Cost-Effective Marketing
By Marketing Team. For more information, contact Robert Parmar
There are a tremendous number of marketing options available for today’s apartment project.
How do you know which marketing activities lead to the best results for your property?
We find the apartment management industry generally has a one size fits all mentality towards marketing. A better approach is to analyze each activity and implement the ones that have the best results.
When it comes to marketing, the traditional methods of generating leads still exist: referrals, walk-ins, signage, etc. However, the vast majority of leads now come from online advertising. The online options are numerous: property websites, various online listing platforms, e-classifieds, and so on.
We find the platform that generates the greatest number of leases relative to leads is a custom property website. We surmise this occurs because they are specifically interested in the property based on its merits and you are not competing with numerous other properties in the area. Having a good website that conveys the property’s strengths is essential.
We find the next best option to generate leads is online platforms. We find they have varied results and the same platform can have vastly different results from one market to the next. As already mentioned, the key is to assess which one generates the most leads and allocate marketing dollars accordingly.
How do you do that?
We utilize tracking software that allows us to see how many leads each produces. You can easily identify the online platforms that generate the most leads. The options are numerous:
- Apartments.com
- Zumper
- Zillow
- RentPath
The challenge is that all of your competitors are also using the same sites and a prospective Tenant can quickly reach out to many potential properties in a matter of minutes. It is not just the online platforms that make the difference; the human element is significant.
On-site staff needs to be trained to handle leads and your management company should monitor their performance on translating leads into leases. We have very specific procedures in place to assess and guide our On-site employees on how to monetize leads.
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Summerfield specializes in the management of apartment properties that are approximately 125 units or larger, and is licensed to manage in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Florida, Georgia, & South Carolina.
If you would like to discuss additional specifics of our management program, please reach out to our Managing Director, Robert Parmar at rparmar@smfield.com or call 770-628-5943.
