The Importance of Craigslist Posting for Apartment Communities
Apartment rental demand currently shows no signs of slowing done. But, as you’re well aware of, there is still a good amount of elbow grease that is needed to get those absorption rates up. But, if you’re leasing an apartment building there’s a lot to keep track of, and it’s important to know where to best spend your time and your money. You have to go where the people are, and when it comes to apartment rentals, despite all the crazy things that can happen and stories you may have heard, people are definitely on craigslist. Why?
- People like to feel like they’re getting a deal. Craigslist gives users the feeling that they are dealing directly with a seller and thus feel like they’re in on a secret.
- Although it doesn't look as good compared to i’s competitors, it’s easy to use, from both the user and the seller’s perspective.
Here, we’ll discuss the art of Craigslist posting, if you can call it that, and how significant it can be in getting more units rented.
Craigslist Is the Most Viable Apartment Listing Platform
Clearly, visibility is vital when it comes to establishing an online presence. Despite the minimal changes that have been made to Craigslist over the last 22 years, it’s still a technology that is used regularly by millions of people, around 60 million in the US in fact. And, yes – a big chunk of these visitors are looking for an apartment to rent. To the dismay of several players in the industry, there have been many companies that have tried and failed at disrupting Craigslist posting and removing the platform as an unstoppable listing force.
As Slate.com explains, there are at least 50 billion Craigslist page views every month, and it’s known to generate highly valuable leads for apartment communities. For a comparative perspective, think about how CoStar, the owner of Apartments.com, ApartmentHomeLiving.com and ApartmentFinder.com, generates about 24 million visitors each month from all its websites. This all means that the Craigslist numbers are there, and they’re relatively static. You can surmise the site has a very healthy and loyal audience all over the country.
For a Large Community, a Craigslist campaign can be difficult to manage.
Remember when we mentioned that little has changed with the Craigslist user interface? Well, the few changes that have occurred in the last two decades have made the listing process a bit difficult for larger apartment communities. Here’s why -
Craigslist has a certain number of guidelines for the content it hosts on its forums, and if your account or your ad violates those guidelines, it’ll get “ghosted”, or removed from craigslist altogether. Craigslist does this in an effort to maintain quality and to combat spam and fake ads. For a large apartment community, there are several things you need to avoid in order to keep from being ghosted:
- Over posting - too many ads from one account
- Too much similarity between ads, in both pictures and content
- The inclusion of URLs within the ad copy
- HTML ad design, or overly complicated formatting
- High-quality photos are essential to your Craigslist posting. As a platform that sticks to a pretty uniform ad design, you have to stand out where it counts – the pictures. Clear, bright photos that showcase space and finishes are optimal for apartment marketing.
- You have to make sure your copy includes an obvious call to action. If someone is confused about how to contact you, your conversion rate obviously suffers.
But, Leased Up Can Help
The potential of a Craigslist posting is great, if you’re able to utilize it to it’s full potential. That means ou need to have as many ads actively running at all times. For that reason effective Craigslist marketing can be a very overwhelming and time-intensive process, and one that most leasing agents simply don’t have time for.
At Leased Up, we are very familiar with using Craigslist as an effective marketing tool. We create and manage as many ads as possible, and we maintain every one so that ads are always on brand and in compliance with Craigslist guidelines. We also monitor the progress of all ads we put out so we know what is working and producing more leads. Additionally, you’ll receive regular reports that detail how well your posts are doing. With all of this, we’re able to develop a successful Craigslist posting campaign that will help you Lease Up your building faster.
Leased Up is a full-service internet marketing company for apartment communities. In addition to taking on the world of Craigslist, we also handle SEO, targeted ad campaigns, web development, video ads and virtual tours. Plus, we’ll even put together a Grand Opening event for you! We’ve helped many communities with their apartment marketing needs. Our clients see a positive impact on their absorption rates because they trust us to know what their prospective clients want and need.
