2024-04-04 OTH Newsletter

A bi-weekly round-up newsletter of the best new construction and real estate marketing, sales, and news in the industry.

This newsletter is best viewed online. Click here to read in your browser.

In This Issue:

💡 The Big Idea: Learn how to write the perfect client testimonial.
🐝 Industry Buzz: The latest marketing and real estate news updates.
🏆 Quick Win: Better pop-ups = more conversions.
🧰 Tech Check: Step up your presentation game with Slidequest.
🏅 Marvellous Marketing: A standout social post from Olson Homes.
... and more!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"Love the easy-to-digest format. Gives me a quick pulse check on the industry and some new things to try."

The Big Idea 💡

How to Write a Client Testimonial

A well-written testimonial can tip the scales in your favour. With a great testimonial, your potential home buyers get to see how it works from someone who’s already been there. This article has some great tips for you like:

☑️ Learn how to establish a clear goal.
☑️ Make sure to ask the right questions (we have a list for you!)
☑️ How to choose the right client.
☑️ And more...

Industry Buzz 🐝

↔️ New Home Sales Hold Steady in February
Carl Harris, chairman of NAHB, had this to say about national home sales in February: “While new home sales remained flat in February, our latest home builder surveys show increased levels of confidence driven by the ongoing lean levels of existing home inventory. As interest rates subside over the course of 2024, additional home buyers will be priced into the market and new construction will be needed to meet this demand.”

📉 Home SIzes Shrinking as Focus On Affordability Continues
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau confirms new homes have been shrinking for nearly a decade. The average (median) size of new homes built in 2023 fell to 2,411 (2,179) square feet, the smallest since 2010. NAHB expects builders to continue offering smaller homes and more affordable designs as housing affordability remains a barrier to homeownership.

🏗️ 4 Inspiring Adaptive Housing Projects Using Existing Buildings
From retired schools to old warehouses, these adaptive reuse projects—winners in the 2023 Best in American Living Awards—show how historic community structures can provide new housing while revitalizing the neighbourhood at the same time.

Quick Win 🏆

If you’re looking for something to help engage site visitors, try adding pop-up forms to your website with a tool like ConvertBox. Pop-up forms are a great way to capture leads from website traffic you're already getting.

You can use them to get more newsletter subscribers, deliver premium content, schedule appointments with your OSC or sales team, and increase conversions. Trigger them based on exit intent for the best user experience. It's not uncommon to see bumps in conversion of 0.5% - 2% depending on how relevant the offer is to the page.

Tech Check 🧰

As a marketer, creating presentations is one of those tasks that comes with the territory. Some people love it, others, not so much. To make your presentation creation 10x easier, take a look at Slidequest. You’ll find a huge database of pre-designed presentations, infographic layouts and more. Plus, the downloads are compatible with PowerPoint, Keynote, and Google Slides.

Marvellous Marketing 🏅

Stand-Out Social Media Post From Olson Homes
Today's stand-out social media post comes from @olsonhomes over on Instagram - we love this testimonial graphic they posted sharing a positive experience from one of their happy homeowners! Social proof is a powerful tool because it shows other interested buyers the type of great experience they can expect if they choose you to build their new home.

Just For Laughs

What We’re Reading 📖

The Marketing Brew: This weekday article-round-up-style newsletter is full of current marketing news, trends and more. It’s less than five minutes a day to stay in the know in the marketing world. Check it out here: The Marketing Brew newsletter.

Points of Interest 🧐

🗓 On this day
On this day in 1975 Microsoft, one of the world’s biggest tech companies, was founded.

🪲 Swarm greetings
The US is set to be invaded by cicadas, in an event not seen since 1803.

🚨 Lego with a warning
A southern California police department has changed their social media policy after Lego asked them to stop adding Lego heads to pictures of suspects it was publishing online.

Whenever you’re ready, there are three ways we can help:

1. Visit our Home Builder Resource Library.
Find guides and resources covering many popular topics to help you sell more homes and grow your company.

2. Book a free Power Hour session.
Tell us about your company and what your biggest marketing challenge is, and we’ll give you actionable advice to put you on the fast track.

3. Hire us to do the heavy lifting.
Whether it’s project work, setting up HubSpot, or acting as an outsourced marketing department, you can rely on our 13+ years of digital marketing experience to deliver results.

About Velocity23

Velocity23 is a growth agency and has been specializing in digital marketing for home builders for 13+ years. As one of the first HubSpot partner agencies to specialize in the home-building industry, we’ve helped builders across the country solve their challenges with content marketing, lead generation, lead nurturing, and marketing automation. Our experience has led to the development of the Growth Engine Framework™️, a marketing system that’s helped our clients achieve:

🖥 7.3M+ website sessions
🙋 108,720+ leads generated
🏠 9,380+ homes sold
💰 $3.2+ Billion in reported client revenue

If you’re experiencing marketing challenges or you want to sell more homes and grow your company, book a call today and let’s see how we can help.

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