Between the festivities today, (breakfast casserole in the oven) I thought I would pen a few thoughts.
We got a pretty cool letter in the mail this week from Google (yes, via snail mail, they still use the USPS at Google apparently) congratulating us on our Google Popularity. The letter congratulated Urbane Apartments for being a Favorite Place This is likely a form letter that several other businesses and apartment communities received too, IF you took a few minutes to register your business on Google Maps! We would love to hear back from you if you receive a like letter.
Based on the Google Letter in the second quarter, between July 1 and September 30, Google Users found Urbane Apartments 6,549 times! and Requested directions or other information 620 times! Cost per lead, cost per rental, cost per view or whatever else you want to measure by; ZERO!
We also got a pretty cool Google sticker that goes on the window of our Urbane Underground Office. The sticker has a bar code that folks with camera phones can scan. Then they can see our Urbane Apartments Listing, add photos, comments, and read and write reviews. Pretty cool!
Quick math, Google Users were looking at Urbane Apartments on Google Maps well over 2,000 times each month. Note too, that Google Maps is only one of hundreds of places that Urbane shows up on in a Google Search for Urbane Apartments At the time of this writing, Urbane Dominated the First Twenty Pages in a search, “Urbane Apartments”
Where does your (300) Unit Apartment Community Show Up on Google
Second hand information has it that some of the apartment marketing consultants in the space have had some less than flattering things to say lately, claiming that the market we operate in isn’t Relevant, and we only have (300) units, so that makes us not so Relevant too in their minds.
To the Apartment Consulting Naysayers, It is Only EVER About Results;
- To say that Detroit/SE Michigan is not a Relevant Market is an inaccurate, uninformed comment, we are ranked #8 in The Largest 50 Metropolitan Areas and their Major Constituent Cities.
- Detroit/SE Michigan has the highest unemployment in the nation, fours years running, not the easiest place to conduct business, which makes our story more Relevant, not less.
- To Dominate the first twenty plus pages in a Google Search for the name of Your Company is Remarkable.
- To come up Page One, Number One to Number Three in all three cities we operate in for a Google Search for Apartments Royal Oak, Apartments Birmingham MI, Apartments Fernadale MI, is the result of a well executed Internet Marketing Strategy.
- Operating (310) total units, at (14) scattered locations, profitably is more difficult to manage than (310) units at a single location
The way and manor in which prospects shop for apartments is changing, and some folks are apparently having trouble grasping that. 2010 will create a much further and faster divide between those who see this and those who don’t.
Apartment Operators, Find the time, find the resources to begin to Enhance and Enlarge Your Digital Footprint, it WILL pay big dividends. It takes time to create a Long Tail, we started in 2003, and have diligently worked an Internet Marketing Strategy way before it was popular to do so. If your Apartment Marketing Consultant is telling you differently, perhaps it is time for a second opinion, and it is Only Ever About Results.
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 The Urbane Way, 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 Eric_Urbane on Twitter.
Eric also writes regular articles for the following publications;
Related Posts -
Does Your Apartment Marketing have a Compound Return As you are thinking about and planning your resident events and apartment marketing for 2011 are you including an element of Partnership Marketing?Compound ReturnThere are a variety of ways to stretch your marketing return if you are willing to try some unconventional ideas. A compound marketing return is when your...... -
Is Anyone Talking About Your Apartment Community on Facebook A lot has been written as of late surrounding the plethora of Facebook changes. But few are talking about the impact that brands and businesses will experience from the new measurement metric, (#) People Talking. Facebook administrators are now more naked than ever as to the effectiveness or lack their of, of their Facebook Marketing....... -
Apartment Marketing; Free Shuttle Service for Residents We have been talking about Partnership Marketing and the effects it will have in 2010 here at the Urbane Lab and want to provide our readers and following with examples of how it can work and the benefit it can provide to your apartment marketing program.We just finalized a deal...... -
Apartment Marketing: Foursquare and Partnership Marketing Good Morning Apartment Marketing Friends! We have laid out the groundwork for our first series of experiments here at the Urbane Lab to ferret out what works with Foursquare and Apartment Marketing. We are tapping our existing relationships first, our Urbane VIP Venders, as we want to take the whole concept of hyper local to the next...... -
Lead to Tour, Tour to Lease Apartment Marketing Done Differently We are setting up for a pretty exciting series of experiments here at the Urbane Laboratory, to start in August. We believe that the manor in which most apartments are marketed and leased is really fragmented, and that the current methods are dated and have not......
Related Websites -
Effectively Managing Your Time When Marketing Online As an online marketer, when it comes to managing your time, you must really take business seriously. If you are not going to do things in a timely manner, then you will quite naturally hold up your progress and allow your competitors to get ahead. Managing your time the right...... -
The Stock Market Bubble No One Talks About You would know a bursting bubble if you saw it? Right? Take a look at the following chart and tell me what you think. Doesn't it look a little suspicious? Has a bubble formed, or even worse, has it just popped? Take a good look and tell me what you think. I...... - Overlook These SEO Factors At Your Own Risk Search Engine Optimization has gone way beyond the act of stuffing keywords into every inch of on-page content. It takes a different approach today to make it to the top of the search engine results - and to stay on top. These are just some of the factors you need......
-
Where To Find Marketing And Advertising Solutions Without Having To Spend A King's Ransom The net makes the world a lot more compact place. It really is simple for individuals to locate precisely what they're looking for with just a few clicks of the mouse button and words typed into a search bar. Exactly what the internet also means is the fact that companies...... -
Hot or Not, Managed Equity Funds not Worth the Expense I believe in index funds over managed funds for several reasons. In today's market, the number one reason is cost. Almost without exception, fees associated with a managed fund will exceed those charged by an index fund from a low cost provider such as Vanguard. The other reason is that......
