Student Housing Marketing Strategies To Boost Sales In 2022

It is understandable that many college students try as much as possible to separate their stressful student life from where they live.

Some just don't register early enough for on-campus accommodation.

Student housing is basically a type of off-campus housing for students like this. It is a building or structure mainly for long-term living by college students, away from the institution (off-campus). Some people refer to student housing as student accommodation.

How Do You Promote Your Student Housing?

The process of marketing real estate, especially student housing, can be very overwhelming.

Though there's a high demand for long-term student housing, you still have to be sure to find reliable college students to rent the apartments. This is for you to maximize return on investment on your property.

You might be thinking, where do I start from? How do you promote student housing?

Well, it really isn't rocket science. Below are some ways that you can go about off-campus housing advertising.

Use Social Media Marketing To Engage With The New Generation Students

It is safe to say the whole of the new generation is on social media. Social media is a huge opportunity to showcase any business.

While you capitalize on this, avoid being too sales-y when using social media to market your student housing property.

Some of your posts may not be related to student housing, posting fun content that doesn't scream "come and rent an apartment" could subtly do a lot of lead generation. When posting these unrelated contents though, please be sure to put the logo for the property. For any money-making venture, branding is extremely crucial.

There are 2 major ways to use social media to engage with new generation college students that are potential tenants they are by;

Showcasing Rooms And Amenities On Social Media

Like we have previously discussed, so many landlords underestimate the power of pictures or images for student housing marketing.

Social media is a very visual platform, and people on social media are either convinced or annoyed by what they see.

However, social media is not all about the quality of your images. You need to consider many other factors when marketing on social media, like good videos and good writing skills.

We will discuss some of the most influential social media platforms for student housing marketing below.

Pinterest

This is a search engine that focuses a lot more on aesthetics, compared to other social media platforms.

For example, Pinterest allows you to upload images (pins) with captions related to the pins and link your website to it.

This means if a potential tenant comes across your post on Pinterest, you can easily redirect them to the exact page that you want them to see on your website.

Instagram

This is no doubt one of the best social marketing channels.

Since we're talking about the new generation (Gen Z), there's no way we won't talk about their obsession with Instagram.

There's a higher chance that a college freshman finds you on Instagram than on Are any other social media platform.

Although you can't post links in your Instagram captions, you can post your web address on the bio section.

YouTube/TikTok

The new generation is extremely receptive to videos. For this reason, it is very important to make platforms like YouTube and TikTok your major source of marketing.

YouTube/TikTok are major video apps and while YouTube has the attention of every age group, TikTok gets the attention of mostly young people.

Using Social Media Ads To Reach Specific Target Audiences

Social Media marketing campaigns are way better when you use the ads services because they can be optimized to fit your target audience.

If you have a student housing property to market, and you don't want to spend money to run ads, then you're probably not ready for the market. Your biggest competitors are running ads, even though they are popular and easy to find.

Social media marketing adopts pay-per-click marketing which is running an ad on a platform and paying every time someone clicks on it. If you run an ad that the age demographic of the target audience is set to 16-35, you'll most likely reach college students.

Expand Your Reach With Digital Marketing

People also refer to digital marketing as online marketing. It is the marketing of brands/businesses for lead generation, and to connect with possible customers.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, a lot of colleges have closed their in-person studies. Some have placed a very thin limit on how many students can stay on campus.

This is a good opportunity for landlords to get potential tenants online. Because college students are spending a lot of time online, especially since tutoring is mostly online.

We have said a lot about social media marketing and its benefits and for all, it's worth we would like to also mention that though it is the biggest and most talked-about aspect, it is also under digital marketing.

There is so much expertise in digital marketing and here are a few examples.

Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) To Target Local Searches

SEO is a technique for making your webpage discoverable by search engines.

Local SEO focuses on optimizing your promotion in a way that is tuned to the taste of local search. This means that the right people will see your content, hence more lead generation.

Retargeting To Bring Back Lost Visitors

Retargeting ad campaigns simply means reminding website visitors of products and services after they leave without converting.

Have you visited a particular website one day and seen an ad about it on an unrelated website the next?

That is how retargeting works. It just keeps following you around the internet. Reminding you to convert.

Other Marketing Strategies for Student Housing

That being said, here are some other reliable ways to go about student housing marketing.

Property Websites/Portals

If you have experience in real estate, then you have probably listed your properties on websites like Spotahome, Roomi, and Uniplaces. This approach is basic, yet very effective for lead generation.

However, there's a potentially better way to list your student housing that is similar to this. Which is building a close relationship with various universities and directly posting your properties on their property portal. This makes it easy for you to get college students from specific colleges.

Good Photography

Many landlords/realtors underrate the importance of quality images for their marketing campaigns. Photography is something you definitely don't want to DIY when doing student housing marketing.

In a competitive business like student housing, your best bet is to hire a professional real estate photographer.

Being Strategic With The Dates

Many potential tenants may hold off from obtaining their student housing. This is because they haven't gotten their A-level results, even though they have been given admission into the university.

It could be one of many effective marketing strategies if you connect your property promotions within the time that they will be receiving their results.

Setup a post on your website, use social media and digital marketing, and take advantage of the excitement of finding student housing before university resumes.

Guerilla Marketing Ideas For Student Housing

Guerilla Marketing is a marketing technique that adopts unusual ways to promote products or services.

In simpler words, guerilla marketing is the drama queen of marketing. It uses different ways to get the attention of potential customers.

Here are some examples of Guerilla marketing for student housing.

Conversational Marketing Using Chatbot

In place of direct communication with a real-life human agent, a chatbot is a software program that conducts an online chat discussion using text or text-to-speech. Chatbot systems are often designed to accurately replicate the way a person would act as a conversational partner.

In a world where everyone uses social media, just having a website for your student housing business is not enough.

The new generation is hyper-connected and digitally inclined. Because of messaging apps like WhatsApp or telegram, the way the new generation communicates has evolved.

Rather than send you an email, your potential tenant would prefer to chat with you. This is why integrating a chatbot into your student housing website can be an effective lead generation method while providing good customer service.

Virtual Tours/3D Walk-Throughs

A virtual tour is a pattern of panoramic images put together to create a virtual event for any location.

A 3D tour is basically experiencing a tour so intimately without being there in person.

These are holy grail ideas. Before renting a place, a potential tenant can already see what the place looks like.

Virtual tours or 3D walk-throughs will help them with their imagination. They would rather go for housing they have experienced, even on a virtual tour, than one they haven't.

Sell A Lifestyle Using Amenities

When you have amenities like swimming pools, indoor games, and sports facilities like basketball courts, volleyball courts, and so on, you have a high chance of getting the attention of young people.

Most college students that look for student housing are classified as starting out singles and young adult roommates.

So, when you think about it, this demographic of people are new to living on their own, and long-term lifestyle amenities like garages may be handy.

This strategy is essential to any off-campus housing advertising because these amenities are provided most times on-campus.

Encourage Word Of Mouth With Referral Specials

Word of mouth can go very far in marketing your student housing.

Rather than go online, potential students would much rather hear from someone who isn't the property landlord or an official third party about the property.

You can encourage old or recent tenants to tell their friends about your property by giving them referral specials.

A referral special is simply a reward for bringing in new tenants. For example, if one of your tenants brings a family member to rent one of your apartments, you can give them 5 percent off the next rent.

Student loans aren't cheap, and many college students do different things to cut costs. This will be the perfect opportunity for them.

Flash Sales To Clear Off Remaining Inventories

What is a flash sale, you may ask?A flash sale is when a business offers huge discounts or promotions for a really short period. It is different from the generic "discount".

It is better to do a flash sale than have your property sitting without any occupants. At the end of the day, you don't want your space to be left empty.

That is why it is better to do a flash sale to clear off your remaining inventories.

Encourage Reviews On Review Platforms To Build Trust

College students may see you as authentic if you have reviews on review platforms.

Students want to see that other people endorse you before trusting you. So, in essence, it is always wise to ask for reviews on platforms like google reviews and trust pilot.

Don't Forget The Retention Of Existing Students

While you're looking for new college students to occupy your student housing, don't forget how much effort you put into getting the existing tenants. You need to put things in place to make sure they want to stay.

There are many things to consider when renewing.

Is your price too high? Are you lacking good customer service? Are there issues with the facility?

These questions might be hard to figure out.

Increase Renewal Rate With Renewal Specials

There are various ways to increase your renewal rates, but the major one is through discounts and giveaways.

As discussed previously, college students look for ways to cut costs.

Offering them something like a discount, or free services like cleaning or wifi, might make them at least consider staying.

Host Events To Show You Care

College students love to socialize, and if you host themed events for them, they could feel right at home.

Imagine having a bad week at school but going back to your apartment to chill with your roommates and neighbors.

College students get a sense of belonging when they attend themed parties hosted by their landlords.

Also, for new students, you can host onboarding or welcome events. So that before they even settle down in their apartments, they already want to renew their tenancy.

New And Innovative Amenities Based On Feedbacks

Only residents can tell you how you can improve the facilities in your student housing.

You can share something like a questionnaire or conduct in-person interviews. This is to know what amenities you can improve on or introduce for the comfort of your residents.

Renovate Your Student Housing To Keep It Fresh

Every real estate property needs renovation to keep things fresh, especially when young people are involved.

As much as the primary purpose of shelter/housing is protection, young people also love when their housing has a nice aesthetic to it.

Your property has to look presentable to a certain extent. So, your best bet is to fix things that need to be fixed now and then. That way, your tenants would have little or no reason to want to leave.

Build Strong Relationships With The Students

Young people can be so rebellious, yet they can also be so compliant when it looks like you're putting yourself on their level.

Because they're so young, they're constantly trying to remind people that they are in college and old enough to do what they want. For this reason, they may resent people who want to tell them otherwise.

Set your rules and regulations, but don't be that landlord that always wants to make residents feel trapped in their apartment.

Build personal relationships with them, and as cliche, as it may sound, residents may retain their apartments solely because of their relationship with their landlords.

Leverage These Student Housing Marketing Strategies

The best technique for student housing marketing is to combine existing marketing (social media, digital marketing, etc) with new and innovative marketing strategies.

This helps to ensure a long-term supply of new residents while retaining existing residents.

Follow these strategies, and you have a good shot at succeeding in your marketing and student housing business.