Digital marketing should be in your real estate marketing mix if it isn’t already. Whether you’re marketing a new lease-up looking to drive brand awareness or you’ve been established for a while and want to maintain a steady online presence, your property will benefit from digital marketing. The goal for any marketing campaign is to target the right audience, optimize towards conversion rates and continue to improve on them, increase customer loyalty, and gain better credibility. We’ve compiled a list of the top 8 digital marketing trends for 2023. Let’s take a look!
Gather 1st Party Data Through Forms
The trend to own your own data is growing. Being more proactive on attaining and implementing 1st party data is paramount in today’s day and age. Digital privacy laws are in place across the globe and it shows no signs of slowing down as users are looking to big data providers to become more private with the information they share. Forms are a great way for you to own user implemented data; the form used is a great way to keep the users engaged and to have a better success rate in gathering that data.
Build Your Email Marketing List
Email Marketing is a trend that continues to rise. 89% of marketers use email marketing as their primary method for generating leads. Being able to reach out to users who have subscribed to your email list but have not bought anything yet is a great way to reconnect with an interested user. Plus, you can leverage the first party data you’ve collected to personalize content for more accurate targeting email campaigns. .
Stand Out From The Competition
With many digital applications and tools out there, finding a way to use that application or tool in a new, creative way will help when it comes to real estate marketing. To find a way to get noticed and have users engage with your marketing efforts, you have to stand out among the competition. Consumers are looking for more personalized experiences and content curated specifically for them and their interests. Focus on collecting user generated content for short-form videos for TikTok and social media posts, or utilize surveys in stories or in email marketing to encourage engagement and gain valuable insights into what your audience likes or dislikes. Don’t be afraid to get creative and try something new. The data speaks for itself and will let you know if your efforts are working and resonating with your audience.
Incorporate Real-time Messaging Feedback
Real-time messaging would not be on this list 10 years ago. Consumers expect to get information as quickly as possible, and if you are not utilizing tools that collect information and provide instant responses, you may be missing out. We’re not just talking about answering phone calls. Most consumers prefer to interact with business digitally. Make sure you’re providing communication outlets on your website (chatbots), through social media, and texting.
Get The Most Out Of Influencer Marketing
Influencer Marketing is continuing to boom and doesn’t show signs of slowing down. Through social media funnels like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, users have built “relationships” with influencers and that trustworthiness is what makes Influencer Marketing a success. As of now, ROI is about $5.50 for every $1 spent. One thing to keep in mind is that influencers are usually in niche spaces so aligning your product to their channels is ideal or your message may fall flat among their audience. Want to dive deeper into how utilizing influencers in your marketing strategy can benefit you? Check out our blog about How The Rise of Influencer Marketing Could Enhance Your Real Estate Marketing.
Provide Online Shopping Gratification
Similar to real-time messaging, consumers want what they want, and they want it now. We recommend removing any blockers that will hinder the customer’s online journey and cause them to look elsewhere. Utilize data from Google Analytics to understand where customers are dropping off on your website and find out ways to help answer questions that might stop them from buying. For example, offer virtual tours on your website or provide video walk-throughs for those who are not able to meet in-person, ensure you have a functioning website and applicant portal, and provide information on your website for those frequently asked questions, like pet fees, parking fees, etc..
Digital Marketing Agencies Are Growing
Outsourcing is a great way to get more done and free up your leasing teams to complete the most important step; converting the lead into a lease. Don’t let limited in-house resources hold you back from expanding upon your marketing efforts. Outsourcing to marketing agencies, like Threshold, could be the difference in small to large growth in your first year. When trying to find the best real estate marketing agency for your goals, consider Why You Don’t Need a Local Real Estate Marketing Agency Partner when making your decision.
Chatbots Increase User Experience
Building upon real-time messaging, Chatbots also have had time to mature. They help answer FAQs, collect first-party data, and provide the user instant information in a digestible way. Plus, they can take care of some of the communication that doesn’t need involvement from a real person, like scheduling a tour.
Influencer culture is not going anywhere anytime soon. Influencer Marketing grew to approximately $13.8 Billion in 2021, with Instagram and TikTok leading the way. About 3/4 of Gen Zers and Millennials follow influencers on social media and over 50% say they trust the influencers they follow, according to The Influencer Report. In an Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report in 2021 with over 5,000 surveys with marketing agencies, brands & other relevant professionals, Influencer Marketing Hub found that 59% admitted to having a standalone budget for content marketing & 75% of them now intend to dedicate a budget to influencer marketing in 2021.
5 Reasons Why People Advertise Through Influencers:
People buy from people because it feels personalized & authentic
People want to see content that relates to them
People research on bigger commitments
People are more likely to buy if they come to you
People will read/view your content because they already cared to start with
Like, Subscribe & Growing
In the world of real estate marketing, shows like “Selling Sunset” on Netflix are popularizing real estate influencers or agents using their strong social media following. With the rise of niche micro-influencers since the pandemic started, and marketing platforms and agencies growing by more than 3 times since a few years ago, influencers will continue to entertain and establish a trustworthy relationship with Millennials, Gen Zers, and those who follow.
In 2010, 1.8 billion people had access to high-speed internet. Six years later it was 3 billion. Now, experts are forecasting that the entire world—and its roughly 8 billion people—will have high-speed internet access as early as 2022. With all that connectivity, much of our lives take place fully online already. These realities paved the way for new approaches to work when the COVID-19 pandemic hit: many businesses have shifted their attention to working remotely and/or a hybrid approach.
According to Review 42, before the coronavirus hit, 4.7 million people were already working remotely. Once the pandemic hit, 88% of the organizations, worldwide, made it mandatory or encouraged their employees to work-from-home. One benefit to employers and employees of this approach is that the rise in the availability to work-from-home offers the employees the option of living in cheaper, outskirt cities rather than being tethered near the office to avoid commutes.
WFH, The New Normal
The longer this pandemic forces people to work remotely, the more businesses are looking to expand their remote offerings and policies for current and future employees.
In April 2020, a Gallup survey revealed that 60% respondents said that they’d prefer to work remotely as much as possible once coronavirus is under control.
In August 2020, a report by CNN polled about 800 employers. 83% of respondents said they would have more flexible remote work policies after the pandemic.
In September of 2020, Reuters surveyed about 1,200 Chief Information Officers (CIOs) in which they said they expect 34.4% of their employees to be permanently remote for 2021.
How Apartment Communities Can Adapt to This Shift
To stay competitive, owners and managers should consider providing amenities and services to appeal to potential residents who work-from-home and tailor their marketing messaging with this focus.
There are 3 main focuses that owners, management, and apartment marketers can use to attract residents who work-from-home:
Tools and resources like high-speed internet or fiber internet. 92% of residents would like to have high speed internet in their apartments. 76% were interested in having USB ports in the wall.
Allow the potential resident to visualize living and working there. Apartment marketing constantly adapts to the current situation and right now, it’s work-from-home. Examples include virtual staging tools to stage balconies or workspaces in vacant apartments, large windows for ample light, amenity spaces where residents can plug in and get to work, and rooftops and courtyards for a fresh video call backdrop. There has also been a correlation between work-from-home residents and being a pet owner so try incorporating apartment ads and messaging on your website related to that as well.
Don’t forget about your current residents when you’re out looking for new ones. Current residents are more likely to renew and they are the best source for referrals. People crave human interaction and work-from-home residents are no exception. Adapting the community spaces to be more work-from-home friendly and hosting community events will help retain work-from-home residents.
Remote Work Is Not Going Anywhere
The pandemic threw a screwball in just about every business, but one thing is for sure, we learned how to adapt because of the rise in technology advancements. By allowing employees to work-from-home, businesses have lower overhead costs and studies show that employees are also more productive. We’re more connected than ever and businesses can still operate remotely in full effect. When the pandemic has gone away, we know working remotely will stay. That means the adaptations you make to your apartment marketing strategy will be beneficial even after the pandemic wanes.
Marketing to millennials is all about positioning your property as a notch above the competition. If you have a luxury apartment complex, you’re in luck. There are housing communities with luxury amenities, and there’s everyone else. Nothing is going to convince a prospect to pick your luxury property over the budget apartment down the street quite like mind-blowing amenities. However, amenities won’t attract anyone unless they’re marketed correctly. When every luxury apartment in the neighborhood has a pool, naming and describing the benefits of your pool becomes a whole lot more important than simply announcing that it exists.
If the competition offers a pool, you should be offering an “Expansive pool, tanning space and outdoor cabana.” If the competition offers a study room, your property should be offering a “Smart Study Lounge with blazing fast Wi-Fi.” With so much competition in the housing industry, multifamily marketing is more important now than ever before.
So you know you need to do some marketing, and you have amenities you want to show off. The next step is making sure your marketing efforts are seen in the right places to effectively reach prospects and residents.
The days of putting up a website, handing out brochures and calling it a day are long gone. Marketing student apartments is a year-round job. Well maintained Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds are just as important as a cutting edge website. The first step to creating effective month-to-month social media content is actually having things on the calendar to promote. Luckily, luxury apartments are easy to market through social media.
Its easier than ever to post high quality videos on Facebook and Instagram thanks to advancements in smart phone camera technology. It takes 2 seconds to snap a video showing off your pool or fitness facility and post it on Instagram. Facebook’s cool new 360 Image feature is also an ideal way to post mini-tours available units or just a quick shot of your hardworking leasing agents.
Clubhouses and fitness centers are also great spaces to host quick and easy events like Taco Tuesdays or Waffle Bar Wednesdays. Post a couple times on Facebook to promote the event and watch residents and their friends line up outside your door. Sometimes you need to post on social media just for the sake of keeping your page up to date, but its a lot more effective when your property actually has some events to talk about. Hopefully your event calendar reaches the point where you’re able to create event pages on Facebook and let residents invite their friends. Say hello to more prospects and more referrals.
In this post, we’ve established that events are an important tool for marketing on social media. But creating a diverse calendar of events is no easy task. As the marketing agency Austin apartment experts flock to, Threshold has a ton of experience filling out property’s monthly event calendars. We’ve been doing this long enough to know which events work and which are total busts. One event that always attracts a crowd is a partnership up with a local non-profit. Not only does philanthropy attract well-meaning attendees, it also acts as a boost to your public relations image around the community.
There are more new multifamily marketing ideas where that came from, so feel free to contact our team of experts next time your event calendar is looking a little thin.
Written by Alfred Perez, Digital Success Manager
Written by Alfred Perez, Digital Success Manager
