It’s time for a 2024 budget planning marketing wellness check!

With the 2024 budget planning season here, it’s a great time to take a 360-look at your property’s marketing health—so your team can show up even better in the new year.

We’ll cover key factors for running a multifamily marketing wellness check. Find the ideal marketing mix for your property type, recalibrate old processes with more efficient tactics and review your results to get more success stories out of your marketing efforts.

Why run a marketing wellness check?

Find out where your biggest opportunities are. A review of the first half of the year is your chance to look at completed projects with fresh eyes. There might be areas that need more resources, or processes that are currently manual but could easily be automated with proper planning for 2024.

Break out of old trends that renters have moved on from. Research has shown that the renter journey is often digital-first. Renters expect more than just a website and online listings. Personalization, consistency, and authenticity are all factors that help properties stand out. Remote and hybrid work schedules have also changed the days and times renters tour and when they browse listings. Connect with your team to talk through where there might be inefficient ways of doing things and getting stuck in less effective routines as renter needs evolve.

Celebrate your strengths and evaluate your weaknesses! 2023 may have been great this far with high occupancy and high conversion rates, but you want to pinpoint exactly which tactic got you in this position. On the other hand, if 2023 has not gone as planned, take time to identify what has not worked and how to plan for 2024 effectively. Now is the perfect time to understand why you are (or not) resonating with renters.

Lean on technology to drive efficiency

Multifamily marketers balance two rapidly changing areas, marketing technology and the rental market. Use this to your advantage by exploring efficient solutions and ways to improve leasing processes now and in the new year. Are there areas you’ve been hoping for technology to catch up with your team’s needs? New advancements can help you more easily handle reviews, instantly respond to resident requests, and better prioritize maintenance calls. The industry is also trending toward integrated solutions that seamlessly work with tools your team is already using.

Three common questions to start with when reviewing onsite efficiency:

1. How can we automate repetitive tasks (autoresponders, online tour scheduling, etc.)?
2. Are there integrations (with a property management system, marketplace listings, etc.) that would make this go more smoothly?
3. Can we qualify more renter leads (with chatbots, live support, and lead form qualifying questions) before they reach our team?

Find channels for each property type and class

We know that marketing isn’t one size fits all for properties. The results you get for each channel come down to how well each one works for your specific property type and class. In a webinar with the National Apartment Association, Rent.’s Director of Agency Operations & Growth, Taylor Fulton, shared success formulas for selecting the right marketing mix for your property type. He covered luxury & new builds, senior housing, and Class B & C properties.

• Luxury and new construction: For these properties, you’ll need to amplify the property brand early on so you can re-engage leads long-term. Starting early with a strong, diverse channel mix will yield better results.
• Senior housing: Longer marketing cycles and a more selective strategy are key characteristics of senior housing marketing plans. Retargeting, display and Facebook advertising specifically work well for these communities. You’ll often have to re-engage prospects longer term as they review all options before choosing their new place.
• Classes B, C, and other property types: Don’t overlook renewals, and be sure to maximize limited budgets for other property types. Shifting some marketing and advertising budget into marketing operations, renewal marketing and more focused tactics can help here.

Brush up on trends and emerging technologies

In 2024, plan to recalibrate your digital presence with the latest trends, renter needs and tools for efficiency. Here are a few new solutions for leasing teams in areas that often go unnoticed:

• Property website: Your property website is your digital storefront where renters can research your property, schedule tours, and even resolve issues once they become residents. In this digital-first journey, it can even make or break a new lead’s decision to learn more. Some websites can be integrated with rental marketplaces and your PMS (property management system) to ensure that your content is consistent, and the renter experience is seamless once they visit your site. If your website is not delivering, now is the time to plan for changes in the new year.
• Social media: Gen Z and Millennial generations are the largest renter age group today. They also view social media channels like TikTok as trusted research tools in the buying process. Make sure your property is present now and in the future on the channels that resonate with your renter audience. More importantly, ensure that your social ads are optimized to reach in-market renter audiences or other target audiences most likely to convert.
• Reputation management: Reputation tools have had a serious tech makeover recently to make things easier on leasing teams. Some solutions automate review requests and responses, allow access to review monitoring via mobile apps and create personalized responses to each review. As you plan for 2024, ensure you are well-positioned to react quickly to both residents and prospects.
• Future-proof and FHA-friendly targeting: It’s getting harder and harder to reach renters where they are and access third-party data with continued privacy changes from Apple, Meta and Google. This makes it imperative that multifamily marketers leverage first-party data. Whether it’s through retargeting after a renter visits your website, partnering with companies that can target in-market renters, or collecting valuable data from email, text or otherwise, you’ll need sophisticated tactics to reach relevant audiences.

Your property’s fresh start.

For any approach you choose, running a marketing wellness check now is a great way to re-envision your property’s potential in 2024 and beyond to reach new renters and retain happy residents. Find out how technology can work for your unique leasing needs and improve operations for you and your team.