Marketing is changing fast, and anyone in the property management business knows change can be good. However, it can also be a challenge. A property manager’s job is to keep up with the changes and stay ahead of the curve. In today’s world, marketing is no longer just about getting people to your property for viewing. It’s about creating an experience that engages them at every point on their journey.
Did you know that, according to New York Times, single-family rental homes accounted for 35% of the 44 million rental units in the United States in 2021? This means the world of property management keeps growing. Marketing has undergone a more radical transformation in the past decade than in the previous century. By 2023, marketing will be even more data-driven and personalized than today—and only continue to evolve from there. Here are the 10 things to know about marketing in 2023.
1. Organic vs. Paid
Organic marketing is when you spread the word about your business through social media, content, and word-of-mouth, while paid marketing uses advertising to get your message out. Organic marketing can effectively connect with potential customers and build brand awareness. However, seeing results can also take a lot of time and effort. Notably, as organic marketing employs websites for business and social media presence, a couple of strategies go into it. Strategies include using interactive content such as email marketing in which you have subscribers on your list.
In fact, according to a study by Content Marketing Institute, 81% of marketers agree that using interactive content as a content strategy effectively impacts lead capturing. Simply put, it helps to attract customers’ attention.
2. Community-Based Marketing
Community-based marketing is the most effective way to reach your target audience and influence their buying decisions. It’s a strategy that can be implemented at every stage of the sales funnel, and it works by establishing a relationship between you and your target customers. For this kind of marketing, you give your customers a voice and a degree of agency.
Equally important, community-based marketing can complement other forms of traditional marketing, but when appropriately executed, it should function independently as an effective promotional strategy. Above all, community-based marketing focuses on building relationships with customers and stakeholders in your community by providing them with exact value rather than just selling them things. Symbiotic relationships make customers share satisfactory experiences with others—according to Duel, 72% of customers share good experiences with others. The newly rolled out Whatsapp community feature, where communities can be created, and in-chat polls added, is an excellent medium to leverage for marketing departments of property management companies.
3. Conversational Marketing
Conversational marketing is a crucial part of the future of marketing that focuses on building relationships with customers rather than pushing products. It can be used to build awareness for your brand and drive conversions. The idea of conversational marketing borders on providing a personalized experience for customers or potential customers. For example, Whatsapp Business allows instant responses and direct conversations with the business.
According to Drift, the demand for immediate communication has grown yearly by an average of 64%. When it comes to property management, conversational marketing has a lot of potential benefits. You can use it to connect with customers before renting from you and then keep them connected after the move-in process. This relationship building can make you more competitive in an already competitive market, allowing you to charge higher rents and attract top tenants.
4. Social Media Generating Increased ROI
Social media has been a powerful marketing platform for property management companies and real estate agents for years. But as social media evolves and becomes an increasingly important part of our daily lives, it’s worth keeping in mind that the way we use these platforms is also evolving.
One of the most significant social media marketing changes is how analytics help businesses better understand their customers. This means that if you’re a property manager or real estate agent who wants to generate more ROI with your social media marketing efforts, you’ll need to take advantage of new features like post-click tracking and remarketing campaigns that allow you to follow up with potential clients after they’ve interacted with your content.
5. Brand Ambassadors
Brand ambassadors are an integral part of marketing in the property management industry. They are your company’s face and represent everything you stand for. They are also one of the most effective ways to build trust with potential clients and ensure your brand is memorable. In fact, according to Influencer Marketing Hub, the influencer marketing market grew from $1.7 billion in 2016 to $9.7 billion in 2020, and in the following year, it reached $13.8 billion. Without a doubt, the influencer marketing strategy is a huge one that should be leveraged.
Brand ambassadors are the perfect way to market your property management company. They can help your company reach new customers and increase brand awareness. However, it’s essential to choose the right people for the job.
6. Marketing to Gen Z vs. Millennials
Gen Zers and Millennials are two of the most important groups to consider when marketing your products. They are both very different from each other, but they also have some things in common. Both groups have grown up with technology and have been shaped by it differently, so it’s important to know how to market to them as separate groups. Gen Zers are more inclined towards social media use, and consequently, opinions on social media often inform their decisions.
The best way to market to Gen Zers is through social media platforms where they can see how involved your brand is with current events and causes. If you can show them your brand has a purpose beyond itself, they’ll be more likely to want what you offer.
Millennials are likelier to choose products based on brand reputation than price or quality. This means that if you want to market towards them effectively, it’s important that your brand has a good reputation and communicates its values clearly through its messaging and visuals.
As a property management company, you must understand how to market to Millennials and Gen Zers. One of the best ways to market to Gen Zers and Millennials is through technology for social relations and even automation. Social media allows brands to stay connected with their customers in real-time, so you can make changes as soon as you see fit. This allows your company to offer better customer service and ensure that your customers always feel heard.
7. Video-Based Content
Video-based content is the future of marketing, and property management companies should take advantage of this. Video-based content can help you reach more people and is a great way to build trust with your audience. Creating videos featuring your employees talking about their experience with your company makes people feel more connected to you. People are more likely to buy from a brand when they feel connected to it.
According to an estimation by Data Ai, customers’ expenses on live streaming will rise to $17.4 billion annually by 2025. This means that video-based content across social media is a massive marketing strategy to leverage for property management companies. For instance, on TikTok, people with huge followings sell their products on a live stream.
The video-based content you create should not only be able to attract potential customers but also keep them engaged with your brand. You should also consider the best time to post your videos on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and especially TikTok.
8. User-Generated Content
User-generated content—UGC for short—is precisely what it sounds like: content created by your users. It can be a review of your product or service, a photo of them using your product or service in their home, or even a video testimonial explaining why they love your brand. When you produce UGC, you don’t only get free exposure. You also provide consumers a chance to share their stories with others and encourage them to think about your company when they need a comparable service.
Accordingly, user-generated content will be a crucial trend for marketing in 2023 because it’s one of the best ways to get honest customer feedback about your business. And wherever there’s room for feedback, there’s room for improvement, too. Ultimately, using user-generated content is essential for property management companies because it provides another avenue for reaching potential customers.
9. Targeting Solutions
Targeting solutions are a way to make sure you’re reaching the right people. You can target based on age, gender, location, and interests. The more specific your targeting is, the more effective your marketing campaign will be. You must have seen ads for a particular product show up on your phone after you’ve searched for that product, perhaps, on Google. That’s how targeting solutions work.
Targeting solutions constitute a significant part of any marketing strategy and will continue to be important in 2023. This can include everything from retargeting on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, which allows you to show ads to people who have visited your site or interacted with your brand previously, up to full-fledged search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns to help you rank higher in search results for keywords related to your products or services.
10. Cohesive Customer Experiences
Cohesive customer experiences are the holy grail of marketing. It means that you’re creating a consistent customer experience across all your marketing channels—from your website to your email campaigns to your social media presence. That is to say, property management companies must give prominence to how the customer reacts or feels through their customer journey map. Below is a visual representation of the customer journey map:
Cohesive experiences help create brand loyalty. When people have an excellent first impression of your brand, they’re more likely to return for future interactions. A cohesive experience provides consistency across all touchpoints, so there’s no doubt about where to go next time you need something from your property management company.
Marketing Strategies for 2023
Marketing is integral to running a successful property management company. It’s not something you can ignore and hope for the best. So, for property management companies, knowing the top marketing trends in 2023 will boost your ROI. For more information on how to increase ROI, check this ROI study.