Just a couple of thoughts that came to my head when I thought of marketing empty apartments. I do have some experience in marketing apartments online and thought I would share some ideas.
Go all in
Just like in poker you sometimes have to go all in. In the apartment marketing game it is best to show them everything you have with your apartment in one spot. I am talking about good pictures, maps, descriptions, local attractions, sideshows, contact forms, live chat and your phone number everywhere.
Respond quickly
In North Dakota I know it costs roughly $500 to market and fill one unit for a year. Now if it is possible to drop that cost down to $100-150 per unit the savings adds up quickly. That is exactly what we did with our network of apartments listings sites.
Promote your buildings on and offline
We still have the traditional property managers that market apartments all of the usual ways via, TV, newspapers and radio. On the other hand I use SEO and content to drive online traffic to our sites (such as contextual links “Fargo, ND apartments“). We go to great lengths to become the authority on apartments in our area. We talk about parks, schools, colleges, businesses, museums, special events and anything else we can think of.
Promote your competition
I know that might seem a little weird or off but it works to benefit everyone involved. We have listings for approximately 3,000 units throughout North Dakota and in most cases the apartments are full. The problem is that we still receive leads to the sites asking for availabilities and different apartments. Now you are in a position to either list others apartments for a fee or sell the leads off to other property managers.
Repeat the rewards
I have to admit that this process of building a network of sites is time consuming and labor intensive, but it is definitely worth the effort. when done right you will receive many contacts and have the ability to shape the opinion of your brand as well as reputation of your apartments.
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Online Apartment Marketing Ideas http://tinyurl.com/8klles
Great post, I will have to agree first and foremost that "promoting competition" might be the most important thing when it comes to internet marketing in general, even blogging.
@Max, Now I just need to have you build us a search engine just for our blogs and apt sites.
Hi Josh, Do you think an online promotion can help a lot to conventional marketing tactics?
@seo services, absolutely, I believe tying the two together is the biggest key to success. Being able to bring the online world to a more traditional business is a huge benefit.
What do you recommend doing if you are marketing an apartment in a foreign country?
I have tried a number of social media websites down here in Sao Paulo Brazil – like http://www.Orkut.com and then a few free clasified sites like wwww.listadoluiz.com and mercadolibre.com but the amount of traffic I am getting is not yet doing the job. Then again, I have only had the ads out for about 3 days. Any suggestions?
FYI-
aside from http://www.listadoluiz.com I also put the ad on clasificadossaopaulo.com which looks good as well. Anyways, please send suggestions
Yes I Also Believe the Online promotion Help The conventional marketing tactics. Now a days Every Small business Owners marketing via online promotion.
Why is it important to promote your competition when you are a blogger? What are some ways to do this?
@Lindsay, good question. I should probably answer that in a post. Thanks for the comment
Excellent post!
Also do you think keeping your current tenants in the loop using e-newsletters, e-greeting cards, and referral programs would help in tenant retention and word of mouth referrals?
@Chriss, those are great ideas. I think keeping people in the building is just as important as trying to fill one. Do you have any successfully examples of using e-newsletter and referrals?
You can visit our website to see how we help promote Apartments. From newsletters to flyers, teasers, postcards, indoor wall posters, bandit signs and banners. We design, print and ship to any location in the US. No huge orders needed and very inexpensive.