Multifamily PMCs Using Benchmarking to Optimize Marketing Spend

Benchmarking is trending as a versatile tool that helps guide the decision-making of PMCs by providing a context of changing market conditions that is missing in traditional internal analysis. But most companies still evaluate marketing efficacy in terms of two things: how much they’re spending, and how many leads they’re generating. And this narrow approach can mean trouble. The fact is that there are many other considerations to be taken into account in order to make the best decisions. In particular, many owners and operators aren’t looking closely enough at local market conditions and competitors. The result is that they often can’t distinguish between what is attributable to market conditions that everyone is facing and what is due to internal decisions and dynamics. Without this insight, you simply can’t make the most cost-effective marketing decisions. Throw in the industry changes that COVID has wrought and you can see that we’re facing a more complex marketing landscape than ever before. This means it may be time to take a good look at the competitive environment within which your properties compete. Fortunately, benchmarking can help you navigate even unusual times such as these. Benchmarking gives you the external market insights you need to make decisions that bring you the best value for your marketing dollars. Consider it a kind of situational awareness, an understanding of context that’s critical to comprehending what your internal numbers really mean and don’t mean. Benchmarking is delivering for multifamily PMCs According to Andrew Bowen, Industry Principal at RealPage, “Benchmarking provides us with clarity and context around market conditions to determine if current spending is effective, if additional spending is necessary and if the circumstances around availability and market response are singular to us or part of a broader market condition we need to react to. To date, everything has...