More and more homebuilders across the country are beginning to see the benefits of an inbound marketing solution. Inbound marketing promotes the website, boosts SEO, drives leads, and creates tons of brand awareness in your local area. Our favorite part? You can have a solid inbound marketing program that would allow you to put all your traditional marketing to bed for under $50K a year. No, that wasn't a typo. The average builder doesn't need to spend more than $50K/year on marketing materials if they're using a completely digital program. For $50K you can reach thousands of homebuyers in your area, promote your product 24 hours/day, 7 days/week, 365 days/year, and get actual data to understand how it all worked out in the end. We can see the wheels turning in your head. So what you're saying is, I can pay for an entire year of marketing by selling one or two homes through an online ad in the course of a year? Yeah, that's exactly what we're saying. And with several thousand people visiting your site every month and learning about your product, how could you not sell one or two homes that way? How could you not sell twenty homes that way? The reason we haven't yet seen every builder in the country jumping on the inbound marketing bandwagon is that, as an industry, we're about a decade behind the curve when it comes to stuff like this. Move over to any other industry and ask if they use inbound marketing. You'll likely hear something like "Well...duh." Many builders who have been around for several decades have gotten by on word of mouth, have gotten comfortable with print advertising, or have been able to save money by doing everything themselves. As we move into a less personal, more technology-savvy era of homebuyers, these types of practices will work less and less. If you have the time and resources to build more homes in response to a higher demand for your product, you are a prime candidate for some inbound marketing. Compared to traditional advertising, inbound marketing can sound too good to be true. We get that. We love when our clients ask us where to start marketing their website, because we know that once they spend a few months seeing what internet marketing can do for their business, they'll replace a lot of their traditional ads with digital ones and end up saving a ton of money. When starting out, you should look at two options: Google Adwords and Facebook. Eventually, you should get to where you're doing both of these things and more, but to get your feet wet, start with one of the two.   Google Adwords Pros: Google Adwords show up on page 1 of search results, where the intent to buy a home is high. Adwords generate high quality traffic and tend to result in leads more often than Facebook or any other type of ad. Adwords also offers retargeting opportunities on partner sites that allow you to display images of your homes to people who have visited your site and left, reminding them to come back. Cons: These visitors come with a hefty price tag. Because the users coming to the site from adwords are already searching for new homes in your area, they are worth more to you and therefore you're going to pay more to get them. Be prepared when all is said and done to be spending around $1K per month on these types of ads.   Facebook Ads Pros: Facebook ads multiply your ROI. They simultaneously create brand awareness, site traffic, shareable content, and even leads for a relatively low cost. Since Facebook ads are photo-driven and allow people to like, share, and comment, the social reach of a Facebook ad far surpasses a Google ad. People tend to text or email links to your site more often when you are running Facebook ads. You can have a solid Facebook ad campaign for around $500/month. Cons: Site visits and leads tend to be of a lower quality overall than Google Adwords, although the net you're casting is very wide and has the opportunity to result in some high quality visits for half the price. You also cannot have an ad running on Facebook without connecting it to a business page, which could present a problem if you don't want to maintain a business page.     Still not sure? Consider this. Using Google Adwords is like buying a booth at a convention for homebuyers. Expensive, but you're showing up in a place where you know serious buyers are already hanging out. Facebook ads is like printing off a pretty stack of flyers and putting them on all the cars in the city where the convention is located. It will be hit and miss, but when it's a hit it'll pay off right away.   Tip: To begin online marketing, decide what you're willing to spend monthly and think about if you want to go into it driving leads from the get-go, or if you want to first take time to build some brand awareness for a lower cost. Whatever you decide, give it six months. After six months, start exploring more marketing opportunities or replace your current efforts with something else and see how that goes.   Check out the inbound marketing solution we've designed for builders, or email me your questions at abby@builderdesigns.com.