Taking the time to benchmark real estate marketing gives you context for your performance — and shows you what prospective buyers/tenants see when searching for properties.
When people are searching the internet for apartments or condos, what are they seeing? Part of an effective, data-driven marketing strategy is regularly taking the time to benchmark real estate marketing against competitive properties.
We all know that competition drives results. Take Elaine Thompson and Michael Phelps. In August 2016, Thompson claimed the title of the world’s fastest woman, and Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian of all time. They achieved these incredible feats by continuously pushing themselves to do better — and they weren’t just tracking and measuring their personal performance. They were keeping track of the performance of their peers and competitors. The data helped to give them the drive they needed to improve their own performance.
Why benchmark real estate marketing?
The same is true when it comes to measuring real estate marketing performance.
Looking inward, focusing on key performance indicators (KPIs) like website traffic, social media engagement, and lead conversion metrics is important. But these metrics will only get you so far.
You need to be looking at what’s happening outside your business and benchmark real estate marketing performance against competitive developments, properties, and even companies. That way, you’ll get the knowledge and drive you need to improve your performance and chance of success.
In addition, keeping track of what your competitors are doing can help you to identify threats and strategic opportunities for your properties. If you see that everyone is advertising on Trulia, for example, and you’re not, you might want to think about trying it. Or, you might notice that no one in your market is leveraging Facebook Marketplace property listings yet. Is this a place where you could gain strategic advantage?
Who should you be benchmarking against?
While the obvious choice is to benchmark against properties that directly compete with yours, it’s also a great idea to benchmark real estate marketing against market leaders. By taking this more global view, you can gain ideas and intelligence from top performers in your area. You may learn something that you can bring to your property’s marketing plan that will help edge out your competition.
Related posts:
- What Metrics Should You Track in Real Estate Marketing?
- Social Media Can Be a Strategic Weapon in Real Estate Marketing
- How Pay-Per-Click Helped This Property Get 54 Leads
