5 Student Housing Marketing Ideas To Increase Occupancy Now

Student Housing

Are you struggling to think of new student housing marketing ideas? You’re not alone. Many student housing landlords find it hard to increase their occupancy these days, but don’t worry, ExactEstate has put together this post to help you out. We will help you attract quality renters to your student housing with some tried and tested marketing tips.

Student housing is crucial in the life of students. It’s their home away from home, where they sleep, eat, and study for most of their college life. This makes student housing apartments vital in ensuring students have excellent academic performance and memorable university experiences. The good news is that the student housing market isn’t in a bad place right now.

It was in excellent traction before COVID, steadily growing. Its growth stopped momentarily, and 2020-2021 showed lower transactions. This makes it crucial to invest in new housing marketing ideas to attract new residents. With that, don’t forget to employ the following student apartment marketing tips, in addition, to properly staging your model units.

1. Claim Your Local Listing

If you haven’t listed your student housing before, that may be one reason you have a low occupancy rate. Listing a rental property helps attract high-quality renters because it increases your presence online. That’s why it’s important to list your rental property in directories, third-party websites, and other websites that highlight local businesses.

Our advice is to list your student housing apartments online on as many websites as possible. Most importantly, list your apartment on My Google Business. Doing this will make it easy for potential renters to know about your property. In addition, being listed on more websites will provide you with a large pool of renters.

Listing is essential because it brings you both digital and foot traffic, which you don’t want to miss. It is a marketing strategy that many local businesses forget but is crucial for SEO. Since your target audience is students, they are more than likely to search online to find accommodation. That is one reason to want to claim your local listing.

2. Use Social Media Marketing

One student housing marketing technique you cannot forget is the use of social media. Your target audience is students, after all. They are composed mainly of Generation Z, the generation that uses social media the most. Of course, there are also Millennials who are just as tech-savvy, if not more.

The thing is that the younger generation has never been without social media. They can’t live without it, and as a property owner looking to get more tenants, you need to adapt to them. With that said, real estate social media marketing is a marketing technique you can’t forgo. It’s highly beneficial as it offers many ways you can reach possible tenants.

One is the use of videos, which the youngsters are most receptive to. The key is to keep your social media videos short but engaging. Keep them under two minutes, which is just enough to say what you want to say and hold Gen Z’s attention. More importantly, ensure that you post it on YouTube, your Facebook page, and your website as well.

Pinterest and Instagram are also important. With Instagram and Pinterest, you can showcase your student housing apartments. You can showcase your rooms and amenities here as well as the surrounding areas near your apartments. Doing this can help students see what they can have when they stay at your student housing.

3. Utilize Chatbots on Your Website

Once you have your home ready for visitors to see, you can focus on generating leads. Although there is a huge demand for student housing, many students still choose other non-student options. This makes it challenging for you to increase your occupancy, which you can resolve with a lead generation technique called conversational marketing.

What is conversational marketing? It’s a marketing technique that utilizes intelligent chatbots and targeted messaging. Instead of forcing your future tenants to go through forms, you can engage with them instead by using chatbots on your website. It offers a much better way of building a relationship with website visitors and converting them into tenants.

The idea is that when prospects end up on your website, you have chatbots that can answer for you. This is great if your prospect visits after hours or you’re out showing units. Chatbots can at least answer generic questions about your student housing or arrange a meeting with you. It saves you time but it also ensures you’ve got leads and do not turn them away.

4. Outreach Marketing

Outreach marketing is all about taking the lead in finding new occupants. It’s about being proactive and reaching out to possible renters. For the most part, this tactic involves building or starting something that will attract tenants to you. Unlike blogging and SEO, outreaching marketing tactics will get you quicker results.

When you can’t afford to wait and need new renters right away, outreach marketing is your key. Social media advertising is one such tactic, which is effective and cost-efficient. Thanks to their audience targeting features, Facebook and Instagram ads are especially great at this. Besides running ads, here are some student housing marketing ideas you can try:

Host events at your rental property
Build a relationship with other local businesses
Join business networking organizations
Create and hand out brochures
Get involved with the local community
Offer upgrades instead of discounts
Send holiday gifts to renters
Engage with your loyal patrons
Consider getting involved in social causes
Reach out to college media sources to display an ad or post
Engage with tenants’ parents

Outreach marketing is all about actively looking for renters for your student housing. If you look around and be a little creative, there are many ways you can reach out to your audience. You can do it from your home’s comfort through emails and social media. Or, you can walk around and meet with the local community. Either way, students will hear about you.

5. Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Most consumers believe the recommendations of their family and friends. Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most valuable marketing tactics you have in your arsenal. The more satisfied your current renters, the better your reputation is. As a result, you have a higher chance of attracting more tenants.

The question now is “how?” It’s easy – simply provide your tenants with quality service and experiences. We can tell you three ways to drive word-of-mouth marketing to your apartments. One, by leveraging your amenities. Two, by improving the apartments through renovations. And three, by having a good relationship with your tenants.

Leverage Your Amenities

This will drive word-of-mouth marketing if you keep residents engaged and happy with the amenities you offer. You can do this by adding simple but practical amenities around the apartment complex. Think about what your tenants might need or what could make their lives easier, like furniture, dishwashers, air conditioning, Wi-Fi, and the like.

Make Renovations

Another way you can make your tenants happy and drive word-of-mouth marketing is by doing small renovations around the apartment. Your student housing apartments need it once the years have worn them down.

With that said, what kind of renovations can you do at your student apartments? Well, below are some ideas you can try:

New paint for the common areas
Change old furniture
Change décor arrangements
Change the landscape for the spring season
Swap curtains with bamboo blinds
Add plants that grow indoors
Replace old kitchen faucets
Swap out bad light fixtures
Install LED lights
Get them a new toilet seat
Add floating shelves and more

These are all small but fantastic renovation ideas that can attract more occupants. At the same time, it increases the value of your apartment. The more beautiful your student housing is, the more students want to stay here. This serves as an excellent strategy to retain tenants who might live in your housing for more years to come.

Develop a Good Relationship With Tenants

Many property managers and owners never meet up or get to know their residents, just letting them be nothing but occupants of their apartments. You can do that, but that’s also making it easier for your tenants to move somewhere else. Keep a friendly and approachable attitude with your tenants, and they will only have good things to say about you.

Ready To Boost Your Tenant Rates?

Here’s to hoping the five student housing marketing ideas above have helped you. The advantage of these tactics is they are easy to implement, are cost-effective, and truly work. In addition, you’ll need ExactEstate’s property management software to simplify and modernize your workflow, allowing you to focus on attracting more tenants.