This week on The Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast, Katlyn Slocum of Katlyn Slocum Design joins Greg and Kevin to discuss how strategy-driven websites will help home builders turn more visitors into leads and turn more qualified leads into customers.
Often the first interaction a potential home buyer has with a home builder is their website. If a home builder hasn’t invested in a quality website, it can negatively impact business. Katlyn says,
“It’s kind of like our human nature to just assume what you put out, you should expect to get back. So, if you put out a lackluster thrown-together website, not ill-intentioned at all, just might not have time or whatever it is. But actually, having a bad website design can do more harm than good for your business. Especially if you’re a luxury home builder, but your website looks like crap, people aren’t going to get it. They’re not gonna put that much money forward if you don’t take the time and effort to show up professionally…It’s your first impression. You don’t get a second shot at a first impression.”
While a home builder website needs to be attractive, it must also be informative and functional. Katlyn explains,
“You don’t want to just have something sit there that looks nice. If it just looks nice, it’s like a picture on your wall. It’s not serving your business any purpose other than just existing. It should work towards an end goal. And so, I’m all for a website looking stunning. That’s still important. The visuals are obviously still important. But you can have a stunning website that doesn’t have a great user experience or doesn’t help you get to the end goals that you want. So, I like to converge the two.”
Websites often fall under a home builder digital marketing team, but they also need to be employed more fully in sales. Katlyn says,
“I don’t even lump websites in with like marketing so much. There’s an element to websites that are marketing but shifting the focus to using your website as a sales tool, as part of the sales process. It doesn’t have to remain the reality that your website is just sitting there and you’re not generating quality inquiries from it, that it actually can convert. You’re spending all this time on ads and social media and whatever you’re doing to market to get people to your website. They don’t have to be going to your website and it is a leaky bucket with all of them just dropping through the cracks. You can actually build it in a way that’s converting those into genuine inquiries.”
Listen to this week’s episode to learn more about how effective home builder websites can increase sales opportunities.
About the Guest:
Growing up in a blue-collar household, Katlyn Slocum saw firsthand the guts, grit, and gumption that went into running the family business every day. Witnessing their passion fueled her to discover her own passion— helping tradesmen scale their businesses with strategy-driven websites. Today, Katlyn works with custom home builders and remodelers to craft websites that serve as a powerful sales tool for her clients. She lives with her husband Brandon and two children just outside of Cincinnati, OH.