Skip to main content

David & Goliath - Top 5 Marketing Tips for Smaller Apartment Communities

iStock-658606030.jpg

How do you beat the "big guys" at apartment marketing?

While many large property management firms and developers have substantial budgets for their apartment marketing, a considerable number of smaller apartment communities don't, so it takes a unique and creative approach to generate leads for your community.

With that in mind, we have put together the top 5 marketing tips for smaller apartment communities.

Local Co-Branding Promotions

While promotion through local businesses, hospitals and colleges have always been a staple of "local" marketing, try taking it one step further. Instead of merely leaving a flyer behind at these locations, try a "co-branding" promotion. An example would be a promotion with a local pizza shop that offers free application fee with the purchase of a pizza. Same can be true on your end. Allow that business to place a flyer in your community. The key to this is building relationships with high-value local merchants.

Micro-Sponsorships

As a new segment of apartment marketing, "micro-sponsorships" allow brands to spread the word of their communities and projects through social media for a fraction of the cost of typical advertising. In simplest terms, it's paying "micro-influencers" to promote your community. A "micro-influencer" is anyone with a following of anywhere between 1,000 to 100,000 people, that could be a tenant in one of your apartment communities, a local or someone who has engaged with your community previously through social media.

Here is a great article that explains Micro Sponsorships more in-depth:

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/how-to-find-quality-micro-influencers-even-if-youre-clueless-about-influe/522996/

Looking for "micro-influencers? Check out these two influencer databases and platforms: https://scrunch.com/ and https://tinysponsor.com/

Neighborhood Facebook Groups

If your leasing agents have time (and they always do), try engaging with local groups on Facebook. Every neighborhood (for the most part), has a local facebook page for residents. This approach can be a great way to get your apartment communities name out there and generate local "buzz."

Attend Local Events

What local events are happening in your neighborhood? These events offer an excellent opportunity to meet locals who may be interested in your apartment community. Don't have the budget for a booth? Walk around and hand out your business cards to vendors, who may pass along your information to customers.

Waze Local Advertising

An exciting new entry into local "search advertising," the Waze travel app now offers geo-based advertising for a little as $2/day. You can reach drivers near your apartment community and target drivers who are near your location with a great ad experience. Setup is relatively simple, and you can track (in real-time) potential customers engaged with your ads.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ReMarketing - The Secret Weapon of Apartment Leasing

So you're browsing the internet. Let's say you're on Amazon.com. You view some items then decide to check the news over at CNN.com. Magically, you start to see ads for products you just saw on Amazon on the CNN site. How did they know? Is it magic? Some kind of sorcery? No, it's Remarketing. Remarketing is a relatively new way of showing targeted ads to individuals that have previously visited your website - as they browse elsewhere on the internet. It has been primarily used by big retailers over the last couple of years with great success and now, could be a game changer for the multifamily industry. Remarketing & Apartment Marketing One of the most significant deficiencies in the apartment marketing world has been brand awareness and website conversion. Let's say Jane Renter is browsing your website. She likes your building but isn't ready to pull the trigger. She leaves and keeps browsing the internet. You've now lost her as a lead. You've ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reputation Management for Apartments

WHAT IS REPUTATION MANAGEMENT? Online reputation management (ORM) is the process of controlling what shows up when someone looks up your apartment community online. WHY DOES IT MATTER? Damaging reviews can have a devastating effect on a apartment communities leasing efforts when they appear on the first page of the search engine's results. How your property or apartment community looks online directly impacts your leasing, retention and renewals Negative items showing up online can damage your brand and decrease new lease generation, whereas having a positive online reputation leads to increased leads and retention rates. HOW TO FIX IT? The goal of any good Reputation Management program is to minimize the impact of adverse reviews while improving the number of positive reviews left by renters and tenants. Each reputation management campaign should be unique and apply a customized approach to your brand strategy. While the process of building and maintaining a po...
Post a Comment
Read more

IDEAS FOR RENT - Developing a Reputation Management Plan

Let's be honest. Very few in our industry like online review websites. They are a constant struggle. Very rarely do they provide a sound mechanism to generate leads and more often than not, they lead to bad reputations, decreased lead generation, and fewer renewals. However, we still need to deal with them. Online review sites are here to stay and should not be ignored. Hoping they go away won't solve the problem. However, if you have the right plan, you can make sure you are setup for success. Reputation Management Plan It's essential, if not vital that every community today develops a plan on how to deal with online reviews. The goal of any good Reputation Management plan is to minimize the impact of adverse reviews while improving the number of positive reviews left by renters and tenants. STEP #1 - Respond to Negative Reviews A Reputation Management plan starts with responding to reviews in a timely, understanding and mature manner.   React ...
Post a Comment
Read more