Topic: Small Town Marketing!

What do you think? Is there a difference between Small Town Marketing and City Slick? Or is that an Urban Legend? What do you do different for small town and marketing in the 'burbs? :blink:

No matter where you are marketing, small town or larger city, you should be marketing in the sources people utilize to look for apartment homes.

In some of our markets the newspaper is still a great marketing source, in other markets this is impractical.

Some of the best marketing that you can do in any location is curb appeal and property signage.

Some of the outreach marketing like puting post-it notes on cars, or flyers on windows works better in a larger city. When you do something like that in a small town, you can make people angry and the reputation of the property can take a hit. In a small town, we find it's better to work with local businesses for outreach marketing. Newspaper ads still work in small towns as well.

I agree that small towns can sometimes be "turned-off" to your marketing attempts with bold flyering, post-it notes, and other means, however I believe that if you are located in a small town, you should always market to the big cities as well. Small towns only have so many avenues for advertisement and if your community is not wanted in the town to begin with, it can be hard to get local businesses to work with you. Any town that is in a 15 - 20 minute driving radius should be your target market. Even if they are small towns too; you should work with their local businesses for advertisement. It is important to watch where your traffic is coming from and market to those areas and businesses. Maybe start a Preferred Employer Discount Program with company's who allow your community to market to their employees (For a large company that may be national or international). Or offer free advertisement of the other town's local businesses in your newsletter or move-in packs to help them get more business from your community. You can also look into community service groups in the area such as a gardening club, or Medical Assistant Canine Club. These groups are great to make connections with and if you can offer them any kind of perk for visiting your community like use of a dog run or dog park for large gardening area for their club, you will earn lots of word of mouth publicity. ;)

I think every town and every city is different no matter the size. Depending on the demographic you are marketing to will determine what is successful. A small town in Ohio will have a completely different marketing plan than a small town in Texas. The same is true for large city marketing. The whole success of marketing is to know the demographic you are marketing to and know what they want in a community which surprisingly is the same everywhere- Quality apartments at a fair price. I think in larger cities due to the amount of advertising they see on a daily basis makes it hard to get your advertising to stand out while in a small city sometimes going with bold advertising might send the wrong signals...

Really great comments everyone! THANKS! Do you think craigslist, ILSes, websites, SEO, and other online ads are as important to the small towns and suburbs in your marketing plan? :unsure:

Seo will be a good option, if you want to advertise for your property in the urban area .As in the urban area every one use the internet frequenly and if advertising will be done through internet definitely it will be helpful

Craigslist can be a great free tool. One thing we try to do is vary the times of day, titles and pictures on each of our posts so that people don't get frustrated with seeing the same ad over and over. Along with that we try not to over-post as well as that tends to bring the wrong type of feedback to the company. We also try to utilize our towns grocery stores to put fliers up on bulletin boards and we support our schools to keep our name fresh in peoples mind.

What do you think the role of Internet Marketing (ILSes, craigslist, websites and SEO, etc.) are in rural and small town marketing?
Is your goal to get "churn" from the people who already live there? Or to entice folks from outside the fence?

In small communities, I believe outreach marketing is a much better strategies. Visiting the local business, schools, hospital, police and fire depts. You can fax fliers offering a small discounts for police, fire fighters and teachers etc. (Having police live on-site can also create a more peaceful environment.)Mainly get involved in the community. Any major employer in the area is a good place to start. These leases also generate resident referrals to further reduce your ad/marketing cost. Just send a monthly flier with new apartment listing/ pricing. Free sites like Craigslist, Postlet and even Facebook are great but nothing beats Outreach when your competition is right next door.

Great thoughts, all! What role do you think "Community Activism" should play? E.g., fundraisers (or "fun-raisers!"), food drives, yard sales, bake sales, blood drives, etc.?
Any really creative local marketing activities?

While outreach marketing is definitely the best way to go about it - one thing that can make your online marketing efforts more effective would be to get some mouse pads with your website in the local library, schools and businesses. Mouse pads may be a thing of the past in some places - but they can still be very popular. Make it a nice mouse pad, something they'll keep.