Apartments for Rent Made Easy

When it comes to marketing your apartments for rent, generating an organic foundation of buzz is a key component to staying afloat in this digital age of social media. Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful tool that is virtually limitless! Below are some examples of getting the ball rolling on your word-of-mouth campaign.

Ask current residents for referrals:
A satisfied resident is more likely to be willing to tell their friends, family and colleagues about your properties. People who hear about you from someone they know personally are generally more willing to check out your properties. Offer an incentive such as a coffee card or a pre-loaded laundry card. The amount doesn’t have to be exorbitant – just enough to show your appreciation.

Utilize Facebook and other social media:
Never underestimate the power of social media! Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other sites are excellent resources when reaching your target audience. If someone “likes” you on Facebook, all of their friends will see your name. Pinterest, in particular, is a rapidly expanding social media site that allows you to showcase your creative side. Not only can you create picture boards with photography of your rental properties, but you can take the opportunity to showcase the neighbourhoods as well. Post photos of local restaurants, coffee shops, gyms – anything that will show off the amazing location!

Research your online reputation:
What are people saying about your company and your properties? A Google search can lead you to comments and opinions that you may not have been aware of previously. Search Google at least once a month to monitor what people have to say about you. Keep a list of recurring issues and hold a meeting with your property managers to go through it. Although some criticisms can be classified as “venting”, feedback can be extremely insightful and helpful in the process of bettering your rental property.

Get your team on the same page:
Ensure that everyone on your team is speaking the same language when it comes to your properties. What are your strengths? What do you offer that other rental properties do not? If everyone is putting the same word out there, your reputation will grow quickly and efficiently.

Newsletters:
A newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with your current and prospective residents. Post it on your website, link to it on Facebook and Twitter and make it available in your properties. The more accessible you are, the more your residents will feel a personal connection to you. Build community by profiling residents; announcing milestones like birthdays, marriages and babies; announcing upcoming property events; and promoting the businesses of renters.

Tell friends and family:
Simply letting your own friends and family know about your company is an excellent way to get your name out to prospective renters. If they know someone who is looking for an apartment, they can let them know about your company. The word will spread from there!

Happy Summer Season & Happy Renting!

The RentSeeker.ca Team

RentSeeker.ca Syndication

With constant turnover in the rental market, keeping ahead of tenant loss is the key to creating a property management portfolio with few to no vacancies. Oftentimes, filling your apartments for rent comes down to some very basic marketing strategies.

As the Internet grows, marketing has become more web-based for a variety of reasons, most notably, cost effectiveness. As a result, many landlords have allocated marketing dollars to online advertising forums, which generate exposure and, as a result, boost their company’s online visibility.

There are two ways to list or market properties online. Firstly, classifieds, like Kijiji, Craigslist, Backpage, OLX, and Oodle, are valuable when marketing a rental property as need be, which is a strategic way of targeting a specific building for vacancy problems. Bear in mind, though, that these websites are extremely time-consuming (requiring constant re-posting) and time-sensitive (popular listing types lose rank within hours of posting).

On the other hand, an ILS (internet listing site) like RentSeeker.ca, syndicates regularly with popular classifieds, providing the targeted, current and relevant search results of a classified—with benefits: Rental apartment search websites can be used as a tactic to enhance brand recognition, namely because they add multi-channel marketing to the equation.

RentSeeker.ca, for instance, leverages social media marketing tools to maximize a landlord’s online presence through the use of networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Digg, thereby grabbing the attention of a prospective resident on a variety of levels.

In addition to the traditional “suite type, amenities and rent” listing, more and more websites offer entire menus of value-adds that simplify the apartment hunting process. For instance, RentSeeker.ca provides renters with one-stop-shop access to entire inventories of available apartments for rent. In addition to providing direct email and telephone access to the landlord, the site also generates videos, floor plans and maps, such as Google Maps and Walkscore, to demonstrate the property’s accessibility and proximity to a variety of amenities, including shopping, schools and public transit.

This unique mix of multi-channel marketing ultimately increases the number of times a property and the brand behind it is viewed. As each property listed contains links directing prospective resident traffic to your website—via social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Digg, as well as videos, floor plans and maps—the advantage of listing an entire portfolio of apartments for rent on an ILS boils down to efficiency.

Listing in bulk with a full-service firm like RentSeeker.ca, is not only efficient as far as time is concerned. As Google indexes websites based on keywords, volume listings is a tactic to drive traffic to your properties on the ILS – and subsequently, your website – without having to compete for keywords in a competitive sphere such as “apartments for rent in Toronto.” So if you’re considering long-term SEO placement and improved Google rankings, listing your properties online in bulk – even in a fortuitous low-vacancy period – will continually drive traffic to your website while archiving inquiries. That means that when a rental unit does become available, filling it is just an email or phone call away.

This blog post was written in collaboration with data from the Marketing and Communications team at (RentSeeker.ca Corporate Sponsor), Greenwin Property Management: offering safe and vibrant rental apartments for all budgets in central and eastern Canada. Read more about apartments for rent, industry news and upcoming events in the community by visiting Greenwin’s blog and news page (www.greenwinpm.com). Join the conversation on Twitter (@GreenwinPM) and Facebook (facebook.com/GreenwinPM).

How can social media help your property management firm?

You already have an established company and many already a website by now. Now you just need to bring other people to it and generate interest in your apartments for rent. One of the most cost effective ways to do this is to use social media. There are a number of social media networking sites that will help you to make your website popular and help find renters, and the three main sources today that you’ll want to use include Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

For any business and landlord, it is very important that you start blogging or submitting entries on a social networking site(s). This way, you can market your vacancies to thousands of potential renters that are also connected to the social media site. These sites also provide you with instant communication, and most importantly these sites are free to join. You’ll also improve your search engine placement, so that people can search for you when they’re using Yahoo or Google in order to find out more about Toronto rentals or apartments for rent throughout Canada.

The best way to make the most of the social media advantage is to set up an account with all three social networking sites, especially Twitter. Twitter is one of the fastest growing social networking websites in the world, so you’ll be able to attract potential renters outside of Canada, which is especially ideal since many renters do move from out of state. When you post comments on your status, you can include the link to your company’s website, so that it won’t be hard for people to find. You can also post rental incentives for prospective renters and links pointing to corresponding information. Another great tool Twitter can be used for in the apartment rental industry is as an e-newsletter to residents. Notify them that you’re now on twitter and you might be surprised to see how many of them are too.

After creating an account with these social media sources, you’ll need to start making friends on each of these sites. You can start by inviting your friends, colleagues and yes, even other Landlords, to join the site, and then connect with their mutual friends. This will help your network to grow, since you’ll be surprised how many people you actually know and even get to meet. If the members that you’ve sent friend requests to have heard of you or your company, it is likely that your request will be accepted faster. You can also post information about any business / resident -related events that you’re going to be having. You can invite tenants to attend the event(s),and can create an RSVP list, so you’ll know how many people to prepare for.

For your YouTube channel, upload rental videos of your property and you can add them into your listings on many other sites as well such as RentSeeker.ca. We also produce rental videos for Landlords that have Toronto Apartment Rentals:

Don’t forget to be consistent when you’re using social media. You’ll need to check in a few times a day in order to update your status, add more friends, and to keep your network updated about the professional progress you’re making.

The RentSeeker.ca Team

For more information or to learn more how we can help create and manage your social media network, contact us.