You likely already know the importance of quality content in multifamily marketing. But what you may not know for sure is how to venture from conception to results. To get started with creating quality content to accompany your marketing planning, you’ll first need a content marketing plan.
A content marketing plan is a blueprint that determines your purpose for creating content, who you’re targeting, how and where you plan to display it, what sets your content apart from the rest, and your overall goals. Those who take the time to create dedicated content marketing strategies experience more significant impacts, fewer challenges and can make more informed campaign decisions over time.
Here’s how you can start creating your first content marketing strategy in five steps.
1. Identify your content goals.
You will not be able to accurately gauge success if you do not first determine why you are creating content in the first place. Is it to gain brand awareness? Increase website traffic? Boost conversions? Whichever your end goal is, you’ll want to accurately identify and then quantify it through dedicated key performance indicators across several periods for tracking throughout your campaign.
2. Understand who you’re targeting.
This piece may sound familiar if you’ve already created a marketing plan. If you’re just starting, you’ll want to take the time to understand who you’re targeting with your efforts. You’ll need to consider preferences, demographics, hobbies, lifestyles, desires, dislikes, etc. It is always helpful to draft a complete persona of your ideal renter so that you can develop an understanding of this person and create connections that will help influence your targeting efforts.
3. Know your position.
The next step will be to assess your current position online. This is where you will want to review your existing keywords, videos, posts, website copy, and online ads and measure them against your goals to determine if you are moving in the right direction. As part of this step, you may also want to evaluate your competitors’ content to see how yours falls compared to theirs. During this step, you may also notice particular gaps, such as certain missed opportunities like unaddressed questions, not incorporating particular language or keywords, or just missing the mark completely.
4. Strategize and plan.
Once you’ve conducted a thorough audit and understand your areas of opportunity, you’ll want to devise an overall strategy for your content. Here, you’ll consider how you’ll put all the insights you gained above to good use. You will have already nailed down the type of content that seems to connect most with your target, so now, you’ll need to jump on your approach. Note which platforms you’ll use to spread your messaging and which content types prove most effective among your target audience. Consider how you will manage creating and posting the actual content and responding to comments that may arise. Consider things like approval processes, participants, imagery, etc.
An added piece to the planning process here is also working through your content/editorial calendar. This is where you’ll draft the content, schedule, platform, and responsible parties. You can use official posting tools or an online calendar to complete this step. Regardless, your calendar should be updated weekly or monthly to maintain consistency.
5. Post and monitor.
After you’ve finalized your content calendar, it’s time to distribute your content, then sit back and monitor. Establishing defined tracking periods will help you better track your efforts’ success over time and gauge progress. Ideally, your content will improve as you develop a deeper and more informed understanding of your target audience and their preferences. From here, you’ll be able to make knowledgeable tweaks and adjustments as you see fit.
Rentbot can help.
If you’re struggling with your content, Rentbot can help. We not only design websites for multifamily properties that attract, convert, and retain tenants, but offer robust SEO and Google Ads packages that will improve your Google website ranking and optimize your property ads, so your property is noticed by the right searchers at the right time. If you’re ready to start using content to turn leads into leases, schedule your free consultation today.
About the Author
Jonsette Calloway joined the Rentbot team in 2015. With a background in public relations, advertising, and copywriting, she has helped many clients achieve their marketing and communications goals within various fields, but she particularly enjoys working with the apartment industry.