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Online marketing trends for 2011
January 28, 2011
By Carissa Drohan-Jennings
Happy New Year everyone! When this article reaches your doorstep we will have already rung in the New Year, and now we’re settling for the winter season. Now, the winter may be a slow time in terms of rentals, but it’s a great time to plan the marketing strategy for the coming spring. So, let’s hear what’s in store for online apartment marketers in 2011.
Some experts around the industry have provided some insight into what marketing trends will likely emerge in 2011 and what’s already happening in the world of online marketing.
Twitter is not the future, it’s the here and now
In late 2010, we began to see many property management companies begin to use Twitter as a part of their marketing mix. Twitter has allowed them to reach out to their community and engage people in conversation. So, will Twitter continue to thrive in 2011?
Chaim Rivlin, CEO of RentSeeker.ca thinks so. He’s been helpful at instructing some of the nation’s top property management companies on how to use Twitter to their advantage and he regularly tweets about them on his own Twitter feed. RentSeeker.ca is able to leverage their followers on Twitter to generate “buzz” about their client’s property listings, as well as the companies that list with them.
“Twitter is an incredible channel for brand awareness, promotions, rental incentives, referrals, updates and more without having to worry about managing comments,” says Rivlin. “Landlords DON'T have to be involved in every type of social media outlet, but Twitter and YouTube (to promote rental videos) are becoming essentials for the apartment industry. We will definitely see more landlords jumping into Twitter, YouTube and other social media marketing channels in 2011.”
Greenwin Property Management is one company who has taken RentSeeker’s advice. They’re now the leader on Twitter, building a list of over 2,000 followers in their first month of being online.
According to Jessica Green, Greenwin’s Director of Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility, “social media isn’t the way of the future—it’s now. The influence of online marketing is gaining momentum by the nanosecond and the opportunities for property managers to get creative and monetize on that creativity are endless. Twitter is the perfect forum because it allows us to spread a very specific and direct message about our brand to thousands of users without a purchase order.”
Greenwin found that by integrating Twitter into their new website and their Facebook page, they were able to create a powerful marketing matrix, which has allowed them to gain a large following in a small amount of time.
“The integration into our website and our Facebook page means that we’re able to keep a consistent voice across all platforms, while maximizing the amount of traffic driven to our website,” adds Green. “This automated synergy triples visibility by inviting current and prospective tenants to join the conversation simply by seeing us in one of three online spaces.”
Facebook pages lead to engagement among residents
A Facebook page is a valuable marketing medium for any landlord. Firstly, the page leads to communication and engagement with current residents, which has been shown to increase resident retention. Secondly, the page can help a company stay in touch with former residents, which could lead to a referral down the road. Lastly, the page also gives prospective residents a much better feel for the character and atmosphere of the community, helping to fill vacancy.
Steve Ballantyne, the Director of Business Development at Neighbourhood Buzz, explains, “Many of our clients have seen a very high level of engagement among individuals joining their Facebook pages. In fact, 30 to 40 per cent of users who have clicked 'like' end up visiting their community Facebook page daily. In 2011, I believe that we’ll see many more property managers setting up their own pages and focusing on resident engagement.”
A great example of a successful Facebook page is the one by KG Group for their condo-style apartment building the Harrison. The Harrison is located near Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue in Toronto, Ontario. During the apartment’s development stage, the Facebook page was used to create buzz about the new building and to keep the followers informed about the progress of the development.
After the development stage was through, KG Group wasn’t exactly sure what to put on their page to project the company image they wanted. At that point KG turned to Neighbourhood Buzz for advice and ultimately hired them to professionally manage the Facebook page. Neighbourhood Buzz currently runs the Harrison’s page and provides engagement incentives and regular monitoring of the page.
Marketing to a mobile society
Smart phones have become more affordable over the last year and they will continue to penetrate the market in 2011 at a rapid pace. This means that renters will increasingly be using mobile devices in their everyday lives and apartment marketers will begin to look for ways to market to their mobile customers.
Jason Leonard agrees. Leonard is the Director of Business Development at Landlord Web Solutions and he’s already seen the shift towards mobile. “Most of our clients are already thinking in terms of mobile marketing. Our sales of mobile-friendly websites have risen steadily and many of our clients are asking us what else they can do to engage their customers through their mobile devices.
“An interesting technology that we are evaluating is QR codes, which offer some promising opportunities in the coming years for apartment owners.” A QR code is a matrix barcode that can be scanned by the camera of a mobile phone. The code consists of black modules that are arranged in a square pattern on a white background, just like the example that is shown in this article.
iPhone users will simply have to take a picture of the code to visit the referenced URL, but for all blackberry users, you will have to download a free application from the blackberry apps store to use it. Simply search the store for QR code reader software and install it. Once installed, open the app and take a picture of the code to read it.
These QR codes can be used to display text to the user, to add a vCard contact to the user's device, to open a web page or to compose a text message or email. The application of this type of code is endless for apartment owners. By adding the code to touch points within your buildings (front door, elevator, etc), signage or print advertising, you can enhance your mobile customer’s experience with your brand. You can go a step further and add it to your business cards, websites, emails and/or coupons.
To remain competitive in the marketplace, it is always a good idea to learn about emerging technologies and the latest trends. The jury was out last year on the value of such things as Twitter and Facebook, but many experts believe that they do have a place in the apartment marketer’s handbook. Mobile marketing has quickly become another great way to engage your audience.
Carissa Drohan-Jennings is the Director of Marketing and Communications at Landlord Web Solutions (www.landlordwebsolutions.com). If you would like to learn more about any of the topics mentioned above, please email Carissa at carissa@landlordwebsolutions.com for more information.
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