is a must. This can be done in a variety of ways from a basic sorter that sorts through your home listings from price, square feet and home type to a more search function that searches down to the number of bedrooms and garages. HHHunt Homes dedicates an entire sidebar to this function.

Interactive Floorplans – This is by far one of the more advanced options available but they are very exciting to play with. Your buyers will become excited about building and have them interested in what customizations you have to offer. Here’s a great example from American Legend Homes Interactive Floorplans.

Mortgage Calculators – These are a great tool for homebuyers to use to calculate their financial responsibility and will help them narrow down what price range they can afford. A quick tool in the sidebar is very helpful as well as having a quick link to a calculator on your available homes pages can help boost interest and leads.

Google Maps/Navigation – Having Google maps on your website not only will help your searchability from the website but also from Google.  Add a mobile website and it gets even better. Direct traffic straight to all of your communities and show homes.

Videos – Utilizing YouTube on your website will create a tremendous amount of interaction. Videos outdo photos and gives the buyer a front row seat to touring your communities, homes or design center without leaving the house. There are awesome ways of using YouTube on your site. See how Simmons Homes uses Cool Iris for their videos from their homepage.

My Favorites – Create a custom dashboard for your interested buyers where they can save their favorites from of your communities, available homes,  floorplans and more. A new lead is created every time someone signs up on your website. They can even print their favorites complete with all your contact information. Goodall Homes calls theirs “My Dream Folder.”

Get the most of your website user experience and try using some of these tools next time you want to upgrade your website.

Builder Designs is proud to announce, Regal Builders in Savannah, GA and Tommy Huelskamp LLC in Edmond, OK who launched their first websites this week.

It used to be that the new homes industry was very in the hands of the agent. They would corral the customer into looking at only 3 or 4 homes and then the pressure was on. The agent would have them ready to choose and purchase one of the homes easily enough. This is not the case anymore; the times have definitely changed.

Meet the Eco-Boomers. Children of the Baby Boomers, they share everything from forwarding emails to YouTube videos and of course the mecca, Facebook. They have changed the way the world communicates and they want information at their fingertips. Well, why not give it to them?

With the power of the internet, many homes are viewed online and some websites are even capable of saving their favorite homes into a Customer Favorites area to view or print later. Not only does the web serve as a tool for the consumer, the mere fact that it is a buyer’s market has everything to do with consumers having control. This is a good thing!

Consumers are coming to the agents and builders with a list of homes they want to see along with the plethora of information that they’ve received from the web. The builder is obliged to collaborate with them and meet all of their expectations.

Its time to engage in everything web from social media to email marketing to having the most user-friendly builder website. Through these channels, you need to show them how you are going to provide them with the best building experience and services possible. There’s a great chance they’ll buy it. It’s about you providing better solutions to your clients so they make better housing decisions.

R&R Homes in Oklahoma launched a new website. Rustic but elegant and clean, this site gives R&R a great way to show off their custom homes and grab interested home buyers.

Truland Homes is a builder from the around the Mobile, AL area in Spanish Fort that has taken the area by storm and built several beautiful custom homes in newer communities. This is their first website that will help them kick off a new builder brand and help them connect with interested home buyers.

When deciding to add a mobile site to your existing website there are some important factors to consider. First of all, hire a reputable design company, even using the same one that designed your main website so you can integrate both. People that visit will know and trust your brand and products if they’ve visited before.

Dig a little deeper to understand why users visit your site, even take a look at what similar sites are doing with their mobile presence. For a homebuilder website, they may want to find information about the neighborhoods you build in and homes you have for sale. Getting them quick and easy access to browse the most important areas is crucial. Make sure they have a way to always contact, email or text someone for more information.

Remember that mobile users are not captive like computer users are, so context of use is important to consider. Context is about the environment and conditions of usage, including distractions, multitasking, motion, lighting conditions and poor connectivity. By keeping these in mind, it is important to design for these factors in order to have a decent mobile user experience.

The two major objectives when designing a mobile site are screen size and simple navigation. Make sure that the mobile site is flexible and the design will adapt to small and large screens, even when the orientation of the phone is changed. Such a small screen needs an even more simplified navigation that is intuitive. It is important to reduce the number of pages, categories and levels while arranging based on priority.

Once your mobile site is live, it is important to track its usage through analytics and make sure that users are getting a good experience out of using it.  Occasionally evaluate your mobile site against competitors and identify any changes or additions that could be made to keep your mobile site as updated as possible.

As the web design team is busy designing and coding your website to be fully functional, you may be wondering what you could be doing in the meantime.

If there’s an existing website, you should decide what needs to be added, edited, expanded on or removed completely.  You should also start thinking about new interactive elements you could use that will probably be integrated into the site. Here are some things to keep in mind that will make the task go smoothly.

First, think about who will contribute. Involving more people can make it less time consuming but could complicate things if it isn’t an organized process. Make sure everyone has an area of focus and their responsibility is clear.

Many new websites are created to include the all fun multimedia elements that can be used and implemented. Think about gathering all documents (PDFs), Images, Video, content feeds from other sites such as Virtual Tours and your Social Media pages, feeds and Blog.

A few other things to consider could be including awards you’ve received. Maybe you want to include important client testimonials, team bios, press releases, event calendar, FAQs or job openings.

Whether you are upgrading your current website or starting fresh, the value of good photography and good copy is still very important. Most of the time snapshots from your digital pocket camera will not be quality. It would be worth the expense to invest in a professional photographer to provide you and your shiny new website with the best images possible. If that just isn’t in the budget, consider recruiting a student photographer that will be considerably less. Also, when writing or re-writing copy, make sure its someone who can write very clear marketing copy that is easy to understand.

Once you’ve gathered up all important data, organize it into folders and have it ready for the website. Whether its going to be content managed or static, whoever is going to be plugging in the information has everything at their fingertips for a timely launched project.

Check out our latest launch for luxury custom home builder L.R. Hill in Virginia Beach!