We live in a world where we have more and more instant access to friends, services and public figures. When you and thousands of other fans can engage with a brand or personality at any given moment on social media, you know that technology’s impact on our daily lives is evolving at a breakneck speed. And just when you think you’ve figured out your marketing strategy, along comes a new tool or channel to try.

To stay competitive and stand out to tech-savvy renters, you need to up your digital marketing game. Using survey data from the Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2019, we’ve compiled 10 digital efforts we recommend for marketing your property, getting noticed and reaching more renters.

1. Post Instagram Stories

Like Snapchat®, Instagram® Stories are instant and temporary. You create the story with photos or videos that stay live for 24 hours. You can also add emojis and other graphics to your story to enhance it.

Use Instagram Stories for timely things, such as a unit that’s currently available or a seasonal message. Have fun and experiment with this format. Share a particularly lovely sunset viewable from one of your communities or take followers on a tour through that killer unit that just opened up.

2. Embrace instant messaging

Many (69%) renters looking for a new place expect to hear back about an inquiry within 24 hours, and another 29% expect to hear back even sooner. Instant messages can help you meet those renter expectations.

But instant messaging isn’t just for responding to one potential renter. You can drive effective campaigns through apps like Facebook® Messenger, which allows you to create sponsored messages and ads that appear on Facebook’s news feed or Instagram and then open a Messenger chat. Many of the tactics you’re already using in email marketing can be done through Facebook Messenger — just tailored to mobile and the Messenger interface.

3. Get personal

One of the biggest gripes that consumers have about marketing is that it isn’t relevant to them. But you don’t need a complicated set of personas to provide relevant content to your audience. Simply understanding where they are in the funnel is a good first step.

Usually your customer relationship management (CRM) software can help you set up the appropriate email streams for the level of engagement you’ve had with a contact. For example, new contacts might get a few initial emails touting your community and its amenities spread out over a couple of weeks, then move on to a more measured and informative series of communications.

4. Utilize word of mouth

You don’t need an army or big marketing efforts to cultivate a following. The thing to remember is that the friends and acquaintances of your future renters know them better than you do. And who’s more likely to rent from you than folks similar to your current residents? All you need to do is get them talking. Try holding a contest (in accordance with applicable law) for your tenants requiring a social media post with a hashtag to get the word out.

5. Keep developing content

Yes, still. Content and content marketing continue to be major forces in digital advertising. Most importantly, content is what builds relationships with potential renters.

Your content reflects and builds your brand, but you don’t have to work hard creating custom content for every channel you own. If you’ve created a great video, embed it on your website, promote it through your email programs and post it on your social pages.

You don’t even need to create all the content you promote. Curating content from other sources that you feel reflect your brand can be an effective way to augment your efforts — just be sure you have the necessary rights or permissions from the content creator. In fact, Zillow produces certain content designed to attract and engage renters, and we invite you to share it (in accordance with our terms of use).

6. Speaking of video …

Video obviously isn’t new, but it’s also not going away. Video consumption and the demand for more continues to climb across the board. And for marketers, it’s working. One in 4 (25%) multifamily renters say watching a recorded video tour of the home is very or extremely important; Gen Z renters (ages 18-24) have the biggest preference for video among generations.

Making videos is easier than you’d think, especially with the high-quality cameras and editing tools available on smartphones. There are plenty of tips and tutorials available on the web to help you make your videos look good.

7. Share user-generated content

Your residents make up a huge part of your community’s story. They attend your events, and they probably take photos along the way. Ask them to share their photos with you or use a community hashtag. Provided you have your residents' permission, you can then repost or include their photo or tweet in your communications with other residents. Sharing user-generated content, or UGC, is an easy and low-cost way to create a rich fabric of digital content across channels, all while showing your residents some love.

8. Be mobile friendly

Mobile-only internet usage continues to grow. If your website or email communications aren’t optimized for mobile, it’s not hard to get there. Most newer website and email platforms are responsive out of the box, so your content will look great whether people view it on a desktop, tablet or smartphone.

You might also consider adding a tap-to-call or tap-to-text function to your mobile website to help customers easily get in touch if they’re browsing on a phone.

9. Optimize your website for conversion

After all the focus on social media and email marketing over the past few years, attention is now turning further down the funnel. Looking at your website’s conversion paths and making sure each step is clear can make the difference between filling your vacancies and spending another month scrambling to find renters.

Take the time to navigate your site as if you were a potential renter. Be objective about the experience, and note places where things could be clearer. Get familiar with Google Analytics if you aren’t already, and make a habit of checking your performance on a regular basis. Look for the pages that get the most and the least traffic, and identify the pages people enter and exit from.

10. Automate your marketing

It doesn’t sound exciting, but CRM is having a moment, thanks to the increased availability of cloud-based solutions and new features like social CRM.

These solutions make the administration and rollout of the service much lighter, requiring less technical expertise and fewer resources. They’re also more cost-effective than older systems that need to be administered by you or a vendor.

Perhaps more importantly, you can use cloud-based CRM tools wherever there’s an internet connection (so, almost anywhere!). If you run into a potential renter while you’re out and about, you can add their information as a new contact right then and there, even on your phone.

What does digital marketing look like at your community? Your residents and potential renters spend more time online than ever before, especially on mobile devices — and you and your communities need to take advantage of these digital avenues to reach and engage with them. Most are fairly easy to implement, and all of them will make a big impact on your digital marketing efforts.