SDM Launches Marketing Strategy For Novel Montford Park, Increasing Agency's Presence In Carolinas

Street Digital Media has been hired as the new agency behind Novel Montford Park's digital marketing strategy. The Atlanta-based media agency recently launched its multi-faceted strategy to help increase brand awareness and lead generation in the immediate market. Novel Montford Park is a Class-A, 337-unit lease up located in Charlotte's coveted Montford Park. The six-story structure offers brand new studio, one, and two bedroom apartments just south of the city. The Crescent Communities development differentiates itself with authentic mid-century interior design blended with a modern, eclectic vibe.

The Charlotte market has seen an abundance of multifamily growth over the past few years. Street Digital Media has been hired to run the Search Engine Marketing, Display, and Social Media strategy to drive brand awareness and lead generation on behalf of Carter Haston, the property's new management company. With Street Digital Media's unique background in multifamily property management, Novel Montford Park will be more enabled to focus on its multifamily key performance indicators and apply them to its digital marketing strategy. Together, SDM and Carter Haston have created a partnership fixated on blending digital marketing performance with onsite rent growth and leasing success.

Despite Pandemic & Increase in Online Shopping, "Available Near Me" Searches Up Over 100%

With state lockdowns, social distancing measures, and a significant increase in online shopping as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, one would think that "near me" searches would take a big hit in 2020. The spike in supply and demand for services like DoorDash, e-commerce shopping, and grocery store door-to-door delivery, have allowed consumers to avoid restaurants, malls, and grocery stores in response to the coronavirus. Nevertheless, based on online search data reported by Google's Head of Product Management for Local Ads in Search Engine Land, "near me" searches have increased over 100% compared to last year.

Why the increase?

People are obviously more cautious when going out into public than they were prior to the pandemic. As a result, they want to make sure that they are well-informed of the pricing, location, and availability of the goods and services they feel the need to go out in public to get themselves. Search data from Google also shows that "80% of shoppers will consolidate shopping to make fewer trips than previous years." Thus, people want to know exactly where they're going for what they need and how to do so in as few trips as possible to reduce any potential exposure to COVID-19.

How does this impact multifamily?

According to Google's studies, "67% of shoppers plan to confirm online that a desired item is in stock before going to buy it." With online shoppers taking fewer trips and looking to be more informed before going out to shop in-person, the same rationale should apply to your leasing efforts. Prospects want to know of real-time pricing, availability, and perhaps most importantly, when they can tour your community. Providing real-time online booking capabilities on your property websites will help prospective renters know when they can come to tour your community. Without such an option, it increases the likelihood that they won't visit at all vs. your comps who offer online booking.

Second, the need for your local Google My Business to be up to date and verified is crucial. While many are working from home, apartment searches that include "near me" are still some of the highest performing this year within our SEM campaigns. Ensuring that your GMB is up to date will help drive prospects to your property website organically when searching on Google Maps.

Lastly, if a prospect is coming to tour your community, you have clearly made their short list. With people making less trips out in public as a result of COVID-19, it is likely that they are touring less communities than they would have previously- similar to how people want to visit less stores when going out into public as mentioned before. If you are conducting in-person tours while maintaining social distancing and mask-wearing best practices, the odds of securing that lease have increased as you don't have as many other tours to compete with. Keep that in mind as you are communicating with your prospects prior to, during, or after they tour your community. There is an increased opportunity for you to make sure they are well-prepared and better informed when considering the move to your community.

SDM Takes Class A Developer's Digital Strategy To New Heights

As a boutique digital marketing agency whose multifamily experience stems from some of the industry's largest and most respected property management companies- Greystar, Pinnacle, and ZRS Management- Street Digital Media offers a unique, multifamily approach to digital marketing. The agency's proactive and weekly communication with onsite property managers aims to bridge the gap between multifamily operations and digital marketing strategies that asset managers can understand and appreciate. SDM's most recent partnership with Class A developer and management provider, Flournoy Companies, shows just how a digital marketing agency with corporate multifamily marketing experience can elevate search engine marketing performance.

Before and after comparisons to Flournoy's previous Google Ads provider show that SDM significantly increased the quantity and quality of the traffic being directed to the developer's Class A assets. The company's premier lease ups and stabilized communities in Texas, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina saw an immediate 25.25% increase in new traffic as a result of Street Digital's SEM campaigns. Not only has traffic

increased, but so has the quality. SDM's Search Engine Marketing Campaigns have accounted for 96% of all website leads since the partnership began and have led to an 11.90% decrease in bounce rate. Newly promoted Vice President of Marketing, Joanna Harry, has been a pivotal part of Flournoy's innovative digital marketing strategy and transition. Led by new President & CEO, Joe Renaud, Flournoy is positioning itself as a premier Class A developer and management provider in the Southeast's top primary and secondary markets.

Together, Flournoy and Street Digital Media have combined to create a detailed marketing strategy that takes floor plan occupancy, renewal ratios, and market conditions into consideration. By combining multifamily operational KPIs with online behavior and Google Ads data, Flournoy and SDM have enabled its properties' digital strategies to flourish in a time where digital marketing strategy is arguably now more important than ever.