Use Inbound Marketing to Stand Out in Saturated Markets

By Bobbi Steward, Vice President of Digital Strategy, G5

Seattle. Denver. Houston. San Francisco. Atlanta. Boston. What do these cities have in common? In addition to being really great places to live, they’re also the most saturated and highly competitive rental markets in the nation. If you own or manage apartment communities in any of these cities, you know how hard it is to attract attention to your business.

Inbound marketing is crucial to staying ahead in competitive markets. According to Google, online search is used 2x more than any other online medium for researching, buying and getting things done. This should come as no surprise! Not only is online search the most used resource, Google also found that 87% of people turn to online search first when looking for an answer. For you, this means 87% of your potential residents are turning to online search to find their next place to live. Are you showing up?

Focus on Inbound Marketing to Attract the Right Leads

Unlike outbound marketing which forces you to fight other marketers for the attention of potential customers, inbound marketing focuses on creating positive experiences that strengthen and build trust in your brand. It is the difference between interrupting your target prospects during their daily life vs. enticing them with quality content that serves a purpose and answers their questions. Marketers need to follow the clicks and the clicks are on inbound marketing where your audience has personally selected to engage and receive content. And the data proves it with 64.6% of high commercial intent clicks are on ads By crafting relevant ads that answer your target audience’s questions, you will seamlessly bring your audiences to you and your quality content. The result is more qualified traffic that helps fill your properties — and keep them full — faster.

Start with a Strong Foundation — SEO

The key to building any business is to start with a solid base. When it comes to marketing multifamily apartment communities in highly saturated regions, you need strong foundational and local SEO to stand out from the crowd.

Foundational SEO elements are just that, building blocks. They’re the first things your prospect sees when searching for your business. Title tags, meta descriptions, URL structure, domain authority, internal link structure, and website navigation each play an important role in getting your business found online. Your SEO foundation is grounded in authority, relevance and trust and this is what search engines are looking at when determining which results to return when your prospect is looking for a local business.

With the emergence of voice and “near me” searches however, that’s not enough to be competitive. You need to have a local focus. Google My Business (GMB) is a great tool for managing information about your apartment community in one central location and is displayed right in a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Having a GMB listing allows you to maintain an accurate name, address, and phone number (NAP) on Google Maps and Search, which is essential for attracting leads to your website. It also lets you categorize your business so people searching for apartments in Downtown Houston are directed to your site first. For local search, GMB optimization and ongoing management is paramount to your success. Not only is your audience getting answers or calling you directly from maps or your GMB listing, you are boosting SEO and providing accurate information to your prospects.

Create Custom Content

SEO and custom content — the two go together like peanut butter and jelly. Sure, you can have one without the other, but why would you? Content is one of the top two ranking factors on Google, and your site won’t perform as well if you’ve put minimal effort, time, and expertise into your content. So while it might seem more cost effective to skip out on custom, SEO rich content across your portfolio initially, it will end up diluting your performance and costing you big down the line.

To put it simply, if you want to show up on SERP and be seen by the right people, you need to create unique content that is useful and relevant to the interests of your target audience.

Want to excel at outbound marketing? Invest in content marketing. A comprehensive content strategy that integrates blogging, social media, and engaging graphics shows potential residents that you are interested in developing a long-lasting relationship.

Use Psychographics to Strengthen Your Social Media Advertising

A lot of marketers rely solely on demographic data to target potential residents, but what they should be doing is looking at psychographics, too. For those unfamiliar with psychographics, here’s a quick explainer: Demographics are the who, while psychographics are the why behind their buying process.

Where you can you find psychographic information? Facebook’s Audience Insights is a great place to start finding a deeper understanding of your audience’s demographics. Facebook Audience Insight gives you a deeper look into three audiences: people that are connected to your property pages, people in your Custom Audience and then into the entire user group of Facebook.

Through Facebook Audience Insights, you can gather standard demographic information like age and gender breakdowns, education levels, job titles. but you can also gain insights into lifestyle indicators like family size, location and income. Then, looking at Facebook Moments Insights, you can really begin to understand what is causing buyers to make a decision. Did they just get married or divorced? Have a baby? Or become an empty-nester? Those moments go beyond simply looking at demographics and start taking into account indicators that could denote why someone is entering to a time of looking for a place. Understanding when to target – and not just who to target – gives you the upper-hand in a competitive market.

With those data points, you can then take your Custom Audiences to the next level to expand your social media ad campaigns’ effectiveness. In a saturated market, you really should be focusing your dollars on hitting the correct target persona for your property.

Learn More About How G5 Can Help You Stand Out in Saturated Markets

Standing out in a saturated market is easier when you utilize the right strategy. Inbound marketing attracts higher quality leads at a lower cost. Learn more about how G5 can help you target potential residents by scheduling a demo today.