How close are your marketing and ops teams? Connected at the hip, going out to happy hours together, a polite nod when passing in the hallway, mortal enemies?! Marketing & operations in multifamily are the dynamic duo, are you taking advantage of that super power?
The answer to that question will, of course, be different for every PMC. However, it is not unheard of for there to be some riffs between marketing and operations. This isn’t unique to multifamily. In the tech world its a riff between marketing and sales. Take a look at this little blurb from an article on the topic by Holley Proctor Miller.
Sales: “We need more leads!”
Marketing: “Look at all these leads we generated for you!”
Sales: “These leads suck.”
Marketing: “You suck.”
Sales: “No, you suck.”
While this may be a little over dramatic, the truth remains that marketing and operations are going about the same goal with completely different strategies.
I have long believed that the secret to winning in apartment leasing and renewals is to drastically blur the line between marketing and operations. By both teams understanding more deeply what the other does, why they do it, and how they do it we can create more effecting strategies to sign more leases and get more renewals.
There are some more thoughts and details on this topic in our “Apartment Marking in 2023” blog series.
Blur The Line Between Marketing & Operations In Multifamily
Typically, marketing is going to be responsible for everything that happens before a new lead enters the CRM. This list is long but a few examples include:
- SEO
- SEM
- Website Development
- ILS Management
- PPC Advertising
- Social Media
These are all demand and lead generating activities that ultimately create more “at bats” for leasing teams. We often see marketing play a role in follow up but this isn’t always the case. We rarely see marketing play a role in resident outreach and nurture.
Who Plays What Role in Lead Follow Up
Marketing created the lead, this is wonderful, but now what? Who at your PMC is in charge of creating a follow up strategy? Marketing & Operations in Multifamily can both bring value to the table here. We could write 10 different 10,000 word posts and not even scratch the surface here, so for brevity sake I’ve created a short list of “things to think about” below.
- Who creates the follow up strategy for leads in your CRM? Should their be others involved?
- How many follow ups do you do with a lead before you mark them as lost? How did you arrive at that number?
- Do you measure impacts in lead to lease conversions outside of the lead source? Why or why not?
- Do you know why the people who lease at your community do? Do you highlight those reasons to new leads to recreate success?
- Are follow ups personalized for each lead? Are we talking about things they care about? Why or why not?
- Through what channel are follow ups being sent? Text, email, phone call? Why?
- How do we know if our follow ups are effective? Are we measuring anything other than if we get a response?
Who Plays What Role In Resident Marketing?
First things first: what is “resident marketing”? We should be thinking about our residents as Renewal Leads. Resident are just leads whose conversion is a lease renewal. Things to think about here:
- When does the renewal strategy start at your community? 90 days before its up for renewal? *HINT: Renewal strategies should start the day a lease is signed.
- Who is in charge of crafting messaging and strategy for resident communications. Is marketing involved? If not, why not?
- Do you have a fleshed out strategy to drive more online review? When do you ask for reviews, who do you ask, and how do you ask?
- Do you measure how effective referrals are for new leases? What effort or marketing spend do you put into referrals strategies?
- Are you constantly measuring resident satisfaction and promptly addressing any issues?
Conclusion: Marketing & Operations In Multifamily
There is a lot more to say about this topic and more blog posts will follow. However this is a good introduction to start us thinking on how we blend the roles and marketing & operations in multifamily. Marketing and operations have the same goal. They are in charge of different parts of the journey and focus on different KPIs, but by working together seamlessly we can build a winning strategy.
