Data is the lifeblood of successful marketing. You track your campaign performance down to the dollar. You’re on top of lead generation and conversion efforts. But what about demographic and economic data? How are you staying current and incorporating those insights into your marketing plan?

Supplementing your apartment marketing with economic data can position you as the local expert — someone renters trust, and someone whose understanding of local market fundamentals inspires confidence in investors or owners. Here are four ways to use economic data in your multifamily marketing efforts.

Understand your customers better

It goes without saying that you need to know who your customer is before you start talking to them. Do you understand how renters search for their next home? Do you know how long it takes and the circumstances under which they are searching? How about what types of properties they are searching for? The Zillow Group Report on Consumer Housing Trends provides a ton of demographic data that you can use to better understand your customers and create more targeted campaigns.

Use it in your conversations with renters

Do you know the median rent in your market? What about its projected growth? You can use the Zillow Rent Index (ZRI) and local market reports, which track the monthly median rent and let you sort markets by growth rate and other factors, to provide renters with timely, relevant information. Knowing your market conditions, and how they have changed over time, can help you talk with potential renters and renew current residents.

Supplement market surveys and analysis

Big meeting coming up? You’ll want to study up before talking with your boss (or your boss’s boss). Demonstrate your knowledge of market fundamentals by using economic data in your presentation or report to support your marketing decisions. Use charts, graphs and even visualizations to communicate a trend and show you understand your properties and prices in the context of your region, so you (or your boss) are positioned to make an informed decision.

Share it with your investors/owners

Zillow Group Research provides a wide variety of free data, briefs and reports that go so much deeper than vacancy rates and rent growth, such as where people are moving to and from and why. Use this information to share background and shed light on trends with investors or owners during meetings or in a new business pitch.