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As 2026 approaches, new home marketing is entering a transformative era. Buyers are behaving differently, digital channels are shifting, and the bar for personalization, speed, and trust has never been higher. Builders are rethinking how they communicate value, differentiate their products, and meet prospects where they actually are, not where they used to be.
To help marketers navigate what’s next, we tapped leading industry experts to share the strategies, insights, and emerging opportunities that will shape high-performing new home marketing in the year ahead.
We always feel better when we get fresh air: physically and mentally. Being stuck inside can close us up, makes us feel stuffy, stale, and even a little closed-minded. It’s not intentional; we are busy, life is busy, it’s comfortable to focus on what we always do, how we always do it. I encourage you to make this the year you get outside...literally and figuratively!
In 2026, the builders who win will be the ones who step outside of their offices, their assumptions, and their marketing bubbles. Go where your buyers go. Walk their neighborhoods, visit their favorite coffee shops, scroll their social feeds. Listen to how they talk about home, community, and belonging. Spend time where your buyers actually are.
When you see what they see—how they live, dream, and decide—your marketing becomes magnetic. You stop guessing what matters and start reflecting on it. Bring that understanding back inside. Let it shape your photos, your headlines, your content, and your conversations. Authentic marketing doesn't come from analytics alone—it’s born from empathy and observation.
AI will make data easier to read, but only you can feel what makes home matter. So this year, get outside. The insights waiting there are the ones your competitors will never find behind a screen.
In 2026, marketing teams will face the challenge of cutting through unprecedented noise, fluctuating interest rates, political tension, and economic uncertainty to earn the trust of cautious prospects.
Homebuyers will be more anxious and information-savvy than ever, seeking reassurance, clarity, and honesty from the builders they engage with. Marketing and sales teams will need to act not just as promoters, but as steady guides who calm nerves by providing transparent data, empathetic communication, and practical solutions. This is what buyers need.
Influencer marketing is a powerful tool for home builders seeking to reach today’s buyers where they already spend their time—on social media. By partnering with local influencers and realtors, builders generate authentic, word-of-mouth excitement that traditional advertising can’t replicate. These collaborations turn model home tours, community events and even construction milestones into engaging, shareable content that builds credibility and trust.
Working with realtors as part of this influencer strategy adds another layer of authority and market insight. Realtors serve as trusted guides for buyers and can translate lifestyle-driven content into tangible selling points. Whether through light organic outreach, structured event collaborations or ambassador programs, this style of marketing amplifies reach and positions builders as modern, connected brands.
The complexity of our product requires a humanized experience. Automation can assist but can’t appropriately accommodate every variable in the new home buying process. This year we have seen automation overpower personalization.
Buyers today discern the difference between AI and authentic and we are seeing them tune out in response. Personalized, genuine messaging can help us stand out in a crowded world of bots and noise. It is important for Online Sales and Marketing to work together and evaluate all communication points.
Here are specific areas where Online Sales and Marketing can collaborate to strengthen alignment:
In 2026, you can expect the home building to go all in on social media as builders fully recognize it’s not just about highlight reels, but it’s a trust-building connection tool.
We’ll see a major shift toward behind-the-scenes storytelling: think raw footage from job sites, time-lapses of builds, honest conversations with contractors, and unfiltered feedback from buyers. Short-form video will continue to dominate, but authenticity will be the real MVP. Overly produced content is losing its efficacy; buyers are craving content that is genuine and transparent.
In 2026, optimization becomes the core of every high-performing builder’s playbook. Traffic costs are rising, buyer behavior is shifting, and the old “gut feel” approach to digital performance just won’t cut it. Reliable data is the only way to keep your marketing spend sharp and your funnel healthy.
The builders who win next year will be the ones who can actually see what’s working and support this with data. You can’t optimize conversion rates, campaigns, or community performance if your attribution is unclear. Another key shift is the expectation that all digital touchpoints connect. When your reporting lives in silos, optimization becomes impossible. When your business intelligence data is centralized, you can finally identify patterns, spot bottlenecks, and improve performance with precision rather than trial-and-error.
In 2026, your brand’s ability to show up where buyers are already watching will matter more than ever. That means short-form video (Reels, Shorts, TikToks) is officially a must-have. At our recent Builder Town Hall, we explored how these bite-sized videos aren’t just fun scroll-stoppers; they are influencing search, visibility, and real buyer behavior. For builders using the Lasso ecosystem, this is a massive opportunity: quick, authentic clips help move prospects through the funnel faster while building trust… all in under 30 seconds.
Let’s be honest, homebuilding marketing can feel... safe. Same stock photos, same taglines, same messages. But buyers today are swimming through 4,000 to 10,000 ads a day. That means if your message doesn’t make someone pause mid-scroll, it’s invisible.
I would challenge you to be bold. Try colors that pop, headlines that make people stop and think, and stories that actually sound human. The goal isn’t to shock, it’s to stand out. Great marketing is about showing personality and bringing character to your brand.
In 2026, builders who create a more personal online experience will earn more trust and more tours. Buyers are doing more of their research long before they speak to anyone, which means your website needs to act a bit more like your best sales rep: welcoming, attentive, and ready to pick up the conversation where it left off.
You don’t need complicated technology to begin. Start by identifying the buyer groups that matter most to your business, i.e., first-time buyers, move-up families, active adults, etc. Look for the simple moments on your site where a small change can make the experience feel more relevant. A returning visitor who keeps viewing family-sized three-bedroom plans could see information about nearby schools. These touches create the sense that your site “remembers” them, just as a skilled salesperson would.
Every situation is different from builder to builder, from market to market. Consider what you want to achieve and take an inventory of what assets you have currently. If your assets are not consistent, not up with “the Jones’s,” or downright embarrassing, then maybe it’s time to take a leap in the right direction. Because standing still, doing it the same way, “we’ve done it this way for decades,” will just land you in the stagnant, insignificant, or even in the out of business column.
The way buyers search for new homes is changing fast. In 2026, visibility means being understood by both people and AI. Today’s shoppers aren’t just typing into Google; they’re asking AI tools questions like, “Who’s building near Greenville, SC with homes under $600K?” If your website isn’t structured for machines to interpret or your digital presence isn’t strong, you’re invisible in that conversation.
The way to get into the conversation is to enhance your website by adding structured data (schema markup).
This is the language AI uses to read key details like price, floor plans, location, and availability. Your website should also answer the kinds of questions shoppers are now asking out loud, which means adding clear FAQ pages or blog posts that address the questions your buyers ask most.
Artificial intelligence has added a whole new element to content creation—but as audiences grow more savvy about “fake content,” careless use can come off as inauthentic. Home builders and marketers have access to tools that can generate everything from copy and music to animation and commercials. The question isn’t whether we can make AI content—it’s when it actually makes sense to.
Authenticity comes from intention. Using AI to enhance storytelling is different from using it to deceive. When the technology aligns with the creative vision, it elevates your message; when it replaces genuine human storytelling, it erodes trust. The future of marketing isn’t about hiding the machine—it’s about knowing when to invite it on stage to connect with your audience.
A surprising number of sales teams still cling to the belief that keeping the process manual forces buyers to come into the sales office therefore “maintaining control.” But today’s buyers see that requirement very differently. What feels like control to the sales organization feels like friction, inconvenience and unnecessary gatekeeping to the customer, and it’s quietly eroding opportunities and brand equity.
In reality, most buyers do want to visit the sales center but once or twice, not six times. They want to come when it’s meaningful: to see the community, experience the product, and connect with a real person. Everything else (the paperwork, appointment scheduling, unit requests, contract signing, deposits), they want to do online.
Your buyers’ home searching habits have shifted—they’re now using ChatGPT, AI Overviews, and even social media sites, and we’re seeing drops in clicks and traffic. Builders need to adopt these critical tactics in 2026:
AI is transforming how people search for information, but it hasn’t changed what serious homebuyers do when they’re ready to take action. Portal sites remain one of the most reliable sources for qualified leads because buyers who reach that stage have already done their research and know what they want.
Understanding the sales funnel and how consumers begin and end their buying journey, is still essential. While AI may influence search behavior, the quality of a lead from a portal site reflects a buyer who is further along in their decision-making process.
It may not feel like it, but we're in the golden age of new construction. There's consumer demand and affordability pressure that only new construction can address. But your marketing can't continue to rely on past tactics and intuition.
Our recommendation for 2026 is to focus your marketing efforts on generating the right traffic, and the right leads. Today, tools exist to show you the household income, credit score, family structure, and even pet ownership of the people from the first moment they hit your website, all the way to the time they enter your CRM. When you have this information, you can fine-tune your strategy and close more deals—without wasting time chasing bad leads.
Forget thinking about SEO and AIO as two separate, complicated jobs. We're calling 2026 the Year for Unified Content because the smart move is to merge them into one simple, powerful strategy.
[Image of SEO vs AIO content strategy diagram]
SEO is still the foundation; it’s how Google’s traditional system finds your website and knows you are legit. AIO is just the evolution of that, making sure your content is structured so those new AI-powered search results can easily showcase your key answers. The takeaway is easy: Don't treat them differently—plan to address both!
Your content goal is simple: be the trusted source that both human buyers and digital assistants rely on.
In 2026, it’s not the marketers who shout the loudest who win, it’s the ones who listen the best. Whether you are leveraging influencer marketing, refining your attribution models, or optimizing for AI overviews, the goal remains the same: building trust. Ensure your technology stack is ready to support these strategies.
From advanced CRM capabilities to interactive site maps, ECI provides the technology home builders need to turn marketing strategies into signed contracts.
The core challenge is cutting through unprecedented noise (fluctuating rates, political/economic uncertainty) to earn the trust of cautious and information-savvy prospects. Marketing must shift from being just promoters to being steady guides who provide transparency, empathetic communication, and clarity to humanize the homebuying journey.
Home builders can leverage influencer marketing by partnering with local influencers and realtors to generate authentic, word-of-mouth excitement. These collaborations, featuring model home tours or construction milestones, humanize the brand. Collaborating with realtors is key because they act as trusted guides, translating lifestyle content into tangible selling points and helping to bridge the gap between awareness and action.
The new competitive edge is digital convenience—digitizing everything except the moments that matter most. Clinging to manual processes (forcing buyers into the office six times for paperwork) creates friction and erodes brand equity. Builders who modernize their processes (online contract signing, appointment scheduling) will move buyers faster, respect their time, and win more deals in a buyer-driven market.
A builder's website should act like their best sales rep by being welcoming and attentive. Simple steps for personalization include:
Visibility in 2026 means being understood by both people and AI. This requires a strategy that includes:
Sales & Marketing Strategist
Terrell Turner is an award-winning expert in Online New Home Sales and digital marketing. With over a decade of experience, he blends strategic sales insight with creative content to guide and engage today’s homebuyers.
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