Property Solutions International, Inc., the largest provider of property management websites and payments, announced the results to its marketing budget survey. The survey was distributed to property management executives in December to explore 2010 marketing budgets for multifamily management companies and anticipate changes for 2011.
The majority of participants were marketing executives of large to mid-sized multifamily management companies. The average monthly marketing spend reported for 2010 was $20 per unit and $2,845 per property, with an average property size being just over 140 units.
The survey concluded that, on average, property managers allocated almost 53 percent of their marketing budget to online methods and only 47 percent toward traditional methods. "Over the past few years the multifamily industry has increasingly embraced a new age of marketing," said Ben Zimmer, President of Property Solutions. "Web-based marketing methods have continued to gain ground while traditional print methods are beginning to dwindle." All survey respondents plan to increase their spending on every online platform in 2011, with the average projection for online marketing increase at 15 percent.
Within their 2010 online marketing budget, respondents spent most on property websites and Internet Listing Services (ILS). "Property websites have been our best form of marketing as it helps us easily communicate with our residents and prospective residents," said Matthew Foster, Vice President of DEI Communities. For 2011, participants expected to increase their budget allocated to property websites by an average of 19 percent. ILS budgets were projected to increase by only 2 percent—most likely because management companies have found an effective balance. "We believe that we've been able to identify which ILS's work best for us and our different markets," said Foster.
Overall traditional marketing methods are projected to decrease by 2.64 percent in 2011, with cutbacks in newspaper classifieds and apartment books. Traditional methods such as word of mouth and drive-by advertising are expected to increase in budget by 19 and 13 percent, respectively. The full marketing budget report can be viewed at http://www.propertysolutions.com/Blog/.
About Property Solutions
Founded in 2003, Property Solutions International, Inc. is the nation's largest provider of apartment community websites and a leading developer of innovative property management software tools. The company offers a variety of web based solutions for leasing, rent collection, and maintenance request processing. Property Solutions' web portals and electronic payment processing tools offer the advantage of full data integration with most widely-used property management software packages. For more information, go to http://www.propertysolutions.com.