Data Driven Decision Making

I've recently been engaged with a number of property management companies managing a wide range of marketing activities.  One of the skill sets I bring to the table is the ability to put in place a marketing infrastructure that streamlines operations while offering consolidated reporting of website and lead generation statistics.  Armed with this data, decisions can be made with regard to advertising spend and placement, the targeting of various customer segments and modification of website content.  When multiple parties are involved in managing properties, everyone brings a different perspective to the table which can be positive and many times, sparks lively discussion.  However, without data, sometimes discussions are controlled more by personalities or seniority and are not necessarily a good analysis of lead generation statistics, on-line advertising efficiencies and the behavior of users on your website.  With the advent of social media, monitoring what consumers are saying about your building as well as distributing your vacancies or messages which differentiate your property are becoming more commonplace.  The number of Facebook users now outnumbers those using email.  This alone is a reason to get up to speed and perhaps become engaged in this tremendous phenomenon.  It's important to have an overall strategy that includes social media which means establishing success metrics and allocating resources, the same discipline used for more conventional media.