They say that digital marketing is the future of any business. However, for so many building owners and landlords looking to entice renters, the thought of attempting a digital marketing campaign can seem like a step that’s easy to get wrong. A step that can potentially cause some irreparable damage to their reputation along the way. However, creating a perfect digital marketing campaign for a rental unit is easier than most of the people think. Using just a few tips and digital tools can help one’s rental business reach a vast new audience in no time.
Create an Effective Brand Identity
One of the most important factors in creating a successful digital marketing campaign is a brand identity – identifying what your brand is before you try selling it. It might seem that branding has nothing to do with rental business, but it seems so only at first glance. You should always be clear who your rentals are made for. If you’re attempting to market your rentals as high-end luxury apartments, make sure your photos and copy manage to reflect that; if you’re eager to make your place seem like the perfect fit for more artsy, bohemian type, opt for a looser writing style and home staging that make your rentals appeal to edgy tastemakers.
Luxury Manhattan rental building 555Ten has done a great job of this on their Instagram, positioning the building as a lifestyle destination, not just a place to live. They’ve managed to do this thanks to photos of friends sipping craft beers, working out at the building’s gym, and celebrating the Fourth of July from the building’s rooftop.
Expand Your Social Media Reach
Facebook may be ubiquitous at this point, but it might be necessary to branch out further in order to get noticed by the right audience. Different social media networks appeal to different demographics, so it’s important to cover your bases, creating profiles for your property or real estate company everywhere from Snapchat to LinkedIn. Getting your name out there on a wide variety of sites might just be enough to get noticed by the right people; at the very least, it will keep your name on people’s lips.
Implement an SEO strategy
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) may sound like something too difficult at first, but implementing an effective SEO strategy is actually pretty simple. Tools like Google Analytics and Moz can help you find out which search terms people are using when looking for properties and determine which ones you could be using to attract more viewers. On the back end, you can make your site/listing a destination with just a few tweaks. Instead of just using tags like “rentals” when posting a new listing, think of what customers would be searching for: the name of a city, the type of building you are offering, and even design keywords like “hardwood floors” and “crown moldings” can help boost your ranking on Google.
Get Visual
The kiss of death when it comes to real estate listings is having too few photos. To put it differently, quality real estate pictures play a crucial role in the industry. If you’ve only got a picture of the building’s front door and the master bath, people will assume there’s something you’re trying to hide. Take a page from San Francisco’s Fulton 555 and keep up an Instagram showcasing the lifestyle renters might lead at your property; take photos of friends eating at a nearby restaurant, show off some public art, take some photos of a local park, and make sure you’re providing plenty of pics of the home itself to sell the whole thing as a package deal.
Keep Innovating
Just because you started taking your digital marketing campaign in one direction doesn’t mean you’re stuck doing the same thing forever. Make it look fresh and new in the minds of potential customers. Don’t be afraid to use video content, contests, partner content, and even blog posts. And if you own more than one rental or have a real estate company, make sure you’re posting content regularly so that your brand isn’t forgotten by its customer base.
Whether you’re a less-than-experienced marketer or are just new to the digital side of the game, creating a digital marketing strategy for your rental business can feel like a difficult task at first. Fortunately, just a few easy-to-implement digital strategies can have your business seen by tens of thousands of potential clients and customers, providing you a wealth of new deals in no time.
Author’s bio: Candice Schaffer lives in New York City and works at Knightsbridge Park, a leading digital marketing firm for luxury real estate brands such as Brickell Flatiron, 12 Warren and Austin Nichols House.
