Proven Marketing Ideas for Property Management Companies Who Want to Grow
By Landon Murie
January 23rd, 2021 (updated)
Want to grow your property management company?
The property management industry in America has exploded in the last 10 years, and entrepreneurs are starting new management companies every month.
In order for you to get your share of all this growth, your property management company needs to be focusing on the marketing strategies that will get you in front of your ideal prospective clients, rental property owners.
Long gone are the days of yellow page advertising, radio advertising, and TV commercials.
Property managers need an online strategy that is modern, cost effective, and most importantly, converts prospective clients into actual clients.
That's where digital marketing, website design, and SEO strategies come into play.
If you haven't done much of this before, it can all seem daunting and over your head. But, if you want to succeed as a property management business, you simply can't ignore what's working.
Without an effective marketing plan, you'll need a whole lot of luck.
With effective strategies, which we will cover now, you have the chance to stand out to potential property owners, get more leads, and increase your revenue for months and years to come.
It doesn't always require a large marketing campaign budget either. There are different types of property owner leads, and some are cheaper to attract than others.
The key is to work on these marketing strategies with a real focus and determination, because a lot of older property management companies are old-school and behind the times.
This leaves you with a golden opportunity to outsmart and outwork them. If you implement most of these methods successfully, your competitors will be trying to catch up with you.
So, let's get into these online marketing strategies you can start using today:
The Best Ways to Market and Advertise Your Property Management Company Online
First, lets cover the online marketing basics that nobody should be without:
Having a Sleek, Modern, Lead Generating Website
It almost goes without saying that focusing on getting exposure and traffic would be pointless if you were directing it to an old, outdated, slow, and even boring website.
Your company website should be acting as a 24/7 salesman that generates leads on auto-pilot by building trust, providing helpful info, and encouraging action.
Effective property management websites are intriguing, fast loading, intuitive, and captivating.
You have one shot to gain trust and build confidence with the person who just came to your website to check out your company. Don't blow it before they even have their foot in the door.
If you impress them and build initial trust and confidence with them by showcasing your company as a cutting-edge leader, you are already halfway to having them sign up as new client before they even get in touch with you.
If you already have a website, you should get some second opinions about the website from people who can be honest with you, since your own opinion of your website is likely biased. Either that, or, you might just be too comfortable with the status quo.
If you are a new company without a website, do your research and look around at different options to find the right property management website provider that meets your needs, style, and budget.
Develop a Local Keyword Driven Marketing Map
When we talk about "keywords", we are referring to the different words and phrases that local property owners are searching for on places like Google, Bing, YouTube, etc when they are trying to find a local property management company like yours.
Unique property owners in your city are searching online every month for a property management company to hire, and they are typing in these phrases (keywords) online. For example, "property management in san fransisco"
Maybe they are moving out of their home and decided to rent instead of sell. Maybe they already have a property manager but they are not happy with the service.
The point is, people are looking online every month, and you want to find out what specific keyword they are searching for so you can setup your marketing map/outline.
You also want to know how many times these searches are happening each month so you know how many potential marketing opportunities there are, and which of them makes the most sense to target for your marketing and SEO campaigns.
Look at a few of these property management keyword examples below, along with the monthly search volumes for each. We discovered these using one of our SEO tools, Ahrefs:
You can even do some free basic keyword research yourself with Google's keyword planner tool.
Whether you do all this yourself or hire a professional property management SEO agency like Goodjuju, your keywords are going to be used as the base of your website content, and for any PPC (pay-per-click) marketing you do.
Choosing the right keywords to attract clients is really important for your company's marketing plan and will set up your campaign for success in the long run. These keywords will make your content relevant, improve your local SEO, and increase the chances you will be found online for local searches related to these keywords, if done correctly.
Local Marketing and Competitor Research
The next thing you should do, if you haven't already, is take a look at the most visible companies in your market and see what they are already doing well with their online marketing. This local competitor research allows you to see what works for those already at the top getting the most exposure online.
No need to spend a load of time and money doing trial and error when some of your competitors have already gone through that.
You just have to see what marketing tactics work the best and hit the ground running!
Try this:
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Type one of your keywords into a google search
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Are any competitors running ads at the top?
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Who is in the local "map pack"? What are their ratings and how many reviews?
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Who are the top 5 organic results? How effective are their websites?
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What type of properties/property owners are they targeting?
Google ad (PPC)
"Map Pack"
Organic Results
Now you'll have a pulse on the local market, and you understand more about what your top competitors are doing with their marketing efforts and content.
Create and/or Maximize your 'Google My Business' Listing
Continuing on from local competitor research in above, we want to make sure you have your local 'Google My Business' (GMB) listing created and fully optimized.
These local Google listings are 100% free to create and optimize. They often show up in the SERP's (search engine results page) for location based searches, and are a great marketing strategy to get more property owner leads online.
Your might already be familiar with GMB listings, but here is where they appear:
Your Company Here!
When logged into your GMB account, fill out the following info, and make sure it matches up with the info on your website too. If you are doing this yourself, you want to make sure you understand your keyword and location targeting so you can have this optimized for the right exposure:
Your Company Name
Service Category
Address
Area you service
Hours
Phone
Website Link
List of Services
Company Description
Boost Your Online Reputation With More Reviews from Happy Clients
Now that you have your Google listing created and/or 100% optimized, you really want to make sure that your reviews and ratings reflect the great services your company offers.
Property owners compare company reviews when they are in the selection process, and by having your happy owners and tenants share their experiences online, you will help these potential clients understand what it's like to work with your company!
In the property management industry, it's hard to prevent unhappy tenants from going online and voicing their frustrations, but there are ways to catch this negative feedback early and hear them out before they go online and post a 1 star review.
Property managers should be focused on both:
-Encouraging happy clients to share their positive experiences and stories online
-Catching negative feedback early so you can deal with it before it's posted online
This will help you prevent future 1-star reviews and help you to generate more 5-star reviews that will help your company improve it's reputation and stand out from your competitors.
Now, let's cover some advanced marketing strategies you can focus on once you have the basics taken care of:
Create a Content Marketing Map for Your Website
You know your local property management keywords and you've seen what some of your successful competitors are doing online to be visible.
Now it's time to outdo them with better content.
In order to do this, you are going to want to create a lot of in-depth, unique, intriguing, and informative content that is based on the local keywords your target audience is searching for on a monthly basis.
Tips for creating good content that will get you found on search engines:
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Answer real questions property owners have with helpful info
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Focus on your target audience and your keywords
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Provide real value, give people helpful info they can actually use (like in this article)
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Go long - longer, descriptive content is loved by search engines
Creating the right content and doing it the right way is important. This is a major foundation for your marketing campaign and you can't afford to do it wrong.
In-Depth "On-Page" Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
To make sure that your website pages and content can be more easily discovered and indexed by Google and other search engines, you have to fully optimize them in the language of search engine algorithms. If you don't, your pages won't be deemed as relevant as they could be for the topics and keywords you are targeting.
It's called "on-page SEO" because it's referring to the technical optimization of each website page.
To make sure that the search engine algorithms understand the topical relevancy of your website's pages and what those pages should appear for on google searches, optimize the following areas of your pages by including the right mix of your keyword/topic variations in the following places:
- URL's
- Page Titles
- Meta Descriptions
- H1-H6 Heading Tags
- Image Alt Tag Descriptions
If you do this, search engines will better understand what that page is about, and it will increase the chances of that page showing up in online searches for those related keywords.
Be cautious to not overdo it by putting your exact keywords on the page too much. This manipulative strategy is known as "keyword stuffing" and it may get your website penalized or devalued because of this. Keywords should appear naturally and should fit well in the content.
A good rule of thumb would be 1-3% keyword density. Stick to that and you should be safe. If your main focus was on creating good content (as it should be), you should be good to go.
Powerful "Off-Page" Search Engine Optimization (Link Building)
After you have created some great content for your website and it's been fully "on-page" optimized, you'll want to boost it's authority, trust, and popularity.
Search engines love to show the most trusted and authoritative sources, and you want your brand's website to be seen as such!
The main way to do this is by getting other relevant trusted websites to mention YOUR website by linking to it. These are called "backlinks".
Your Content
Your Website
Authority Website
Backlinks are powerful - some would even say essential - for higher rankings and exposure on search engines.
When a website includes a link on their website which points to your website, this is seen as something like a vote of confidence, passing some trust and authority to your website. That website is essentially "vouching" for your website.
It's worth mentioning that the way you acquire links and the type of links you acquire is more important than the actual links themselves. Quality links acquired the right way is the safe and effective way to do it. Trying to manipulate search engines just doesn't work like it might have years ago.
If you get the wrong type of links, or go about it the wrong way, you may likely be penalized by search engine algorithms, and your websites rankings and traffic will actually decrease (yikes).
This is one of the reasons why it's critical to do this the right way, and sometimes it's better to have professional marketers (like Goodjuju for example) help you with this delicate process.
So, how do you acquire backlinks that are high quality, the right way?
- Create amazing, in-depth content that people love and want to reference (link to)
- Tell other relevant website owners, writers, and editors about your content (outreach)
- Share your website and content on relevant social media platforms or forums
- Write amazing articles/blogs for other websites who will allow you to place some sort of link
Play it safe, play it smart, and focus on quality content and building relationships! Check out this source we put together about link building strategies for property managers.
Get Referenced on Vendor Websites and Other Local Companies
Leverage your current relationships with vendor or partner companies to get your brand mentioned and linked on their websites.
Not only will you further increase your website authority and trust from this, the locals who use these other company websites can become more aware of your company and maybe reach out to you in the future if they need help with property management related services.
Ways to do this:
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Ask to be featured on your vendors "helpful resources" section or "partners" page
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Offer to write them a blog post and include a relevant link to your site where it fits naturally
These are existing relationships that you should leverage to surge your brand authority and exposure. You can do this yourself or hire a marketing agency to do this outreach for you.
Create More Local Business Listings and Citations
Other than your 'Google My Business listing' there are hundreds of other local business listings and citation websites. Place like Yelp, Facebook, YellowPages, and hundreds more.
The more listings you have, the more visible your business will be. Pretty self explanatory.
But there are hidden SEO related benefits when you have more listings too.
The more business listings and citations you create during your marketing campaigns, the better off your GMB listing will be!
This is because algorithms are cross referencing your business listing info across the web with your other listings to see if they have the same data. If they see differing addresses or phone numbers across your listings, they are not as confident that they are displaying the correct info, and they are less likely to want to give your listing exposure for local searches.
The more listings you have optimized with your business information like business name, address, and phone number (known as NAP) being consistent and accurate, your GMB listing will benefit as well because Google will have more confidence that your business is in the right location, with the right phone number, and is connected to the right website.
Advertise on Google Search With Google Text ads
Google text ads are pay-per-click, so you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. After clicking on your ad, they will be taken to whatever website landing page you had set up.
Google ad (PPC)
Running property management ads on Google are a great way to boost traffic that can be setup and start running almost instantly, that is, with the right strategies and know-how. These advertisements are like a shot of adrenaline to your property management marketing which can be turned on and off with a simple click.
The only downside to PPC is that once you stop paying, traffic and leads stop coming in, instantly.
Think of PPC as a short-term strategy you can turn on and off, while SEO and content marketing are long-term strategies with lasting lead generation results.
Keep Your Company Social Media Profiles Active
It never hurts to have all aspects of property management marketing covered, even the less blatant ones. Optimizing your social profiles is one that you shouldn't overlook, and try to invest some time into periodically.
Although people aren't typically searching on social media for a property management company to hire, people may look into your social media profiles for more info and to get a better feel about your brand and online presence.
Share some of your vacant properties for rent, share your website blogs and articles, and post when you get featured on another website too. This will show that your company is active and involved on social, which is never a bad thing to be.
Use Video to Build Trust and Increase Conversions
To build more trust and confidence with your potential clients, try to create some personalized videos that will help you position yourself as an authority and create a stronger connection with potential property owners who visit your website.
It's not critical that you create expensive or super professional looking marketing videos, the most important thing is being authentic and genuine. Of course, the higher quality the video production is the better, but just aim to create the best looking videos you can within your budget and resources.
For example, on your home page of your website you might have a video with someone from your company introducing themselves and your company, and a brief overview of your services and the benefits of working with your property management company.
All you have to do is record the video, do any simple editing, add your logo, maybe some soft upbeat background music, and upload the video to YouTube. Then just embed it on your homepage of your website.
Or, if you have the budget, hire a local videographer to do it for you. Either way, you will build more trust by including video marketing in your arsenal and this will help you get more leads.
That's a Quick Dive into Property Management Marketing
These property management marketing ideas will put you on a track to success if you really dive in and implement them.
Some of them may seem simple, some may seem more complicated. Focus on the ones you can and get help on the ones that may require a professional approach.
If you have any questions or need help implementing these ideas and strategies, contact Goodjuju and we will be happy to point you in the right direction.
We Are Property Management Marketing Experts
Hear from some of our clients
Been working with Landon almost a year now and we went from a brand new PM startup to pretty much dominating search results in our market in about 6 months time, would definitely recommend!
-Ryan Vienneau
Landon is the best to work with. Very honest and on top of things. Seeing great results from our SEO efforts and his web design.
-Brandon Arnold
From the very beginnings I was very impressed with Landon and what Goodjuju brings to the table. As a new start up, we knew it was going to take time to catch traction and get the attention of the public to fuel growth for the business. I was pleased at how QUICKLY this could be accomplished through the proven methods that Landon uses. It was great to be able to actually see and measure the results we were paying for to see our name rank higher and higher each month with his tools and processes. He has been a pleasure to work with and I would highly recommend using his services!
-Bradley Cotton
Landon, has produced some good results for my company. I was on page 33 of google and he got me to page 1 in about 3 months. I am finally on the map and received some good leads because of it.
-Antonio D'Alberto
We have been using Landon and Goodjuju for our Property Management SEO for the last several months. Our rankings have gone up significantly since that time. Landon responds promptly to any communication that we have.
-Matthew VanHoughton
We have been working with Goodjuju for about 4 months and we have seen a steady increase on Googles rankings. They are consistent in their communication and have done a great job so far
-John Garvin
I am not well versed in SEO or online marketing but Landon’s initial presentation was stellar to say the least. He explained in detail what he could do, would do and has done so far for my company. We are a smaller firm so we were hidden from google, several clicks from the 1st page. Goodjuju has changed that & our business is growing at a substantial rate. 100% recommend.
-Charles Tripp
Landon and Goodjuju have been an instrumental and integral part of our direct online marketing efforts. His laser focus and knowledge of the property management industry has directly contributed to an increase in online quality leads. Very timely in communicating & extremely knowledgeable in all aspects of SEO for Property Management Companies.
-Shon Lorg
In just 4 months Landon raised us from 11th on google to 3rd. I honestly was not expecting such quick results am and thrilled. On top of real results, Landon has been great to work with. He communicates very clearly, and provides an update each month on what he is working on along with valuable data on our current search results. I would highly recommend working with Good juju.
-Seth Golding
Great company that has helped my rankings on Google for multiple different companies! Highly recommend!
-Nik Boone
Landon has really helped us improve our web presence.
-Ryan Lubin