As a property management company, your monthly marketing plan needs to include both inbound methods like SEO and social media as well as outbound direct mail.

But the question becomes...how much of each strategy should you utilize? 

If, as a brand new property management business, you invest only in inbound marketing, you will grow your company agonizingly slowly and might have to give up on your business dreams.

But if, as a company that’s been around for a couple of years, you refuse to take SEO seriously and get free organic leads for your business, then you’ll leave opportunities for your competitors to capitalize on.

That’s why, in this post, we’re presenting you with you 3 different monthly marketing plans and detailing which one you should use based on what stage your business is in, in terms of maturity and profitability. 

Let’s dive in.

What your monthly marketing plan should look like as a property management company

The perfect property management marketing plan consists of all of the following:

• Direct marketing including direct mail and/or cold calling - You need to build up a list of absentee owners in your market and contact them via direct mail, cold calling, and/or SMS. For best results, use a tool like PropertyRadar to build the lists of leads and a tool like PrintGenie to send automated direct marketing campaigns using a variety of channels (for example a postcard followed up by a reminder for you to call).
  

• SEO optimization of key pages - It’s essential that, like these great property management website examples, you make your business discoverable via search engine. When prospects type in “your city name + property manager” you want your business to show up in the top 3 results. Check out this guide for local seo tips. 
  

• Monthly or quarterly blog posts to keep your website content fresh - While you likely don’t need to invest in weekly blogging, monthly or quarterly blogging can help you rank for additional SEO keyphrases while improving your website domain and keeping your content fresh, which makes your site more likely to rank for the high-value keyphrases that you put on your homepage or location pages. 
  

• Paid SEM to get targeted clicks to your site - If you don’t rank for SEO keyphrases that matter to your business, you can use Google Ads and Bing Ads to show up at the top of the search results page. You might also want to invest in SEM even if you rank, because you don’t want your competitors to get all the visibility at the top of the search results page.
  

• An incentivized referral program - You should have some sort of incentivization in place for referrals from real estate agents, clients, and other professional contacts. Decide what that incentivization is and make a simple one-page PDF brochure to send via email so everyone knows about it.
  

• Outbound marketing to grow the referral program - In addition to sending the information about your referral program to your current clients and real estate agent connections, you should also seek to forge new relationships. Make sure your referral incentive is competitive. Then use cold outbound prospecting to tell new real estate agents about it. Make sure to include a testimonial from a client in your brochure or email so they’re more likely to refer their real estate clients to you. 
  

• A little social media marketing just for branding - As a property management company, social media isn’t likely to drive a lot of traffic or leads for your business. However, you can use it sparingly to show that your business is made up of real people. Every month, post some team or office photos and also show how your company gives back to the local community. 
  

• Proactively getting positive reviews - You need to get on top of your online reviews. Make sure that you’re reaching out to your clients and asking them to review you on Google and Yelp. You don’t want just tenant reviews on these sites, so you need to proactively ask clients for their help. Let them know how important it is that your business have positive reviews. 
  

Introduction to the 3 monthly marketing plans

Now let’s take a look at the 3 different monthly marketing plans that property management companies can use.

For details on how to implement the strategies below, make sure to return to the descriptions listed in bullet points above. 

As your business grows you can rely less on direct marketing and invest more in inbound marketing, which has long term benefits but doesn’t usually result in immediate wins. ‍

Marketing Plan #1

This plan is for newer property management companies. The balance of marketing methods should be around 80% Outbound and 20% Inbound.

Quarterly projects:

• SEO website optimization - check rankings of targeted keywords and make site improvements as necessary
  

Monthly tasks:

• Setup and improve direct mail campaigns to absentee owners
  

Weekly tasks:

• Cold call absentee owners according to your direct marketing multichannel campaign
• Cold email real estate agents about your referral program
  

Don’t do these at all:

• Social media marketing
• Blogging
• Paid SEM ads
• Online review campaign

Marketing Plan #2 

This marketing plan is for property management companies with a healthy amount of clients but not yet consistent leads. The balance of marketing methods should be around 50% Outbound and 50% Inbound.

Quarterly projects:

• Setup and improve direct mail campaigns to absentee owners
• Online review campaign
• Tell clients about your referral program
  

Monthly tasks:

• SEO website optimization - check rankings of targeted keywords and make site improvements as necessary
• Cold email real estate agents about your referral program
• SEO blogging
  

Weekly tasks:

• Paid SEM ads
  ‍
  

Don’t do this at all:

• Cold call absentee owners according to your direct marketing multichannel campaign
• Social media

Marketing Plan #3

This marketing plan is for property management companies with a healthy amount of clients and a healthy amount of leads. The balance between the marketing methods should be around 20% Outbound and 80% Inbound. 

Quarterly projects:

• Online review campaign
• Tell clients about your referral program
  

Monthly tasks:

• SEO website optimization - check rankings of targeted keywords and make site improvements as necessary
• Cold email real estate agents about your referral program
• SEO blogging
  

Weekly tasks:

• Paid SEM ads
• Social media
  

Don’t do these at all:

• Cold call absentee owners according to your direct marketing multichannel campaign
• Setup and improve direct mail campaigns to absentee owners
  

When you implement the right marketing plan at the right stage of your property management business, you’re able to get the immediate wins you need to earn clients while also setting yourself up for long term success that no new competitors can just easily jump in and touch. 

With Showdigs, property managers outsource their field work so they can take on more doors and increase their business’s profitability. Learn more.