Owner Case Studies

Christi Samuelian

Webmaster/Internet Marketing Manager

Windsor Property Management Co.

4.30.2009

Windsor Internet Marketing

Internet Marketing

ILS/Craigslist

Search Engine Marketing(SEO/PPC/

Google Maps/Yahoo Local)

Company WebsiteWindsorcommunities.com

Ad Source Tracking/Measurement

Future: Unit marketing, Social media,

Mobile marketing,Video, Sales funnel

Setting the Scene

Windsor Communities· 35 properties/12,000 units

Windsor Marketing Department· Wouldn’t that be nice!· Decentralized marketing – most happens at

regional/property level.· My role - Internet Marketing Mgr/Webmaster

Part time Webmaster, part time project manager, part time trainer, part time administrator, and part time marketer.

Choosing & Prioritizing Marketing Initiatives

Challenge:· There’s only so much you can do in a day!· How to choose and prioritize initiatives while:

Keeping up with the industry. Working with what you got. Not getting overwhelmed.

Choosing/Prioritizing Mkt Initiatives:· Grassroots successes.· Knowing one’s limitations.· Trends/big picture.· Good buzz.

Grassroots Marketing Ideas

Case Study – Craigslist.org· Windsor at Brentwood (RI) - cut all print

advertising in lieu of Craigslist ads saving over $10,000/year while increasing traffic 30%.

Level One – Ad Source Analysis ReportWindsor at Brentwood - 4/08

Craigslist - #1 source of leadsCost/lead = $0

Good idea!

Grassroots Marketing, cont.· Discussed at National

Operations Conference, assembled training guide, worked class into training curriculum, mandatory training for managers, reinforced message to regional staff.

· Initial results encouraging: 3/09 - #2 Internet source

producing leads via phone calls. Outperformed all print ads and ILS.

Leads to appointments conversion - 48%.

Prioritizing & Choosing, cont.

Recognizing our limitations.· Important initiatives that we will never have the

time, manpower, or expertise for.· Search Engine Marketing (SEO/SEM).

Problem – How do we get on 1st page of search engine results for our metros?

Answer – Readjust our expectations, revamp our SEO efforts, and get creative.

SEM, cont. SEO

· Is changing constantly, and need a company with expertise to navigate through it.

· Outsourced since 2005. Link building, coaching

sessions, quarterly progress meetings, reporting.

Website redesign – Assisting us through the process to ensure new site is optimized and will not lose rankings once we launch.

· Tripled web traffic from search engines as a result of efforts started 4 years ago.

02000400060008000

1000012000140001600018000200002200024000260002800030000

# ofVisitors

2005

2007

2009

Search Engine Marketing Encourage property-level efforts:

· Use property URL everywhere (ads, email signatures, etc.).· Google Maps/Yahoo! Local - Improves your local search results & is free!

SEM, cont.

Pay Per Click (ppc):· Contracted 3rd party (Reach Local) to manage

campaigns. · Enables us to run a portfolio-wide campaign with

minimal set-up hassle and maintenance.· And…we get on the 1st page of search engine

results for local searches. Result - 1st place placement for local searches,

increased numbers of leads, and improved SEO for those properties.

PPC Results Generates leads.

· As with any advertising, works better for some properties than others.

· 2008 - averaged more leads/month for 4 properties than did some of the top ILS that we list all properties on.

Increased web traffic.· 30% of new web traffic generated by

Reach Local. · In one instance, increased web traffic

by 1000 unique visitors in 1 month!· All properties are still registering over

1000 visits/month. Huge bump in Google organic traffic. As

Reach Local traffic increases, so does Google organic traffic. · 50% of web traffic - Reach

Local/Google combo.

Traditional SEO

3rd page placement for 1 optimized phrase

PPC / Reach Local

1st page placement for over 1000 keyword combinations!

Tracking & Measurement

Google Anlytics

L2L

PMS (MRI)

L1PMS – All leads. Calls, emails, walk-in traffic.

L1Google Analytics

Lead2Lease

Missed/After-

Hours

Calls/Emails

Web Traffic

Lead Aggregator – L1, 60% of calls taken on-site, misc. emails, walk-in traffic.

Tracking – Putting It All Together

Property wanted to cancel an ILS.“We actually cancelled with X after reviewing our leads/leases obtained

from them and decided that this was not an effective traffic source for our property. Our account ended with them as of 2/22/09. I have attached our traffic report for the last 6 months showing only 2 leads and no leases from them.”

Response after reviewing their L1 reports:“I ran your L1 Activity Analysis report since 9/1 (below), and you were

getting some decent traffic from them. The phone leads handled by L1 for the past 6 months converted to visits set at the highest rate of any of your other ad sources (85%)! I also ran your STATS report, and it shows X generated more phone calls for you then some of the other big sites like X, Y, and Z.”

Summary There is only so much time in the day! Have to pick and choose. Keep your eyes and ears open.

· What are your properties doing? Use their successes and build out portfolio-wide.

· What are your comps doing and what are the industry trends emerging?

Recognize you can’t do it all. Outsource where you can and use available tools at your disposal.

Track and measure efforts. Take small steps and do what you can.