Property marketing — once constrained to classified ads, flyers and yard signs — has largely gone digital over the last two decades. And while most multifamily property management companies market their properties and vacancies online in one way or another, many aren’t using digital marketing to its fullest potential yet. Done well, digital marketing is part of a comprehensive strategy that attracts renters no matter where they search. It creates a cohesive customer experience that helps turn more leads into leases. And it gives you the data you need to keep building on your success. Let’s take a closer look at digital marketing for property management, what it entails and how you can benefit, as well as how you can get help when you need it. What is digital marketing? Per the American Marketing Association: Digital marketing refers to any marketing methods conducted through electronic devices. The includes online marketing efforts conducted on the internet. In the process of conducting digital marketing, a business might leverage websites, search engines, social media, video, email and similar channels to reach customers. Digital marketing can also be referred to as online marketing and search marketing. What does digital marketing include? A holistic digital marketing strategy includes multiple channels that complement each other, creating a consistent brand and customer experience everywhere prospects encounter your business. Digital marketing practices evolve as the way we use the internet changes, but these are some of the most common methods: Search engine optimization (SEO): SEO is the process of improving ranking with major search engines to increase unpaid online traffic to owned websites. Search engine marketing (SEM): SEM is the use of paid online advertising to increase website visibility within search engines. It’s often used together with SEO to create a stronger...

In a perfect world, you’d create all of your own content. It would all go viral. You’d burst with success. All the content creation would all be completed in less than an hour per week. Unfortunately, that’s not how life works. You likely excel in real estate, not content creation. Time minimizes how much original content that you create. Sometimes you have difficulty getting readers to engage with your posts. Piggyback marketing may be able to help. Piggyback marketing describes the use of recycled, trending content on your social media feeds and blog. It allows users to borrow and benefit from the popularity of someone else’s content. Sometimes piggybacking is sharing a video, meme, or post. Other times, it’s referring to a trend within your original content. There are advantages and disadvantages to piggyback marketing. When used wisely, it can build engagement and improve the reputation of your brand. When abused, it can erode trust and water-down your brand identity. The dos and don’ts listed below will help you use viral piggybacking to your advantage. DO supplement your content with piggyback marketing.Viral piggybacking of relevant content allows you to tap into what’s already successful. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, which is great when you feel creator’s block or you’re pressed for time. DON’T rely on piggybacking. Limit how often you use others’ content to market your brand. Keep the percent of borrowed content in the single digits compared to your original content. There is no substitute for content that reflects your brand, your objectives, and the unique tastes of your audience. DO stick to content that is relevant to your brand, market, and clients’ interests. Use tools such as Buzzsumo and Scoop.It to identify relevant content. Those tools allow you to...

A savvy group of marketers joined us for learning, networking and fun at the bi-annual Yardi Marketing Forum (YMF) in Baltimore last week. During the event, attendees explored the latest trends in digital marketing, tips and tricks to optimize outcomes, and real estate technology. As noted by Esther Bonardi, Yardi vice president of marketing, the event is “all about helping you tap into your inner marketing genius.” Here are some of the top digital marketing themes covered: Get in touch with your audience As marketers, we’ve traditionally divvied up our target audiences by demographic information. In today’s noisy digital landscape, we need to meet our customers where they’re at. Speakers Brad Downs, vice president of marketing for the Baltimore Ravens, and Brad Batesole, staff author at LinkedIn, shared strategies to better reach target audiences. Drawing from his fifteen years of experience in sports marketing, Downs stressed the importance of moving from brand first to fan first. “It’s that fan first mentality. Our fans are incredibly important to us. Fans want to feel as important as they are,” he said. By focusing on fans first, opportunities to engage and foster fandom become easier to identify. Downs demonstrated that life stage marketing goes beyond traditional demographic segmentation, resulting in better customer experiences, tailored events and increased engagement. For the Ravens, life stage segmentation resulted in targeted fan development campaigns focused around women and adolescents. This included Purple, a community building initiative to cultivate the female fan base, and RISE, a football outreach program for local children and high schoolers in emerging Ravens strongholds. Life stage segmentation helped draw 130,000 fans to Ravens marketing events,  development of an international audience, and an average attendance of 71,000 people at each home game. At Wednesday’s marketing master class, Batesole...

Video continues to rise to the top of the digital marketing playbook. If you’re skeptical about the power of video, consider that almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store. And four times as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. Video content can also improve SEO, increase engagement and boost brand loyalty and awareness. Within the realm of real estate, the industry – from retail to residential to student housing – is finding creative ways to leverage video. What’s clear is video isn’t going anywhere, so it’s time to jump in feet first. Facebook Live offers an interactive, free and highly visible way to engage with an audience. The platform now sees 8 billion average daily video views from 500 million users. With help from social media experts, in-depth tutorials and best practice tips, even the most novice user can become a Facebook Live pro.   Here are five tips to rock Facebook Live: Step 1: Ask permission If you plan to live stream other people, ask for permission before you record them. Keep in mind some conferences and venues may have strict no streaming policies. When in doubt, ask. Step 2: Game plan Some questions to inform your live video strategy: Why do you want to do live video? Who are you hoping to reach? What do you want this audience to do? What will you talk about? How long will you go live for? Facebook recommends 10 to 90 minutes, but even 5 minutes is great. Do what feels right for your organization and your viewers. Where will you go live from? Walk the room and consider reserving a spot in front. Minimal background...

We are thrilled to officially unveil RentCafe Reach. This advanced set of marketing services is designed to attract qualified prospects to your multifamily properties through SEO, SEM and enhanced online property listings on the RentCafe.com ILS. As a certified Google Partner, we’re ready to help you elevate your search and lead generation programs to the Big Leagues. SEO & SEM Services for the Real Estate Industry The RentCafe Reach digital marketing team is comprised of Google certified experts in both Google AdWords for paid traffic and Google Analytics for organic traffic. This allows us to use Google as resource to answer questions and identify future opportunities. Our SEM program is a full-service offering from research to setup and fine-tuning, plus remarketing, conversion tracking and display advertising. The SEO program is also a full-service solution with content optimization, on- and off-page optimization, website health checks and location data management through our partnership with Yext. This ensures our clients receive only the absolute best-in-industry, white hat strategies and tactics for improving their websites’ performance while actively protecting them against black hat techniques that get flagged by search engines and harm the performance of search results, ads, websites and brands. Stay Ahead of the Competition We understand how daunting it is to launch an entire digital marketing program. And the perils of working alone without a partner to guide you. What is a SERP? Or Semantic Search and PageRank? What’s the difference between display network and search ads? Or regular text ads vs. expanded text ads and the comparative click-through-rates? We heard your questions and took them to heart so we can help you, our clients, reach beyond the fold and seize the leads that make the difference and drive business results. Today’s digital space is as...

It’s a fact: today’s renters want to do everything online. That means they want to use the Internet to find and research an apartment and even make a buying decision – sometimes without visiting the community. Is your property management business up to speed? The savvy apartment marketer needs to understand what Google calls “micro-moments” to learn how to drive prospects to property websites, grab their interest, and convert that lead more quickly than ever before. Micro-moments are your opportunities to be there, be useful, be quick, and connect the dots for consumers. What are micro-moments? According to Google, micro-moments “are critical touch points within today’s consumer journey, and when added together, they ultimately determine how that journey ends.” They are all those brief instances when people who are searching for a place to live reach a decision point. Do they click the link to your website? Or do they scroll past your search result to the next ad or competitors’ site? Once they’re on your site, do they call your leasing office or start an online application? Or do they abandon their search before taking action? Why do they matter? Online prospects place a high value on instant and accurate information. They don’t want to pick up the phone or come to your leasing office to get the answers they need. Where to start? Finding the right renters starts with attracting the right prospects. Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) solutions will help you reach apartment shoppers at just the right moments. A solid SEO strategy delivers content that appeals to both customers and search engines, organically positioning you for maximum visibility in search results. SEM, also known as pay-per-click advertising, is about reach, relevance, and ROI. When the right...

When it comes to the Washington, D.C. rental market, VP of Marketing Karen Kossow finds herself in a big pond with plenty of fish. As the one-woman marketing team at Community Realty Company (CRC), she is determined to grow with limited resources. She is overcoming her small fish status by working smarter, not harder. Step one, Kossow made sure that CRC offered what renters want most. “The funny piece is, other than the rent, the Millennials and the Boomers are looking for the same things,” Kossow observes. “They want the good locations, the walkable locations, the amenities, and the social aspect.” Community Realty Company properties are already in coveted locations such as Pennsylvania Avenue and Foggy Bottom. The next natural step was to begin the process of renovating the properties to reflect modern expectations. Properties are being renovated on turn, with upgrades like improved space allocation; granite, stainless and other upgraded finishes; and wi-fi accessibility throughout the building. The latter was no small feat since some structures were erected in the 1960s. Kossow then gave the renovated properties professional glamor shots. These images are accompanied by resident testimonial videos. Combined, the media efforts give prospects a taste of what CRC has to offer—but there was still more work to be done. Step three for the growing  business: getting the right tools in place. “I’m excited to get all of the software rolled out so we can go out and start pitching more business, showing everybody that we’re not the little teeny tiny company and that we can compete with the big boys in some areas,” says Kossow. To help level the playing field, Kossow uses Yardi RentCafe. “I am a one-woman marketing show who has also overseen much of the software roll out. Being able to tackle...

Congratulations: your attention span is now shorter than that of a goldfish…by one whole second. Recent studies show the average human attention span is now 8 seconds.  That means social marketers and digital advertisers have to hook you with compelling content within moments.  How much does that bait cost?  Advertisers spent an estimated $8.5 billion on social ads alone in 2014, all to keep your brain entertained long enough to get to the punchline.  And succeed they did. Our Social Media Team kept a keen eye out for those creative and unusual marketing campaigns with solid storytelling and strong social presence. Here are a few of our favorite digital campaigns from the last year. Mini Cooper  Mini USA – Multiple Social Channels Mini Cooper has created a world of engagement, and it’s truly an experience all of its own.  The iconic import has grasped attention and stolen the hearts of many motorists across the country, and to that end, they have established their own mini-nation: Mini USA. Beyond the exclusivity of an owner’s only club, the camaraderie and fellowship between Mini drivers curves closer to extended family.  And what better way to spend time with your family than to be “couped” up with them on the greatest of American familial pastimes?  “Mini Takes the States” is a clash of Mini Cooper clans cruising on a 5,000 mile road trip from [#MTTS]San Francisco to [#MTTS]Boston.  Motorists can post to social networks during pit stops with a set of branded hashtags, photos and videos.  Along with crossing the continental US, Mini’s social presence spans across platforms: Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram and Twitter. Need some Mini maintenance? For continued care of your car, the company’s website features a downloadable PDF of your owner’s manuals, a roadside assistance...