Great marketing has always been about communication. Whether that means networking in the real world, creating a great homebuilder website design or reaching out to customers on newer platforms, nothing has really changed much, except perhaps the medium.

Where we would once use local newspapers to deliver news about our companies, we now issue online press releases, and where we used to attend local business networking meetings, we’re now engaging with our contacts on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

So while the need to communicated as a part of lead generation and marketing hasn’t changed, the methods and platforms have, and as always, they’re all about reaching the right people with the right message. Here’s how you can ensure that your modern format marketing messages are doing just that.

Who Are You Selling to?

New media marketing methods are highly targeted, which is great for your bottom line, your marketing budget, and potentially converting prospects to sales. However, while traditional media was a little more forgiving, in that you cast the net wide and hoped for the best, the highly targeted nature of online marketing means that you really need to know who you want to reach in order to ensure that your message doesn’t pass them by.

After all, your newspaper ad would be seen by whoever bought the paper. Your PPC ads will only reach those who are searching for your long tail keyword phrases.

More than ever before, you need to establish who you are selling to, what they want, and how you can deliver it. You need to do keyword research, and develop your homebuilder website design, your content marketing strategy and your social media lead generation around those wants, needs and personas. Here are some things to consider:

• What age range is your ideal customer?
• What are their interests?
• Which social networks are they likely to spend time on?
• What questions do they have about the home building process?

If you can narrow down your ideal customer this way, you’ll spend less on marketing to them, increase your lead generation strike rate, and turn more leads into customers, because you’re selling to people who already want your products and services!

Technology to the Rescue!

The great news about new media marketing, homebuilder website design, lead generation and strategies like social media marketing and email marketing is that there are many tools out there that can help you to figure out who your ideal customer is, and how to reach them with the right message, at the right price. Here are just a few of the tools we’ve used to help our customers come up with online marketing strategies:

• Whether you use PPC services like AdWords or Facebook ads or not, their keyword and targeting tools can help you to figure out what your target market is searching for online. You can break this down by topic or by geographical location, and that information can help you to develop the rest of your strategy.
• You can set up free Google Alerts to monitor key phrases related to homebuilding in your area, including mentions of your company and your competitors.
• Use tools like Alexa.com or Ahref to research competitors.
• Find and follow competitor’s followers on Facebook and Twitter.
• Use Google Analytics on your homebuilder website to monitor traffic, and determine where traffic comes from, and what they do on your site.
• Use free tools like MailChimp to collect email addresses on your website, and make the most of this type of lead generation by creating a newsletter for email marketing.

That may seem like a lot to take in, but it’s really only the tip of the iceberg. When it comes to finding potential customers, targeting your marketing message, generating interest and capturing leads, internet marketing offers endless options. The internet can show you where to find your potential customers, and tell you what they want to know. Then it’s simply a matter of creating the right content, and giving them the tools to reach you.

It all starts with your homebuilder website design, and depends how far you want to take your online and inbound marketing efforts, but if it’s effective communication you want, the internet and the limitless possibilities it offers are definitely well worth considering.