Advertising

Advertise comparing your prices to your competitors. Then break down that amount of money to what they could buy monthly (a night out with their significant other, daycare for their kids, violin lessons, a new tv, your kid’s college fund)

University Edge 1 Bed 1 bath: $440. Competitor 1.5 miles away: 1 Bed 1 Bath: $690
What would you do with an extra $250 in your pocket each month? That’s $3,000 per year. You could buy a car to drive for Uber, take additional classes to increase your income, start a business, or buy a PS4.
Use an ad in which you literally burn (fake money that looks real) $250. That’s what tenants choose to do every time they pick a more expensive apartment.
If you invest $250 monthly into an account with an initial balance of $300, you’d have $12,300 in five years (post taxes).

Saving compounds over your four years of college. The 30-old year you will thank 20-year old you when you have $12,000 less to pay off in student loans.

Reviews: Why They Matter

  • 97% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses in 2017
  • 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
  • Customers report that Positive reviews make 73% of them trust a company more
  • Almost half of the consumers said they need a four-star ranking before using a business worry-free.
  • 30% of reviewers named “response to reviews” as a critical components in choosing a business
  • 68% of consumers left a local business review when asked

Get More Reviews

You have a 2.4 ranking on Google from 17 reviews. There’s easy ways to get more reviews.
1. Ask tenants to leave a review within 30 days of moving in so they won’t forget and the experience will be fresh in their mind (more on this later to see why that’ll be a 5-star review)
2. Do everything within reason to keep your tenants happy. It takes one bad incident to get a one-star review.
3. Encourage tenants to review you on Google or Yelp, because 63% of people look for reviews on search engines. Google, Yelp, and Facebook are heavyweights.
4. Remind long-term tenants to leave an online review. Since they haven’t left, they likely enjoy their living situation and would be willing to give you a positive review.
5. After maintenance visits
6. After giving a tour to a prospective resident
7. After a happy resident turns in their keys after moving out
8. Any time you have a positive interaction with a renter

Handle Bad Reviews

Respond to ALL bad reviews. Explain what really happened, and give the reviewer a way to reach you (he usually won’t because he didn’t want to fix the problem; he wanted to hurt your reputation). This won’t make the complainer happy, but it will serve as an anchor to all readers—if you care enough to respond to nasty reviews, you probably care about your tenants.
Harvard Business Review found that businesses that respond to negative reviews online resulted in better ratings overall. Your customers are human beings and the value of empathetic and compassionate customer service leads to more reviews, particularly positive ones.

Promote Good Reviews

Share the positive reviews you get on social media and add a “Testimonial” tab to your website with all your positive reviews. Include your customer’s name and picture too. People love when their face is online, and it makes it that much more real to the people reading it.

Filter bad applicants

Turn away paying customers? Yeah. Think of the opportunity cost of your time. If one lousy tenant takes up as much time as five good tenants will, you’re losing money. The bad tenant will probably leave a bad review anyway, and if that tenant doesn’t pay, you’ll never even see that money. Plus you’ll have to spend time filing to collections. Better yet, refer bad tenants to other apartment complexes.

Drive Traffic

You want as many organic searches as possible because they have a 14.6% close rate compared to 1.7% of outbound leads. You can create more organic searches by increasing your traffic by adding reasons to visit it regularly. Every click, especially returns, raises your ranking.

Boost SEO and Clicks

Blog somewhat regularly. Businesses that post regular, valuable content get up to 67% more leads because of more exposure, SEO, and blogs a more personable image. You’re not just a landlord; you’re a fountain of helpful information.

  1. Improve Website traffic and SEO
    • SEO: Use Moz Keyword Explorer or Google Keyword Planner to add keywords people are searching to your Website’s SEO.
    • Use Spyfu to check what keywords your competitors target, and then find open opportunities or compete with theirs.
    • There’s five apartment complexes apartment named University Edge that rank higher than you in Google for the keywords “University Edge 2 bedrooms.” Use these tools to find undervalued keywords and boost your ranking.
  2. Reach more people with Zapier. Set up your search terms for “anyone who mentions (apartments) in (location radius) that will trigger a bot that sends them something (an ad for your cheapest apartment, a discount, etc).

Build Community

Millennials want their apartment to be somewhat of a community; show them what’s best about your city. A few old reviews say your money-hungry. Regularly blogging helpful information disproves that because you don’t directly make money off your blog. Only a landlord who cares does that (you do make money through better SEO and tenant peace of mind).


Build a community within your tenants. This can be by residence or by all tenants, which is far more manageable. Invite them to join a Facebook Group in which they can plan events such as volleyball, basketball games, or to just hang out. Many of your tenants are new to the area and know no one. Give them options to make friends within their building or a close drive. I bet you would find out problems too because people post their problems on Facebook rather than telling someone who could fix their problems. This will build your retention rate because people won’t want to leave their community.

I noticed this at the gym. People pay more for the same equipment as cheaper gyms, but mainly because they see the same people there regularly; people they would never see otherwise because it’s inconvenient to set up times to hang out with others, especially as an adult.

Easy Projects

  1. Create a Carbondale city guide for your new prospects or clients. This may sound like a hassle, but you know your city. Make a list of your favorite food joints, bars, and stores. You’ve been in business here for 40+ years. Tenants will love seeing that packet on their table when they first walk in, like when Airbnb hosts least city guides to the best bars and restaurants. (Then ask them for a review)
  2. Video marketing is effective. Maybe it’s because people don’t want to read, but filming people (happily) moving into their new place will drive more business. Maybe incentivize them with coupons or movie tickets.
  3. Post video walkthroughs or 360 degree google virtual tours for prospective tenants. They use the same psychology trick as car salesmen: if they can get you into a car, you’ll most likely buy it because you’ve felt the leather and already envisioned your new life in it. Similarly, make it so easy to tour that the tenant can’t resist leasing. Say they are moving from 5 hours away. You can send them a video of their exact room. That’s pretty cool. Be the apartments known for how well you use technology.
  4. Use Risk Reversal. Give a money-back guarantee for a certain amount of time. This is like telling a family adopting a puppy that they can bring him back if they don’t like him (the puppy isn’t coming back). Even if they do want to move out, chances are they are too lazy to go through the work of moving out once they are unpacked and settled.
  5. Create a youtube channel for DIY renters. Many are students and are strapped for cash, so think like a broke college kid and create some value. You mentioned you wanted more people to use the FAQ page. They might use it if they are easily-accessible, short videos.

Examples

  • What’s included in my rent
  • Do I pay for parking
  • How do I report a broken appliance
  • What determines if I get my security deposit back
  • Whats a cosigner and why does it matter
  • Cheapest internet and phone service

Be Transparent

When showing an apartment or explaining complexes, include information about small defects, such as chips on the wall, etc. Tenants will appreciate the straightforwardness and will show that you care about your tenant enough to the little details.

  1. Be easily accessible to reporters. If any local stations are writing stories with anything to do with your business, offer to be interviewed. This is free exposure and will jumpstart your online SEO.
  2. Offer water bottles, soda, some incentive to people who check into your business on Facebook. People feel the need to reciprocate when you give them free items. This is why car dealers who offer coffee and pastries sell more cars than the ones who don’t.
  3. Start a tenant referral program that you give the first tenant a discount if one of their friends sign a lease.
  4. Find a moving company and offer to promote each other. If they move someone to the area, they can reference you. If someone’s moving out, vice versa.

Improve Your Blog Game

Blog posts (especially about your city to boost morale and your SEO when people search apartments Carbondale, you’ll have a ton of posts that pop up and validate you.

Interact with your tenants on social media. Take crowdfunded social media videos from your tenants of their day, whether they’re walking their dog, at work, etc.

Build a Personal and Tech-Friendly Brand

Handwrite thank you cards to tenants when they move in or out
Offer online leasing if possible
Offer incentives for multiple on-time payments (they should already have one, it’s called credit)
Offer more payment options, like Venmo or Cozy.
Send birthday cards (you have their information)
Increase payment options for laundry
Make it clear people can text your business (more on this below). Some people, especially young people, hate talking on the phone.
Check out Google My Business. It’s a gamechanger.
You can use Google’s Booking Feature to book meetings and walkthroughs and allow customers to text your business. Your number will be one click away after a google search.

When you own a business, the to-do list never ends. Taking these steps will attract more tenants and boost your online reputation.