Ultimate Multifamily Marketing Plan: Template, Strategies, & Tips

 

 

Marketing an apartment or gated community is critical for operating a successful property. However, your efforts won’t be effective without a clear multifamily marketing plan.

So, this blog covers what a multifamily marketing plan is and how to use it correctly. In addition, you’ll find ideas on how to market your apartment, tips to assist you, and a free template to follow.

This guide details:

• What is multifamily marketing?
• How do you market a multifamily property?
• Apartment marketing ideas
• Free multifamily marketing plan template

 

What is multifamily marketing?

Multifamily marketing is the process of advertising for a community, such as apartments, student housing, condos, or gated communities.

In most cases, the goal of multifamily marketing is to attract potential residents and reduce the vacancy rate. Nevertheless, some properties have different objectives: rebranding, maintaining occupancy, management transition, standing out from the competition, etc.

No matter the goal, marketing for apartments, condos, and other multifamily properties is a critical function for staying noticed and desirable in this competitive market.

 

What is the first step in a property marketing plan?

The first step in any successful multifamily marketing plan is defining your goal.

As mentioned above, many properties want to attract more residents, but others may want to rebrand, are in the midst of a management change, or are looking to retain residents instead of attracting them. Regardless, specifying your property’s goal will define the strategies and subsequent steps in your multifamily marketing plan.

 

What is a good marketing budget for real estate?

A good marketing budget for real estate is approximately 3% to 10% of your revenue.

Above all, your marketing budget should come down to your property’s goals and financial health.

 

What are the 4 P’s of marketing in real estate?

1. Product. What are the qualities of your property that make it stand out?
2. Price. Is the price to live at your property fair and accurately represents the quality residents will receive?
3. Place. What is the quality of your property’s location and the surrounding area?
4. Promotion. How do you market your property?

 

 

How do you market a multifamily property?

While there are many marketing strategies to implement for multifamily properties, campaigns will vary depending on your property’s goals.

Once your mission is clearly defined, you may implement the following multifamily marketing strategies:

• Brand your property
• Optimize the leasing funnel
• Take advantage of digital marketing
• Don’t forget about print advertising

 

Brand your property

As residents become more perceptive of brands and what they’re offering, they become increasingly aware of the common marketing tactics companies use. As a result, branding should be at the top of your list when it comes to formulating your multifamily marketing plan.

With this in mind, branding involves more than a property name, logo, and mission statement. Rather, it encompasses your messaging and image throughout your property operations, from how you attract residents and guide them through the leasing process to how you retain them or see them off when they move out.

So, the best branding starts with extensive research into:

• Resident personas you’re looking to attract.
• The location of your business and the community around it.
• Potential competitors and how you can stand out from them.
• The existing community at your property.

 

Afterward, the insights you obtain will help formulate the brand you think best suits your property. Then, you can start implementing these insights across your property through design, messaging, customer service, and more.

 

Optimize the leasing funnel

Undeniably, the leasing process is most often littered with roadblocks for residents, leading to lower conversion rates. Thus, it’s beneficial for property managers to optimize the leasing funnel so residents are more likely to sign.

Some ways to enhance the leasing funnel for residents include:

• Enable a chatbot on your website for prospects to ask questions or schedule tours.
• Record video or virtual tours of all your apartment floor plans and post them on social media or your website.
• Maintain the availability of vacant units and their rates on your website.
• Enable self-guided touring.
• Let prospects sign leasing documents online.
• Accept payments through an online portal.

 

Learn how to set up self-guided tours with ButterflyMX:

 

Take advantage of digital marketing

The term “digital marketing” is very broad, but it essentially boils down to marketing your property online through various channels.

More specifically, apartment digital marketing primarily consists of three primary categories:

• Social media. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other social media are essentially free marketing platforms. These channels are excellent ways of advertising your vacant units, upcoming events, and simply getting your apartment in front of potential leads.
• Paid advertising. By paying for digital advertising across both social media and search engines, you can get your property’s name in front of hundreds of leads overnight. However, you will spend more with paid search and social ads as most platforms charge you whenever your ad is clicked.
• SEO. SEO, or ‘search engine optimization,’ is the process of ranking higher in web search results. There are many aspects that play into SEO, but the overall objective is to make your website as user-friendly as possible. With that said, many choose to hire a digital marketing company or web developer to help.

 

Overall, digital marketing is a powerful strategy for any multifamily marketing plan. For most properties, hiring apartment marketing companies is the best route because you may not have the time or knowledge to execute such plans.

 

Don’t forget about print advertising

While digital marketing has emerged as the leading marketing strategy in recent years, print marketing is still effective, yet it’s often overlooked.

Of course, you shouldn’t choose one strategy over the other. Instead, it’s beneficial to use both to your advantage. In fact, combining print and digital ads increases the effectiveness of online campaigns by 400%.

So, keep these rules in mind when approaching print advertising:

• Keep your design and messaging simple.
• Catch the eye of your audience with on-brand graphics.
• Include a call-to-action that’s simple and engaging.
• Ensure your print advertising’s effectiveness is measurable.

 

Apartment marketing ideas

The apartment marketing strategies listed above are great places to get started on your multifamily marketing plan. Nonetheless, strategies are broad, giving little to no direction on how to achieve them.

For this reason, here are some actionable apartment marketing ideas to attract more residents:

• Implement a chatbot or virtual leasing agent on your website.
• Host an event in your community.
• Maintain or update your apartment listings.
• Claim your Google My Business listing.
• Write blogs for your website.
• Start a referral program or a seasonal promotion.
• Print well-designed informational brochures.
• Reach out to a content marketing or SEO agency to boost your online visibility.
• Open social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram.
• Publish rental listings on third-party websites.
• Collect leads with an email marketing campaign.
• Build relationships with nearby businesses.
• Build healthy relationships with your residents.
• Grow your own network of real estate professionals.
• Hire a photographer to take high-quality photos of your property.
• Utilize NFC tags to better market your property.

 

 

Free multifamily marketing plan template

The fine details of your multifamily marketing plan will vary depending on your property, but the template below acts as a great foundation to get you started.

To set your property up for success, follow this multifamily marketing plan template:

1. Set a goal
2. Identify your target audience
3. Brainstorm marketing ideas
4. Select your property’s unique traits
5. Position your branding
6. Execute marketing ideas
7. Offer quality customer service
8. Build relationships with residents

 

1. Set a goal

Speak with your team, the property owner, or any investors to formulate a mission, such as standing out from the competition, retaining current residents, or attracting new ones.

 

2. Identify your target audience

Research your current residents, competitors, and the existing market to decide who your target residents are. Are they Gen Z or senior citizens? What amenities do they value the most? What do they do for a living? All of these details and many more will shape your resident persona and, ultimately, how you market to them.

 

3. Brainstorm marketing ideas

Create some marketing ideas around how to achieve the goal you set. For example, if you’re hoping to retain more residents, you can plan to remodel existing amenities, host a community event, or revamp your customer service. No matter the idea, clearly outline it and take steps to learn what resources it will need.

 

4. Select your property’s unique traits

List the traits that make your property stand out from the rest. Don’t have any? Consider investing in unique amenities or remodeling existing units to gain an advantage over your competitors. That way, you’ll have an easier time attracting prospects.

 

5. Position your branding

Take control of your property’s branding by making it consistent across all channels, including internally. Review assets from your logo and website to emails and lease language. All of these areas and more should clearly represent your property. Otherwise, you could confuse or turn off prospects.

 

6. Execute marketing ideas

Start executing your marketing ideas. Of course, this process varies based on your plan, but this step makes up the bulk of the work.

 

7. Offer quality customer service

Provide residents and prospects with a positive and memorable customer service experience. In turn, they’ll push you closer to achieving your mission.

 

8. Build relationships with residents

Develop strong, long-lasting relationships with your residents. By doing so, you’ll garner goodwill and word-of-mouth marketing, which is one of the best strategies out there.