Written by: Briana Sfero, CPMC
As a Marketing Manager, Briana supervises and coaches the corporate marketing support team members, while ensuring that processes in place assure outstanding customer service while following the vision of Colliers | Columbus. Briana also aids in the execution of the overall brand and corporate identity, working with the Director of Marketing & Research to drive the strategy and vision for marketing.
What does your typical day-to-day schedule look like?
It sounds cliché, but every day looks a little different. A typical day may include a meeting with the corporate marketing team to touch-base on projects, both in progress and in the pipeline. I also meet regularly with our Research Analyst, Brooke, to catch up on our collaborative projects and see how marketing can assist with research initiatives and knowledge pieces. In addition to meeting and joining forces with several team members, I also have numerous recurring projects that I work on daily, weekly, monthly or even quarterly. Some of these include managing our social media, keeping our Research Resource website and blog posts up-to-date, coordinating internal and external communication and tracking analytics for all of our marketing initiatives. Along with recurring projects, I also work on bigger marketing strategies for our numerous service lines and Colliers | Columbus as a whole. Aside from the creative side of marketing, a large part of my role is supporting team members and providing direction for various projects.
What trends are currently happening in marketing?
While trends are always changing, I would say one thing I have noticed that I believe is here to stay is interactivity and animation. While static brochures and flyers will always have their place, especially in our industry, there is a real push for interactive brochures, websites and videos/360° walk-throughs. In the past, someone may spend time reading through an informational piece or brochure to learn more information about a topic that interested them, whereas now, a consumer’s attention span is an average of 8 seconds. Within those 8 seconds, our job is to capture their attention and make the content interesting and entertaining enough to also hold their attention. I believe technology has had a huge impact on this, as we are so used to having access to unlimited information at our fingertips.
Not only does marketing material that includes a level of interactivity or animation stand out and capture attention, it can also make the information easier to understand and digest. We have been using interactivity to showcase various data and research, through mediums such as websites and infographics, and it certainly helps illustrate important data in bite-size and digestible pieces that are also fun and entertaining.
Marketing is always evolving and changing, how do you keep up with trends? How do you find new ways to make material engaging?
It is true that marketing is always evolving and progressing. Not only do design aesthetics change, but technology is ever-advancing as well. Part of my role is making sure I am on top of trends and seeing what type of material is being put out there, both within our industry and across other industries as well. I try to set aside 10-15 minutes a day to scroll through LinkedIn and Instagram to see what type of content is being put out on social media. In addition, I am signed up for various marketing email newsletters that compile different trends and techniques so I can stay informed.
Aside from doing my own research, our marketing team gets together every month to collaborate and discuss some marketing best practices, whether it is general graphic design ideas and marketing initiatives, or best practices in the commercial real estate market specifically. Colliers also hosts regular calls with all marketing professionals across the United States, where new ideas and projects are showcased, and different platforms and tools are introduced to the team.
What is something that stands out in marketing within the commercial real estate market?
Since my role has a big emphasis on internal and external communication, there has been a slight shift in what content we create, and how that content is then shared with our audience. This has been especially noticeable throughout the past few years, not only with the COVID-19 pandemic but with the current market uncertainty we have been experiencing more recently as well. A big part of my role has been streamlining communication and making sure both our team and our clients are in-the-know and have all of the knowledge they need to make educated decisions. One example of this is we recently began The Weekly Review series, a spinoff of our previous Knowledge that Sells series, which provides both our internal team and external clients with up-to-date information as to what is happening within the Columbus and U.S. markets, as well as the commercial real estate industry. Our team reads through numerous articles across various outlets every week before compiling the newsletter, which simplifies and summarizes the most important information into one easy-to-read blog post and email. We are aware of all the information being released every single day (and every hour at that), and that information is constantly being pushed to us through emails and social media. We wanted to take the load off of the individual and provide a high-level overview of what's happening in the market each week.
What is a project you are working on right now?
I’m working on a few large projects that I am excited about. One of them is collaborating with our Research Analyst to produce our annual Foresight Report. This is a comprehensive report that explores workplace trends, case studies in tenant behavior, migration patterns, interviews with industry leaders and predictions for the new year as it relates to the Columbus office market. This is our 4th year of producing this report, and it is always so much fun to put together. It is a pleasure to collaborate with brokers, project managers and property managers to make sure the report provides information for a wide range of readers, in addition to making sure it paints a holistic picture of what is happening in the market.
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