Just wasted money, that’s what the vast majority of advertising is, points out marketing expert Jay Abraham. I participated in a survey from Multifamily Executive magazine recently that was evidence of that. The survey asked me to rate 15 ads that had run in the magazine, asking my opinion on five different things: was the ad visually appealing; was it easy to read; did it offer enough information; did it clearly communicate the product or service’s benefit; and finally, the ad’s overall effectiveness. Then I was given the opportunity to suggest how the ads could have been improved.
Almost invariably, the ads were visually appealing. After all, they put professional graphic artists to work on them. They had better be. Most were easy to read, as well, but not all. Where most of the ads tripped and fell flat on their faces, though, was in offering enough information and clearly communicating the product or service’s benefit. In fact with one or two, I couldn’t even figure out the product or service the company was offering, much less its benefit.
Most advertising is wasted money because it gives people no reason to act. Another reason is that the advertiser doesn’t know why he or she is advertising.
Why do you, as a landlord, advertise? You might say, “That’s a dumb question. I advertise to get my units rented.” A better question would be, what do you hope to accomplish by advertising? Still the answer might be, “To get my units rented.”
Well, no, that isn’t the reason you advertise. It hardly ever happens that a unit is rented as a direct result of an ad. And if it did, you would have to be concerned about the quality of the applicant who doesn’t even want to see the place he or she is going to live before moving in, online photos and maps notwithstanding.
Renting takes place the vast majority of the time when an applicant comes to the property: he or she looks at his or her prospective new home; he or she fills out a rental application; you do the screening; and he or she pays you money for the deposit and the rent. The ad is only the first step in the rental process, to get the phone to ring or a prospective tenant to visit. Or is it?
Since advertising doesn’t actually get a unit rented, why do you advertise? The reason for advertising is to create interest in your property. When you think in terms of creating interest, you begin to think in different terms about the advertising process.
Do you want the phone to ring?
The part of the process of getting a unit rented that involves prospective tenants actually reading your ad and having enough interest to pick up the telephone and call.
An ad can be the ad in the paper, a flyer in front of the property, an online ad, a notice on a bulletin board, or just about anything else that is designed to get prospective tenants to contact you about your property for rent. Obviously you want lots of people to see your ad because the more people who read it, the more chances you have to get your property rented. But do you want all of them to call you? Do you want all of them to come over and look at your property?
You are not going to rent your property to anyone for whom you property won’t work. Likewise, you are not going to rent your property to anyone who is not qualified to rent from you. Now the question is, do you want to phone to ring a lot, or just with calls from people for whom your property will work and who are qualified?
A number of years ago I was doing a seminar in Spokane, Washington, and we were discussing advertising and getting the phone to ring. A landlord in the back spoke up and said, “I live in Elk.”
The Elk landlord put lots of information in his ads because he didn’t want a lot of calls from unqualified prospects and he didn’t want to get stood up.
On the other hand, suppose you live next door to the available property? If you get stood up, it’s an irritation, but not a waste of the time for driving 60 miles and the $15 worth of gas.
There is an additional consideration, though. Every time the phone rings, you have to be up for it. What will you be doing when the phone rings with a call from someone who has seen your ad? Chances are it won’t be that you are sitting by the telephone with your property information sheet in front of you and your phone script at the ready. And the more calls you get, the more tired you get of answering the telephone and talking about the property to a bunch of people to whom you wouldn’t rent a Barbie playhouse. Bad phone conversation, wasted advertising dollars.
But wait! You do want the phone to ring with calls from people who are qualified and who would find your property appropriate to their needs. And if you put too much information in the ad, they may selfscreen themselves out and call another landlord or two.
Why is that? What most people do when they look at classified ads either in the newspaper or online is mark, circle or highlight those ads that might be of interest. Then they go back and read each more carefully to eliminate the ones that won’t work for whatever reason. If there is insufficient information to figure out if the advertised property will work for them, applicants call the landlord or property manager for more information.
When prospective tenants look at ads their first interest is most likely the rent amount. If they can’t afford it, they go to the next ad. If the rent’s okay, they go to the second item, the features of the property. They might also do that in reverse, looking at features first, and finding appropriate size and location, look at the rent to see if it fits their budgets. If they need a three bedroom home, they won’t call about a one-bedroom place (usually). After that they will look for features that would make the property a nice place to live, or at features they don’t want so they can eliminate the property.
Conclusion
Why do you advertise?
• To attract the kind of tenant who will be a pleasure to rent to.
• To drive off the kind of tenant who will drive off good tenants.
• To create interest in your properties
• To get the phone to ring
• To get the phone to not ring
Your advertising is the first impression prospective tenants have of you and your properties. The care you take and the attention you pay to your advertising is what will go a long way in determining how successful you are in attracting the tenants who will be an asset to your property. Are you wasting your advertising money?