Sometimes, it can be difficult to know how to advertise your available units in order to successfully rent them. Some strategies may seem to work for others, but fall flat when you give them a try yourself. However, there are some property marketing tactics that you can try that seem to have a good amount of success across the board!
Shaping Your Property Marketing Strategy
Would you say that your focus and work as a manager includes “a proactive marketing strategy?” If not, then this should change. Marketing should always be in your mind even when there aren’t available units, as you never know when one may open up. And, as you know, the longer these units remained unrented, the more revenue you are losing out on.
So, how can you start employing more proactive property marketing strategies? To start with, make sure that you have previously defined a target market, or the kind of people that you are trying to get to rent your units. What demographic have you had success with in the past? What kind of people live or work in the building, or in the area? Part of this is developing a solid understand of the neighborhood, so do some research into that before you start your efforts.
As with most everything else these days, social media is a tool that you can’t neglect. The benefits of these practices and the list of things that you can do with them are numerous, but, put simply, you should make accounts for your property management company. Particularly with platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, you can utilize their format to post a lot of pictures, taking advantage of that visual nature to show off properties. On these and other platforms, too, you can advertise information about open houses and much more. “Maintain a consistent posting rate of several posts per week to maintain an active online presence, and post articles related to industry news and best practices along with advertisements for your properties.”
Just because you’re using social media in your property marketing doesn’t mean you have abandon all “older” methods of marketing. Word of mouth is not dead, and plays an equally-large role in your being able to get the word out. If you can get recommendations and reviews from past renters to put on your website, then that will go a long way in appealing to new, potential renters. Also, if you’re able to offer incentives, you can ask current renters to recommend your property to others who may then rent from you, in exchange for some money, or a discount on rent.
As mentioned above, even if you aren’t actively in need of new renters, you should be constantly searching for new ways to market and get the word out. “Create email lists for different communities to gather a list of interested renters.” Staying on top of electronic tools (such as e-mail marketing) makes it easier than ever for you to get in touch with these interested parties as soon as the need arises. If you have a format already made, along with a pre-written list of reasons to choose your property (amenities, benefits, etc.), then you can start marketing much more quickly when the time comes for it.
Though it may sound a little cheesy, you should advertise your property as a “community” rather than just… well, a property. It isn’t a building to live or work, and is, rather, a place to call home. Use verbiage that suggests this so you can instill in potential renters the feelings that might cause them to opt for your location rather than another. You want them to feel as if they’re part of something, whether it’s one office among a building of professionals, or one family in a building of other families. People like to feel involved and connected to others, so if you play up this angle, then you’ll likely find very positive results.
Property marketing is usually much simpler than you might imagine, provided you have the right tools for the job. Without the right kind of technology, though, you may fall behind your competition. This is why you should try something like Budgetrac Property Management Software, a flexible, yet robust system. Once you make the switch, you’ll never go back to working without it again thanks to its many features and easy management of all your systems.