Project Opening Marketing Manager

Venterra Realty•Houston, TX

2d•Onsite

About The Position

Venterra is seeking a hands-on, strategic marketing leader to manage the lease-up marketing strategy for new multifamily communities, from construction through stabilization. This role is designed for an individual who can be entrusted with setting the strategy and is accountable for the results. It is distinct from traditional property marketing, focusing on lease-up strategy, demand generation, pipeline health, launch readiness, local market awareness, and achieving leasing goals. The Marketing Manager will be the marketing lead for assigned new development lease-ups across various markets. Responsibilities include assessing each property, understanding the local market, defining the target renter audience, developing the launch strategy, aligning stakeholders, and driving execution with speed and accuracy. Success hinges on ownership, business acumen, strong follow-through, comfort with ambiguity, and proactive leadership. The ideal candidate will be adept at making recommendations, influencing cross-functional teams, identifying risks, and being measured by business outcomes. The expectation is to not just support openings, but to build qualified demand before the first units are available, maintain leasing momentum through the opening phase, and accelerate the community towards stabilization. While strategic thinking is crucial, this role also requires individual contribution in setting up marketing systems and media. This role requires frequent travel to new development markets and communities, as effective lease-up marketing necessitates on-the-ground market knowledge. The individual must be willing and able to spend time in markets to understand competitors, demand drivers, renter behavior, local partnerships, signage and outreach opportunities, leasing barriers, and launch execution requirements.

Requirements

4–7+ years of local marketing experience, preferably in multifamily, real estate, hospitality, retail, or another location-based consumer business.
Experience owning or leading marketing strategy for lease-ups, new developments, grand openings, new store openings, localized launches, or market-entry campaigns strongly preferred.
Proven ability to build marketing plans tied to business goals, launch timelines, demand generation, and measurable outcomes.
Experience working cross-functionally with operations, sales, revenue management, asset management, development, or field teams.
Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business Administration, Communications, or related field preferred. High school diploma preferred.
Experience with CRM, email marketing, and lead-management platforms.
Working knowledge of conversion-focused campaign strategy and performance reporting.
Comfortable evaluating applicant flow, lead quality, traffic sources, campaign performance, and conversion trends.
Proficiency in presentation tools, spreadsheets, planning documents, and marketing collateral.
Familiarity with design tools or the ability to guide creative development effectively.
Ability to clearly present marketing strategy, campaign performance, and recommendations to stakeholders.

Responsibilities

Own marketing strategy for assigned new developments from pre-leasing through stabilization.
Build lease-up plans that align asset goals, market conditions, renter profiles, delivery schedules, pricing, and business objectives.
Work with vendors to create brand identity and messaging, digital assets, renderings, and virtually staged tours.
Launch drip email campaigns and social media campaigns, promoting community lifestyle, benefits, and updates.
Build and convert a strong lead and applicant pipeline, with occupancy goals based on market.
Develop local brand positioning that reflects each community’s location, product, amenities, lifestyle, target renter, and competitive landscape.
Drive local awareness before opening so communities are known in market early.
Travel to assigned markets to understand competitors, traffic drivers, employers, universities, retail nodes, signage opportunities, referral sources, renter behavior, and conversion barriers.
Use time in market to build relationships, identify opportunities, and ground marketing strategy in the renter experience.
Lead launch planning across internal teams, vendors, and local partners.
Partner with Development, Operations, Asset Management, Revenue Management, Leasing, and on-site teams to align strategy, timing, targets, pricing, and execution.
Influence without direct authority, create clarity, and escalate risks early.
Partner with Leasing and Operations to understand lead quality, response time, follow-up gaps, objections, tour conversion, application conversion, and closing barriers.
Use leasing insights and performance data to refine messaging, targeting, outreach, campaigns, budgets, and positioning.
Monitor campaign performance, applicant flow, traffic sources, conversion trends, leasing velocity, occupancy pacing, and market feedback.
Create repeatable tools, timelines, and playbooks to improve consistency and speed across future lease-ups.