2018 DNA of #CRE preview: Marketers’ best practices and opportunities for growth

Buildout and theBrokerList have returned for the second year of the DNA of #CRE Marketer Survey. Marketers all over the country shared key insights into the work they do every day and how they see the CRE landscape changing in the coming year. We turned their responses into actionable data that reveals significant trends in the industry.

Check out what marketers had to say about their workdays and best practices in 2018:

Almost a third of marketers did not track their email marketing metrics.

Nine out of every ten respondents said they used email marketing to promote their listings, showing that email marketing remains a best practice in CRE. But, a third of them did not know their average open or click-through rates.

Not tracking email metrics is a missed opportunity for a brokerage. Monitoring these metrics regularly allows you to gauge how your emails are performing so you can make changes to your approach in real time and improve response rates.

Many marketers spent half of their work weeks managing listing data manually in 2018.

Forty-four percent of DNA of #CRE Marketer Survey respondents spent one to five hours per week on data entry for listings, 19% spent six to 10 hours, and 10% spent 20 hours.

This finding shows there may be some major inefficiencies in the tools and technologies brokerages are currently using to manage their listings. Brokers face similar challenges in managing their data. Our 2018 DNA of #CRE Broker Survey found that brokers feel a stronger database tool to manage their listings and other information is missing from their day-to-day work.

Marketers used Facebook and Twitter to promote listings less than they did in 2017, but LinkedIn use remained about the same.

Fewer marketers promoted company listings on Facebook and Twitter in 2018 than in 2017. Social networks like Facebook likely saw drops in use across the industry due to growing privacy concerns.Facebook has also recently begun deprioritizing posts that link to external websites, which has likely raised questions about ROI for brokerages spending time on social media content.

LinkedIn use dipped only slightly over the previous year, with roughly three-fourths of CRE marketers indicating that they used the platform in 2018. Marketers also found that LinkedIn provided the best ROI for their efforts.

Download the results infographic now for more on the trends, opportunities, and the future of commercial real estate marketing.