In 2020, we experienced a year like never before, and with that, the world had to quickly adapt to these unprecedented times. Digital marketing is constantly changing, but now, faster than ever before. As people were spending more time at home and online, we noticed a shift in the way people were searching. We’ve put together 21 apartment marketing trends to keep an eye out for in 2021 and beyond:

  1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) – AI is shifting how digital marketers build and manage campaigns with more data and insight than ever before. Now we have the ability to personalize ads based on users’ search habits, sites visited, and so much more. Also, having the ability to manage digital ads with AI technology helps make better, data-driven recommendations for campaigns and implement them rapidly. Outside of digital marketing, Artificial Intelligence (AI) can also help with maintenance, better energy efficiency, and property management tasks as well as answering calls and setting up tours. The future is bright for AI in Multifamily!
  2. Geofencing – Geofencing will continue to rise in popularity with apartment marketers and will continue to grow to over $2.4 billion in spend by 2023 based on Market Research Future analysis. With the world going completely digital due to the 2020 pandemic, utilizing Geofencing to focus on specific physical locations will continue to play an important role in apartment marketing. Having the ability to target competing communities, major places of employment, hospitals, and major universities within a certain mile radius will continue to be a popular choice moving into 2021 and beyond!
  3. Interactive Content – Interactive Content will be a key driver in increasing overall engagement with your potential residents on all major social media platforms. You can take advantage of a wide array of interactive content ideas for your social media campaigns. These include Quizzes/Polls, Contest/Sweepstakes, Multiple Choice Posts, Interactive Infographics, Workbooks/Assessment, Leasing Calculators, and Interactive Videos. These types of interactive content definitely take a little more effort but will pay dividends when trying to increase engagement and conversions for your content. Virtual Tours and Interactive Floor Plans being the most popular choice for multifamily will help keep the user on the site longer and engage potential residents on your website. 
  4. Voice Search – The rise of Voice Search continues to play a pivotal role in Digital Marketing moving into the future. Your community is becoming its own entity on the web and will be able to present data/information outside of your website altogether based on curated data on the web. By making sure you’re in the core voice search engines and directories like Google, Apple Maps, Yelp, and Foursquare, you will have the opportunity to be found via voice searches on smart devices like Alexa and Google Home. You also have to consider a Schema Mark-Up and FAQs strategy to have the best opportunities for being found. Also, having a strong mobile presence is a major factor as well!
  5. Micro-Moments – Google actually introduced micro-moments to the digital marketing scene. A micro-moment, according to Google, is an intent-rich moment when a person turns to a device to act on a need-to-know, go, do, or buy type of action. By doing this at these specific moments, your prospective residents will get what they want, when they want it and are attracted to brands who can meet their needs. 
  6. Chatbots – Nowadays, you can’t have a website without a robust chatbot with the ability to help lease apartments on your behalf. We know on-site staff can’t be there 24/7, but your apartment chatbot can! That’s why ApartmentSEO® partnered with BetterBot to offer the best apartment chatbot in the multifamily industry. Ideally, you want to work with an omnichannel apartment chatbot to ensure seamless integration with all your digital marketing sources. These online sources include your website, email, SMS, Google My Business, social media, and digital ads. With the power of conversational leasing, you can capture leads that otherwise would have fallen off forever. 
  7. Influencer Marketing – The allure of hiring a social media influencer superstar for your community probably crossed your mind once or twice. There are many ways to approach this angle of influencer marketing. You could hire a top-dollar social/lifestyle influencer, but they will probably consume your entire year’s marketing budget, or you could try to find micro-influencers who already live in your community. If they have 10,000+ followers/fans, they could be a strong candidate. Even a well-seasoned micro-influencer with 1000+ followers/fans could carry lots of value to influence your marketing campaigns. 
  8. Video Marketing – Video marketing is widely missed in the multifamily industry, with huge potential for growth in 2021 and beyond. Video content is one of the richest forms of storytelling and provides a way to potentially get more organic Google brand search traffic. Creating video content can be expensive, but there are other affordable alternatives as well. One example is Animoto, which helps you create storyboard style slideshow from images and video clips, then you can upload directly to Youtube. Google Ads offers Youtube Advertising to promote any video content you have to promote. ApartmentSEO® is a Premier Google Partner who can provide recommendations for any video marketing campaign you are considering for your community. There are also opportunities for Video SEO by organically ranking Youtube videos for local keyword searches due to Google’s Universal Search Engine.  
  9. Predictive Analytics – Google Analytics recently released a new version of their platform called Google Analytics 4, which helps provide more insights into a more private world; this is more focused on Website + App Predictive Analytics but could play an important role when communities offer their own Community Website and Community App for Resident Retention. 
  10. Schema Mark-Up – Schema Mark-Up plays an important role in getting found for SEO. Your community is a physical location with an online entity based on all the information gathered online. By adding specialized Apartment Schema Mark-Up, you can tell Google you are an apartment building along with which types of floor plans you offer, etc. It also will help you get found in voice search devices like Alexa and Google Home. 
  11. Social Messaging Apps – Social Message Apps play a big role in getting important information to your fans/followers when they need it most. Click through rates are usually 3x higher, you can give a non-promotional and personal touch, and can educate and engage, then sell/lease. Make sure to respond to all messages within 24 hours or less, so you can immediately address  their questions/comments/concerns.
  12. Inclusivity (ADA) – ADA Compliance and Inclusivity are no longer an option moving into 2021. With a massive rise in digital lawsuits, having a non-ADA Friendly website is asking for trouble. Making sure all websites are accessible for everyone, no matter their disability, is extremely important. Also, by improving your ADA experience, it helps to boost SEO and Voice Search results as well. ApartmentSEO® is a Corporate Member of the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) and Martin Canchola, our Co-Founder/CTO, is a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC). You want to work with an agency that truly understands ADA Compliance to ensure your ADA Audit is detailed and precise in all tasks that need to be completed to get your ADA back into compliance. 
  13. Augmented Reality – The world of Augmented Reality is still on the cusp for multifamily, but there are real opportunities here around virtual staging as well as showcasing and marketing properties. The idea of creating immersive leasing experiences people can use with their smartphone or VR headset will change the game in years to come. 
  14. Personalization – The idea around Personalization isn’t to exclude certain audiences, but to ensure each user gets a personalized message based on their search history, websites visited, and other important signals. The internet has changed the way we create relationships with people, and now it’s even more seamless to deliver personalized messaging through a variety of sources. These sources include Google Ads, Facebook/Instagram ads, email, social message apps, as well as rewards and incentive programs. When you have an opportunity to deliver a personalized message vs a mass message, you will find engagement and conversions get better results. 
  15. Social Media Stories – Social Media Stories is still a top social media trend moving into 2021 and beyond. The amount of engagement you can receive from Social media Stories helps boost your social metrics. One of the top Instagram trends is around interactive stories and polls, which is a great way to build trust with potential and current residents.  
  16. QR Codes – The QR Code was invented over 20 years ago by Aichi manufacturer Denso but it really took off again during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Restaurants with outdoor dining would have a QR Code menu to scan and bring up the menu digitally. Also, in the multifamily industry, QR Codes are a great way to send residents directly to a url/website of your choice; this could be for leaving Google My Business Reviews or sending directly to an application page. Creating a QR Code Plaque for positive resident experiences, so they can scan and leave a review from their mobile phone is a great way to get more reviews and increase your positive sentiment online. 
  17. Progressive Web Apps (PWA) – Progressive Web Apps (PWA) are key to merging website technology with app technology. It’s vital to deliver a more mobile app-like experience to users to stay competitive in this ever-changing digital landscape. This type of application software can be presented on the web in HTML, CSS, and Javascript, which can work on all web browsers on desktop and mobile devices of all kinds. Special features include the ability to run offline, high performance, background processing, support for push notifications, and icons on smartphones’ home screen.
  18. Google My Business (GMB) – Google My Business (GMB) now accounts for more than 30%+ of Google ranking factors for SEO. In fact, potential residents will probably review your GMB listing before they see your website. Your Google Knowledge Graph represents your community as an online entity, so it’s vitally important to keep a positive reputation. Also, make sure to use all features within the GMB platform. These include managing reputation, Google Q&A, Google Posts, and ensuring your profile is 100% complete and verified. GMB should be a core focus in your Apartment Marketing budget overall as this is a key source of traffic, usually within the top 3 of website traffic sources overall. 
  19. Apple Maps – Apple Maps recently launched ratings and photos for their points of interest to be a competitor to Google My Business (GMB). They also redesigned their Apple Maps platform to help improve the overall user experience. Now you can explore all major cities, share locations, one-tap notifications to places users visit most frequently, share your ETA, and much more. Don’t get left behind by not focusing some attention on Apple Maps!
  20. Reputation Management – The power of Reputation Management for Apartments is a strong driver for presenting a positive sentiment online. Also, for SEO purposes, it will help send signals to Google and provide more long-tail keyword ranking opportunities based on the words used in the reviews and responses in Google My Business. Google takes into account the whole ecosystem of reputation sites and blends them into your Google Knowledge Graph score to rank each community accordingly. Those with the most positive reputation and highest velocity of reviews will usually come out on top. 
  21. ApartmentSEO® – Last but not least, working with an Apartment Marketing Platform to ensure you stay ahead of the curve for all things digital is vital, moving into 2021 and beyond. Let our team craft a personalized digital marketing strategy for your property management company or individual communities to ignite your leads to leases today! We offer a Free Marketing Analysis and Free Reputation Report Card! ASEO offers SEO, Digital Ads (Google Ads/Facebook/Instagram Ads), Social Media Marketing, Reputation Management, and ADA Compliant/SEO Friendly Websites! ApartmentSEO® is also a Premier Google Partner and can provide you with recommendations for your next Google Ads Campaign. Partner with ApartmentSEO® to stay ahead of the curve and have a competitive edge in Google’s Search Result Pages (SERPS)!