How do you define marketing success? Which metrics best evaluate the strength of your apartment complex marketing ideas? How should you go about analyzing the performance of your overall real estate marketing plan? Of course, you know that at the end of the day your occupancy rate is the most representative measure of how well you’re meeting your goals, but along the way, what metrics are most important to let you know you’re on the right track for current and continued success?
If you’ve ever asked any of these questions, then today’s blog is for you. We’re going over a few Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that help you evaluate how you’re doing now and how likely you are to meet your goals moving forward. Each of these KPIs tells you something slightly different about your marketing performance and tracking them all will help give you the most holistic view of your overall performance.
Because a holistic real estate marketing plan touches every part of the buyer journey, from online searches to on-site tours, we’re including both digital and offline metrics in our list today. After all, digital marketing is only part of the equation, and everything from your lease space and tour unit(s) to your website and digital ads can influence your bottom line. Now, without further ado, let’s talk KPIs!
Click-Through-Rates
The CTR of your digital ads, including retargeting ads, social ads, email ads, and more, can give you considerable insight into the success of your messaging and your audience targeting. Low CTRs typically mean you’re not reaching your target audience consistently, or your messaging just isn’t speaking to them. If you read our blog on the Top 5 Actions You Should Take To See Results From Your Real Estate Marketing Plan from earlier this month, then you know that understanding your target audience is key to marketing success. If your CTRs aren’t meeting industry standards, consider doing more research on your target audience and make sure you understand what they care about, how they make purchase decisions, and where you’re most likely to reach them.
Website Traffic
One of the major goals of digital marketing efforts is funneling potential residents to your property website, where they can learn more and discover how to take further action. That’s why measuring traffic to your website is essential. Take stock of how many unique visitors there are to your site, which pages they visit, how many pages per session they view, and where they’re coming from (e.g. from a Google search, from an email ad, from your Facebook page, etc.). If your website traffic is low (people aren’t reaching your site, or typically leave quickly after arriving), it might be worth evaluating your performance in a number of areas, including SEO, UX web design, and social media presence.
Foot Traffic
For most potential residents, visiting the property is a key step in deciding whether to sign a lease. Measuring the foot traffic to your property tells you a lot about how much curbside appeal you have, as well as how well your digital presence drives potential residents toward concrete next steps (namely, visiting the property). If other areas of your marketing plan are seeing good results, but foot traffic is low, consider the following:
Make sure potential residents can easily find the information they need to move forward (particularly with respect to address and contact info) on your website and in Google results. Also ensure that your property is visible from the street (if it’s not, signage can help) and looks inviting and well-maintained from the exterior of the complex, especially near the leasing office. Finally, consider placing signage, posters, or brochures more prominently near the complex and at other businesses in your neighborhood. For more info on these strategies, check out our previous blog post.
Abandonment Rate
It’s important to know how often potential residents decide against going further along the buyer journey for your property, and it’s even more important to know at which step in that process they bail. You’re always going to lose some leads along the way as potential residents move through your marketing funnel, but knowing how significant the drop-off is at key points can help you reduce abandonment rates and increase the number of leads that make it to the signing stage.
For example, if lots of folks make it to your website, but only a few then proceed to schedule a tour, that might let you know that you need clearer information or more calls to action on your website. If, on the other hand, lots of folks are touring your property but only a few then decided to apply, you might want to take a closer look at your tour unit or implement staff training to make sure the tour-givers are friendly, informative, and enthusiastic when showing potential residents around.
Conversion Rates
Similar to abandonment rate, conversion rates are a measure of how often a visitor to your website or property actually completes the desired goal while there. For example, a tour conversion rate might measure how many people that tour your property actually go on to apply, while a website conversion rate might measure how many visitors to your website actually go on to contact the leasing office or sign up for a mailing list.
Since abandonment rates and conversion rates are essentially two sides of the same coin, addressing low conversion rates can be done in the same ways that you’d address high abandonment rates.
Summing It Up
At the end of the day, of course, applications and lease signings are the truest and purest measures of success. That said, they certainly shouldn’t be the only things you’re measuring. For a solid real estate marketing plan that drives results at every step of the buyer journey, make sure you’re tracking the KPIs we’ve discussed above. Then use those metrics to inform improvements to both online and offline marketing, from digital ads to on-site tours.
If you’d like more information about how to measure marketing success, or you could use our help in implementing improvements to your apartment marketing strategy, don’t hesitate to reach out! Chatting with a Threshold team member today can help you quickly and consistently achieve the results you’ve been working toward.
