If only your job could be as easy as collecting rent on time. As a property manager, you work tirelessly to keep your tenants happy while also managing maintenance requests, property records, finances, and lead-generation marketing techniques. That’s a lot to have on your plate! What could help you is property management growth strategies.
So, if you feel like your portfolio has been treading some rough waters, we get it. That’s why we’re here to give you a few of the best property management growth strategies to help you succeed and stand out against your competition.
Neglecting marketing efforts is like launching a business and not telling anyone about it. Your community needs to know that you exist so they can inquire about your business. You can’t add more doors and generate leads if you don’t have a plan in place to get the word out about your services. This is why having marketing strategies for property management companies is critical to their growth.
One of the most important aspects of any marketing strategy is establishing clear goals. The best way to develop your goals is by using the SMART technique. So, let’s go over examples of smart goals for property management firms.
Make your goals SMART
The ’S’ in SMART stands for ‘Specific.’ The more detail you can provide for your goal, the easier it will be for you to achieve it. Why? Because ambiguous goals are difficult to understand and therefore harder to reach.“Get more tenants” is a vague goal, whereas, “Get eight more tenants for X property and six more tenants for Y property” is specific.
Property management growth strategies aren’t complete without adopting the ‘M’ in SMART goals. It stands for ‘Measurable,’ and it denotes how a goal will be measured. If you don’t know how to measure the success of your business, then how will you know when you achieve that success? Make sure you have a way to measure the steps that lead up to your big goal, so you’ll know when you’ve reached it.
To grow your property management business, you need to have goals that are ‘Attainable’– which brings us to the ‘A’ in SMART. Your goals should challenge you, but be realistic as well. An absurdly overarching goal can deter you from getting the motivation you need to succeed. For example, if you manage one property right now, making a goal to manage thirty-three properties in two months will only overwhelm and discourage you.
Let’s talk about the ‘R’ in SMART. ‘Relevance’ is key when it comes to goal-setting. If your goals don’t align with your company’s long-term objectives and values, then achieving them won’t do your business any good. Think about it this way– Say that I want to lose X amount of weight in six months, and I set a goal to work more hours at my job. Reaching that goal won’t have any impact on my weight (unless my job is being a pro athlete).
You should always focus your property management goals around a timeline. This is where we get to the ‘T’ in SMART, which stands for ‘Time-based’. Without setting an end date for your goal, it’ll be tough to get motivated to achieve it. So, if you want to “Get eight more tenants for X property and six more tenants for Y property,” you need to set a deadline for when that goal must be reached.
Know your target audience
Marketing property management growth strategies heavily center around the target audience. It’s so important to know who you’re selling to. Otherwise, all of your marketing efforts will be wasted since you’re not targeting the right people. At the end of the day, you’re not going to be able to sell dog food to cat owners or umbrellas to people who live in the desert, even with the cleverest Facebook Ads and email campaigns.
This is why how to market property management businesses effectively all comes down to knowing your audience. Ask yourself, who are the types of clients that are attracted to my properties? Who are the leads I typically generate? What do they value? What are common issues they face when searching for a place to live?
Once you know who your target audience is, you’ll know how to tailor your marketing strategy to attract and engage them.
Leverage SEO tactics
If your property management growth strategies don’t include SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tactics, then you’re not taking advantage of everything our digital marketing culture has to offer. Plus, SMART goals for a property manager and nailing down your target audience work best when they’re coupled with the power of SEO.
SEO helps your property management firm maximize its potential outreach. Optimizing your marketing content like your emails, social media posts, blogs, and web copy lets you attract a significantly higher number of leads. This is because content optimized with specific and relevant keywords boost your website’s ranking in search engine results.
Get out there and shake some hands
One of the best property management growth strategies is good ‘ole fashioned networking. Handshakes or fist bumps –whatever floats your boat– are necessary to achieve growth in property management businesses. So, do your due diligence by researching conferences in your area or local associations that are accepting new members. Even joining an online forum like a Facebook group for real estate professionals can help you build relationships and promote your properties.
Expand your portfolio
Smart property management growth strategies include expanding your portfolio to either new housing markets or new geographic locations. So, if your business is in a position where it’s ready for expansion, you may want to consider finding other markets to break into. Not only will catering to different markets help you gain new leads, but it may also give you some security by cutting the risk that comes with only catering to a single tenant base. In other words, you’ll no longer be keeping all your eggs in one basket.
For example, if you currently cater to condo associations, you may add luxury apartment complexes and/or vacation rentals to your portfolio as well. But just remember that when you change markets, your target audience changes too. So, figure out who your new audience is before devising a marketing plan.
Follow the trends
Remaining current with the latest trends in property management systems allows you to stay ahead of the curve. In the real estate industry or any other industry, your business either evolves or dies. This is why it’s key to make sure you’re always up-to-date on property management news in your market.
Educating yourself on all of the trends that are constantly evolving can seem like a very stressful task. But before you throw in the towel and run for the hills, remember that even embracing just one or two trends will be beneficial to your company’s bottom line. You could solely focus on adopting technology trends by automating your workflows or showing 360 virtual tours with virtual staging. Likewise, you could jump on board with social media trends by posting more on Instagram or Facebook to reach your target audience.
In sum, how to grow your property management business boils down to picking a couple of trends that are realistic for your company to adopt.
Improve your current portfolio
Many property management growth strategies place an emphasis solely on gaining clients. But here’s the truth: You simply can’t scale up your business without optimizing it. This is why growing a property management company must involve enhancing your internal operations in addition to marketing.
One of the most effective property management growth strategies can be as easy as engaging in active communication with your current renters. For example, to improve the properties you currently run, you can step up your maintenance game. Promptly responding to your renters’ concerns and delivering solutions will boost their trust in you and your business. This is because every time you make an effort to resolve a renter’s issue, you prove your commitment to providing them with the best living experience. So, by focusing on your residents’ needs, you increase your chances of getting positive reviews, referrals, and boosting retention rates.
Property management growth strategies with a VA
Every property management strategy takes time and effort to carry out. Even just coming up with a plan for how to grow a property management company can seem daunting when you already have so many other tasks on your hands. As a property manager, you know all too well that your job entails much more than collecting rent. So, you shouldn’t feel pressure to master all of these property management growth strategies alone.
This is where a VA (virtual assistant) is your secret weapon. At Rocket Station, we can help you streamline your operations by matching you with a real estate-savvy VA. Whatever tasks you need help with, our VAs will take time and stress off your plate so that you can focus on scaling up your business.
