Website redesigns for builders can take months, even years of hard work. And they often run over schedule and over budget. Then after all the waiting and disappointment you get to see your expensive new website become stagnant. It may go years without any major functional improvements, since you blew 3 years worth of marketing budgets already.
There are many reasons why a home builder would need a new website. But just as often, it may be the case that you don't actually need a new site. You just need to breathe life into the one you already have.
Use the following checklist to determine if it's time for a remodel or an all-out teardown.
Your site checks all the boxes above (in a positive way). In this case, what you really need is an agile approach to improving your website. Agile is a method in which you start small, and make a series of improvements, called iterations, based on user feedback. Your end goal may be the same: a beautiful, easily-updated lead-generating machine. But getting there with an agile approach will be much faster and more efficient.
As with traditional web design, you begin the agile process with research and goal creation. Create personas (e.g. First-time Frank or Downsizing Donna) for the various users of your site, and conduct user research. Use analytics to explore how users arrive at your site, interact with it, and why they’re dropping off or bouncing. Feedback from your user base can paint a more accurate picture of how users view your site.
Armed with these findings, you'll establish goals for your website. It's important that these goals are: a) specific, b) tied to company metrics, and c) measurable. Your current website may be accomplishing some of these goals already. Part of your strategy should include how you plan to track progress towards of each goal.
Once goals and strategy are in place, you'll be ready determine what should be included in the MVP version (think of it as your launch pad web site). This part of the website strategy is a version of your web site that includes only the most essential features that accomplish the goals identified in the strategy phase. Your current website could be your launch pad, as long as it has the features we discussed in the checklist. The goal is to launch small so you can test, learn, and react before investing in a “big” design solution.
With your MVP site live and collecting user data, you should now start identifying new features or improvements to begin rolling out. Focus on high-impact, data-driven optimizations, such as:
Be sure to set up experiments to test the impact of your enhancements. After launching new features, a crucial part of this phase is to take a step back and review the results.
For example, when top 100 home builder True Homes approached us looking for a new website, we checked all the boxes above, and then used an agile approach to come up with an alternative solution to meet the needs of their buyers, one that didn’t involve the pains that go into a redesign. From there, we created a landing page strategy that aligned the goal of the builder (improve ROI of marketing budget) with the goal of the buyer (find a builder that offers the best value) on the very first visit. They saved time and money, and were able to launch, measure and optimize the website campaign in 30 days. To read more about the results, check out this True Success Story.
So the next time you're faced with the question: "do I need a new home builder web site?," don't be discouraged or intimidated. Implementing these 3 phases of an agile approach allows you to test, learn, and react before committing to a lengthy, costly project.
If you’re interested in creating smarter goals, connecting with customers, prioritizing improvements that launch sooner and get faster results, maybe it’s time to consider the agile method for breathing new life into your homebuilder website. Contact us if you’d like to learn more about how the Bokka Group can help you improve your website and your customer experience through agile digital marketing.