HGTV series “Love It or List It” highlights the inevitable family discussion of stay and enjoy or flip and list — and studies show that 2021 is the year to love it (with personalized renovations or improvement projects). In other words, the home improvement boom is here to stay for a while, the result of homeowners predominantly working at home and making moves to make their space functional from work to family time.

Marketers typically look at three stages of the customer journey: awareness, consideration and intent. We spend a great deal of time brainstorming new ideas for the first two. But what about the third?

Intent: Targeting Customers Ready to Purchase

Luckily for intent, 2021 may finally be its time to shine. In the last year, homeowners have shown increased demand for building product tools and products to support home improvement projects, whether completed independently or in partnership with a contractor.

As a result, remodelers, contractors and builders are experiencing increased interest from customers. Their customers are moving from the consideration (I’m thinking about it) stage to the intent (I’d like to purchase) stage.

For marketers in the home and building products industry, this means there is a growing group of homeowners who are ready to buy and may even be searching for your brand by name.

These strategies can help you embrace customers on the brink of making a purchase and ultimately protect your brand’s market share.

• Re-evaluate your company’s brand demand online through the lens of search volume. Take a fresh look at your branded keyword budgets, ensuring a seamless journey from search to your site.

• Create a positive user experience on your website. If homeowners are searching for your brand or even typing your direct web address into the search bar, it’s important to make sure they find what they need and find it quickly. Is your online educational process seamless or difficult to navigate?

• Consider adjusting budgets as necessary to focus more on intent-driven phases during this time of increased home improvement activity.

• Optimize, optimize, optimize your digital messaging across all channels. Reinforce key messages with your target audience through other channels, including public relations, social media and email marketing, as they may be revisiting projects that were once on hold.

• Don’t forget to strengthen your existing customer relationships. Avoid relying too much on assumptions from your brand’s historical data. If 2020 taught us anything, it’s this: Status quo is no longer a thing.

• Instead of simply relying on third-party data, invest in and review your proprietary, first-party data and testimonials. For more on this, read our latest update on the enhanced privacy features of iOS 14 and the impact on trackable third-party data.

Home improvement-minded homeowners are rewarding manufacturers that understand how to reach people who are ready (or almost ready) to buy. You can capitalize on this trend by optimizing your intent-driven advertising.

Interested in exploring or implementing performance media campaigns to embrace your audience in a new way this year? Email me.