How to Create Content That Complements Your Apartment Marketing Strategy
When creating strong content, many multifamily professionals are eager to write about all the great luxuries their community provides in hopes it will increase their apartment lead generation. Our suggestion to these people? Slow down.
While this is certainly important information that deems some exposure, this should not be the focus of every piece of content you write. Instead, take careful consideration into your apartment lead generation strategy to create multifamily content that converts.
Tying Content to Your Apartment Marketing Campaigns
Thinking in terms of inbound campaigns is a great way to optimize your digital marketing content to maximize conversion. When forming a campaign, you should focus either on a single persona and pain point, or two personas who may share a pain point — so long as there’s enough overlap in their needs. Understanding the persona you’re targeting, the issue you’re seeking to solve, and the goals of the campaign are all important to apartment lead generation.
Another factor in multifamily campaigns is considering the buyer’s journey. Always write content for each stage of the journey, rather than just focusing on sales. What if a potential resident reaches your apartment website before he or she is ready to lease and is still gathering information? For apartment renters at this awareness stage, sales-focused content can be an agitate. Further, it can mask any content that serves up information relevant to their needs because the potential resident feels like they’re being “sold to” rather than “educated.”
Let’s take a blog, for example. If a younger person is graduating from school and considering renting an apartment within the next year but is unsure of where they want to live, what type of blogs do you think they are searching for? Perhaps they want to know the best areas to live in with exciting nightlife or the benefits of renting versus owning a home. Finding a blog on your apartment website that talks about all the amenities and benefits of your specific community isn’t necessarily what they are looking for yet.
Did you know that 90% of searchers have not made up their mind about a brand before starting their search? Additionally, 47% of buyers (or renters) view at least three to five pieces of content before deciding to speak with a sales rep (or leasing agent). By shifting your focus to educating content that’s not brand- or sales-driven, you become a trusted source for this awareness-level buyer. If that buyer then remembers the pertinent content that you provided at the awareness level, they may choose your property over a competitor.
Remembering the three stages: Awareness (recognizing a problem or need), Consideration (discovering solutions to the problem or need), and Decision (choosing the solution for the problem or need) is key to building a cache of content that can speak to your resident buyer persona across different levels and increase your apartment lead generation.
The Importance of Persona-Driven Content to Increase Apartment Lead Generation
Resident buyer personas are an integral function in the success of apartment lead generation. Why? For one, writing directly to personas places a value on the persona’s beliefs and mindsets. It makes the persona feel that they’re not alone while addressing a problem or concern that they are having. The power of this feeling creates a positive perception of the content and its creator — your multifamily brand.
A clear voice in the midst of online information that is often unrelated or altogether conflicting creates a sense of authority and thought leadership. This also makes your multifamily brand trusted. Furthermore, writing in a style they prefer, and placing that content in places they frequent, all serve to present the content in a way that is easily digested and accessible.
These methods ultimately serve to delight that persona. And a delighted persona usually makes for a happy resident. What does a happy resident mean? In the multifamily world, it usually translates to increased resident retention.
Happy renters also make for great promoters, who can bring new residents aboard as they extend your reach — thus increasing your apartment lead generation. In creating content that’s persona-driven, there are a lot of benefits to be reaped.
Creating Multifamily Content That Converts Leads to Leases
While it can be tempting for any property to want to present the maximum information that speaks to their community and reflects the positive aspects of their brand, the best methodology is to hold off. Content is the core of how we are perceived online. Creating content that converts is the key to apartment lead generation. By following a persona-driven content strategy, those leads can become a reality.
