Discover The Power Of Email Marketing

Building a multi-million dollar property is not for the faint of heart.  When trying to fill vacant units, many developers toss and turn at night wondering how they’re going to fill the property quickly.  Every vacant unit is lost revenue, and after maximizing resources to build an apartment building, every month a unit sits empty is money wasted. 

The KG Group recently faced this situation when building the Harrison, a beautiful, modern condominium-style apartment tower located near Yonge and Sheppard in Toronto.  This building is state of the art and stylish units cost between $1200 - $2300/month. 

So how did KG Group manage to rent out the entire building in just over one year?  (Which is an astounding feat!) They turned to email marketing.   

Email marketing is a digital form of direct mail.  In the broadest sense, the term covers every email ever send to a customer or potential customer. In general, though, it's used to refer to sending direct promotional emails to try and acquire new customers or persuade existing customers to buy again, or to encourage customer loyalty and enhance the customer relationship.

Jeff Goldband, Property Manager of the Harrison project stated that, “We developed an email marketing program whereby we collected email addresses from each prospective renter that visited the building.  We then aggregated these emails into Constant Contact, a professional grade email marketing program, which allowed us to keep each prospect informed about the progress we were making on the development.  In each email we also highlighted services that would be available at the building. Our prospects liked how we kept them in the know, and they enjoyed following the progress.  The emails kept interest levels up during the final days of construction, allowing us to rent units throughout our final development phase.”

And that’s exactly why email marketing works.  It’s an effective form of communication because the messaging that is sent is targeted to appeal to a select group of individuals who have opted to receive the communications.  People who receive these emails begin to recognize the value that is being delivered and they become more receptive to the messaging.  In time this presents an opportunity for the landlord to expand their emails campaigns to include more sophisticated calls to action that can drive further sales.

“As a result of the success we had at the Harrison, we’ve taken email marketing and applied it to all of our buildings. We now also use email to communicate with residents and deliver news and event information pertaining to their building. Email marketing has given us tremendous insight into what our customers want, and in some cases it has opened our eyes to what we need to offer them,” said Goldband.  “By knowing what content is clicked on by our recipients we are able to determine what services are most important to them.  We can then take that feedback and make actionable operational decisions based on it.”

Email marketing is a great way to deliver messages to interested renters quickly, easily and affordably. For pennies on the dollar any landlord can deliver messaging quickly to residents, potential residents, customers or investors.  Print communications can become costly, but digital communication is cost-effective and quick to implement, resulting in a solution that is perfect for any sized marketing budget. 

The fact is, email communication is alive and well, and renters want to communicate by email.  A study done in the United States, “Getting Inside The Head Of Today’s Online Renter”, which surveyed 85,000 residents from 30 different property management companies across the country, determined that 89.4% of respondents preferred communicating by email.  This figure is not surprising, as most individuals use email for quick and non-intrusive communication.

But email marketing is not only for communicating with renters.  REITs and property management companies can also benefit from email communication campaigns when communicating with their investors and customers. Passing along news and information instantaneously, while keeping costs low makes it an essential component in any marketing program.  

So whether you’re building a new property, or performing renovations, or dealing with vacancy issues, an email campaign is a great way to create a communication channel with your current and potential residents.  By keeping customers informed during transitional periods you can build trust and loyalty.

Landlord Web Solutions now offers email marketing services to its clients.  If you are a landlord or supplier who would like to learn about email marketing and how it could bring value to your business, send an email to carissa@landlordwebsolutions.com with email marketing information in the subject line.