Sage Lewis, a Video blogger over at Search Engine Guide who keeps us up to date with what’s hot in the world of search marketing and social media reports a story from MarketingVOX: The Voice of Online Marketing “Will anyone be able to stop the Google machine? They just continue to expand market share, as reported at Google accounted for 72.74% of all US searches conducted in the four weeks ending April 25, 2009, according to search-engine share data from Hitwise (via MarketingCharts).
WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD
Yikes, Conceivably almost 73% of online users are starting their search for YOU and YOUR Apartment Community on Google. Shouldn’t your first question be, Where does My Apartment Community or My Brand Show Up on Google? Do you even know? The good news is, it is pretty darned easy to figure out, and you don’t need your marketing director, your marketing agency or studio to give you some convoluted report, just Google “Apartments (Your City)” It is just that simple. You either place somewhere on Page One Google Search or you don’t, which is Where the Rubber Meets the Road.
STOP ACCEPTING EXCUSES
I preface this first with, there are clearly some great Marketing Studios and PR Firms, and they can add significant value. However, I for one have never really been able to separate out the BS when talking with marketing folks. For goodness sakes the best our industry can tell us as to where our traffic is coming from is only at best less than 35% accurate! Business folks have said forever, I know that 50% of my marketing is working; I just don’t know which half. Well, your form of measure has never been easier, just Google “Apartments (Your City)”, or measure your Brand Awareness, Google your company name. If you don’t show up on page one, number one through five or six, you have work to do. If you Google your Brand or Company Name, and you do not DOMINATE the first few pages, Ah, You don’t have a Brand, at least not one that anyone recognizes. If your staff, your marketing agency or your PR Firm gives you guff about why you aren’t on page one in a Google Search, might want to tell them to Stop Making Excuses and Deliver Results.
LETS HAND IT OFF TO THE ILS (Internet Listing Services)
An integrated approach to your marketing campaign is clearly the best approach. We have bucked that trend, to our demise, only to prove a point that we got our boutique apartment management company, Urbane Apartments to page one, number one on a Google Search for Apartments Royal Oak absent any paid advertising, no paid print ads and no paid internet ads. We did this only to show the power of creating Resident Evangelists. Again, I have nothing against the ILS Services, but they are marketing for you and every other of your competitors. Don’t you find that a bit unsettling? Why not come up high on a Google Search, and get the direct click to your web site from the prospect. So if you’re internal and or external marketing folks are “Handing It Off to the ILS”, you may want to ask some questions as to why, and what else you may want to be doing. That isn’t marketing. No one cares about your Brand like you do.
SHOULD YOU NEED HELP
Should you need some help, give us a ring. We are apartment folks first, and apartment marketers second. And here’s the deal, don’t believe me, just Google Urbane Apartments, we dominate the first six or eight pages, I can’t make that up, its called a result. Google Apartments Royal Oak, We come up page one, number one to three consistently. Heck, just Google “Apartments” we come up on page five, AHEAD of every other apartment firm out there. Doesn’t that mean something? Maybe we have an idea or two that would help propel your apartment marketing campaign. And here’s the deal, being a boot strapped start up, I would bank on the idea, we can get you where you need to be for a heck of a lot less too, with significantly enhanced results, assuming your form of measurement are results.
Eric Brown
Eric’s background is rooted in the rental and real estate industries. He founded metro Detroit’s Urbane Apartments in 2003, after serving as senior vice president for a major Midwest apartment developer. He established a proven track record of effectively repositioning existing rental properties in a way that added value for investors while enhancing the resident experience. He also established Urbane Media, a social media marketing and PR laboratory, where innovative marketing ideas are tested. Eric has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine and Business Week Magazine. You can connect with Urbane_Media on Twitter. Eric also writes regular articles for the following publications; Multi Housing News Social Media Examiner Search Engine Guide
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