Beyond the Funnel: Aligning Your Brand with the 4S Behaviors

Author

Jeff Schneider
June 18, 2025

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

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In This Issue:

💡 The Big Idea: Discover the 4S consumer behaviours and how smart builders are using them.
🐝 Industry Buzz: The latest marketing and real estate news updates.
🧠 Get Your Learn On: How to use Geofencing to effectively target your ads.
🏆 Quick Win: Create a neighbourhood amenities database to quickly create content based on location.
🧰 Tech Check: Use Convertbox to easily convert your site visitors.
🤖 A.I. Prompt Play: Create a Community Feature Comparison to show your readers the benefits of each community you build in.
📚 Recommended Resource: 25 SEO Myths To Leave Behind.
🎙️ From The Podcast: Home Builder Marketing Strategies: Expert Insights on Digital Marketing, Sales Training & Brand Messaging.
🏅 Marvellous Marketing: A standout social post from Rockwood Custom Homes.
... and more!

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

The Big Idea 💡

Your prospects aren't following the old awareness-to-action path anymore. They're streaming, scrolling, searching, and shopping in unpredictable patterns – and successful builders are adapting.

This framework shows you how to meet buyers wherever they are in their journey, turning every touchpoint into a conversion opportunity. In this article:

☑️ The four key behaviours driving today's home buyer decisions.
☑️ Why traditional funnels fail in a mobile-first, social commerce world.
☑️ How to create seamless experiences across streaming platforms, social feeds, and search results.
☑️ And more...

Industry Buzz 🐝

🏠 Canadian Home Sales Show First Gain in Six Months
According to CREA's latest housing report, Canadian home sales rose 3.6% between April and May, marking their first gain since November. While this represents just one month of positive data, there's growing optimism that the expected housing market turnaround may finally be happening after being delayed by initial tariff chaos and uncertainty.

💰 Calls for Tax Breaks to Help Seniors Downsize
A new report from the Missing Middle Initiative suggests that governments should provide tax breaks to make it more financially viable for seniors to downsize from their family homes. Currently, seniors face significant costs including GST, PST, and land transfer taxes that make downsizing financially unattractive.

🚨 AI-Powered Fraud Threatens Real Estate Transactions
A new report from FCT reveals that AI is driving a new wave of sophisticated real estate fraud. Criminals are now using deepfake technology to impersonate homeowners in virtual meetings and AI voice modulation to change their apparent age, gender, and accent during transactions. 

The technology allows fraudsters to create convincing fake identities and manipulate real estate deals in ways that were previously impossible, making verification more critical than ever.

🏘️ Suburban Rental Boom as Homeownership Remains Out of Reach
CNBC reports that rentership surged by at least 5 percentage points in 11 out of 20 suburbs surrounding the largest U.S. metro areas between 2018 and 2023. With mortgage rates hovering near 7% and home prices remaining elevated, many would-be buyers are choosing to rent suburban properties instead.

This trend spans Sun Belt metros like Dallas and Houston as well as Northeastern cities like Boston and Philadelphia, with 15 suburbs transitioning from predominantly homeowner to majority-renter communities.

Get Your Learn On 🧠 

🖥 Stop Guessing Where Your Buyers Are—Start Geofencing
Join Blue Tangerine President Greg Bray for a deep dive into geofencing marketing that actually moves the needle. You'll discover how to display targeted ads based on location, measure real foot traffic back to your communities, and see the actual costs to run campaigns that drive results.

Quick Win 🏆

Create a neighbourhood amenities database. Spend 30 minutes listing every amenity within 5km of your communities. Organize by category (schools, shopping, recreation). Use this resource to quickly create location-specific content.

Tech Check 🧰

Once you’ve created your neighbourhood amenities database, it’s time to turn it into high-converting lead capture opportunities with ConvertBox. This intelligent on-site messaging platform lets you create targeted pop-ups and forms that appear when visitors view specific community pages, turning your location research into personalized offers.

AI Prompt Play 🤖

Welcome to AI Prompt Play, where we provide carefully crafted prompts you can copy, customize, and use immediately to create professional marketing content in minutes.

Tips for using these prompts:

  • Replace text in [brackets] with your specific information

  • Adjust tone and style descriptors to match your brand voice

  • Use the generated content as a starting point and customize to your needs

COMMUNITY FEATURE COMPARISON

Goal: Help buyers understand the unique benefits of different communities

Prompt: Act as a local real estate expert and community planning specialist. I am a [CITY] home builder looking to create an Instagram carousel that helps buyers compare our different communities. Create a 10-slide carousel that includes: 1) An engaging opening slide that hooks attention, 2) A comparison matrix highlighting key features of each community (schools, amenities, commute times, price ranges), 3) Unique selling points for each location, 4) Lifestyle fit indicators for different buyer types, and 5) A clear call-to-action. The tone should be helpful and informative, like a knowledgeable friend giving honest advice about different neighborhoods.

Marvellous Marketing 🏅

Stand-Out Social Post From Shea Homes
Today's standout social post comes from @rockwoodcustomhomes over on Instagram. They've launched their "Inside the Build" series with this engaging reel that gives followers an exclusive BTS look at how their custom homes come to life. This type of educational content is brilliant because it a) demystifies the building process and b) builds trust by showing the craftsmanship and attention to detail that goes into every home.

Prospects love seeing the "how" behind the finished product, and this series format creates anticipation for future episodes while positioning Rockwood as transparent builders who take pride in their work.

From the Podcast 🎙

Discover proven marketing strategies and growth tactics on the Home Builder Marketing and Growth Show with Jeff Schneider. New episodes every week:

Transform how your home builder marketing delivers results with Rob Krohn's proven strategies. Discover data-driven tactics, buyer persona insights, and emerging tech applications that can turn your marketing into a revenue-generating engine. 

Transform your sales team's efficiency with HubSpot's new Sales Workspace. Learn how this unified command center helps builder sales teams streamline lead management, boost productivity, and close more deals with less effort.

Transform your website into a lead-generating powerhouse with a proven blogging strategy specifically designed for home builders. Discover the three essential types of blog posts that keep your sales pipeline full and position you as the trusted builder of choice in your market.

Listen to the podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music or any of your favourite apps.

What We’re Listening To 🎧

Drive With NAR: REALTOR® to REALTOR® Series: Looking for real-world marketing strategies that actually work? Host Marki Lemons Ryhal brings over 30 years of experience to this monthly NAR podcast, featuring authentic conversations with real estate professionals who are thriving despite market challenges.

As someone who has taught over 250,000 REALTORS® how to earn up to a 2,682% return on their marketing dollars, she uncovers the practical tactics you can immediately apply to your home building business.

Just For Laughs 😂

It’s a big market! From Agency Analytics

Points of Interest 🧐

📆  On this day (x2!)
On this day in 1963 Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to travel in space, returned to Earth. Also, Sally Ride, the first American woman to travel in space, took off from Florida on this day in 1983.

🐢 Shell of a Day
Goliath, a giant Galapagos tortoise, celebrated his first Father’s Day and birthday on the same day after becoming a father for the first time at the age of 135. 

🚽 Blame of Thrones
Two men in the UK have been convicted after pulling off a $6 million heist. The target - an 18-carat gold toilet.

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

1. Complimentary 1-Hour Strategy Session: Let's get to know each other. We'll hop on a Zoom call to understand your goals and challenges and then provide actionable marketing recommendations tailored to your business. Walk away with strategies you can implement immediately. Schedule your no-cost strategy session.

2. HubSpot Audit & Optimization: Unlock the full potential of your HubSpot investment. Our thorough 60+ point check-up will identify what's working well and what needs attention in your setup. You'll receive a comprehensive report and a 90-minute review session to maximize your HubSpot performance. Request your HubSpot audit.

3. Complimentary Website & Marketing Check-up: Give your online presence a boost. We'll review your website and marketing channels, then conduct a 60-minute workshop to share our findings. You'll walk away with actionable tips to improve your digital marketing and attract more qualified leads. Sign up for your no-cost marketing check-up.

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:

🖥 7.5M+ website sessions
🙋 112,200+ leads generated
🏠 9,690+ homes sold
💰 $3.3+ 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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