Foundations of Digital Marketing

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing, also called online marketing, refers to all marketing efforts that occur on the internet. Businesses leverage digital channels such as search engines, social media, email, and other websites to connect with current and prospective customers. This also includes communication through text or multimedia messages. While traditional advertising can be helpful for specific goals, its biggest limitation is measurability. This is one of the biggest benefits of digital marketing, as it can give you a start-to-finish view of all the metrics that matter to your company — including impressions, shares, views, clicks, and time on page. This allows marketers to quickly pivot with ever changing markets and consumer patterns to meet theiraudience with the right message at the right time.

Types of Digital Marketing

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO):Optimizing online content to improve its visibility in search engine results. The goal is to increase organic (non-paid) traffic to a website.
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Involves paid advertising on search engines. This often includes pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns where advertisers pay each time their ad is clicked.
• Social Media Marketing (SMM): Promoting products or services on social media platforms to connect with the target audience. This can involve organic content creation as well as paid advertising.
• Email Marketing: Using email to communicate with potential and existing customers. This can involve newsletters, promotional emails, and personalized messaging.

Using multiple types of digital marketing is crucial to create a comprehensive and effective online presence. Each type of digital marketing, such as SEO, search engine marketing, social media, and email marketing, plays a unique role in reaching diverse audiences and fulfilling different marketing objectives. By employing a well-rounded digital marketing strategy, businesses can maximize their reach, engage with various consumer segments, and adapt to the evolving preferences of their target audience.

Why Is Digital Marketing Important for Multifamily?

Digital marketing enables properties to strategically connect with their target audience in the ever-evolving digital landscape. With a strong online presence, multifamily properties can effectively reach prospective tenants where they search for rental options – online. Digital marketing allows for precise audience targeting, cost-effective advertising, and the creation of engaging content that showcases living spaces and community amenities. The data-driven nature of digital marketing provides insights into campaign performance, enabling property managers to refine strategies and maintain a competitive edge in the dynamic real estate market.

Benefits of Digital Marketing for Multifamily

• Increased Visibility & Brand Awareness
  • Digital marketing strategies help boost visibility and build brand awareness, making it easier for potential renters to find and recognize the properties. The use of virtual tours, high-quality images, and videos in digital marketing can give potential tenants a comprehensive view of the property without physically visiting it.
• Targeted Audience Reach
  •  Through various online channels, they can reach potential renters based on demographics, interests, and online behavior, ensuring that their marketing efforts are directed towards individuals most likely to be interested in their properties.
• Cost-Effectiveness
  • Paid online advertising, such as pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, allows multifamily businesses to control their budgets and target specific audiences, ensuring that their marketing dollars are spent efficiently.
• Adaptability
  • The adaptability of digital marketing allows multifamily properties to respond swiftly to changing market conditions and tenant preferences.
• Engagement & Communication
  • Digital marketing facilitates easy communication with potential renters at every stage through channels like email, chat, and social media. This allows for quick responses to inquiries, providing a positive customer experience and potentially converting leads into tenants.
• Data & Analytics
  • Digital marketing provides robust data and analytics tools that can help property managers understand the effectiveness of their campaigns. Analyzing data allows for continuous improvement, as marketing strategies can be adjusted based on realtime performance metrics.
• Competitive Edge
  • In a competitive rental market, having a strong digital marketing strategy can provide a competitive edge. A well-executed online presence can differentiate multifamily properties from others and attract renters looking for modern and tech-savvy living options

Where To Start With Digital Marketing?

Define Your Properties Goals

When you get started with digital marketing, it's critical to identify and define your property's goals since you’ll craft your strategy with them.

For instance, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, you might want to focus on reaching new potential renters via social media or a Performance Max campaign. Or maybe you want to increase leasing on a specific floor plan — if that's the case, it's more important you focus on SEO and optimizing content to get potential buyers on your website in the first place. Additionally, if leases are your goal, we would highly recommend budgeting for Search Engine Marketing.

We can partner with you to choose the right campaign to achieve your property's goals.

Establish a Budget for Each Channel

There are several factors that influence the cost of a campaign like campaign type, goals, competition, and targeting. This is important to keep in mind when establishing a budget for each channel.

For example, to implement a Paid Search campaign, you'll bid against other properties to appear at the top of Google's search results for keywords associated with your property. Depending on the keyword's competitiveness, this can be reasonably affordable or extremely expensive, which is why it's a good idea to focus on build your SEO organic traffic too.

Strike A Balance Between Paid and Organic

A digital marketing strategy likely needs both paid and organic (SEO) aspects to truly be effective. If you need quicker results – paid advertising, like Search Engine Marketing or Social Media Ads. need to be a part of your digital strategy.

Ultimately, aim to build your organic (SEO) for more long term, sustainable success.

For the greatest overall impact, do both, and iterate on your process as you learn which channels — paid or organic – perform best for your property. We can help you align your digital marketing mix to help you hit your properties goals.

Who Does Digital Marketing at RPM?

RPM's in-house digital marketing team is built to drive tours and leases with better campaign performance than other agencies. We are hands-on and focused on collaboration, making it easy for you to get the results you need.

Our team of digital experts has a deep understanding of the digital landscape and how to strategically reach your target audience. We use a variety of digital advertising strategies, including paid search, social media marketing, and email marketing, to drive traffic to your website and generate leads.

We prioritize collaboration and transparency, working closely with you to create and execute a digital marketing strategy that aligns with your business objectives. Additionally, we provide regular updates and reports on campaign performance, allowing you to make necessary adjustments. Rest assured, we are confident in our ability to assist you in achieving your property's leasing goals through our digital marketing campaigns.