Zero Party Data: 3 Data Types You Should Collect

If you’re focused on collecting data to earn leads, you’re on the right track, but it only goes so far in your multifamily business.

Instead, you should always focus on data that leads to lead quality over quantity.

Obsessing over how many leads you’re earning is a distraction and doesn’t necessarily result in a signed lease.

Truth 💣: Instead of collecting data for volume and amassing leads for leads’ sake, you should shift your focus to zero party data.

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So how does all this work, and what kind of data should you collect?

What Is Zero Party Data?

Zero-party data works a little differently than first-party data you may have collected.

First-party data comes directly from the customer through avenues like a newsletter sign-up or opt-in.

Zero-party data comes directly from a customer and is shared so brands can improve their experience.

It’s true that first-party data can be valuable to earn more leads, but you still need zero-party data to refine it and make your marketing efforts more effective.

Zero-party data can also help narrow down potential problems in your community that you can jump on and fix as part of your maintenance plan.

For example, if you discover everyone is passing on a lease because the community pool is disappointing and lackluster at best, it’s an opportunity.

Now you can invest in some cleaning, new pool furniture, and updated vending machines to make the area look more inviting.

The next question is: How do you collect zero-party data to help supercharge your lead quality?

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1) Send Open-Ended Surveys

If you’re sending out surveys to prospects, you’re ahead of the game.

But you’re not going to get much value out of fixed, multiple-choice questions with no room to expand.

Why assume?

Don’t ask prospects a question like "How did you hear about us?" and give them a handful of options like:

👉 Google

👉 Social media ad

👉 Current resident

👉 Billboard

Let’s say a prospect heard about your community from a social media ad.

Which ad? Which platform? Or was it in a Facebook group, so they clicked the closest option?

Leave the survey open-ended and let the residents fill in the information themselves.

You could get more detailed information from a friend of a current resident who loves the community’s rooftop and spreads the word to you.

You now know what drew someone to your community, and not just how they heard about you—that’s gold for your marketing strategy.

Or you may uncover an answer that completely surprises you and never crossed your mind as a lead-generating possibility.

2) Re-Target Lead Prospects

Wait, what about all those prospects who didn’t rent?

They’re still a highly valuable source of lead information, specifically because they didn’t sign a lease.

Send a rent survey with a $5 gift card for answering a question about why they passed on renting the property.

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Ask a few open-ended questions, including:

🤔 Why didn’t you sign a lease?

🤔 What didn’t you like about our community? You can include amenities, communication with our team, and anything else you want to mention.

🤔 What did you like about our community?

🤔 Was our rent special a motivating factor in considering our community?

🤔 What other feedback do you have?

You can ask anything that’s relevant to your community to get as much information as possible.

But remember… It's a $5 survey.

Truth 💣: Prospects are okay answering a few questions to cash in for a coffee or beer, but they aren’t going to write a novel to help shape your multifamily business plan.

3) Poll Recent Residents

You’re missing out on a goldmine of data once a prospect converts to a lease.

Instead of celebrating and moving onto the next lead, you can poll those new residents.

Send out a survey or ask them yourself why they choose to rent in your community.

Was it the waived application fee? Onsite gym? Floorplan? View?

The answer could be something random that you’ve never thought of, which again helps shape your business and marketing plan.

Refine Your Zero-Party Data

Once you collect your data, you're ready to take action.

Create a spreadsheet of all the different data points, commonalities, and surprising information and categorize it.

You can create a tab or section for everything related to social media, amenities, and so on.

Next, look through your marketing materials to figure out how to amplify your messaging to reflect your zero-party data.

Tip 💡: You can now adjust your ads to reflect the amenities your prospects actually want and tweak your social media messaging to tie into the feedback you gathered.

One of the best parts about zero-party data is that it's cheap or completely free to gather.

You don’t need anything but time and a few simple tools to send out surveys and organize them.

Once you have that zero-party data, you have an unlimited opportunity to supercharge your lead quality.

At the end of the day, people get caught up in just trying to boost lead volume.

If you collected these top three sources accurately, it would give you clarity on what you really need to work on to reach your goals.

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