Imagine a winding pathway leading a potential homebuyer to their dream home. This is the lead funnel, a carefully crafted series of steps to turn interest into action. The journey begins when a person expresses an interest in purchasing a new home and moves through stages of qualification, promising sales potential, and, ultimately, conversion into a satisfied customer.
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Creating a lead funnel is crucial for maximizing your return on investment as a homebuilding business. But the journey doesn’t end at the sale – a well-designed lead funnel also includes post-purchase follow up efforts such as customer retention, upselling & referral opportunities. 
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To draw traffic to your lead funnel, consider using tactics like producing SEO-friendly content and showcasing your work with stunning photos and virtual tours. As leads progress through the funnel, consider personalizing your outreach with in-person consultations, home design presentations, and contract negotiations. In addition, you increase the chances of turning those leads into loyal customers by expertly guiding potential homebuyers through the lead funnel process.

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Why Is A Lead Funnel Important?

As a homebuilding company, crafting a successful lead funnel is crucial for attracting new business and growing your customer base. To do this effectively, you must first understand the wants and needs of your target audience. What motivates them to seek out homebuilding services? What are their pain points and concerns? Once you have a clear idea of your ideal customer, you can determine the best communication channels to reach them at each stage of the lead generation process. This might include social media advertising, email marketing, or targeted content on your website.
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But don’t stop there – assessing and optimizing your lead funnel as you go continually is essential. If specific strategies aren’t delivering results, don’t be afraid to cut them loose and try something new. A streamlined, well-oiled lead funnel is the key to efficiently converting leads into paying customers for your homebuilding services. By taking the time to understand your audience
and carefully plan out your lead generation efforts, you’ll be well on your way to turning interest into action and growing your business.
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The 4 Keys of Lead Generation For Homebuilders

1) Awareness

During the initial stage of the lead funnel, potential customers may come into contact with your homebuilding business without knowing much about your services or even realizing that they need your help. Therefore, it is essential to initiate a conversation and help educate these individuals about your offerings. 
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For example, a homeowner may search for terms such as “why is my home too cold in the winter?” or “how can I improve the energy efficiency of my home?” As a builder or trade company, it is your job to capture their attention and draw them into your lead funnel through tactics such as SEO-optimized blog content and social media campaigns. 
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2) Interest

Once potential customers are aware of their need for homebuilding services or have learned about your company, you must nurture these leads by offering valuable content or incentives in exchange for their contact information. 
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For example, a homebuilding company may offer a quiz or assessment related to home energy efficiency in exchange for an email address. After obtaining this information, the company can send emails with helpful tips and resources for improving a home’s energy efficiency. These emails may also include special offers or discounts, known as tripwires, which encourage the recipient to take a specific action, such as scheduling a consultation. 
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It is essential to be mindful of the frequency and relevance of the emails you send, as receiving too many emails before a person is ready to make a purchase can be off-putting and may lead to unsubscribes. By tracking a contact’s behavior and engagement with your content using a customer relationship management (CRM) tool, you can identify when their actions meet your criteria for a marketing-qualified-lead (MQL) and tailor your nurturing strategy accordingly.
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3) Desire

During the lead funnel’s desire phase, potential customers actively seek solutions to their homebuilding needs and compare prices, features, and other options. Using lead scoring tools, a homebuilding company can track and prioritize customer interactions and reach out at the most appropriate time. 
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The optimal timing for sales outreach will depend on the typical conversion cycle for your business and may involve a combination of self-service tools and direct sales efforts.
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4) Action

During the action stage of the lead funnel, qualified leads are ready to make a purchase and may have their financing in place. These individuals have been entered into your CRM software and are prepared to complete the transaction for their new home. Depending on your offerings, the sales team may contact via email or phone to finalize the sale, or homebuyers may move forward with the purchase process. 
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It is important to remember that the homebuying journey does not end once a purchase is made, as buyers may still change their minds. To help guide potential homebuyers through the final stages of the customer journey, it is helpful to have a lead generation process that outlines specific steps to take. 
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So How Do You Actually Create Your Lead Funnel?

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1. List all touchpoints

Before creating a lead strategy, it is important to understand how people come across your business. To get a comprehensive view of the customer journey, it is helpful to gather input from your sales, marketing, and customer support teams.
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Here is a list of touchpoints to consider:
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  • Paid media: This refers to marketing channels that you pay for, such as pay per click (PPC) advertising, social media ads, out-of-home advertising (e.g., billboards), point-of-sale displays, print mailers, radio, or TV advertisements.
  • Owned media: These are channels that you own and control, such as your website, social media pages and posts, blog, retail store, email, mobile apps, text messaging, and landing pages.
  • Earned media: This refers to media coverage that you did not pay for, such as reviews, mentions in third-party articles, word of mouth, and referrals.
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2. Define the customer journey

In the homebuilding industry, it is important to understand how potential clients navigate through your various touchpoints as they consider working with your company. By mapping out the customer journey, you can ensure that you are effectively using your resources to reach and convert prospects.
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One way to gather data about the customer journey is to use website analytics tools like Google Analytics, which can provide information about bounce or conversion rates. However, to get a more complete picture, it is also helpful to gather feedback from customers directly. This can be done through interviews, surveys, reviews, and customer service tickets. By understanding the needs and wants of your ideal customers at each stage of the customer cycle, you can better align your marketing and sales efforts with their journey and tailor your funnel accordingly.
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To design a map of the customer journey in the homebuilding industry, you can create a spreadsheet that outlines each stage of your funnel and answers the following questions for each phase:
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    • How does your potential customer feel as they consider working with a homebuilder?
    • What is your prospect or lead thinking about as they research their options for building a new home?
    • What actions do they take as they evaluate different homebuilders?
    • What questions is your lead trying to answer as they consider their options?
    • Where are they looking for answers to their questions about the homebuilding process?
    • What content (e.g., website pages, blog articles, social media posts) are they consuming as they research homebuilders?
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By answering these questions, you can gain a better understanding of your customers’ needs and preferences at each stage of the funnel, and tailor your marketing and sales efforts accordingly.
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3. Create content for each phase

Once you have a good understanding of your potential customers’ needs in the homebuilding industry, you can create targeted content to guide them through your sales funnel.
Here are some tips to consider as you develop your campaigns:
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  • Platform-specific content: Take note of how leads differ based on which channels they use and include content that is tailored to the platform and the customer. For example, you may create a short video about the benefits of building a new home for Facebook, while linking to a longer video on YouTube that goes into more detail about the homebuilding process.
  • Different content formats: To appeal to a wide range of potential customers, consider using a mix of content formats, such as tip sheets, checklists, videos, infographics, images, and long-form articles.
  • Address prospects’ needs: As you create each digital asset, make sure it addresses the needs and questions of your potential customers. Review the performance of your campaigns regularly and adjust your strategy as needed to ensure that you are effectively supporting your leads.
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4. Increase your pipeline

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To attract potential clients to your homebuilding business, it’s important to consistently fill your pipeline with leads. Here are some strategies to consider:
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    • Social media marketing: By consistently posting on social media channels, you can reach a wider audience and build brand awareness.
    • SEO: Optimizing your website content for search engines can help you rank higher in search results and attract more organic traffic.
    • Calls-to-action (CTAs): Adding a CTA to all of your digital assets (e.g., website pages, blog articles, social media posts) can encourage prospects to take the next step in the sales process.
    •  Customer reviews: Developing a strategy to encourage and manage customer reviews can help you build trust and credibility with potential clients.
    • Retargeting ads: Using retargeting ads on platforms like Facebook can help you reach people who have previously shown interest in your business.

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Conclusion

As a Construction or Trade Company, it’s crucial to optimize your lead generation to take a long-term view of your business and move beyond a singular cycle of success. This process requires time and effort, but it’s well worth it. Use data to guide your decisions and be prepared to adapt to changing circumstances. Investing time in your lead funnel is a proven strategy for generating more leads and sales in 2023 and beyond. 
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If you need assistance, consider seeking the guidance of experienced coaching services such as those offered by Small Business Growth Partners. Their expertise can help you fine-tune your lead generation efforts and achieve even greater success. Redeem your BPA today.
 
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