An effective marketing strategy is the foundation of a successful multifamily business. But marketing doesn't work in isolation, and managers often have specific KPIs for short- and long-term campaigns. Multi-Housing News spoke with several multifamily executives to find out what's important when it comes to marketing best practices.
Jamie Gorski, chief experience officer at Windsor Communities ; Brennen Degner, founder and CEO of DB Capital Management ; Ashley Sinclair, executive vice president of marketing and brand loyalty at Village Green ; Christy Nuttens, co-president of CP Capital USA ; and Heidi Jelica, vice president of marketing at Bainbridge Cos. I should have said.
How do you balance short-term marketing goals with long-term brand building?
Brennen Degner, CEO and founder of DB Capital Management. Image courtesy of DB Capital Management
Degner: This is a constant conversation we have, especially when it comes to advertising on social media platforms like Instagram. Staying active and increasing engagement on social media costs money, but it's difficult to estimate the short-term ROI of these marketing costs. We believe that while this may not be one of the marketing tools you can put at the top of your weekly lead generation, it is an important aspect in building an asset's long-term brand.
Gorsky : It's difficult to predict the time and budget required to build a brand long-term, but building a brand is a significant investment. Historically, we have spent the majority of our marketing budget on lead generation. However, we are driven by our commitment to our brand mission: creating communities where people feel invested. Windsor is dedicating more resources to brand development through consistency across all properties, focusing on providing exceptional service across our portfolio and developing partnerships, awareness campaigns and brand activation. Our goal is to build customer loyalty and build trust among our colleagues, which will lead to better performance year after year.
Nuttins : When we start a fund or actively raise money, the marketing materials we create are a top priority. When faced with new horizons, these documents are usually our first impression. Therefore, it must be thoughtful and engaging, tell a clear story and highlight our experience, performance and investment case. In between fundraisers, we focus on long-term goals such as brand awareness and improving our company's offerings, which can be used across multiple occasions and across multiple fundraisers.
Sinclair: Whether you're planning a short-term marketing goal or a long-term brand campaign, it's important to set a brand goal and stick to it. If you're successful, your short-term marketing goals will contribute to the long-term growth of your brand. Over time, your images and messaging will likely evolve as your brand evolves and new tools and platforms are introduced, but your core theme remains true to your purpose.
A holistic marketing perspective for executives can mean engaging on social media and specific communities, as well as building a long-term brand. Professional photographs of a property, like Ascent at Union Square, can enhance your online presence. Image courtesy of DB Capital Management.
What key metrics are important when determining the effectiveness of a marketing campaign?
Heidi Jelica, vice president of marketing at Bainbridge Companies. Image courtesy of Bainbridge Companies
Jelica: There are three key performance indicators to determine the effectiveness of a campaign. First, there is lead volume, then there is lead quality or lead score and lead conversion to the destination.
Degner: The most common weekly marketing KPI we track for each source would be the total number of leads. If you think of the hierarchy as a funnel, the broadest point of our analysis would be the total number of customers. As we move through the conversion funnel, we try to understand potential customers not only quantitatively but also qualitatively. We closely monitor lead generation conversion to ensure we are allocating our marketing spend correctly. To properly analyze these marketing costs, we track cost per customer and ROI to better track customer acquisition costs.
Sinclair: The most important metric is cost versus return on investment. In digital campaigns, this is usually reflected in the cost per lead or cost per click. As with any campaign, there are many variables that can affect the user journey or experience, reinforcing the need to monitor, analyze and optimize to meet the changing needs and wants of your target audience. Therefore, set a goal or benchmark as a simple measure to help you decide when to make adjustments and pivot as necessary to ensure a strong return on investment.
Nuttins : Our marketing strategy can be divided into three categories: marketing materials for our latest fund offerings, ongoing investor engagement and brand awareness. While our fundraising marketing materials are an integral part of the fundraising process, there are many other elements, including relationships, the expertise of our messaging team, and our expertise. We regularly offer investor whitepapers, webinars, conferences and in-person investor newsletters, providing commentary on industry trends and news to connect with existing investors while increasing brand awareness and maintaining a strong online presence that we can take to new heights. . Our investment philosophy is based on creating value for our investors. Therefore, our key performance indicator is their satisfaction with our services, which we can measure through our ongoing communication with them on a quarterly basis.
And most importantly: how many likes/engagements or conversions does your marketing campaign or post get?
Jamie Gorski, CEO of Windsor Communities. Photo courtesy of Windsor Communities
Gorsky : We generally value conversions more than likes and interactions. Performance is our priority! However, we understand that likes are valuable as an indicator of interest in a brand. According to MRI Estate Software, 80% of apartment hunters turn to social media before signing a lease or choosing their next apartment. Social media can foster a sense of togetherness that becomes emotional currency, especially when you call it “home.” But ultimately the most valuable metric for a business is when a customer moves from awareness to intent, marking the beginning of their journey through the sales funnel and increasing the likelihood of converting a prospect into a tenant. .
Notes : Conversions are the most important, but very difficult to track, because for us a conversion means that someone decided to invest in our fund. Investors will have several points of contact with us before investing, including presentations of our funds' marketing materials, in-person meetings, webinars and more. So it's not as simple as tracking clicks on an article or whitepaper, or seeing who opened it when we publish our material. It's more precise.
Jelica: It really depends on the purpose of the campaign. Is the objective of the social campaign notoriety and brand recognition? If so, likes and interactions are more important. Likes and interactions help marketers know that audience trust is increasing and that the awareness campaign is working. If a social campaign is designed to generate leads, the most important metric is customer conversion.
Degner: When evaluating social media marketing performance, we primarily focus on the conversion rate. In particular, converting all posts into leads is what we value most. Likes and interactions are generally a better indicator of actual tenant engagement and can be reviewed to help the team understand overall tenant engagement and projected revenue.
When company leaders and marketing meet, what are their priorities? What can a marketing team do to ensure a productive meeting?
Ashley Sinclair, executive vice president of marketing and brand loyalty at Village Green. Photo courtesy of Village Green
Sinclair: To start, be sure to ask management about company goals or areas for improvement before starting the campaign. This approach allows for greater collaboration, efficiency and direction in strategies and tactics related to campaigns and initiatives. From here, you'll have a clear understanding of what is most valuable to your CEO, and meetings will become focused and productive. Of course, campaign results, ideas, and opportunities are always a priority for leaders, but this also gives them time to come up with new ideas or campaigns that better fit the campaign's goals and needs. 'a job.
Degner: We analyze the leads generated each week, their quality (as determined by tour conversion rates), and the marketing investment strategy. To facilitate a productive meeting, we expect the marketing team to review the data and be able to make recommendations on areas of opportunity for better results, as needed. We use the experience of our marketing team to identify best practices and creative solutions when it comes to driving traffic.
Gorski : Performance is our priority at Windsor. It is important that we align our marketing efforts with our key operational objectives. It's important to lead the conversation with data that shows how marketing efforts, such as customer and brand satisfaction, add value to potential customers and ultimately drive results. Our leadership team also values remote conversations and how we respond to changing trends and customer expectations. Our team recognizes that the investments we make in our brand today are an important part of ensuring a secure future.
Are there any emerging marketing trends or techniques that you think will impact the real estate industry?
Christy Nutens, co-president of CP Capital USA. Image courtesy of CB Capital USA.
Gorsky : Artificial intelligence will revolutionize the industry and the world. The ease of use and complexity of these tools have already had a transformative impact on our business. Our AI rental tool, Elise AI, has had a significant impact on our daily operations, improving interactions with our customers and allowing our employees to focus on mission-critical tasks. AI tools have also been essential for personalized marketing, allowing us to use preference data and provide customers with the information that is most relevant to them. We continue to experiment with ways to use AI effectively, such as Voice AI to help with phone volume management, content creation, personalized marketing, and generative AI to help with customer identification. Trends in customer needs.
Additionally, Windsor is evolving its business model toward centralized leasing, maintenance and support services. We are confident that this investment in our people, processes and technology will enable our partners and customers to succeed. By using AI combined with regional sales and service, agile routing, and new CRM technology, we can simplify the customer experience by freeing teams from daily tasks so they can take on bigger and better roles in our company and achieve our goals. mission to CREATE. Communities where people feel truly cared for.
Nuttins : As in other sectors, artificial intelligence is making a lot of noise right now. This trend is likely to affect some aspects of real estate marketing, although we do not expect a significant impact in the investment management space where we offer highly personalized touchpoints. We are also seeing the rise of environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards. Being green and doing it well has become a bigger part of the conversation, but authenticity needs to be a common brand theme, and that's harder to understand now.
Photo by PeopleImages/iStokphoto.com
Jelica: Video and social media technologies are not new to the real estate industry. However, I believe they fell during the pandemic and will now return in the last two quarters of 2023 and 2024. Now more than ever, a rental property customer wants to see and experience a video of what it would be like. Live in the apartment you choose to rent and in the community in general.
Sinclair: The most prominent model right now is the build-to-rent model. Taking into account the real estate market and interest rates, we see that this type of product is becoming widespread. In terms of technology, the population comes from so many generations that it is difficult to say with certainty if there is any technological advance that can be incorporated, but what is certain is that the population expects great experience and efficiency. Therefore, it is important to equip resident service teams with the right technology to ensure we move at a pace that does not create a negative experience, balanced with a service team that has fair and equal expectations. For example, there may be iPads and apps that allow our service teams to receive work orders in real time so they don't have to go to the office every few hours. It also allows us to provide logistical support and prioritize needs by communicating with residents to let them know when they can expect work orders to be completed, etc.
Read the October 2023 issue of MHN.
