Multifamily Building Managers know how difficult it can be to find new tenants to fill vacancies. Unless your Multifamily building is in an extremely sought after area, chances are you will have to put in time and effort to find good tenants. 

This is where marketing comes in. While many building owners are still conscious about the ROI of marketing, and are often not so willing to give a budget to marketing efforts, it is an important step in the process of attracting new tenants, and doesn't need to cost much to get started. 

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Why Marketing is so Important for your Multifamily Building

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You can distinguish yourself from other buildings in the area

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The reality is that all Multifamily Buildings in your area are fighting for the same renters that are currently in the market for a new rental unit. You are not alone in wanting to fill a vacancy, which makes it important to distinguish yourself from other buildings.

When marketing your building, you can highlight the amenities or features that make your building different, whether that be a great city view, proximity to a shopping mall, proximity to public transportation or even just having certain utilities available. You don’t necessarily know what the renters in the market are looking for, they could be looking for an amenity that you have that very few others talk about or offer.  

Furthermore, not all Multifamily Buildings are actively marketing themselves. By even actively marketing your Multifamily Building, you stand a much higher chance of being seen and chosen than others. 

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You can target the type of people you would like to live in your building

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Do you want business people in your building? Or maybe young families? When you market your Multifamily building, you can choose who you want to target. At the end of the day, you control the focus of your marketing, which means that what you choose to focus on will help you attract the attention of the audience that your messaging appeals to. 

This is also the case for paid advertising. On Meta, for instance, you can narrow your targeting down to age, gender, area, hobbies and more so you can specifically reach the types of people that you would like to live in your building. 

Say for instance, your Multifamily building is right next to a golf course, and this is an audience of people you would particularly like to attract. Then you can choose to add ‘golfing’ as a hobby into your Meta targeting, and your ads will then be shown to Meta users who either specify that they like golf on their profile, or have engaged with golfing ads previously…among other things Meta considers.  

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You can determine the way people see your building (luxury, safe, family friendly etc)

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When marketing your Multifamily building, you control the narrative. You can determine the way your audience sees your building, whether that be that it is luxurious, family friendly, pet friendly or technologically advanced. 

Obviously, the narrative can only go so far if your building lacks these qualities, but if your property is luxurious and you want people to see and know that it is luxurious, you can use this as your main narrative throughout your messaging. 

By adding in key words to your messaging such as ‘luxury’ or ‘modern’, you help reinforce this view in your audience’s minds. Doing it again and again will solidify that narrative. This can be particularly powerful if your multifamily building is in an area that is not as popular as areas surrounding it. By using phrases like ‘up and coming’ you can shift people’s perspectives and help them see the potential of your area. 

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How to Market your Multifamily Building

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Marketing your Multifamily building can look very different depending on if you have a big team or a small team, and a big budget or a small budget. There is still a lot that can be done whichever umbrella you fall under, but for small teams with small budgets, it’s important to get creative and prioritise. 

First things first, you will want to determine which platform(s) you want to focus on. For the most part this will be between social media platforms, but consider the audience you want to reach and the area you are based in...is there a particularly popular newspaper, for instance, that you can advertise in, or an event that you can sponsor? 

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Meta (Facebook) -
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Organic: If you want to start organically posting on Facebook, it’s worth considering that, unless you have a good following already, few will see your posts from the get go. It takes time to build up a following, and especially on Facebook. While a huge number of people actively use Facebook, fewer are using it to follow company pages now. That’s not to say don’t use it, but other platforms are more effective when doing organic promotion. 

Paid: Facebook can be really powerful for paid advertising. Their AI advertising systems have become really effective over the past few years and have meant that you can reach audiences in specific areas, with specific interests and more. 

Format: Video, picture & text

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Meta (Instagram) - 

Organic: If you want to start organically posting on Instagram, your best way to build your following and have people see your content is to post reels. Despite originally being a picture sharing platform, Instagram has leaned much more heavily into video content in recent years. Reels are more likely to be seen by people that do not follow you, getting you better exposure, quicker. 

Paid: Instagram uses the same advertising platform as Facebook, which makes it also a very powerful platform. 

Format: Video & picture

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TikTok - 

Organic: TikTok has close to 2 billion users, making it a platform with huge potential to reach a large audience. ‘Followers’ are less important on TikTok, as the ‘for you’ algorithm-driven page is what the majority of users look at. That or they use it to search for specific topics. Tiktok is video content only. 

Paid: TikTok advertising can be used to reach a specific audience (age, area, interests etc). But it’s important to keep the advertising content in line with the style of TikTok. There are several ways you can use TikTok to advertise (read here). 

Format: Video

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Things to consider: 

• Dimensions. Paid or organic, be sure to check the dimensions of the platform you want to use. 
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• Quality is key. You want your building to look good and to grab attention. Be sure to film videos/take pictures in as high quality as you can. 
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• Duration. While you might want to show every last detail of the great unit you have for rent, attention spans are short, so show the best parts of the unit efficiently. 
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• Include people. Whether it’s a voice over or a person physically showing the unit, get someone involved. Not only is it more engaging, but it could help increase trust. 
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• Varied content. Your content doesn’t need to just be a unit tour. Show potential renters the area, cool coffee shops, how you communicate with tenants, how easy transportation is etc. 
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• It takes time. While some people can post one video and instantly go viral, for most people, it doesn’t work like this. Building an audience and getting your content right takes time. Be consistent and keep posting, and you will see an impact over time. 

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