Developing Solid Strategies to Build a Results-Driven Multifamily Marketing Budget

SEATTLE, WA - The visibility of your business, availabilities you fill, and revenue you earn all goes back to how much time and money you invest in marketing. However, with rising operating costs squeezing your profit margins, it’s more important than ever to make sure your marketing dollars give you good returns. Here are some tips for developing a marketing strategy that will help you reach your goals and stay within your budget limitations.

Track your cost per lease.
Look at how much you’re spending on average to fill your availabilities. Yes, cost per lead is important because you want to know how many prospective renters you drive through the door and into the sales funnel, but if your marketing spending gives you 20 leads and only 1 lease, your cost per lease is too high. You want to constantly work to lower both the cost per lease and cost per lead.

Break your spending down by marketing channel.
Know how each channel is performing by breaking down your marketing spending by channel. You want to look at the returns (leads and leases) you’re getting on each channel to verify that they’re cost and time-effective. For the channels that aren’t performing as well, what can you do to improve the output?

Benchmark.
To forecast your earnings and spending for the next year, the best tool is to look at your performance in past years for reference. Look at your marketing spending and results in previous years, and compare it to your current progress. Don’t forget to benchmark with peer data as well – use industry data to help you stay aware ow how other multifamily businesses are doing when it comes to marketing spending.

Focus on data that matters.
The key to creating a successful marketing strategy is constantly measuring your marketing progress. Analyzing metrics constantly will help you identify successes and channels where there’s room for improvement. This knowledge will enable you to make results-driven marketing decisions. Don’t be fooled by vanity metrics, such as pageviews and retweets. Your number one concern is growing leads and conversions. Profit, revenue, cost per lead/lease, engagement, and visit-to-lead ratio are all metrics you should be tracking constantly to measure your marketing success.

Your marketing strategy should always be a vehicle for driving leads and awareness to your business. Look at your data and ask yourself which channels are giving you the best ROI, and don’t be afraid to cut those that aren’t. Lastly, remember that your marketing budget should never come out of whatever is ‘left over’ after allotting your operating expenses. The time and money you spend on marketing directly influences your profitability and growth months down the line.

To read more about how to plan your marketing budget, download this free e-book, Building a Multifamily Marketing Budget to Grow Your Bottom Line.