You’ve likely seen a million blogs with the same title as this one. 

But these three trends aren’t the obvious ones. I know that you know high-quality apartment photos and frequent posting are important. 

But did you know that search algorithms are shifting and what to do about it? Or that certain residents will be caring less about an apartment’s location? 

Let’s get into it...

Improved Page Experience

This trend is fully driven by Google’s 2021 algorithm update which will determine page ranking based on user experience. This includes factors such as page loading time, interactivity, mobile-friendliness, and visual stability. User experience has always been a determining factor for Google’s algorithm, but now it’s a priority. 

Basically, if Google thinks users will have an easy time viewing and navigating your website, your ranking will improve.

Due to this, many properties will push to improve their websites this upcoming year and make sure page performance is at its peak. While this marketing trend is created by Google’s change in algorithm, it does benefit your apartment marketing. Improving your website will make potential residents happy when virtually browsing your property. 

Enhanced Tour Options

At the beginning of the pandemic, everyone rushed to offer incredible virtual tours, 3D videos, and live walk-throughs on their apartment websites. However, we all quickly realized that it wasn’t the 100 percent flip in renter behavior that we were expecting, it was more of a 50/50 scenario. Many residents loved the online options, but many still preferred to come in and take an in-person tour. 

As the pandemic continues for the foreseeable future, an important trend to jump on is enhancing your tour options. There are three steps to this:

1. Make sure you offer both virtual and in-person tours.

2. Explore offering new types of tours such as a self-guided tour.

3. Improve the components or overall experience of the tours you offer.

The last one is definitely the most difficult, especially when you already provide high-quality tours. It’s all about getting creative — it is apartment marketing, isn’t it?

For example, during your in-person tours, you can have hot coffee and cookies ready for them, allow them to see and/or experience the amenities, show them more than one unit if possible, introduce them to the apartment manager, and even give them time in the community alone. 

The smallest addition or adjustment can be what helps you stand out against your competition in the mind of a future resident. 

Less Location Prioritization 

This apartment marketing trend is important for communities that are in cities or have a target audience that is predominantly single and/or in the workforce. 

For years before the pandemic, many white-collar workers were requesting to switch to remote work but it wasn’t until working remotely was a necessity that employers saw the incredible benefits of it. Now, many companies are remote full-time and don’t plan to switch back even when the vaccine has been fully distributed. 

This means many current workers and job seekers won’t be searching for apartments as much anymore. Now that they can work from anywhere, their criteria for the perfect place to move to will change. 

Obviously, local SEO is still a key component of your apartment marketing strategy but make sure that’s not all you hone in on. Make sure that if you took location out of the equation, your apartment website and social media channels still highlighted what makes the community amazing. 

Stay Steady With Your Apartment Marketing

2020 was a year of abrupt, painful changes and I don’t think this year will be any different. So rather than having a knee-jerk reaction and make some huge change in response to the market, keep steady. 

Definitely keep these mentioned trends in your mind and make improvements where you can, but more than anything keep going, keep promoting your property, and keep prioritizing the resident experience.