How Student Housing Managers Can Stay Competitive

By Sarah Christine Davis on November 7, 2015

It’s undeniable that one of the toughest demographics to market to can be the student population. These days, students get bored easily, have tight college budgets, and know exactly what they want and stubbornly won’t settle for anything less. Sounds like a nightmare for anyone who wants to market to students, right?

Student housing managers in particular face these challenging problems. For this reason, it is essential for student housing managers to stay competitive with each other in order to draw in students. If a student housing company can cater directly to students by being interesting, keeping things inexpensive, and giving students exactly what they want, then problems will be slim to none and the marketing process will be less of a nightmare.

However, that’s easier said than done. With such a wide variety of diverse students in any given college town, it’s impossible for a student housing company to cater to every single one. However, there are a few general rules that student housing managers can follow in order to stay competitive with other student housing companies in the area and attract students to live in their properties.

Read on to learn more.

Create Trust

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This is the building block of any good relationship – including the relationship between student housing managers and the students who live in their properties.

By starting off with creating trust, student housing managers construct a foundation on which everything they say will be believed by the student. Of course, this only works if everything the student housing manager says is actually true – you have to be able to back yourself up. Students aren’t afraid to leave when they feel dissatisfied.

One way to build trust within a specific student housing population is to host community events, such as movie nights or kickball competitions. This also means that your residents will be happy and that the word-of-mouth marketing that will inevitably occur will be positive.

According to Danny Soule, the managing director of Atlanta-based CLASS Leasing, “It is better to spend money on your existing residents and let them spread the word as opposed to dropping thousands of dollars on signage and print ads.”

Trust can also be built by not keeping things from your residents. Let them know what’s going on. If they complain about a bug problem in their apartment, let them know what the student housing company is going to do about it and when that will occur. Then, follow up. If the student housing company says they’re going to come on this time on this day, they better be there at that time on that day. Falling short of students’ expectations can be a property’s greatest downfall.

Distinguish the Company

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Now that you’ve created trust among students, the next step you must take involves separating your student housing company from your competitors’ student housing companies. Building up trust is a great starting point, but it won’t make you the most competitive.

Among the student population, a key way to distinguish a company is through digital means, such as social media. A company’s social media account is often the first place students will go to learn about the company, so it’s important to establish a brand.

According to StudentHousingBusiness.com, “Digital marketing and the advancement of online leasing and renewals are both making a mark in the student housing industry, and many companies are using these tools as a way to reach the always-plugged-in market.”

Allowing students to interact on and peruse a student housing company’s social media website creates transparency and helps the student feel connected to the property.

To mention word-of-mouth marketing once again, social media is also a huge way that students express their discontent or satisfaction with a company. Social media websites such as Facebook often showcase student reviews of the company, as well as what people have said directly to the company when interacting with it. Keep this in mind when crafting your student housing company’s social media outlets.

Keep It Fresh and Relevant

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Donna Preiss, CEO of Raleigh, North Carolina’s The Preiss Company, points out an important fact about student housing companies: “Each year we grow older, yet our clientele never changes.”

In other words, regardless of who’s managing the student housing company, the target audience to market to is always going to be students of a specific general age group, economic level, educational experience, etc.

Anyone with enough training in advertising and marketing understands the importance of catering to the audience. Understanding the target audience will allow the student housing company to keep things fresh and relevant in the eyes of that audience regardless of who’s in charge of the property.

By keeping things fresh and relevant, a student housing company is staying on the same page as the residents, further building trust and a sense of community.

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