Case StudyBallpark Pricing Estimator

CraigMHalliday.com

Problem

Website visitors demanded to know product pricing on the

website versus having to contact the homebuilder.

Lack of pricing information on the website discouraged

some visitors from completing contact forms and

converted into a lead – lack of trust.

The website was not satisfying visitors’ search request

with respect to pricing. SEO opportunity.

The company wanted to be the industry leader by

implementing digital marketing strategies customers

demand – providing solutions.

CraigMHalliday.com

Recommended Solution

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Implement a simple online price strategy necessary to

provide website visitors interested in the product an “idea”

of cost – a solution.

Challenges

Homebuilders, our partners wanted to control their own

pricing models.

Homebuilders were afraid pricing on the website would

allow the customer [the homebuyer] to hold posted pricing

against them. “That’s what was on the website.”

Sales team concurred with homebuilders.

Competitors spent thousands developing online pricing

models only to remove them a short time later. Why?

Industry content with the status quo – do not like change.

CraigMHalliday.com

My Concern

Would implementing a ballpark pricing estimator negatively

affect our efforts to add leads to our sales funnel? If they

learned of pricing on the website, then why would they need

to contact us?

CraigMHalliday.com

Process

Create a simple delivery method to provide the customer

a starting from ballpark price for building a new home in

their area.

Sell the ballpark pricing model to our partners and request

their approval to activate estimator for their region.

Clearly define the details as to what the “starting from”

ballpark price includes and does not include. It is critical

for the customer to understand that the “starting from”

ballpark price is just an idea and NOT the actual price.

CraigMHalliday.com

Step 1

Define price structure and output.

Assign a value with $10,000 increments starting from the

product delivery hub.

A,B,C,D matrix

Example: A=Cost closest to delivery hub, B=$10,000 increase

from delivery hub, C=$20,000 increase from delivery hub,

D=$30,000 increase from delivery hub. The further away from

the delivery hub, the higher the increase up to D pricing.

Allow participating partners to choose A, B, C or D pricing.

Assign build states and counties with determined A, B, C or D

pricing.

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Step 2

Develop the UX platform using 3rd party agency.

Important to keep price request solution simple for the

user. Hence K.I.S.S.

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Price Search Landing Page

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Price Search Landing Page

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User inputs the state they

plan to build in and the

county within the state.

Price Search Landing Page

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Disclaimer

Price Results Output

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Price Results Output

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• Single model price

output description.

• Price is noted as “From

the $’s” to inform the

user this model starts

from $180’s for a

specified area

(example: Mecklenburg

Co., NC).

CTA’s

Call-to-actions are available throughout the website, but according to

Google Analytics at the time, the CTA “WHAT’S THE COST” button on

the homepage converted more traffic than any other CTA.

Why? The keyword “cost” in long-tail keyword searches produced more

organic traffic. Therefore, we emphasized this keyword in our CTA’s

and landing page content.

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CTA’s

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CTA strategically placed under the

slider, left and above the fold.

ResultsThe results from this project were impressive.

• Average website users (formally unique)/month before: 16,709

• Average website users/month after: 22,290

• 33% increase

• Average leads/month before: 188 (36 months, low 58, high 295)

• Average leads/month after: 309 (26 months, low 219, high 431)

• 64% increase

• Average CTR before: 1.06% (conversion landing pages/website users)

• Average CTR after: 1.54%

• Average e-lead sales of overall company sales before: 13.22%

• Average e-lead sales of overall company sales after: 21.28%

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Results

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Results

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Takeaways

Including ballpark pricing on the website allowed the visitor to

quickly get their most commonly asked question answered

quickly.

Including relevant pricing related content amplified SEO efforts.

The most important takeaway from this project – TRUST.

Earning the trust of website visitors led to them completing the

contact form and converted into a lead/future sale.

Listen to what the customer is asking, they understand the

difference between “ballpark cost estimates” vs. “real, contract

cost” available only through the homebuilder.

CraigMHalliday.com