Property management marketing is no longer just putting an apartment ad in the paper: it requires much more marketing strategy and effort, especially as rental rates continue to soar.
We’re sharing a few tips to help property managers assert themselves in the market competitively.
Likely the first thing someone is going to do when searching for your business, or anything really is head to Google. They will get millions of results for their search, and it’s unlikely anyone will click through farther than the first 1 to 2 pages of results. Thus, it’s essential to have your Google My Business listing in tip-top shape so that it shows above other competitors.
Your Google My Business is essentially an online directory listing. It holds specific details of your business in one small little space. Google has made it really easy to view GMB listings by simply expanding it on the screen’s right side. This GMB directory listing will hold some of your company images, your hours, address, contact info, reviews, and other specific data you want to share about your business.
It would help if you treated your Google My Business as another extension of social media. It should represent your brand well. Despite the social media features on Google being less than popular, making certain your information is accurate and up to date is critical to people being able to contact you and rely on you. It’s equally as important to respond to any reviews left on your Google. Reviews may be the most important part of GMB as they are one of the main ways potential customers will filter businesses before they make a decision. If you do nothing else, make sure you have a nice-looking, functional website and an up-to-date Google My Business listing.
Over half of internet usage is accessed via mobile devices. If you don’t have a mobile-friendly website design, you could be missing out on half of your potential customers. One of the fastest ways to grow your presence on Google is by having a user and mobile-friendly website. In property management, prospective tenants should easily be able to go to your website, find the contact button, and schedule a viewing for an apartment with ease.
There are great ways to make mobile-friendly image galleries for available apartments, and by having a single-click button on the bottom of the screen, users can contact you via email or phone just by the click of a button. This accessibility will go leaps and bounds in today’s world, where everyone uses their phone more than ever to find businesses and manage their online searches.
Some pretty astounding statistics show that 91% of people online read reviews, and 84% actually trust an online review as much as a friend or family member referral. Think about any time you’ve ever searched something online, whether via Google or on a company website—did you filter by number or quality of reviews? Of course, you did, because you trust what people say about a product, especially if it’s good.
Based on the fact that most people searching online will read reviews shows how absolutely valuable they are. Not only is it important to have reviews, but to have good reviews. Unfortunately, many people are far more inclined to leave a negative review than a good one.
A few ways to ensure you have online reviews is to kindly ask satisfied tenants if they wouldn’t mind leaving a review on Google or Facebook. Also, if you ever receive a bad review, make sure you respond to it. Maybe the person just had a bad first impression or one bad customer service experience, and your interaction could either change their mind or at least shows those reading the reviews that you take the time to address people’s concerns. Either way, you help to build your brand reputation positively.
Content marketing should be a major part of your overall marketing strategy plan. However, it needs to be interesting and readable for both current and prospective customers for it to be valuable. First things first—get a blog page on your website. This can be where you share upcoming events, available units, and new business announcements: it should also be where you write interesting content pieces that entice people to contact your location.
Blog posts can be about apartments, yes, but write about relevant topics that tenants may be looking for even after moving in. It would help if you wrote about decorating an apartment, small bathroom storage, the best small desks for an apartment—any topics that can help out your demographic is huge. People head to the internet first anytime they are looking for inspiration to decorate their homes, so why not be that resource for them? Plus, writing content like that is great for SEO and grows your web presence even more.
Infographics are definitely underutilized by property management companies but are an invaluable part of your marketing. Infographics can be used to share information, they are highly shareable on social media platforms, and they can be used in outreach.
An infographic is, as it sounds, a graphic containing valuable information. In property management, some infographics ideas might be an apartment maintenance checklist, a guide to indoor houseplants, or even trending fabric patterns for the coming year. Either way, these can be put on your blog, your social media, a Pinterest page, you name it.
When you put out your infographics and link them back to your website, anyone who finds or uses them on the internet can get you a link back to your site if they use it on theirs. That is huge for SEO and huge for your reputation when you are seen as a resource in the industry for information outside of property management specifically.
Email newsletters can be critical for sharing information with your tenants throughout your properties, but it can also be a helpful tool to share when openings and rent specials occur. When it comes to social media, people have to see your post at the right time to get that time-sensitive information.
Having people sign up for an email newsletter can be directly alerted anytime critical information is available. For example, if someone is on the hunt for an apartment at one of your properties, but they have a few months until they need to move, they can sign up for your email newsletter and get a direct notification when a unit is available. This can essentially solidify a future prospect by drawing them in very early on.
Simply put, Google Ads is a service developed and catered by Google that allows marketers to increase customer outreach using online advertising. How it works is when someone plugs “property manager” or “available apartments near me” into the search bar, Google will come back with a list of results. However, at the very top of the results page, or the very bottom, the results are Google Paid Ads. This means those results are not showing up organically; they were paid for and thus show up above organic top results.
The same goes for Facebook Ads. You would pay them to ensure your results show up first when people are searching for businesses within your industry. Remarketing ads are one of the quickest ways to get conversions from potential customers. Remarketing happens when ads are displayed to people who were previously on your site or interested in your business or related products. This draws them back to you and can draw more conversions, especially since they were already in the market.
Affiliate marketing can work great for property management marketing. Affiliate marketing is kind of like using influencers to boost a product, but instead, you partner with local businesses that can help boost your company, and you can offer compensation or return the favor.
Affiliate marketing allows you to work with other businesses that can help market your services and properties. Property managers could partner up with any number of local businesses—from furniture stores to home decor—because there are so many things related to people furnishing an apartment that coincides with your niche.
Marketing strategy is a crucial part of a Property Manager’s role. It isn’t just about showing and renting apartments, but it requires some brand awareness, reputation building, and hard work to really get a robust marketing strategy together. If you can successfully execute these marketing tips, you will find yourself climbing the Google results ranks and seeing a boost in conversion rates.
It takes diligence and patience, but it’s all worth it in the end. One key tip is to take advantage of as much free marketing as possible, so your social media platforms, newsletters, referrals, and reviews—utilize them to the fullest.
Check out our Bigos website and blog for more inspiration and ideas on marketing your property management company.
