One Stop Shop Marketing Campaign The Minnesota Commercial Association of REALTORS

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1 MSAE 2011 Awards of Excellence One Stop Shop Marketing Campaign The Minnesota Commercial Association of REALTORS Category: Communication Excellence Minnesota Commercial Association of Real Estate Minnesota Commercial Association of REALTORS MNCAR Exchange 6800 France Avenue, Suite 760 Edina, MN

2 What is the One Stop Shop Campaign? At MNCAR, we are a cooperative commercial real estate community, dedicated to increasing the professionalism and profitability of our members. Our vision is to be the preeminent resource for connecting knowledgeable commercial real estate brokers in Minnesota. We are constantly striving to learn more about the needs of our members and to provide services, tools and resources that will help them achieve leadership positions within their firms and their communities. The One Stop Shop Campaign is a series of new marketing initiatives designed to give our members a toolbox of resources to make their lives easier and their businesses more profitable. We realize that providing the most efficient means to retrieve information is critical to our members and this idea was born from and is a direct result of their feedback. The One Stop Shop Campaign was created in 2010 and includes our 5 New Marketing Tools introduction as well as our One Login commitment. We further simplified members lives by adding our One Login commitment, allowing members to have access to our Exchange database by providing one login to four systems commercial property database, sales comparable database, broadcast system, and geographical information systems database - that previously each required a separate login. 5 Tools Flyer (Attachment 1)

3 MNCAR s 5 New Marketing Tools: Featured Properties Our members are always looking for ways to set themselves apart and uniquely market the properties they lease and sell. MNCAR provided them a new marketing opportunity by providing advertising space for properties on the MNCAR homepage which receives over 17,000 hits per month and is visited daily by other brokers. Broadcast Templates It is vitally important that our members are able to connect with each other to communicate their clients needs and requirements. It is also important to the small and mid-sized brokerage firms to be able to compete with the larger firms. MNCAR designed professional broadcast templates to accomplish these goals. Sales Comp Reports Commercial real estate sales transaction information allows our members to perform their jobs. Our system provides our members with sales comparable information (sales comps) and was re-designed to be faster-than-ever with more attractive reports. This saves members time, increases their efficiency, and allows them to provide more effective marketing materials to clients and prospects. GIS Mapping System MNCAR provided a new Geographical Information System (GIS) to its members. Before this system, members would need to be familiar with 8 different county sites to gather information. MNCAR provided an easy-to-access system for parcel, owner and tax info covering all of these in just one place. This saved our members time and allowed them to focus on their jobs of connecting with their clients and prospects. 5 Tools PowerPoint (Attachment 2) Online Learning Center MNCAR employed a full-time trainer and two telephone support staff. As the demand for technical support on MNCAR s systems continued to grow, we agreed the solution was an Online Learning Center which provided video demonstrations, instructions, and other resources to give members the easiest, quickest ways to access and best utilize MNCAR s technology tools including the newly released 5 Marketing Tools.

4 Project Goals One way that we strive to provide value to our association members is through the creation of various volunteer committees comprised of our broker members to bring forward new ideas and accelerate those ideas into tangible process improvements and other tools. In 2009, our MNCAR Board of Directors and our MNCAR Exchange Board of Directors decided to form our Member Services Committee in an effort to improve member services and generate revenue for the association. The One Stop Shop Campaign was a strategic initiative born from the Member Services Committee and our commitment to making our members lives easier. Acting on feedback from our broker members, the Member Services Committee set out to build a campaign that would meet three main goals: 1) Member retention. Our 2010 goal was to retain 91% of our members. Even in a down economy, we surpassed this and our retention rates for 2010 (including new joins) were 98%. 2) Create branding and marketing tools for smaller brokerage firms. We wanted to even the playing field and assist smaller firms in presenting listings in a dynamic, professional manner equal to the larger firms. 3) Streamline processes for our members. We listened! Our members want time-saving, professional and easy-to-navigate processes and tools and that s what we ve given them. Target Audience Our target audience for this campaign initially started out as our members in the smaller brokerage firms, but interest in the products grew quickly and the appeal of these new marketing tools expanded out to our sponsors and larger brokerage firms as well. Featured Properties Initially, our target audience for Featured Properties was our current annual sponsors. In 2010, we began offering our sponsors the ability to use the Featured Properties feature at no additional cost, as an annual sponsorship benefit. Our goal was to retain the number of sponsors we currently had. We received unexpected success with this campaign: we increased our sponsorship revenue by 15% in 2010 over what we had generated in This was a phenomenal success considering the economic challenges that our members had been experiencing throughout the year. Sponsorship revenue in 2009 = $63,000 # of Sponsors in 2009 = 20 Sponsorship revenue in 2010 = $74,000 (a 15% increase) # of Sponsors in 2010 = 24

5 Broadcast Templates We originally targeted our small- to mid-sized member firms as broadcast template users. We wanted to provide them access to the same powerful marketing tools that the large shops used. As the larger brokerage firms begin to see the quality of the Broadcast Templates we d created, they begin dropping their third-party providers in exchange for our templates. The three largest brokerage firms in the metro area are currently using our Broadcast Templates, saving them hundreds of dollars per month. Action Plan including Roles by Staff, Volunteers, etc. In order to successfully implement our 5 New Marketing Tools and One Login features, close coordination and cooperation between MNCAR staff, committee volunteers, Board members and outside vendors had to occur. MNCAR staff met regularly with our Member Services Committee to share input from members throughout the process. The Member Services Committee recommended project goals and timelines to the MNCAR Board of Directors and the MNCAR Exchange Board of Directors for approval. MNCAR staff held weekly meetings with our website vendor, and regular meetings with other vendors including database vendors and designers. MNCAR worked in partnership with the Appraisal Data Network (ADN), a trade association of commercial real estate appraisers, to share resources in developing our Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Mapping System, benefiting both associations and their members, MNCAR and ADN. MNCAR staff held regular meetings with ADN during the development of the GIS mapping system, to ensure value to both organizations. MNCAR staff produced several marketing pieces, offered educational training to members on the new tools and worked to educate all MNCAR volunteers to serve as ambassadors to communicate these initiatives to all MNCAR members. Budget Broadcast Template development = $1,200 Featured Properties development = $2,500 Sales Comp System updates (One Login) = $2,665 Approximate staff hours = $ 600_ TOTAL = $6,965 While the revenue generated and cost savings are not easily measurable, our primary goal on this project was to retain members in a down economy. We not only increased membership by 6%, we also grew our sponsorship revenue by 15% in We consider this campaign a major financial success because of the long-term member retention and sponsorship benefits it has allowed us.

6 Marketing and Promotional Materials produced by MNCAR Staff: Announcement of the 5 Marketing Tools via Constant Contact to our members Posted prominently on the MNCAR Website Hosted training sessions for members on the 5 Marketing Tools Provided free trial subscription to members for Broadcast Templates Provide Featured Properties as an additional benefit to our 2010 sponsors, at no additional cost Distributed E-Tip educational sent weekly to MNCAR members - on how to use the 5 Marketing Tools Mailed hard-copy instructional postcard to members Created applications, sell sheets, and subscription forms to accurately communicate new offerings to members Featured the 5 Marketing Tools in our monthly E-newsletter Promoted 5 Marketing Tools via staff signature lines and promotional signs within the MNCAR office. Broadcast Flyer (Attachment 5) 5 New Marketing Tools Brochure (Attachment 3) Free Trial Offer Banner Ad (Attachment 4) Featured Property Table Tent (Attachment 6)

7 Demonstrated Excellence as a result of this campaign: 15% increase in MNCAR sponsorship revenue from 2009 to % member retention rate in 2010 including new joins Approximately 1/3 of the Twin Cities commercial real estate market is currently using our Broadcast Templates to broadcast property listings Smaller brokerage shops in the Twin Cities now have the same advantage of professionally-designed, quality marketing tools as the big shops MNCAR generated over $3,300 in revenue from the Broadcast Templates A strong partnership and valuable information was supported between the commercial appraisers and the commercial real estate brokers MNCAR members and sponsors now have the advantages of: Major time-savings with these new tools Featuring properties on the MNCAR.org homepage which receives over 17,000 hits per month Super-charged E-Marketing with customized Broadcast Templates Capitalizing on market knowledge with our GIS Mapping System Access to our Online Learning Center for instruction and tips The ability to login once to access four separate database and information systems The One Stop Shop Campaign met and in many ways exceeded our three main goals: Member retention. Our 2010 goal was to retain 91% of our members. Even in a down economy, we surpassed this and our retention rates for 2010 (including new joins) were 98%. We also increased our sponsorship revenue by 15% after offering our Featured Properties tool in our 2010 Sponsorship Package. Create branding and marketing tools for smaller brokerage firms. Smaller firms now have access to the same high-quality branding, marketing and reportgeneration tools and resources that the larger firms have. An unintended success of this campaign is that the larger firms are also choosing to use our Broadcast Templates over the expensive, third-party services they had been using. Approximately 1/3 of the Twin Cities commercial real estate market is currently using our Broadcast Templates to broadcast property listings. Streamline processes for our members. Our members are always in need of timesaving, professional and easy-to-navigate processes and tools. Through our One Stop Shop Campaign, we ve given them those resources.

8 What Our Members Are Saying About Our One Stop Shop Approach: I truly cannot live without MNCAR s Broadcast system, it gives me an accurate read on what s happening in specific office markets and allows me to broadcast my clients needs to the correct decision makers in the market. I love the fact that I can do immediate marketing I can reach any and all brokers within minutes; it s impressive to have the ability to search previous requirements in this rapidly changing marketplace. Being that MNCAR is Broker-driven, it promotes broker accountability, leading to stronger relationships and protocols in the broker community. -John McCarthy, Senior Vice President, NorthMarq MNCAR Member and Sponsor Description and Mission of our Organization MNCAR s Mission We are a cooperative commercial real estate community. With a track record of the most accurate information, future-focused education, and invaluable connections, MNCAR's reputation amongst professionals is second to none. MNCAR s Vision The MNCAR vision is to be the preeminent resource connecting knowledgeable, commercial real estate brokers in Minnesota. We aim to serve as a flagship model to other real estate associations and to provide industry leadership nationwide. About MNCAR MNCAR's mission is to increase the professionalism and profitability of our members. With more than 1100 members throughout Minnesota, MNCAR is a non-profit, member-driven association. Providing education and networking services, MNCAR is also the provider of the nationally renowned MNCAR Exchange a database of more than 26,000 commercial properties throughout Minnesota. The MNCAR Exchange is run by brokers for brokers, with the most comprehensive commercial property data available in the Twin Cities, provided at competitive, value-oriented pricing. Thank you for the opportunity to submit this entry.