A Guest Post by Nicole Staley of Digible
Another great Cadence Connect event in the books! We are always so thankful to be a part of Janet's events for the genuine connection, thought leadership and overall everyone's shared interest to learn and develop as leaders in the multifamily space. That is the biggest thing that initially drew us to the Minneapolis market - the wonderful people! Thursday's event was no different and despite the virtual setting we were happy to see familiar faces and make some new connections as well. In preparing for our session on how COVID and the recent social unrest has impacted digital marketing in Minneapolis, we looked at data dating back to January 2020. Here are some key takeaways:
Luxury and studio apartment searches have declined which could be an indicator of renters looking for more affordable options as well as renters opting for 2 bed units for cost saving purposes
Non brand Cost-Per-Click(CPC) is up 7% over prior year indicating more competition in the market as a comparison, nationally we are seeing CPCs only up 2% over prior year
From March - May there was a dropoff in apartment searches in Minneapolis which strongly contradicts the trends from 2019 during those same months. Apartment searches are now back to pre-crisis levels, but lower than seasonal levels in 2019
Minneapolis properties sample of units available went from 5.8k to 6.5k YTD, which is in contrast to the overall state that saw units available roughly flatline in our sample.
We also spoke about some tips and tricks for working with your digital marketing partners or in-house teams during this time. The biggest takeaways here:
Push for flexibility in budget changes and contract terms
Increase communication
Review data and performance more frequently
Make more targeting and creative optimizations on your campaigns than you normally would.
Things are changing quickly and you need to make sure your messaging and creative reflect that - whether you are just opening back up for in-person tours or are still living in a virtual world for the foreseeable future.
Speaking of messaging around tours, we were thoroughly impressed by Laurel's presentation and love the approach that SPR took with their tour your way initiative. What they were able to do with video in such a short amount of time is amazing, those video views don't lie!
For 10 takeaways from Laurel's presentation, check out this blog post. There was just too much great content to be contained in one blog post!