With thousands of marketing tools available in the marketing technology (MarTech) space, it is challenging to discern the need-to-haves from the nice-to-haves.

Looking to make your content more interactive? There is a tool for that. Want to enhance your lead database? There are tools for that, too.

The world of MarTech has extended far beyond basic marketing automation. And not a day goes by without a new tool popping up in your inbox.

So, where do you begin? If you are starting to build out your MarTech stack, we recommend tools that will help you automate your marketing efforts and amplify your return on investment.

But first, consider the following:

• If you are using a marketing agency or consultant, you may be able to leverage some of their MarTech stack. Marketing professionals typically have an arsenal of tools for email, search engine optimization (SEO), social media management, and more to deliver higher output and manage more customers. The cost of these tools is generally reflected in their price.
• No amount of MarTech tools makeup for a lack of marketing strategy. If there were a tool that could magically transform your marketing, we would all be rich. Make sure you nail down your strategy first and then acquire tools that will help you support and enhance that strategy.

With so many marketing tools to choose from, it is a daunting task to understand which platforms you need and what will provide the best return on your investment. Below, we explore the top four tools for your marketing arsenal:

1. CMS: Make Updating Your Website a Breeze

In the past, an IT person or a developer was required to develop even the most basic websites. But now, with the advent of the content management system (CMS), even your grandmother could make edits to your site!

Building your site on a user-friendly CMS like WordPress will allow you to add content and make updates to your site without HTML knowledge. This frees you from the expense and delay of relying on an IT person to make changes.

Adding valuable content to your site is a great way to not only attract search engine traffic but also to establish your company as an authority in your industry and pre-qualify your site visitors as potential leads.

WordPress also offers the ability to choose from seemingly endless options of plugins, enabling you to integrate easily with many other MarTech tools such as MailChimp, WooCommerce, and Google Analytics.

2. Track Your Marketing Efforts With Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free web analytics platform that will help you determine which channels are driving traffic to your website while providing valuable behavior insights for actions users are taking after they arrive.

To take analytics a step further, you can set up custom events and goals to track content downloads, form fills, video views, and other desired user actions.

3. Expand Your Workforce With Marketing Automation Tools

For companies with small business development teams, automating your lead nurturing process is hugely valuable. Marketing automation tools like InfusionSoft allow you to set up workflows to automate web form responses, lead nurturing email drips, and more. You can even set up a lead scoring model to alert you when a visitor becomes a “hot” lead. This frees up time to focus on only the most qualified leads while still providing nurturing efforts to residents who are not quite ready to lease.

4. Use a CRM to Improve Conversion Rate

A customer relationship manager (CRM) probably does not immediately come to mind when thinking about MarTech tools, but it should. After all, a huge function of your marketing efforts is to drive leads for your sales team. A CRM operating in sync with your website and marketing automation tool will help streamline your lead nurturing.

Limited by budget? A tool like HubSpot serves as both a CRM and marketing automation tool in one.

Interchanging the terms marketing and advertising is commonplace today. However, understanding the difference between the two is important to effectively apply them to your competitive strategy.

Advertising is paid media used to promote a product or service.

Marketing is the strategic planning, implementing, and tracking of a mix of media and business components toward a specific campaign.

In other words, advertising is the promotional piece to the marketing mix that generates buzz around a product or service. Advertising gives the consumer information on the product and the next steps to take to make the purchase. For example, with the influx of CRE construction in DFW, an agency might design a plan that includes banners. The banners are used to draw the audience to that campaign and connect with the consumers.

Marketing as a Primary Strategy

Although advertising is an integral part of any campaign, it cannot exist without a clear marketing plan. Marketing begins by digging deep into your company’s roots to find its value proposition. This becomes the cornerstone of the marketing mix. After uncovering your unique selling point, you can pinpoint exactly how you want to target buyer personas. According to HubSpot, buyer personas “are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers.” These personas include the likes, dislikes, occupation, age, gender, and other demographic information that will tailor your advertising message so that your audience will best receive it.

In today’s consumer-centric world, every company’s goal should be to build two-way communication with the target audience. This means that paid advertisements that send out persuasive messages but lack engagement are less likely to create this connection. Keeping consumers interested, informed, and entertained with the right content can generate more leads and a higher conversion rate for your business.

According to AdWeek, a recent survey of 30 content marketing agencies and 600 digital publishers showed that content marketing on social media generated a higher return on investment (ROI) than native advertisements. Kelsey Lipert, vice president of marketing at Fractl, explained that this is likely because “readers are necessarily less engaged with advertising versus editorial content, and metrics show lower share rates, lower engagement rates, lower view counts, etc., in most cases.”

Debunking Advertising’s Bad Rep

On a daily basis, we all feel bombarded by advertisements. As marketers, we have struggled in the past to find the right way to make our audience aware of our offerings without being inundated. However, paid media proves its worth consistently in consumer behavior research in categories such as top-of-mind recall and brand recognition. The key is to sprinkle cohesive advertising messages across the marketing mix that draw consumer attention and create engagement. It’s also important to ensure that you are targeting your consumers in a way that pushes them to pay attention.

As digital advertising continues to grow and develop with technological advancements, advertisers target their paid media directly to whom they want to reach. Personalized messages generate relevance for each buyer persona, which means that advertising is becoming less of an annoyance and more of a helpful tool. With its inexpensive price tag and proven ROI, paid advertising continues to be profitable. Stay up-to-date on the ever-changing world of digital marketing with the newest digital marketing trends.

Marketing for Real Estate

The key to success with digital marketing is to have an integrated strategy. But running an inbound marketing campaign for your multifamily property can be difficult. Download our content calendar to form your content planning strategy.

Cracking the Code: How Marketers Can Prove ROI and Win Over CEOs

As marketers, our role in contributing to a company’s ROI is a constant battle that requires us to justify ourselves and our agencies. Finding ways to prove to our CEOs and stakeholders that multifamily content marketing ROI plays a significant role in driving bottom-line results is crucial.

So, how can we accomplish this? Let’s explore some key strategies:

1. Be Relevant

While sharing statistics about retweets, follows, and website visits are important, it is equally essential to establish meaningful goals that directly align with the company’s bottom line. This involves setting up SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals, fostering open communication with the sales team, and focusing on activities that deliver measurable returns on investment.

2. Play Offense

Surprisingly, approximately 69% of CEOs believe marketing wastes time, money, and resources. To counter this perception, it is essential to proactively define clear goals, ensuring alignment and satisfaction between the sales and marketing teams. By emphasizing the purpose behind these goals, we can demonstrate the value of marketing initiatives in driving business growth.

3. Always Go After the 3 Hs

To gain support and foster buy-in from stakeholders, we must address their concerns emotionally. By appealing to their head, heart, and hands, we can effectively engage our teams and stakeholders:

• Head – Explain your plan of action. Defend your strategies with case studies, numbers, etc. Win over your team with proof!
• Heart – If people aren’t truly vested in your idea with their heart, you will lose them. Find out what’s important to them and how to tie your new goals to theirs.
• Hands – Now that you’ve won over your team, you’ve got to get them to get back to (or start) work! Play out those call-to-actions.

4. Prepare to Show Your Medal

In the business world, we will face numerous challenges and obstacles that may lead to criticism and scrutiny. However, viewing these experiences as growth and character development opportunities is important. Similar to a medal shaped and altered through intense heat, the obstacles we overcome refine our skills and resilience. By embracing calculated risks and driving positive change, we can propel our organizations forward and achieve exceptional results.

Take risks and be the change that will keep your organization moving forward.

Proving That Content Marketing ROI Matters

As marketers, it is our responsibility to demonstrate the impact of our work on a company’s ROI. By focusing on relevance and embracing challenges, we can effectively showcase the value of multifamily marketing in driving tangible business outcomes. Let’s take the necessary risks and become agents of positive change, leading our organizations to continued success.