Harris KhanWhat is the most important thing you need for a business? Any business.
You can have a good product, great service and dedicated and hard-working staff, but they don’t mean anything if you don’t have customers.
Without customers, there are no sales, no money coming in, and no business. Nowadays social media plays a vital role in business. For example Twitter is a big platform for online sales. However we need to have more audience in our profile. In order to grow and get more engagement a Twitter growth service can be taken. Check out Twesocial, this is one of the authentic Twitter growth services available nowadays. Property management is no different. You have to attract customers – whether that is signing up an owner to manage their property, or finding suitable tenants or holidaymakers on their behalf.
You have to find a way of reaching your audience and that is where marketing comes in. The days of just handing out business cards and relying on word of mouth are gone. You need an online presence. You need your customers to find you.
Here are 9 marketing tips for property management
We’ve come with 9 marketing tips for Cincinnati property management, to help you get started. They are:
- 1. Define your brand
- 2. Optimise your website
- 3. Understand SEO
- 4. Elevate your content
- 5. Embrace paid media
- 6. Engage with social media
- 7. Grow your email community
- 8. Stay aware of the competition
- 9. Use testimonials and reviews
Now let’s take a look at each tip in more detail.
1. Define your brand
Your brand is more than just a fancy logo or a business card.
It is the way you engage with your customers.
The design of your website.
Your tone. Your voice. Your values.
Your brand is the very essence of who you are and what your business stands for.
Think about the biggest brands in the world. You feel like you know them. You know exactly what they provide and how their product or service makes you feel.
That is what you need to try and capture in your own property management business. Whenever you plan to put something in action you should be thinking about your customers.
- What problem does my business solve?
- Why should a customer choose me?
- How can I attract them?
You need to give your customer a reason (or several) to choose you. Are you trustworthy? Are you credible? Does a customer know exactly what service you provide? Do you provide a good experience?
Make your brand consistent – whether that is how you interact on social media, in the language of your content, or in the customer service you provide.
2. Optimise your website
This is a highly competitive industry and you need to do everything you can to stand out. The first place is to start is with your website.
It’s not enough to simply knock together a quick website and think you’ve got an online presence. As we’ve set out above, your website tells customers an awful lot about you. As well as looking good, it also needs to work.
Website performance has been an SEO ranking factor for years, and that isn’t going away any time soon. The release this year of Google Page Experience clearly shows that user experience is a core ranking factor for search rankings. If your website isn’t up to scratch, then expect it to affect your search visibility.
Here at some things to focus on:
- HTTPS: Is your site secure?
- Is it mobile-friendly? Over half of all worldwide searches are done on mobile devices. Your site has to be optimised for mobile.
- Site speed: How long does it take to load? Anything more than a few seconds and your visitors won’t be waiting around.
- Site architecture: Is your website easy to navigate?
- Images: A key part of your business will be your use of property images. You want them to look good but make sure they aren’t too large as they will slow the page down. Take advantage of free image compression tools to minimise the size.
- Design and layout: Does your site provide a good user experience.
- Page errors: Are all of your pages accessible? Do you have unnecessary re-directs or 404’s?
Search engines want to provide users with the best results for a search term. If you are falling down on any of the above, then don’t expect to be ranking number 1.
3. Understand SEO
There are close to 6 billion searches every day on Google alone. The term ‘property management’ has an estimated global volume of 110,000 searches a month. That is a huge potential audience just waiting to find your business.
If you aren’t visible then customers won’t be able to find you. Strong Search Engine Optimisation is the key to having your brand name or your keywords rank highly in the search results.
The lower down in the rankings you appear for a search term, the less likely it is that someone clicks on your result. In fact, if your result appears below page 2, it is extremely unlikely anyone is going to click through to your page.
So, what can you do to make sure your audience can find you?
Crawling: Have you submitted a sitemap so search engines can find your site?
Indexing: Are search engines only crawling the sections of your site that you want them to see?
Backlinks: Think of links like positive reviews. It is someone saying they found your article or your site useful. The more trusted links you have, the more your authority grows. The more your authority grows, the higher you are likely to feature in the search results.
Keyword research: – What are your customers searching for and how are they searching for it? Do they want guides, videos, tutorials? Keyword research is vital for getting your content strategy right.
Content: We’ve dedicated a whole section to this below, but, quite simply, content is how you reach your audience. It drives traffic, attracts links, and ultimately gets you sales.
On-page optimisation: Title tags, meta titles, meta descriptions. All are small ranking factors that can help you appear above the competition.
Leveraging tools: There are lots of great tools available that can help you with all of these steps. Analytics, Search Console, Semrush, Ahrefs and a heap of others can help you identify issues, automate tasks and report on performance.
Some of these processes can be complicated but there are no shortages of guides, videos and courses or SEO specialists and agencies to support you with anything you need.
4. Elevate your content
Creating content (good content) is so important to your business. You’ve likely heard the phrase, ‘content is king’ and we couldn’t agree more. The whole reason people search is to find something – whether that’s an answer to their question or a solution to their problem.
It’s not simply enough to create a page with your property management services and contact details listed and expect people to find you. You have to know what people are searching for about your industry (remember your keyword research) and why they need it.
Don’t just create content for the sake of it. Create content that is better and more valuable than anything else.
Write blogs about how a property manager can benefit your potential customers. Create a series of videos about the most common maintenance problems you experience as a property owner. Start your own podcast to share your knowledge of the property management industry.
And once you’ve created it, don’t just leave it. Come back to it, tweak it, refine it. Keep it updated.
If you can’t provide your audience with what they want, then they will just find someone who can.
5. Embrace paid media
SEO is a great long-term marketing strategy, but it’s not always a quick process. It can take a while before you see the results of your hard work pay off.
Paid media, on the other hand, gives you fast results. It gives you the chance to get your message right in front of your customer in the form of a targeted advert, such as PPC (pay-per-click) and paid social media.
Paid media is great for targeting either specific demographics of people who are more likely to engage with your ad, or focusing on specific keywords that have a good chance of a conversion.
To properly benefit from paid media it’s important to set a daily or weekly budget and track the results. If an ad isn’t working, remove it, or change the content. Don’t keep spending money on an ad that isn’t effective.
It’s also important to be aware that unfortunately paid media can be abused. This is most prevalent in PPC, with click-fraud an increasing concern. Click-fraud is when paid ads are targeted by competitors or cybercriminals and repeatedly clicked until the budget is depleted. Tools such as PPC Shield can monitor and block all fraudulent clicks immediately, saving you valuable money.
6. Engage with social media
Marketing has changed a lot over the years but one thing that hasn’t changed is the benefit of word of mouth. Think of social media as a huge network of prospective brand advocates. A simple mention from a customer about their satisfaction with your service can have positive implications for your business.
The bigger your social media network, the wider the audience you can reach. And there is a very receptive audience out there; the number of people who use social media is staggering.
There are billions of users across Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and other services. Engaging with these channels is an amazing way to increase your following, and grow trust and credibility in your brand.
Make a video on TikTok. Create an Instagram account to show off the best properties in your property management portfolio. Use LinkedIn to connect with like-minded agents in different countries and compare tips and strategies. There are lots of different and fun ways to interact.
7. Grow your email community
If you get someone to sign up for your email or your newsletter, then you’ve already done the hard work.
You’ve got their attention.
They might have already signed up for your service or just to hear more about what you do, but either way, they’ve expressed an interest.
Email marketing allows you to personally connect with your customers. You can separate your audience into lists, with each one receiving specific messages that provide them with something of value: a quick prompt about the enquiry they made but didn’t follow up on, or a loyalty offer for recommending a friend.
But how can you grow your email list?
- Include a signup box on your website
- Create useful content in the form of a whitepaper that requires users to signup to access
- Promote your email on your social media channels
- Set up a blog that users can subscribe to
- Host webinars or podcasts
- Answer questions on forums and provide a link to your email for more content
These are just some of the things you can use. The more creative and engaging the concept, the more likely a customer is going to want to signup.
8. Stay aware of the competition
To make a business a success you have to be aware of what the competition is up to.
What do they do that their customers like?
What do they do that you think you can do better?
See how people engage with their social media channels. Study what offers and promotions they make available. Look at what organic and paid media search terms they target.
Checking out the competition is a great way to find potential new customers for your business. If their customers aren’t happy, chances are they want to find someone who can do the job. Make sure it’s you that they are thinking of.
9. Use testimonials and reviews
It can be worrying to offer your business up to open reviews but the upside is huge. Think about online shopping; almost every site you go on has a product rating or customer feedback. This is because a positive review can be so valuable in engaging a potential customer – moving them from the consideration stage to purchase.
They also give you credibility. It’s all well and good you say you are the best property manager, but what evidence is there for it? Glowing testimonials, reviews and awards boost your reputation and attract new clients.
You don’t need massive resources available to put all of these tips into practice. With a bit of time and hard work, you can master all of these skills and see your property management business thrive.
