(#339) PART 3: CUSTOMIZE YOUR MARKETING EFFORTS BY BED TYPE
STUDENT HOUSING TIPS PART 3
Did you read part 2 yet? If not, go back and read it before continuing!
Last but not least, we’ve made it to part 4!
#4 Customize your marketing efforts by bed type
You may find that when you break down the total number of beds left per bed type/floor plan, you might have a glaring traffic issue and need to run a marketing campaign that targets a specific bed type versus a blanket marketing plan that’s resulting in unqualified traffic.
Alternatively, you assume you have a closing issue when in fact the marketing should be adjusted so the traffic you’re driving in matches the actual bed types you have left not the total number of beds you have left.
It’s critically important you’re driving traffic to each of the bed types/floor plans you have left.
No matter what, you will find it quite challenging to fill the building to 100% relying on just one blanket marketing approach.
Without this level of detail in your marketing efforts, June will come and go, and you could find yourself running out of time fast and are left sitting on a few bed types that can become troublesome.
The more specific you can be in your efforts, copy, and dialog the better. By being more precise, it assures you’re driving a variety of traffic to your available bed types and will increase the chances of filling up all of your beds.
Here a few KEY TIPS to consider:
STOP generalizing your copy, marketing efforts, and campaigns to this student demographic. They don’t like it!
Don’t “sell” to this demographic. They’re not into that either!
Customize your marketing efforts to speak the person that will be living in that specific bed type/floor plan.
Marketing efforts include outreach, street teams, tabling, campaigns, social media strategy, etc.
Be crystal clear to the pain points of that prospect as it relates to the specific features and benefits for that unit type.
Remember, every single one of your prospects wants to feel like you get them, you understand what’s bothering them, and that you can provide a fantastic solution to their housing search.
Make sure you have custom marketing efforts that cover all of the available bed types that are left to assure you drive a variety of qualified traffic.
Your “rates starting as low as” marketing pieces will bring the folks in wanting the lowest cost available, so it’s going to be pretty tricky to pull off the rest of your lease up in its entirety relying just on that traffic type/demographic mainly when your lowest rate sells out.
It would help if you started to customize your efforts to speak to both the cost-effective folks and the ones that will be interested in more expensive bed types. Same goes for prospects coming with a roommate and the others wanting to roll solo.
Take some time to think this through in how custom you should make your marketing efforts for your property and bed types you have left.
If you catch a traffic concern regarding a specific bed type in early June, you likely have enough time to run a moderate promotion should you need one or maybe you increase your marketing outreach budget by a hair to assure you have a more balanced variety of traffic coming in for the available beds that are left.
This level of detailed monitoring and customized efforts will help make the difference between filling a property or not. It also makes a massive difference in a property that comes in at 96% occupied (almost full) which is usually all units occupied, but the property still has unnecessary scattered partial vacancy throughout.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this Student Housing tip series! Thanks for following along. There’s plenty more where this came from in the months to come! Stayed tuned :)
