Simple Tips for Marketing New Construction Homes with Case Studies

Marketing Tips for Writing a Home Building Case Study

When writing home building case studies, include examples of how you handle unforeseen issues, what it's like to work with your home design team, and how responsive you are to your buyers' needs after making the sale.

When you’re deciding which home sales warrant a case study, think about future sales of new construction homes. You will want to write about what's most important to future potential customers–and what sets you apart from other home builders.

Provide Your Potential Customers Some Context

When writing your home building case study, start by introducing the home buyer you are featuring and the problems they were facing.

People reading the case study will want to know:

• Who are the people you helped?
• Where were they looking for a home?
• What difficulties were they experiencing?
• Why were they having trouble finding a solution?

Include first names and demographic information so people reading the case study will know it’s a real story. Talk about what your homebuyer wanted and explain why they picked you to help them get it.

For example, imagine selling new homes to home buyers who value energy efficiency and timesaving features. Home buyers that want to build a connected home.

They want the blinds to automatically open up in the morning to let daylight in. When they are at work, they want the blinds to lower in the middle of the day to help keep the house cool. There are a lot of builders that offer smart home features like these. Why would someone hire you to get what they want?

Do other builders hire a contractor to install the hardware and place the responsibility of learning how to use it on the homeowners? Maybe other builders set the system up and tell the owners how to do it, but three months down the road they can’t remember how.

Use the problems home buyers have to differentiate your company from other builders.

Perhaps you save your home buyers hours of frustration by taking extra time to configure the smart home settings just the way they want. Maybe you provide a binder with step-by-step instructions so they will feel confident about making future adjustments on their own. Including a case study like this in your real estate marketing will lead to more home sales from similar home buyers.

Once you’ve provided the context and described the problem, it’s time to get straight to the solution.

Tell People Why Home Buyers Choose You

When discussing your project, be sure to:

• Outline what is different about your business that made you right for the job.
• Discuss how your work matches your homebuyer’s needs and values.
• Include lots of professional photography to showcase the home you built. Remember to include captions so readers will know what they are looking at.

Imagine a home buyer that is deeply concerned about personal security and privacy. They want their home construction to make them feel protected and safe.

When discussing your solution, go into detail about the specific security features. For example, is there a video surveillance camera at every window and entrance, and did you develop a custom intruder alarm for each level? Did you install smart door handles that can detect glass breakage or impacts to the frame and sound an alarm to let the home buyer know?

The details of your case study make it believable and compelling to future home buyers.

Showcase The Home Building Experience from Your Buyer's Point of View

You may think offering the solution to the problem is enough. However, what really takes a case study to the next level is sharing the results.

Be sure to include what life is like now that they live in a home you built:

• Include a customer testimonial describing the problem they had, why they built with you, and how your unique process or solution is making their life better.
• Offer a glimpse into the life of your home buyers by adding photos of them enjoying their new home.
• Consider talking about next steps the home buyer is taking with you to add on additional features. This shows how happy they are with your home building services.

To write an convincing case study, you need to know what questions to ask.

Ask the Right Questions

The questions you ask should help tell a story that new home buyers can relate to and will care about. The key is to keep your questions conversational, direct the customer to the topics you want to cover, and make sure it fits into your home sales and marketing strategy.

The goal of interviewing your home buyers for a customer success story is to share their experience with new home buyers. To do this effectively, there are three types of questions related to the home buying experience you need to ask:

1) Their experience looking for a new home

Ask these questions so you can understand the pain points, problems, and priorities they had when they went hunting for a new home.

• What made you look for a new home?
• How did you find out about our company?
• Which other builders did you look at before deciding to build a home with us?

2) Their experience buying a new home from you

Ask these questions about the purchasing, home design, and home construction process so you can understand how they made their decisions, what their early impressions were, and why they chose you.

• What makes our homes different compared to others you’ve looked at?
• Why did you build with us?
• How easy or hard was it to get started?
• What are your favorite features? Why?
• Tell me about the most positive experience you've had while building a home with us. (Get specific details.)

3) Their experience after moving in

Ask these questions to understand what it’s been like living in a home you built so you can find out what impact it’s had on their life.

• How has living in your home been so far?
• Tell us about your experiences and what you’ve done to make your home yours?
• What do you hope to do with your home moving forward?
• Would you recommend our homes to others?
• What is the single biggest reason you would recommend our homes?

Build Your Own Engaging Case Study

Selling new construction using case studies is a form of content marketing and an important first step in marketing automation. The purpose of each case study is to improve your website conversion rate and lead generation results. When you provide a potential buyer with customer stories they can relate to, they will be more likely to contact you. This makes selling new homes easier.

When selecting which home buyers to feature in a case study, think ahead. Choose those that are most like the people you want to sell new construction homes to in the future. Be sure to showcase the features and qualities of your home that set you apart from your competitors.

Other ideas for home builder case studies include:

• Unique large-scale features, such as man caves, garages with car lifts, or a professional home kitchen.
• Customer-focused processes, such as how your real estate agents and home design center staff help customers through every step of the home building process.
• Areas of focus, such as environmental sustainability, aesthetic creativity, and commitment to quality.

Ready to create your own case studies? We’ve created a simple document with the questions listed above—download it now. We encourage you to send it to your customers so you can start using their words in your builder marketing materials. It is one of the best marketing methods for building trust online.