Successfully Market To Student Tenants | Real Estate and Rental ...

Briles Takes Pictures? Source: Flickr

Capturing the attention of college students is difficult short of shelling out lots of money like a Red Bull advertising campaign, when the energy drink company dropped off a 4 packs for every room of seniors on campus. And if that creating an exciting campaign wasn?t enough, you also have to make a noticeable impact when the students are actually interested in looking at an off-campus house. Not an easy task.

So stop chasing down potential student tenants, and let them come to you! It?s inbound marketing, but in the real world of campus life.

Tip 1: Optimize Your Rental Website for Google

One of the easiest ways to get your units in front of students is to optimize your website around college student rentals in your area. SEO can get complicated, but a good start is to create webpages that are focused exclusively on serving college students. Fill the page with words that are related to student housing, but don?t keyword stuff. Think about what students may be searching for, and try including phrases like ?off-campus houses near Boston College?. Read these 3 rental marketing SEO tips for building a better rental website.

Tip 2: Receive the University?s Stamp of Approval

If your business is new college rentals, building your brand on campus may be a little difficult. A quick way to become a trusted name is to reach out to your local university?s student housing department. Often times universities create a yearly list to give to students unsure of where to start the off-campus housing search. It?s useful for the students, but even better is that these pamphlets act as free advertising for you.

Tip 3: Pay for Referrals

We list this one because it can be effective, although it?s not necessarily a best practice for building your rental business. Referrals work like this ?

Bob: Who did you use to find your house?

Andrew: We worked with Alex?s Property Management office around the corner. If you go to them, tell them I sent you and we can split the $250 referral check they will send me.

Sure enough Bob visits Alex?s Property Management office, but your company is now out the $250 referral fee. Referrals get people in the door, but make sure what you are paying out makes sense economically.

Tip 4: Organic Word of Mouth Recommendations

This is the ultimate way to bring in rental business. If you are an agent, you will be graded on how easy you made the entire process. Property managers will be associated with the overall experience the students have throughout the year. So depending on where you sit in the rental business, do your best to make a positive impact on the housing situation.

Students talk, and they ask for recommendations. Unlike paying for referrals, word of mouth is an organic referral. And unlike the conversation above, students will want to work with you because you are better than the competition. Building positive relationships with decision makers in the groups is how you build a trusted brand for your company on campus. I personally have no clue who managed my off-campus house last year, but I know my buddy who interacted with the owners would recommend our house to students looking off campus.

So stop wasting your time chasing down students. Make your rental business easy to find for student tenants with these four tips.

Source: http://www.zillow.com/blog/pro/2012-12-18/successfully-market-to-student-tenants/

sean young juan pablo montoya free pancakes at ihop martina navratilova high school shooting daytona 500 national pancake day