June 16th, 2020
The ultimate property manager’s guide to social media
Property Management
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As the internet continues to make the world smaller, and powerful competitors attempt to muscle their way into your market, the importance of using marketing to stand out has never been greater.
Over the last two decades marketing in the property industry has almost completely switched from traditional (TV, radio, print) to digital (search engine, social media, email). This new world is exciting, but it can also feel overwhelming.
These 12 tips are the perfect place to start.
How can I promote my property management company?
The first step is setting time aside to plan and evaluate your marketing strategy. Next, you can:
- Optimise your website for Google.
- Setup and promote your Google My Business Listing.
- Study your competitors and customers.
- Share content across social media, your blog and a monthly email newsletter.
- Meet customers face to face and partner with local businesses.
- Create a successful referral program.
We go in depth into each of these tips and cover actionable steps you can take below.
1. Put time aside in your calendar for marketing
The first tip is arguably the most important of all. Make time for marketing.
Unless you dedicate time to it, you’ll forever push it down the priority list.
Action steps you can take:
Decide on a time each week or fortnight to focus on marketing. Lock in Monday mornings or Thursday afternoons for your weekly marketing session.
Commit to several marketing KPIs. An example of goals you could focus on include:
- Posting 2 times on LinkedIn and Facebook each week
- Optimising your website by EOFY
- Writing 1 blog per month
2. Optimise your website for Google
Ask yourself: when was the last time you typed a complete URL into your browser?
93% of online experiences now begin with a search engine, which makes a high ranking on Google arguably the most important element of property management marketing. Partner with a search engine optimisation (SEO) expert so that you work on improving your ranking for the most relevant keywords possible.
How can you optimise your website for Google?
- Ensure your website is secure: specifically, https:// rather than http://.
- Have a fast loading, mobile responsive website: Google has a tool that can tell you how fast your website loads which can help give you direction in this area.
- Create quality content optimised for specific keywords, such as blog posts.
We go into detail on exactly how to grow your property management business using Google here.
3. Utilise local SEO
Almost half of all online searches have ‘local intent’, and 88% of consumers who use their smartphone for a local search will visit or call a business within a day.
What is local SEO?
A subcategory of search engine optimisation, local SEO focuses on making you as Google friendly as possible within your immediate area. You can do so by optimising your Google My Business and Google Maps listings, and ensuring your online presence is mobile-friendly.
Action steps you can take:
- Create a Google My Business Listing
- Add posts to your Google My Business listing. Ideas of posts:
- If you’re having an event
- A post on your latest blog post
- Any holiday messages
Positive reviews on your Google My Business listing help build credibility and trust for your business, so it’s a good idea to have a strategy around building these reviews.
How to get more positive reviews for you business:
- Ask in your marketing materials such as your email newsletter or email signature. For example, “Your support means a lot to us. If you liked your experience, please leave us a review on Google.”
- The Google My Business marketing kit offers more great marketing materials and print-outs to promote your business quickly and easily.
4. Position yourself as a thought-leader
Content is an incredibly effective tool for improving the effectiveness of your marketing. By simply adding a blog to your website you can increase its chances of ranking in search engines by 434%.
Blogs and other forms of content (videos, social media posts, podcasts) also offer you the opportunity to position yourself as a thought-leader – a go-to person in the property management space, and someone on the leading edge of innovation.
5. Use social media (the right way)
It might come more naturally to some than others, but the importance of social media cannot be understated. People want to deal with people, so there’s real power in getting your face in front of customers.
Indeed, a well timed social media post can be the difference between bringing a new customer on board and watching them go elsewhere.
Our top tips for property management businesses on social media:
- Choose the right social media platforms. Don’t feel the need to sign up to every platform. For example, sticking to LinkedIn and Facebook may be your best bet for now, while skipping platforms like TikTok and Twitter.
- Respond to customer comments on your posts. This can help further build connections with your community and even lead to referrals.
- Invest in a photoshoot day. By browsing sites like UpWork, you can find a great local photographer for a reasonable hourly rate. Hire them for a single or half day shoot to build a collection of professional and engaging images to populate your channels with.
6. Study your competitors
Study the marketing of property managers in your area. What are these other firms doing to capture the attention of potential customers? This is less about copying their successes than it is about identifying their weaknesses. Knowledge is power – you need to know what your competitors are up to in order to outperform them. Perhaps your competitors aren’t ranking well on Google for relevant terms, or don’t offer their customers interesting insights via content.
Quick tip: Subscribe to your competitors email newsletter to stay on the pulse of their marketing and latest updates.
Some questions you could ask yourself when looking at your competitors:
- What social media platforms are they using?
- How often do they share posts?
- What reviews do customers leave about them on Google?
7. Understand your target market
Who are you marketing to?
What does your ideal customer look like?
Develop customer personas to refine your marketing messaging and make it more effective. Humanise these personas by giving them names, ages, professions, hobbies, hopes and dreams, then craft marketing materials that speak to them.
Some other great questions to ask yourself to get to know your target audience include:
- Who are your top-paying and most loyal customers?
- What is the average age, gender and income of your target market?
- Are they homeowners? Do they have kids?
- What are their hobbies and interests?
- How do they source their information (digital vs traditional forms of media)?
8. Send out a monthly newsletter
Email marketing is every bit as useful now as it was when we were excitedly checking our Hotmail and OzEmail inboxes 20 years ago. In some instances, email has been found to have an ROI of 3800% – i.e. for every $1 you spend, you can get $38 back.
Our top tip: Start sending out a monthly newsletter.
A monthly newsletter full of interesting news and insights is one of the most engaging forms of email marketing at a property manager’s disposal. What you offer up in that newsletter is up to you: perhaps it’s property market news, a selection of new listings, or a dose of fun.
When building your newsletter our advice is to:
- Stick to a template for the newsletter. This will save you time each month.
- Share the same type of content each month. This could be: a quick intro, a link to your latest blog post and some statistics on how the property market performed that month. For the latest insights, check out our monthly industry insights here.
9. Answer the questions your clients are asking
Stuck on what to fill your blog, newsletter or social media feed with?
The content creation recipe can be surprisingly simple: write about whatever your clients are asking you about! If you’re getting a lot of questions about rental yields, write about that. If they’re asking about market demand, go with that angle. These are obviously things that your clients want to know, and thus are the ripest of content marketing fruits.
10. Go analogue with your outreach
We don’t have to stick to the World Wide Web in our quest for property management marketing success. There’s a lot to be said for shaking hands and making fans, so consider hosting a conference, networking night or even the most casual of Friday get-togethers. Line up some guest speakers, put on a few drinks, and invite potential clients.
These nights can also offer incredible ROI, as companies can earn $12.50 for every dollar invested in face-to-face meetings.
11. Partner with local businesses
As an inherently local field, your property management firm can get real value from demonstrating that it’s an active part of the community. Consider sponsoring a local non-profit or sports team, or putting your name to a local event. Perhaps there are local businesses whose objectives align with your own – you could partner with home improvement or cleaning businesses, trading contacts and leads without stepping on each other’s toes.
12. Incentivise referrals
Speaking of which, word of mouth continues to be the most effective form of marketing, because people trust people.
You can turbocharge referrals by offering incentives to those who pass your details onto others. Property investors and landlords tend to talk to each other, so consider offering a free month of property management services for referrals that turn into one-year property management contracts, or something similar.
Another tip would be to ensure you express gratitude to anyone who played a role in helping you land a brand new client. This could then lead to even more clients in future and help build a strong, supportive community.
We go into detail on exactly how to create a property management referral program here.
Key Takeaways:
Modern marketing is such a diverse and far-reaching beast that there’s no single recipe for success. More important is that you simply have a go, and by using these 12 tips as a starting point, you’ll certainly be headed in the right direction.
Liked these tips? Share them with your favourite property manager!
Thanks for reading this blog on the Marketing for Property Management Businesses You might also be interested in:
- The ultimate property manager’s guide to social media
- 52 ways to grow your rent roll
- How to choose the right property management software
Let us know your thoughts on our 12 Best Property Management Company Marketing Tips in 2021 by emailing [email protected].
