What tactics are you using to market your multifamily property? If you’re like most, you probably have an ad on Craigslist, some signs around in the yards, a newspaper ad here and there, and a few subscriptions to services like Apartments.com, where your property is featured among others in the same zip code. Seems like you’ve covered everything, right?

Wrong.

If your property doesn’t have an online presence with marketing to promote it, you’re potentially missing out on some very savvy tenants. That’s because the majority of apartment hunters are going online these days to research their options before they ever get into a car and go driving around to see them in person. They want pictures and they want as much information as they can get to compare your property with their other top choices so they can make the most informed decision. And, search engine optimization (SEO) can help.

Here’s how:

• Get a website. If you do not already have a site for your property, now’s the time. Get a site up that has a few interior and exterior images (the best you can get, even if you have to sink a little money into them), information on floor plans, information on pricing, and information on amenities. Then include address, contact information, and any specials you’re running for that month. Don’t worry – this doesn’t have to be a big site; even a one-pager will do the trick.
• Optimize it. If you’re not sure what this means, hire a professional from Cowtown Creative to go into each page of the site and optimize it for search engines. This includes choosing the keywords that are relevant to your property, which prospective tenants might use in a search to find it (e.g., full property name, ‘fort worth apartment’, ‘family-friendly condo’).
• Advertise. If you have the budget and want to do so, consider AdWords. This is an offering through Google that allows businesses to purchase their top keywords for use in campaigns. So, when a user enters your keyword (fort worth apartment), and sees your ad at the top of the search results in Google and clicks on it, you are charged a single instance of the agreed-upon rate with Google (ranges in accordance with popularity; typically between $1 and $5). You can set a per-day budget in order to keep the campaigns within your marketing budget.