Leasing an apartment should be quite simple, right? After all, everyone needs somewhere to live and a place to call home. However, that would be quite true under normal circumstances and today’s real estate rental market is anything but normal.
When you consider all the global economic and geopolitical factors that have more or less of a profound impact on every market everywhere in the world, it can be quite volatile. This has made potential renters quite picky regarding renting out an apartment.
As selective as they might be, sometimes all they need is a nudge in the right direction. But in order for you to be able to do that, you’ll need to utilize some crafty marketing strategies for leasing apartments and convince potential residents that you have exactly what they’re looking for.
Not only that, but you’ll have to be one step ahead of your competitors, as they won’t wait around for you to come up with any great ideas. That being said, let’s have a look at how to leverage modern marketing tactics for leasing apartments quickly and effectively.
Why Marketing Matters for Apartment Leasing?
Almost everything happens online today. According to research, an average internet user spends about six hours and 38 minutes online, every day. And around six in every 10 people around the world use the Internet to search for relevant information.
[1]This number continues to grow, but even in 2019 approx. 40 million US residents were looking for an apartment for rent. [2] That number keeps increasing every year.
And their search starts online. where your potential residents are at all times, which is where creative marketing ideas for leasing apartments come into play. You have to help those people find you and convince them that your deals are all the more sweeter than those of your competitors.
Creative Marketing Ideas for Leasing Apartments
If you wish to lease apartments quickly and efficiently, you’ll have to put your creativity, ingenuity, and imagination to work. Fortunately, the online marketing domain allows you to leverage those to their fullest potential.
Truly, the possibilities are limitless, and how far you’re willing to go depends on what you want to achieve. With that in mind, here are a few creative and somewhat unique marketing ideas that will help you out in leasing those apartments of yours.
1. Build an Awesome Apartment Website
This one is quite obvious, but you have to start somewhere, and a website where you’ll showcase apartments is the foundation for every future marketing endeavor you’ll come up with. Keep in mind that your prospects already know what they want, so you might want to keep your apartment website design simple and straight to the point.
In other words, don’t overwhelm visitors with unnecessary visuals and bloated features. Instead, provide them with what they need, which is detailed information about apartments for lease, transparency regarding what’s included in the lease, and a myriad of high-quality images and videos depicting each apartment from every possible angle.
Some potential residents may be open to relocating to a different state if they find the perfect place. Still, they won’t make the trip unless they’re already seriously considering signing a lease.
High-quality images and 3D tour videos play a crucial role in bridging this gap, offering a compelling visual experience that helps them envision your apartment as their future home. Virtual tours, 360-degree images, and professionally shot photos and videos can provide the confidence they need to take the next step.
2. Extend Your Reach
As mentioned before, creating a website is the first step, but now you have to build visibility and awareness for your business. A website alone won’t help you much if nobody knows anything about you. Therefore, you have to extend your reach.
The best way to achieve this is to mix a bit of an organic and paid approach. Promoting your business and offers organically takes more time to take root, but it sits well with your prospects.
Organic marketing strategies include:
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Claiming various business listings and citations via local SEO, including your Google Business Profile
- Establishing yourself as an industry professional through publishing content and guest posting on relevant websites.
- Creating your own blog.
- Creating a strong presence on social media.
But since that takes time, you might want to speed things along with a bit of a more direct approach. It’s a more aggressive and pushy approach, but it gets you the results you need much faster.
Those strategies include:
- PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertisements on major search engines like Google and Bing.
- Paid advertisements on social media like Facebook, Instagram, and others.
- Sponsored ads.
- Video ads.
- Influencer marketing.
Combining these two approaches can help you build brand awareness rather quickly. With an effective digital and social media management strategy in place, you’ll have more control over how your prospects perceive your business. So, the more potential renters are aware of your existence, the easier it will become to engage them and, hopefully, convince them to pay more attention to your offers.
3. Be Active on Social Media
Social media platforms are a world of their own, somewhat separated from the rest of the digital marketing domain. Although most of the common marketing rules apply to social media, a specific approach is still required to make your efforts worthwhile.
Being active on social media is just the beginning of such a journey. As a matter of fact, you have to cater to your audience in a specific way using a specific tone of voice that’s consistent across all platforms on which you’ve built a presence.
Moreover, you must deliver quality content regularly and find innovative ways to keep your audience engaged. In the case of leasing apartments, you can create contests where you can offer leasing promotions such as enter to win one month free rent.
Events like those not only keep people interested in both your business and your offers but also encourage them to take the desired action. In this case, rent out an apartment. This is why social media for apartments is one of the best channels for getting the best results.
4. Social Media Advertisement
Another aspect of social media is that many platforms allow you to utilize their built-in advertisement features. Facebook ads for apartments have proven to be especially effective, given just how customizable they are. The purpose of ads is not only to build awareness but to actually target prospects who are already interested and willing to rent an apartment.
All they need is to be targeted with the right type of ad, and good chances are that they’ll contact you by the end of the day. So long as you craft your ads well and with a clear purpose in mind, you can reach a much broader audience than you normally would through organic means.
5. Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Word-of-mouth is arguably the most effective marketing strategy you can have in your arsenal. Don’t get this the wrong way, but consumers generally trust other consumers more than they trust companies of any sort.
That said, testimonials from other residents are likely to have more of an impact on potential tenants than any of your other marketing strategies. However, you’ll have to be a great property manager if you want to have satisfied residents who will be glad to provide you with testimonials and positive reviews.
That is the basis of word-of-mouth promotions. It’s a two-way street, to put it simply. You can also create a referral program where your existing tenants will be rewarded in some way for providing positive reviews or for referring a friend or a family member.
How you reward them is entirely up to you; just make sure it’s something worthwhile so that other tenants will be interested in engaging in the program. The more testimonials you get from tenants, the more effective your strategy will be for future prospects.
What’s absolutely great about testimonials and positive reviews is that you can leverage them to strengthen your other marketing strategies.
For example, you can include testimonials on your website, blog, and social media pages to show potential prospects that you have happy and satisfied residents. You can also include testimonials in email marketing and adverts so that they can have the same effect.
Promote Your Leasing Apartments the Right Way with Brindle Digital Marketing
Navigating the waters of digital marketing can sometimes be quite confusing and somewhat challenging. Most businesses tend to spend too much time pondering where to start and where to go from there.
That’s why it’s always a good idea to partner up with an agency that can help you clear the way forward. At Brindle Digital Marketing, that’s exactly what we do. We will help your leasing apartments get noticed by the right prospects and ensure you have a steady flow of tenants to help grow and develop your business further.
Our expert team of designers, developers, and marketers will ensure you get the best results. If you’re wondering how we can help promote your apartments, then have a look at the services we offer:
- Website design for apartments
- Branding strategy for your business
- Creating social media, SEO, and paid advertisement strategies for your apartments.
So don’t hesitate to reach out to us today, and we will create a plan that will match all your preferences and your needs.
Conclusion: Utilizing Marketing Ideas for Leasing Apartments
Leasing apartments is no longer considered a breeze. The fact of the matter is that the real estate market is fiercely competitive, and if you can’t keep up, you’re likely to lose tenants in the long run.
Fortunately, digital marketing can level the field and give you an opportunity to get ahead of the game, especially if you utilize creative marketing ideas for leasing apartments. But even that can prove to be a challenge if you lose sight of what’s important.
Remember, a consumer or, in this case, tenant-centric approach is the key to leasing your apartments quickly and efficiently.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you market a lease?
The best way to market a lease is to leverage every tool and channel at your disposal. Be creative and consider what would appeal to your potential tenants the most. That can be anything from detailed guided tours of the property to incentives that will encourage prospects to convert. Find something that will give you an edge over your competitors and use that as your unique selling proposition.
What is the best way to advertise an apartment?
The best way to advertise an apartment is to leverage targeted ads on social media, search engines, and ILSs Ads targeted at specific consumers with a clear purpose and concise message can do wonders for your conversion rates.
How to generate leasing traffic?
If you want more people to look at your apartments, you have to make your properties as visible as possible. That includes a combination of marketing efforts mixed with unique proposals that will simply make your apartments difficult to ignore. For example, eliminating security deposits as a condition for rent can be quite an appealing incentive for people to take a closer look at your properties.
What is a lease-up strategy?
A lease-up strategy is a plan that will help you lease all your available apartments as quickly as possible. That plan must include everything from building awareness to attracting potential tenants and encouraging them to convert. How you create this strategy is up to you, but keep in mind that your endeavors must be efficient; otherwise, your apartments will remain empty and will not generate any rental income whatsoever.
References
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1380282/daily-time-spent-online-global/
[2] https://www.statista.com/topics/5172/apartments-in-the-us/#topicOverview