“If you’re not evolving, you’re dying.” A phrase as true in marketing as it is in, well, life itself. Marketing leaders in 2025 aren’t just dealing with change; they’re living at warp speed. Artificial intelligence (AI) is upending search, traditional social media consumption is waning for the first time, and generative search is pulling users away from Google. Meanwhile, Redfin and Zillow just rewrote the rulebook on digital listings, forcing multifamily leaders to rethink how they attract and convert renters. Yet, many marketing teams are still structured like it’s 2015. The question isn’t just how to keep up—it’s how to stand out.
The old marketing playbook was built for a different era, and, if you’re still running the same game plan, you’re already behind. Here’s what needs to change and how to position your team for impact, innovation, and long-term growth.
Reimagine Leadership Roles and Ditch the Outdated Titles
For years, multifamily marketing teams have been structured by property type, region, and channels, but those silos aren’t just outdated, they’re actively working against you. Customers don’t experience brands in fragments, so why are we still structuring leadership teams in fragments? It’s time to take an enterprisewide approach.
Instead of the traditional model, consider this three-legged stool for stability and impact:
Brand and Communications: If you’re not telling a compelling, consistent story across all channels, you’re leaving money on the table. Standardization and training matter as much as creativity and reach. Without brand consistency, every ad dollar spent is less effective; 68% of businesses said brand consistency was a major contributor to revenue growth of 10% or more.
Performance Marketing: The insights needed to drive acquisition, retention, and revenue live in the data. But if your team is drowning in scattered analytics without a clear strategy, you’re just staring at numbers, not making decisions. Performance teams should work cross-functionally with pricing and operations to understand how all the P’s—product, price, promotion, people, and place—impact leasing velocity and revenue.
Customer Experience (CX): The line between marketing and CX is gone. Customers don’t care if a friction point falls under “operations” or “marketing.” It’s all the same to them. Selecting the right features, platforms, and tech integrations is now a marketing imperative.
- Example: Self-Guided Tours Versus AI Chat and Lead Nurturing: Our team conducted research and analysis on self-guided tours, expecting them to be a game-changer post-COVID. But the data told a different story—consumer adoption and satisfaction weren’t there, and the experience wasn’t delivering the conversion results we expected. Instead of continuing to invest in a solution that wasn’t resonating, we pivoted to AI chat and lead nurturing. By optimizing for the way prospects want to engage, we’ve seen higher engagement, better response times, and more conversions. In fact, with AI chat and lead nurturing, we’ve seen as high as a double-digit increase in prospect-to-appointment conversions and a decrease in both average days from lead to application and lead to move-in. We attribute this to providing timely—if not immediate—answers and follow-up 24/7, ensuring no lead gets lost in the process.
This structure isn’t just theoretical—it’s about reducing cognitive churn. Asking someone to toggle between the left brain (performance-driven, numbers-obsessed) and the right brain (brand storytelling, consumer psychology) is a recipe for inefficiency. Specialization is the key to scale, and collaboration is the key to success.
Move Beyond Traditional Metrics and Measure What Matters
Marketing teams have more data than ever before—Google Analytics, CRM, social, reputation scores, financial reports, first-party surveys—and yet they still struggle with attribution, analysis paralysis, or, worse, chasing vanity metrics.
Individual and department KPIs matter, but they should all ladder up to what truly drives revenue–lifetime resident value, retention, and community-building. For example, a packed resident event might not have a direct return on investment (ROI) line item, but it builds loyalty, increases referrals, and boosts positive sentiment. If you’re not advocating for that budget, you’re missing the bigger picture. Your reputation score also isn’t just a metric—it’s a conversion driver. A half-star difference in online ratings can swing occupancy rates; 98% of renters are influenced by ratings and reviews.
If marketing budgets are still viewed as expenses rather than investments, it’s time to reframe the conversation. Marketing that drives revenue growth is an investment, not a cost to be cut. Beyond marketing qualified leads (MQLs) or cost per lead, marketing teams can gain even deeper insights by tracking lease-to-renewal conversions, cost per lease versus resident lifetime value, reputation score impact on lead-to-lease conversion, and reputation and survey sentiment as an early predictor of retention. Aligning around these priorities means you’re maximizing your impact.
Optimize Your Marketing Mix for a Changing Landscape
Industry consolidation isn’t just happening in listings—it’s happening across media, technology, and advertising. The Redfin-Zillow deal is just one example of a broader trend that marketing leaders need to be tracking. With more media outlets than ever, consumer attention is sporadic, erratic, and harder to predict.
A fully integrated approach to marketing is no longer optional; it's essential. That means using holistic ad strategies that map consumer behavior across property types and markets, not just throwing dollars at the biggest platforms. A strong foundation in search is critical to ensure your brand is positioned well now and as generative search reshapes where prospects start their journey. Platform-specific performance is also key, recognizing that a listing service working for suburban renters might entirely fall flat in an urban market—proving that one-size-fits-all isn't a strategy but a shortcut to wasted spending. Moreover, building brand equity is a crucial moat during market consolidation; the stronger your brand, the less reliant you become on third-party platforms, ultimately protecting your market position when pricing pressures intensify.
There will always be times when internet listing services (ILS) make sense as part of the mix. However, as consolidation leads to higher costs and greater dependency, multifamily marketers should focus on building their own lead pipelines. A strong brand, first-party data strategy and direct lead nurturing efforts reduce reliance on third-party platforms and provide more control over marketing ROI.
Warren Buffett famously said, “The most important thing you can do is build a moat around your business.” In marketing, that moat is brand equity—because no algorithm update, industry consolidation, or budget cut can take away what you’ve built in consumer trust.
The 2025 Marketing Playbook: More Strategy, Less Scrambling
Multifamily marketers are at an inflection point. The marketing structures that worked five years ago aren’t built for today’s speed of change. The future belongs to the marketing teams bold enough to build it.
The companies that win in 2025 will be the ones that integrate marketing, communications, and CX into a seamless experience; measure what actually moves the needle; and stay agile enough to navigate industry shifts without losing sight of long-term brand value.
