Low Budget Marketing For Low Income Housing

1. Low Budget Marketing For Low Income Housing Using Social Media To Rent Units

2. Using Social Media To Rent Units • Aiming for local community, through business and potentialtenant contacts. • Many businesses of all industry choose to stick to their old fashioned marketing tactics, often with little to no return. • When we first begin to think about being successful in renting units on our properties, in our communities…what do you think of? • Marketing/Advertising/Reputation/Community Presence/Business Contacts such as Vendors with Employees/ ???? • Limited manpower, budget, and time can cause massive roadblocks. • Referrals-building a contact list, “community business-based outreach”.

3. Using Social Media To Rent Units • Web Site • Establishing a home page for your business is relatively inexpensive and can reach many people. • Always include a phone number or email address so that interested visitors can contact you. • A downloadable pdf of your application is also good.

4. Using Social Media To Rent Units • Email Lists • One of the most overlooked or ineffectively used marketing tactics continues to be email marketing. • Manage your email contacts! • Once your email lists are ready to go you can start to think about how to communicate to these recipients in the most effective ways possible. • TIP: Sign up for a couple email subscriptions to receive email marketing from successful companies. This is a great way to find new ideas and to see what effective email marketers are doing. • Eddie Bauer, Apple, Outside Magazine, VS! • Use Professional, Relevant Messages in Your Emails.

5. Using Social Media To Rent Units • Email Lists • If you are going to spend time and money marketing to prospects and clients, then make sure that you are sending them quality material. • Programs like MailChimp and iContact and Constant Contact provide some useful templates.

6. Using Social Media To Rent Units • Email Lists • One of the best ways to do this with email marketing is to only send your emails at the most opportune days and times of the week/month. • Avoid weekends as lots of spam gets sent during this time. • Avoid evenings as lots of spam is sent then and you may risk having your message included in a mass delete. • Avoid Mondays as this is usually the busiest day for most people. • Avoid public holiday periods and summer holiday rushes. • TIP: The best days and times to send email campaigns typically fall mid week, during working hours.

7. Using Social Media To Rent Units • Facebook • Make sure it's easy to find your company's contact information, including phone numbers, business address, and website details. • In addition, add a customer support tab that includes an FAQ or Q&A section, plus practical information such as how to get an application. • TIP: Don’t Overpost- "With great power comes great responsibility." Nothing turns customers off faster than being inundated with Facebook posts. • Reward “Fans” for participation. A business gives you a lead for instance, you highlight them on your page.

8. Using Social Media To Rent Units • Facebook • Social Media Examiner's Top 10 Small Business Facebook Pages for 2012 • #1: How to Market Your Horse Business • #2: Recruit Military • #8: Legendary Whitetails • #9: Dog Pack Snacks

9. Using Social Media To Rent Units • Facebook • What helped these sites? • Great photos • Informative/entertaining posts • Engagement with viewers • Publishes a good variety of content • Lots of recommendations. • Harder Industry Is Ours! But think about what you can incorporate to draw interest to your page, and ultimately your properties.

10. Using Social Media To Rent Units • Twitter • Twitter is quickly developing into a useful marketing tool for small and midsize companies that sell products and services. • Some big companies have a knack for tweeting in a way that drives their business. • Study what they say and how they get a rapport going with their customers. • Some of the best are Levi’s, Nike, Zappos, and Chow.

11. Using Social Media To Rent Units Web Site/Facebook/Twitter

12. Using Social Media To Rent Units • Twitter • When you set up your Twitter account you can follow companies, and the tweets of those companies will automatically come to you. • Pick and choose carefully. • When a company you’ve selected retweets interesting posts from others, it is much like a referral. • In general, experts in B2B Marketing recommend you follow customers, analysts, partners, potential customers, media, and bloggers in your industry. • Recognize the people and companies with the most to offer your company.

13. Using Social Media To Rent Units • Real Estate Listings/Directories • Your area of interest. State-wide. National. • www.lowincomehousing.us • www.socialserve.com • www.ilhousingsearch.org

14. Using Social Media To Rent Units • Linked In • Many people still call LinkedIn the "most boring" of the three major social networks. • Twitter & Facebook are the top two… • …but LinkedIn has really done a great job over the last year in order to keep up and maintain its position on the top 3 podium. • Start Your Own LinkedIn Group!

15. Using Social Media To Rent Units • Traditional Marketing Options (Social Media Equal) • Press Release (Twitter & Facebook) • General Flyers (Facebook & Email) • Direct Mail (Twitter & Facebook & Email) • Public Service/Sponsorship (Twitter & Facebook & Email) • Yellow Pages • Apartment For Rent Signage (Twitter & Facebook & Email) • Bulletin Boards (Twitter & Facebook & Email) • Newspapers (Now Online Versions as well) • Tenant Incentives ($25 gift card for finding an applicant/leased tenant) • Word of Mouth • Business Cards vs. Business Card Marketing (listing Social Media) (250 cards for $25…10 cents a copy).

16. Using Social Media To Rent Units • Additional Tips • Who are your very best customers? Make sure your advertising reaches them. • Can you sponsor a community event? • Positive exposure in the community can bring in new applicants/residents. • Piggyback advertising. Is there someone in your area that send out a lot of mailings? • Split the postage. Pay a small fee to be included. • Key your ads! Put something in the ad to let you know where a response comes from. Put a code that will record what and where. • Ask every applicant how they found you. Make sure it is on your application.