The real estate industry has been heavily reliant on digital marketing for years now, as property listings shifted from newspapers and local magazines to websites and online community boards. Before potential buyers or tenants even call the phone number or email the manager, they may have been on digital tours – ideal for showings during the pandemic. Some sellers even offer VR tours for a more realistic take on the spaces. These are all great tools, but listings and their associated features are just the tips of the iceberg when it comes to the available marketing resources.
For real estate professionals concerned with reaching potential tenants while staying within their budgets, there are plenty of other tools that offer much more substantial benefits than online listings. These 3 strategies can increase your properties’ appeal, build awareness, and create a sense of connection between the audience and your rental brand – all without breaking the bank.
Building Social Media Strength
Social media is at the heart of all marketing strategies today, but many landlords and property managers haven’t figured out how to use it as a value-added tool yet. Get started with this strategy by launching Facebook and Instagram ads, which are affordable and can easily reach large rental demographics, like millennials, who don’t yet own their own homes, but who came of age on these platforms. For greater depth, move over to YouTube, where you can share property videos, offer tours, talk about the neighbourhood, and provide insights into your tenant application process.
Connect With Promotional Pros
One factor that distinguishes self-managed properties from those handled by a property management company is the quality of the outreach and advertising. Property managers direct marketing campaigns, ensuring that your homes and apartments are presented in the best light through professional photography, high-quality websites, and other tools.
In addition to having professional experience handling marketing campaigns, property management companies also have access to a variety of platforms and software that individual landlords typically don’t use. These tools help them make informed marketing decisions, respond promptly to inquiries, and develop new promotional materials. While solo investors can invest in these tools, it’s just not cost-effective, whereas property managers use these tools for a large number of properties, creating an economy of scale.
Demonstrate Community
People often choose what property to rent based as much on the individual space – how many bedrooms, whether there’s outdoor space, whether utilities are included – as the surrounding community and the other people who already live in the area. This is why referral programs for current tenants have always been so popular: people like to know that they’re going to be living alongside others they like and trust. However, the time has come to innovate on these programs. How, then, should you highlight the community potential tenants will be living in?
Social media pages are a great way to demonstrate management’s investment in tenants, so make ample use of these spaces. Get permission from tenants to share good news, such as a graduation or a new baby, do a roundup of pets that live in the community (everyone loves pet pictures), and highlight special services, projects, or community activities, like barbecues, pool parties, or food drives that tenants participate in. If your goal is to streamline your workflow and make it more efficient while giving you hours back every week, you can do this with real estate marketing automation.
Don’t forget about the maintenance and office staff when playing up your properties’ community. These individuals are all important points of contact for tenants and their role in maintaining the buildings and keeping things running can’t be overstated – plus, speedy maintenance cam drive tenant loyalty. Whatever you choose to highlight on your social media channels, though, remember that the key word is social, so people should be at the heart of it all.
Promoting real estate is no longer a matter of hanging For Rent signs and posting a property online for applications. Instead, it’s an all fronts effort to attract attention in a nonstop digital environment. If you want to succeed, you need to stand out, so be sure you’ve got a strategy that will shine a spotlight on your properties and draw new tenants to your front door.