If you Google the term “apartments,” followed by your city’s name, you’ll likely see that the first page of results is taken by some of the top internet listing services (ILS). For years, these sites gained their popularity by conveniently serving as middlemen between property owners and renters. They have managed to control this position mainly through heavy online ad spend, a little organic SEO, some old-fashioned content, and, of course, willing participants, like you. But, as the online space has evolved over the years, so has property owner’s willingness and capabilities to build their own online presence, apart from your standard ILS. 

Gone are the days when owners are solely relying on the ILS to meet their conversion and leasing goals. With a targeted local SEO strategy, Google Ads campaign, retargeting efforts and comprehensive content strategy, you can compete with the best of the ILS’s. 

Here’s how:

1. Mix it up

Throughout the renter’s journey, your prospects are visiting multiple online sources before sealing the deal. Investing in one advertising mode, which is essentially the function of an ILS, will not cut it anymore. Recent studies have revealed that prospective renters have clicked on as many as five or more advertising platforms prior to finalizing their application. So, what does this mean for you? Well, in a nutshell, it’ll be important for you to leverage tactics like cost-per-click ads, Google My Business listings, social media ads, and targeted keywords to meet your renters at multiple points in their journey. Most importantly, you’ll have to keep in mind that no one advertising medium can do the job alone. 

2. Create your own content.

Be it a website, video, blog or social media post, it’s not that difficult to create your own content nowadays, that is, if you really want to. You don’t have to rely on an ILS for these functions or their platform if you don’t want to. Investing in a website of your own, and then driving traffic to this site through the utilization of keywords, alt-tags and video beats a single ILS investment by far. And, if you’re less familiar with writing for the web, keywords, or SEO, the good news is that there are a plethora of free tutorials online that will tell you everything you need to know.

But, if you have the budget, it’s always helpful to invest in a professional photographer for your property photos. You can even hire a content writer to contribute weekly posts or copywriting services for your Google Ads. So, by putting in the leg work to promote and boost your web presence, you’ll be able to take greater ownership of your own audience and cater your marketing accordingly.

3. Retarget your ads.

Your marketing efforts shouldn’t just rest at a single-serve ad. In fact, you’ll experience more success if you remarket your content. So, what exactly is remarketing, or retargeting? It’s when you serve up your ad to a person who has already visited your website in the past. So, if one of your prospects is viewing multiple properties online, they’ll continue to see ads for your property despite physically leaving your site. Remarketing can easily be set up in Google Ads or Facebook Ads, and you can even create customized lists to dictate when users are served which ads.

Rentbot can help.

You no longer have to rely fully on an ILS to do the apartment marketing for you. But, before you even begin to think about dropping your ILS, you’ll need to have a responsive website. If you haven’t gotten started already, we can help. Our Rentbot pros can build a mobile-friendly website tailored to your property in as little as 7 days. It will come equipped with features like online rent payments, built-in SEO, real-time availability, smart integrations, and more. And, most importantly, your new site is guaranteed to attract, convert, and retain tenants. Make your website your most powerful marketing tool. Learn more about how Rentbot can help, here.