I was just wondering if anyone is concerned about using Craig's list given all of the bad publicity it has received in the last year. Have ou had any problems with the kind of people that show up to view apartments.

Eileen Donahue
200 West Apartments

Mark Juleen wrote:

Chris,

I put search and social together as those are somewhat secondary from what we've found. They lead people to sites that have actual conversion forms. However, we do get some people that reference them directly as how they heard about us, so we give them credit in this way.

Mark,

That's what I figured. Are you using any special sem ppc campaigns? If you are, are you doing them in-house or outsourcing to a company like a Marin provider or Yodle?

We're currently tracking individual property campaigns vs market/region campaigns, and it's a bear to keep up with!

Thanks,
Chris

Chris,

I put search and social together as those are somewhat secondary from what we've found. They lead people to sites that have actual conversion forms. However, we do get some people that reference them directly as how they heard about us, so we give them credit in this way.

All internet: Craigslist, ForRent and ApartmentRatings. The links on craigslist and forrent direct viewers to our website and tracking the traffic there is a direct correlation from big monster sites to our website to application. Oddly enough, we'd been thrashed on apartmentratings and the tenants who chose to read the feedback liked what they read, checked us out, rented and have been great tenants.

I used to work for a company that marketed strictly to seniors, and strictly on the internet. Their research determined that seniors who use the internet tend to have more discretionary income and a higher education level. We know that education level of course does not factor into leasing decisions but worth noting regardless.

The property I'm at now went from C to B (lets say B+) by using those tactics. Through aggressive sales (haha that would be me) we were able to bring in tenants who moved here out of choice as opposed to those who felt they had no options. Made a huge difference over a year's time. We were able to filter out those who were moving from down the street because their current landlord was giving them warnings about behavior or late rent.

I've used this formula with several properties and it has worked. It's nothing new and as everyone attests the internet is an effective marketing tool. But, those properties are all in an urban area where more people have access to this type of marketing to begin with. And as another poster stated, many of the walkins are the result of a prior internet search. It's the same concept as the retail stores. They viewer may not necessarily buy online, but they did their research online.

Mark,

Thanks for sharing the charts. We're tracking the same way here at MAA, but it's great to see how others measure performance.

I was wondering, you have search and social together, is that just PPC ads on the search engines and social like FB ads?

Thanks,
Chris

Our top two sources are Craigslist and Apartment Ratings. We have gotten totally out of print advertizing. The books generated lots of traffic but few leases. Of course it is impossible to know where or why someone came to us. We have very good Apartment Ratings scores so that is the one source we point people towards.