How To Use Digital Marketing To Become A Successful Property Landlord
How To Use Digital Marketing To Become A Successful Property Landlord – Due to the rising price of property in the country, a huge amount of Indonesians prefer to rent instead of buying a living place. It resulted in the surge of room rental business, or what local people usually called as “Kos”.
There is a difference between Kos and the rental concept that is common in the US, where landlords usually lease a whole house or apartment. In Indonesia, landlords choose to divide their property into several rooms that are separated from each other, so people can rent them at a cheaper price.
The concept is quite similar with coliving, but the renters don’t really need to work or play together with other occupants. They may meet each other when entering or leaving the property, but most of the time they can just stay in their own room.
It’s hard to count the total Kos room in Indonesia, because many of them aren’t explicitly visible as room rentals. However, their total number can reach millions across the country. Their main target are young single workers, newlywed couples, or students who want to live near their campus. That’s why you can find many Kos rooms in big cities or districts with many universities.
However, despite the huge potential, almost all aspects of the Kos business is still traditional, especially in how landlords market their properties. Many of them still rely on physical banners that they put in front of the property to attract renters. It resulted in a very limited coverage, and restricted ways to promote positive things about the room.
The condition is worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic that was spread in the country, pushing the government to limit people’s movement in public places.
Fortunately, we are living in a technology era, so everything can be easier by the means of digital tools. Despite restrictions to go outside, we can still connect with our relatives and friends through chat apps. That’s why the traditional way of offering properties can also be substituted with promoting the room on the internet through digital marketing.
Why has digital marketing become so critical?
The main importance of digital marketing for the Kos landlords is to close the information gap with the potential renters.
For example, there are some people who have to relocate to other cities due to business matters or education purposes. They won’t understand the new area well, and may overlook properties that only promote themselves through physical banners. It then becomes a missed opportunity for the landlords.
Digital marketing can help close that gap by informing users about the availability of Kos rooms around the area where they want to live. Potential renters only need to browse the internet to find the rooms, get more information, and select the best room for them.
Another crucial aspect of digital marketing is how it can help the landlords to show the unique strength of their rooms compared to the competitors in the same area.
Traditional banners usually only showed limited information, such as price and availability. You need to visit and check it one by one to compare a room with another. In times of pandemic, it is not only a time wasting and tiring effort, but is also a potential health threat.
Digital marketing can help the landlords in showing their strength, such as price, cleanliness, coziness, and distance to the closest train station. Thus, potential renters can compare rooms without directly visiting the property beforehand.
5 tips in promoting rental rooms through digital marketing
While digital marketing has such a benefit compared to traditional advertising, landlords can only reap it if they understand how to use it correctly. These are tips for promoting your Kos rooms properly on the internet.
1.Information and photo are critical
The first thing that you should do to market your properties in online space is by providing the information about the rooms. You have to describe the details as complete as possible, from the address of the property, rooms’ price, upfront payment if necessary, to rules that must be obeyed.
However, a written description is not enough. It’s better if you can provide attractive photos or videos of the room and its surroundings, so potential renters can be lured to live in the place.
You can put all of that information and material in a dedicated website, social media, or through rental room marketplaces, such as Mamikos. Don’t forget to put your location in Google Maps, plus your contact number so people who are interested in the rooms can call you directly.
2. Review is a double-edge knife
The beauty of providing the details of your rental rooms on the internet is that everyone can give a review to your property. However, you have to be careful with it, because not all of them are good reviews.
So, after you publish information about the rooms, you have to properly manage every review and complaint that comes. If you receive a negative comment, it’s better to investigate the cause and come up with the proper solution first, before addressing it.
3. Determine the right target audience
While you can only reach a limited audience through traditional advertising, digital marketing allows you to promote your properties to a targeted and wider audience.
For example, if your property is located in Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta, you can set your property advertisement to be seen only by people who already live in the area. You can also set to only show your property promotion to people whose office is located in the area, or people who are showing an interest to relocate to your area.
4. Be creative
Traditional advertising is not only limited by coverage, but also in how you can show your message. It usually can only contain text and photos, which seems boring for most people.
Digital marketing allows you to be wildly creative. You can promote your rental rooms via text, picture, long video in YouTube, or short video in TikTok. You can also focus the message on the beauty of the room, the cozy atmosphere of the building, or the close relationship among the inhabitants.
However, you have to be careful to not post any content that can make some people angry or offended, and discourage them from renting your Kos rooms.
5. Find a good partner
Everything that I mentioned above may be too sophisticated and complex for you, who only want to focus on maintaining the cleanliness and comfort of your property. That’s why you can also bring in a partner that can give you all of those positive things of digital marketing, without much hassle.
For example, Singgahsini from Mamikos, that can help you to be prioritized when people are looking for a room to rent in Mamikos platform, handle complaints from customers, and help you to provide marketing assets, such as photos and videos. It can also help you in determining a good branding strategy for your property, so it can stand out compared to competitors.
The combination of knowledge in digital marketing and thoroughness in keeping the good shape of your property, is key to thrive in the Indonesian Kos room market. With a productive population that keeps increasing, the property for Indonesian people is a market that will be so hard to resist.