Buying a home is one of the largest and most emotional purchases that consumers ever make. This is the place where they’ll make new memories to cherish, grow their family, gather loved ones and so much more. Embracing that emotional pull is the ultimate key to success for any home builder.
To create meaningful connections with potential buyers, home builders need to use strong, engaging copy that addresses their core needs and desires. One of the best opportunities to do this is through a great home builder value proposition.
If you don’t already have a value proposition in place, now is a great time to write one. These short but meaningful statements can convey to your potential customers exactly what you have to offer. It’s your prime opportunity to answer the question every prospective homebuyer has – why should they buy from your company instead of any other home builder? Below, we’ll share the elements that make up a value proposition and why it’s such an important part of creating a successful home builder marketing strategy.
A value proposition is a concise statement that conveys the key benefit of a product or service — in this case, your homes. This statement tells buyers what they can always expect your brand to deliver – whether that’s services, product, quality, solutions. It addresses the problems or pain points that your customers have and how your homes offer the perfect answer to solve those problems. It also touches on any added benefits that set you apart from the competition.
What should draw buyers to your homes? Why should they choose your home over those from your competitors? How can your homes uniquely fulfill their needs? An effective value proposition should compellingly answer these questions and provide the answers buyers need to convert to leads. It should ultimately act as the primary reason buyers choose to work with your company rather than a competitor.
There are a few different ways you can package your value proposition on your website and other marketing materials. Traditionally, a value proposition uses one to three sentences, often with a heading and subheading. You can also use bullet points to communicate key benefits concisely. Some businesses also opt to use photos or videos to augment their value proposition.
Value propositions are different from other key pieces of copy, like a slogan, mission statement, or positioning statement. Mission statements are forward-thinking and focus on your growth as a company, while positioning statements communicate your company’s relationship to your target market. A slogan is catchy and gives the reader an idea of your brand identity, but likely won’t go into detail about the unique value that you have to offer. Unlike these other brand elements, a value proposition answers a key question every prospective homebuyer has – what benefit do you provide that no other builder can?
Buying a home is a major life milestone. Customers don’t make this decision lightly, so it’s important that home builder marketing recognizes the significance of their purchase.
There are several primary benefits to creating an effective value statement from building stronger builder-buyer relationships to brand differentiation and more.
Bolsters Customer Relationships with Your Brand
Homebuyers need to connect with your brand on an emotional level in addition to liking the homes you have to offer. A great value proposition drives home the advantages of your homes — and you as a home builder — and helps instill confidence and trust in potential customers.
Sets You Apart from Competition
A value proposition is a way to clearly articulate your company’s key competitive advantage. Consumers have so many choices when it comes to buying a home, so they’ll need to know exactly what makes your offerings different. A value proposition is an easy and concise way to share those benefits with your potential buyers and address why they should buy from you rather than a competitor.
Strengthens Your Brand Identity
When paired with other key pieces of copy, your value proposition helps customers develop an idea of your brand identity. It provides further insight into what your company is known for and defines your brand in the mind of prospective homebuyers.
Having a strong brand identity with clearly defined benefits and values is the key to success for any business. A unique brand identity is memorable and helps to build long-term loyalty among your customers.
Finding the right value proposition for your brand can take some time. It’s important that the statement neatly addresses your key selling points that persuade buyers to choose your homes and services. In other words, this element of your marketing strategy can truly make or break your success in achieving strong sales and gaining new leads over competitors.
Don’t be afraid to collaborate with your entire team throughout the process for input. Editing is also essential — while you need to be specific, verbosity can actually hinder your value proposition.
A strong value home builder proposition statement must fulfill several requirements to deliver your brand benefits successfully.
Here are the steps we suggest to develop a value proposition statement that effectively shares your unique benefits with homebuyers.
1. Determine Your Target Audience
To write an effective value proposition, you’ll first need to determine who your target demographic is and what problems they are trying to solve. If you don’t already have an idea of your target customer, sit down with your team to brainstorm.
2. Consider Their Primary Needs and Problems
Different homebuyer groups have distinct expectations for their homes, and your value proposition should uniquely speak to those needs. Delve deep into their pain points and think about what challenges they face when trying to buy a house — not only logically, but also emotionally.
For your target audience, is the experience of buying a new home overwhelming or seen as an exciting investment for their future? If your target audience is first-time buyers, they may be more unsure of their needs during their search and more likely to prioritize a builder that offers an emotional connection. Meanwhile, move-down or move-up buyers often possess a thorough expectation of what they want in a new home and their concern may be design quality.
A great way to get firsthand insight into the specific needs and expectations of your buyers is by looking to your team. Any of your sales agents or customer-facing employees are likely to have greater knowledge of the pain points and problems your homebuyers consistently express – use this information to your advantage!
3. Identify Ways Your Homes Fulfill Their Needs
Once you’ve narrowed down a list of your customers’ biggest challenges, start brainstorming how you can address those challenges. These can be logical benefits, such as great design, location, and amenities; but they can also address some of the emotional challenges that come with buying a house. Focus on single needs of your homebuyers and list out a specific benefit of your homes or services that provide a compelling solution.
For example, many people in the market for a new home are looking for security and a place that will keep their family safe. Others might be looking for a place that provides status, comfort, or luxury. Maybe you prioritize building in sought-after, family-friendly communities that provide a sense of safety, or your homes might provide top-tier lavish features and finishes to satisfy those looking for extravagance. Consider aspects that provide an answer to the specific needs and expectations of homebuyers, how can your homes deliver solutions to satisfy their expectations?
4. Address Their Priorities within a Value Proposition Statement
From there, you’ll need to narrow these key ideas down into a value proposition statement that is concise, yet specific and informative. Don’t be afraid to add key details to fully illustrate the benefits that you have to offer your customers. This step is all about pairing your homebuyers’ problems to the primary benefits of your homes or services – what makes these benefits valuable to your ideal customer?
Don’t forget to describe the unique value your homebuyers will experience by choosing your company over competitors. Now that they are aware of the advantages of buying with you, it’s important to further drive the point by illustrating how your benefits distinctly set your company apart from others.
While value propositions can be catchy, keep in mind that they are not slogans or taglines. Focus on conveying exactly how your homes can solve key problems that your potential customers are struggling with.
5. Create Value Propositions for Each Target Audience
After looking into your target audience, you’ll likely find that they can be segmented into distinct groups or buyer personas with similar needs, pain points and buying behaviors. Now that you’ve dug into your key selling points you can use those benefits and match them to the different needs of each buyer persona. Each group will respond more to different features and services, so you must develop unique value propositions that resonate with each of them. This provides your company with an opportunity to provide solutions that uniquely speak to the specific needs of all your targeted homebuyers.
It’s not enough just to write a great value proposition — you also need to make sure you uphold it and deliver that value for your customers. When you show customers that you can deliver on your promises, it builds long-term trust and brand loyalty.
That brand loyalty makes your buyers more likely to recommend you to others and talk about your business in a positive manner. The more they talk about your company, the more your brand reach and awareness will significantly increase.
On the other hand, if you fail to deliver on your value proposition, it can actually hurt your brand perception and could even lose you important home sales. Your value proposition should always be top of mind when interacting with customers and making brand decisions.
To ensure that you are upholding your value propositions, make sure to discuss them regularly with your team and reassess them whenever you update your products or services. It also helps to get regular feedback from your customers — their input can be incredibly valuable as you adjust your services for the future.
A good value proposition is a key component of any copywriting and marketing strategy. It works in tandem with other aspects of your branding to connect with your target customers and sell your properties.
Milesbrand is a full-service branding agency that provides copywriting and other online marketing services for home builders. Contact us today to learn how we can take you from land to brand.