Where Are All the Buyers and Renters?
They are looking for you! Can they find you? If they find you, are you giving them the information they want? Are you making a good impression or are they clicking [Back] and going somewhere else? Apartment marketing and real estate marketing on the Internet is a tricky business, but highly profitable if you do it right!
Secrets to Beating the Competition
First, you need to be where people are looking. These days, one of the hottest spots is Craigslist. But here's the rub: You need to be there every day! A single ad in Apartments for Rent might get 200 views, but 180 of them will come the first day. The other 20 views will come on day two - maybe. Your ad may not even be seen by day three. Many of our clients have realized that they just won't take the time to post every day, so they pay us a nominal fee to boost their apartment and real estate marketing success.
What's even better is having a website in addition to all of your on-line and traditional marketing efforts. Think about those 200 people who view your Craigslist ad. If you can get them to visit your website in addition to looking at your ad, you've got a much better chance of closing the deal. Some clients are able to get 10% of people seeing Craigslist ads to click through to the website. That puts them ahead of all the other apartment owners and realtors that don't have websites. This is how some properties keep the occupancy level so high.
Second, you need good quality pictures of your property. It doesn't matter how great it looks in person, nobody is going to come visit if it doesn't look inviting. It's a buyer's and renter's market. They are just looking for excuses to move on to the next property, so don't give them one. The key to marketing an apartment or home is to make a great first impression because you may not get a second chance. Blurry, poorly lit photos do not work! Our photography services bridge the gap between do-it-yourself fuzzy photos and magazine/poster quality photos by high-priced photographers. This leads us to the next secret.
Third, make sure you're taken seriously. Ads in ALL CAPS with typos, grainy pictures with the flash showing in the mirror, and no website send a message to prospective clients that you are not professional. Of course, you know this isn't true, but it's the message you're sending. Just because you can "sorta" do something yourself doesn't mean you should. When it comes to your marketing apartments and real estate on the Internet, hire a professional. Your business can make thousands of dollars from your website...or not. The choice is yours.
Time is Money - Stop Wasting It!
The time to get leased up is now. Every vacant unit is costing money. Sometimes I'll have a client ask us to pause the Craigslist ads for a bit because they have no vacant units to rent. Naturally, we refuse! We tell them to start a waiting list and/or raise their rents. That's what we call successful apartment marketing!
Right now it's a very tough when it comes to leasing, but it's not like nobody is signing on the dotted line. If the pie isn't big enough, then you need to fight for a bigger slice of the pie. Don't sit back and wait for people to come to you - let's get a marketing plan together and go get them!
Check out our Craigslist Posting Service.