By Susan Saldibar

Back in my marketing days, we once ran a series of print ads to the tune of about $30k (probably twice that much by today’s standards).

The first round of ads missed the mark. So did the second. And because this was a print world, there was no adjusting or fine tuning. So the third tanked as well.

We watched the leads trickle in. $30k and nothing to show for it.

Not so today. You’re lucky. Not only do you have digital marketing, you have something really cool called “lead attribution.” So instead of looking like a money-wasting fool, you can be a rock star.

Jen Lovely with Conversion Logix (a Foresight partner) recently chatted with Leigh Ann Hubbard on a Marketing Monday broadcast. What a show! All I kept thinking was, “I could have done this! I could have done that!”

There’s a lot you can do with lead attribution. Just a few takeaways:

  • Lead attribution saves you a ton of money. Because it literally shows you what’s working and what’s not working. This lets you “turn on a dime,” as Jen says, making adjustments to get your ads pumping quickly in the right direction.
  • Without lead attribution software, you may not know where a lead really came from. Jen once asked a resident, “How did you hear about this community?” She said, “I googled it.” Jen asked again a couple days later. “Oh, it was a friend — her mom lives here.” And even later, it was, “We live really close, and I drive by every day.” Great example of what Jen calls multitouch attribution. Lead attribution drills down to the detail you need.
  • You should be using lead attribution for recruiting. Believe it or not, people look for jobs on Facebook, Instagram, and even TikTok. Stop cringing, and put your recruiting ads where your future employees will actually see them. If one channel isn’t pumping, your lead attribution will tell you, so you can pivot and put the dollars somewhere else.
  • Integrate your lead attribution reports into your regular monthly sales and marketing reports. That way you can show the C-suite what’s working and what you’ve done to reassign budgets to gain a stronger ROI on advertising.

And a couple other marketing tips from Jen:

  • Your residents are great event planners. If you’re holding large events, some of your best prospects probably aren’t there (not everyone is an extrovert). Jen recommends that, before you have an event, you survey your residents. They know what prospective fellow residents and their families want. Maybe a small book club event. Or how about a Taco Tuesday, where you take a tour and take home a box of freshly made tacos? Or a pie? Residents have come up with ideas like these that Jen says have really make a huge difference.
  • YouTube can be a lead conversion gold mine. As prospects get closer to transitioning, they will often use YouTube to see communities in action. After a Conversion Logix user saw that they were getting a ton of conversions from YouTube ads, they ran them at four other properties. All increased conversions.

If you’re not using lead attribution, you are overspending and underperforming. 

I was born too early. The things I could have done with this back then! You have it now. And you can find out how to start using it through Jen and the folks at Conversion Logix. Better yet, they can give you a lot more tools to really move needle on occupancy.

Click here to check out their free download 5 Ways to Reach Peak Occupancy in 2023.