The business of renting properties is booming. More and more property owners have joined the venture to grab a share of the market. The interesting thing about this field is that it seems that the list of tenants and opportunities for rental options is ever expanding. Whether people are looking for a short-term rental for a vacation, schooling or a semi-permanent move to a city, demand for a temporary home rental is there to fill the need.
While there are many things to consider making sure that your property is a desirable option for potential renters, the most important thing is to promote your property to reach the right category of people that meet your rental requirements. So, you have to ensure that your property is properly marketed, otherwise you may be missing out on revenue potential with an empty rental.
Thankfully, the internet has come to the rescue with plenty of options online. Today, it’s easy to share your property on social media platforms and reach thousands of potential tenants, however that is just one of many options for you to consider.
Here are five ways you can effectively make your rental services known online.
1. Internet listing
Say, for example, you’re an owner of a high-end vacation property that you want to rent to an international client base. What’s usually your first step? Today, with the advancements in tech, you won’t have to look further than your smartphone and a connection to the internet with a virtually unlimited pool of people to reach out to. As a landlord, you need to understand that 80 percent of potential tenants begin their search online. Therefore, you should utilize the presence of rental listing sites to the maximum. You can liaise with Airbnb real estate managers to have your property or space listed online. The amazing thing about such sites is that they have a wide audience. Hence, the chances of attracting a potential customer are high. Also, most of these listing sites don’t charge a sign-up fee. Therefore, you should never hesitate to register with all of them. Let the listing sites to do the difficult job on your behalf which is finding tenants.
2. Facebook Ads
Today, Facebook has over 1 billion users. This incredible user base means plenty of potential tenants. You should never undermine the power of Facebook. Today, 80 percent of smartphone users are likely to spend a significant portion of their day browsing the internet. Facebook is among the sites they visit frequently. Therefore, you should harness the opportunities there. Create a Facebook business page or a personal account and use it to market your rental services. Using Facebook, you can advertise using various formats. You can post pictures, banners, and even videos. Facebook also offers options to promote your posts to a targeted audience for a small fee. The trick helps a user to reach a wide audience, even those who aren’t in your friend’s or liked list.
3. YouTube
YouTube is the second largest searched platform on the internet so you should not ignore the opportunities it presents to reach potential renters. The platform allows you to share videos to showcase your rental property with links back to your contact details in the description. So, if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth significantly more. Vacation rental customers are always using YouTube to browse destinations so it’s only natural to promote your property here. The whole process is simple and straightforward. It can be done using your smartphone. But you have to ensure that the camera quality is on point. Remember, potential customers have to picture themselves in the property, and that can’t happen if the video is unappealing, so you may want to hire a professional to create this for you.
4. Website
Recently, with the proliferation of social media noise, dedicated websites have been increasingly more valuable than ever to reach the people that are searching for vacation or temporary rentals. If you’re in the business of renting and you don’t utilize a dedicated rental website to promote you listing, then you are missing out. The core function of a dedicated rental site is to attract traffic and convert it into customers. The first step towards establishing a successful online presence is SEO so that your listing receives high rankings in the search engines such as Google, therefore you may want to advertise on multiple platforms that direct back to your listing to capture as much online attention as possible.
5. Email marketing
An email database of past clients should never be neglected when it comes to establishing a strong referral customer base. This tool is useful when it comes to creating a good relationship with past and potential new customers. The emails can be used to follow up with customers who aren’t ready to rent a property or didn’t find a place that they liked. You can email your list regularly or whenever you have new rental offers. But on a cautious note, keep your emails short and do not spam your database with too many emails. For example, you should send them out on a regular monthly basis rather than anything more frequent.
Adding these simple tips to your property rental strategy can significantly expand your marketing reach with promotion to an entirely new segment of potential rental clients resulting in increased revenue potential and less vacancies.
