Landlords wear many hats: investor, manager, employer, interior designer, and more.
Digital marketing is also part of your job description. You won’t get reliable, rent-paying tenants if you don’t first put in the time to create advertisements and post them online. Only then will your properties start generating traction in a competitive market.
Many landlords are unfamiliar with digital marketing when they become investors. This is common. Fortunately, it’s possible to learn the ins and outs of digital rental marketing by researching and developing a few critical skills.
This article will cover five important digital marketing skills and strategies. By employing what you learn here, you’ll be able to compete with other landlords in your area and fill your units year after year.
1. Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a powerful tool you can use to enhance your web content.
It involves strategically placing relevant keywords to improve your Google search engine rankings.
Higher rankings mean more traffic and attention for your business. After all, searchers are likely to click on the first few websites they see. SEO is one way to ensure yours is one of those top sites.
You don’t have to be an SEO expert to use the basic principals in your rental business. Here are a few tips:
- Use local keywords. A renter searching for “Apartments in Cincinnati” will receive thousands of results. Use a local keyword (e.g., “Over-the-Rhine”) to attract renters looking for properties in your exact area.
- Create high-quality content. Avoid generic, stock phrases or bloated descriptions copied and pasted from other sites. Instead, create your own high-quality content by answering questions renters are likely to ask in a concise, direct manner.
- Increase backlinks. Include backlinks to your landing page in your other online content.
- Write for your audience. Your listings and website content should be targeted toward the correct audience—local renters looking for homes. Write for these people, using references or colloquialisms they will understand. Search engine algorithms evaluate how well your site matches a certain search query, so websites that are genuinely helpful and valuable to renters tend to rank higher.
2. Listing Syndication
Listing syndication is a tool you can use to minimize your time spent on digital marketing.
This tool, found on several popular listing sites as well as most property management software platforms, allows you to write one listing and distribute it across multiple listing sites.
Not only does listing syndication save you the time of rewriting listings, but it also keeps them consistent across the internet.
Try syndicating your ads using property management software. Integrated with the rest of your software tools, you’ll easily be able to draw metrics and garner insights from your ads’ click rates.
3. Social Media Marketing
It’s all but impossible to advertise a product in 2022 without social media. It’s no different for landlords. To market your properties better than your competitors, you need a strong presence on sites like Facebook Marketplace, Instagram, and Twitter.
Facebook Marketplace is built for buying and selling property and even includes rental-specific infrastructure.
On Instagram and Twitter, however, you’ll want to focus on posting attractive photographs of your units and lead-generating content. Think blog articles, amenity features, resident events, etc.
4. Website Design
A well-designed website speaks to the quality of the company.
Be sure every renter gets a good first impression of your properties, starting with your website. Your website should be easy to navigate with menus and organized pages. It should also be adapted for mobile devices, as many renters browse on their phones.
Your company website is your primary landing page, so it should include all the relevant details about your properties, including high resolution photos and a full list of amenities and utilities included. You might also include instructions for accessing and returning your rental application.
Don’t forget to include your contact information, preferably at the bottom of every page. This way, prospective renters can’t miss it and will know exactly how to reach you should they decide to apply.
5. Virtual Tours
If you’re particularly tech-savvy, you might create virtual tours for your properties. As one of the newest trends in rental marketing online, virtual tours attract lots of prospective tenants and generate measurable interest in your properties.
A simple virtual tour could simply be a video recording of yourself showing a staged unit. If you have the funds, try a more sophisticated version—a 3D or 360-degree tour. Using special cameras or software, you can create a 3D rendering of your unit for renters to virtually explore.
Remember, virtual tours are not substitutes for still photos. However, they can take your properties to the next level by allowing prospective renters to envision themselves and their lives in the space.
Conclusion
Advertising online is a big change for some landlords and a logical step for others. No matter your experience, you can achieve success advertising your units online using these five simple tips. Before long, you’ll have generated countless new leads for your rentals.