6 Multifamily Marketing Tips on How To Use Google Business Profile for In-Market Renters

The rental market is always evolving and multifamily marketing strategies need to evolve with it. Navigating the ever-shifting terrain of the multifamily housing market demands not only vigilance but also an innovative approach to digital marketing. 

In today’s fast-paced world, renters are continuously adopting new ways to research their next homes, often turning to the most accessible and reliable sources of information. For multifamily marketers, the challenge is not just to keep up but to lead the way. That’s why it is important that for your multifamily marketing strategy, you understand how to use Google Business Profile (GBP) for in-market renters. 

An optimized Google Business Profile has become an indispensable marketing strategy asset in the rental market. This comprehensive guide aims to unpack the complex shifts in renter research behaviors and arm you with strategic insights to maximize the impact of your Google Business Profile.

By embracing the tactics used by expert multifamily marketing strategists, you’ll ensure that your multifamily rental property not only stands out in a crowded digital space but also resonates powerfully with potential tenants at every stage of the online journey.

Today’s renter is an empowered consumer, influenced by the speed and convenience offered by digital platforms. To meet the needs of this new breed of tenants, multifamily marketers must understand and adapt to the following shifts:

Like most industries, there has been a major digital shift in the multifamily rental industry. Renters and property owners are now leveraging primarily online channels instead of traditional channels that were popular before. 

• Newspaper listings have been replaced by online searches and social media scrolls. 
• Renters expect instant access to apartment home details online. These details help build interest and capture more qualified leads.

To make sure that you are taking advantage of online opportunities your Google Business Profile should be optimized to provide the information your prospects are looking for. A Google Business Profile that readily provides floor plans, prices, amenities, and availability can significantly enhance your property’s appeal. It will also help drive more organic search traffic to your website, increasing your pool of potential clients.

Visibility during the initial online search can set the stage for the entire renter journey, from awareness to advocacy. By creating a complete Google Business Profile you can ensure that your profile triggers for related searches from local Google users. This helps build awareness in your target markets. 

Decision-making can occur during brief ‘micro-moments.’ Your business profile should offer quick and concise information that is optimized for mobile use to meet the needs of these critical decision points. Save the heavy details for the actual website. Focus on providing the key info or details that will encourage users to click through to your website to learn more.

A Google Business Profile that is complete with user reviews and prompt query responses can influence potential tenants throughout their decision-making process. Most online users trust other online reviews as well as they would trust reviews from someone they know personally.

• Online reviews can make or break a property’s reputation. Actively managing your Google Business Profile reviews can greatly boost your property’s online trustworthiness.
• Prospective renters seek validation from others’ experiences. Showcasing positive feedback on your profile can be influential during the consideration phase.

Having a significant number of reviews is a key factor in building an optimized Google Business Profile. If you are lacking review make sure that you integrate a feedback request into your rental process, so you can start increasing your review count!

With the online shift has come the mobile shift. The majority of your audiences are using mobile devices to search the internet and access information. You need to keep this in mind when building a multifamily rental marketing strategy.

With more renters searching on mobile devices, creating a Google Business Profile that is optimized for mobile is key. Make sure your images and posts are high quality so they display well on mobile devices. 

Make sure that your website and phone number are visible (and functional) so mobile users can click to call or visit your website.

Also, don’t  forget about SEO optimization for your multifamily marketing strategy. Effective local SEO on your Google Business Profile, including using local keywords in your description and accurate contact information, can increase your property’s visibility in location-based searches.

You want to include updates on your Google Business Profile. It is your opportunity to create engaging graphics about topics that engage your target audience and to insert SEO keywords that will improve your profile rankings. With these updates, you can link back to Pillar pages on your website, or to related SEO content you’ve created.

Optimizing your Google Business Profile for mobile devices will help your business capture more organic traffic over time. When paired with local SEO optimization, your traffic numbers can exponentially increase! 

These trends highlight the need for multifamily rental marketing experts to not only maintain a robust online presence but also to be strategic and responsive in how they use digital tools like Google Business Profile to interact with potential renters. By aligning with the contemporary renter’s research behaviors, multifamily properties can better position themselves in a competitive digital marketplace.

Google Business Profile is a crucial platform for multifamily rental properties in the digital age. Here’s how to optimize your Google profile to ensure that your multifamily marketing strategy resonates with and captures the interest of potential renters:

First you need to claim ownership of your Google Business Profile. It’s a relatively straightforward process that Google walks you through. When viewing your business profile on search, look for the “Claim this business” or “Own this business” links. If you are not seeing this it likely means that your business is already claimed. Make sure you are logged into the Google profile that you would have used when you claimed/set up your business profile. 

Otherwise, visit business.google.com/add to find your business. Once selected you will be able to request the ownership of your business and fill out some information. 

If you do not see an existing profile, you can proceed to create a Google Business Profile. Once you have created your profile, or claimed it, then you need to make sure the profile is complete!

Once you have ownership of your profile you need to make sure all the details are filled out. Ensure your Google Business Profile listing includes complete and correct contact information for consistency across all digital channels, aiding local SEO optimization.

Write a captivating, SEO-optimized description that describes your business and the services and properties that it provides. Make sure to research and include relevant multifamily marketing keywords to enhance search rankings. These are also the words that will resonate with potential renters.

Select accurate categories and list special amenities to aid renters in finding your property. Including additional details like business hours, and business details can also help your profile stand out. 

Once you have completed all the details and information, it’s time to post content for your profile. Creating and promoting engaging content as part of your multifamily marketing strategy is a critical element of a successful outcome. 

There are a few ways to include engaging visual content in your profile. An ideal multifamily marketing strategy includes leveraging them all.

As a rental property, your users are going to want to see the community and apartment homes. They are also likely to be interested in any amenity highlights. Upload high-quality images and videos to your profile to create a strong first impression. These images will attract the attention of your target audience and will help drive traffic to your website to explore your rental property options. 

Since you can include videos on your Google Business Profile this is an opportunity to provide virtual tours and video walkthroughs, a valuable tool in today’s rental market. 

As part of your imagery, you should include your logo(s) to help build awareness within your target demographics. You can also highlight your team, this can help with engaging your target audience if they see your team’s marketing efforts on other channels or platforms, or at in-person networking events.

Update your visual content regularly to reflect current conditions and offerings.This keeps your profile up to date and is always providing new types of engaging content for your audience.

Your Google Business Profile provides opportunities for you to include additional content that will provide value to your target users, and help drive more traffic to your website. 

Each profile includes a question-and-answer section. This is an opportunity to provide quick answers to your most frequently asked questions. And, obviously be aware of the Fair Housing requirements, so that you don’t violate the rights of any protected classes. By answering your target audience’s questions, you can start building trust and fostering a relationship.

Google Updates are an important factor for your local SEO strategy. You can leverage these updates to reach more organic traffic and build your website SEO strategy. Every multifamily marketing strategy should include leveraging their SEO content through Google Business Profile updates.This creates posts that contain keywords to help you rank better for local SEO and will help drive traffic to the SEO content on your website. 

In addition to adding updates to leverage local SEO, you should keep your profile current with news, events, and promotions. These can help entice users to click the specific promotion or event post or go directly to the website.

Reviews are a key element of a successful Google Business Profile. As part of your multifamily marketing strategy, you need to develop a method to encourage reviews. Your business should also address each one professionally to show engagement and commitment to satisfaction.

Positive reviews will help your brand build trust in your target audiences. This will lead to more website clicks and overall conversions over time. Focusing on building up your Google reviews will help you increase business. 

Overall, your Google Business Profile is just another extension of your digital multifamily marketing strategy. You need to ensure that it aligns with your overall digital presence, including your SEO strategy and social media. Integrate your profile into a larger digital marketing strategy, ensuring consistency and complementary messaging across all traffic channels.

You can promote SEO content like you do on Social Media, but make sure that you take the opportunity to optimize it for the platform. Social media marketing content does not require SEO-rich captions or descriptions but Google Business Profile does. 

Make sure that you are leveraging your multifamily marketing SEO content correctly for each platform. 

While Google Business Profile does not provide the level of data analytics that GA4 does, it does provide data that can be useful for refining your multifamily marketing strategy.

However, unlike Google Analytics, Google Business Profile data is not stored. You can only access the latest 6 months of data.

Your website clicks are one of the most important metrics within your Google Business Profile to be aware of. These are the number of users who actually clicked the link to visit your website.

All optimization efforts should work to increase direct engagements with your business. Website clicks, calls, and messages are all direct engagement that should be key performance indicators of the Google Business Profile aspect of your multifamily marketing strategy.

Under performance you can view the organic searches that triggered your business profile. Ideally, you want to see your most valuable keywords and specific services to trigger your profile. For example, “multifamily rentals”, or “multifamily units for rent” would be valuable terms that you want to see.

This is why optimizing for local SEO is so important. By including the valuable keywords in your updates, profile description, and other posts you can make sure that your profile is displayed for these terms. Local SEO optimization strategies can help you to capture some of the most valuable online traffic.

From the performance report you can also click the tabs labeled Calls, Messages, and Bookings to see how many user actions occurred for each month. These can indicate how appealing your profile is to your target audience. If you optimize the profile and start seeing an increase in metrics then you are likely building a profile that effectively engages with your audience.

Or if you see random spikes this can either indicate seasonality or that another aspect of your multifamily marketing strategy was driving interest in your apartment community. If you see traffic spikes after a marketing campaign or promotion on a different channel (like email or ads), this can help you understand the impacts on the organic channel.

With your business profile data you can also check how many users requested directions to your community. This represents serious intent for target audiences and can indicate that your profile is working to make your audience interested in your business. You can check the month-to-month view to see if there were any spikes in requests.

Keeping up with the dynamic digital environment is essential for maintaining a competitive edge in multifamily marketing. Here’s how to ensure your Google Business Profile (GBP) is not just current, but also ahead of the curve.

Analyze business profile insights to understand renter interests and behaviors, adapting your content and multifamily marketing tactics accordingly.

Adjust your GBP seasonally to align with renting trends. If you know what your target audience is interested in during certain points of the year, leverage this in your updates and other business profile content.

Google is always improving so it is important to keep up with their updates and incorporate new features promptly. 

For larger multifamily companies with numerous properties, using the Google My Business API can help scale GBP management, automate updates, and synchronize information across multiple listings.

Gather resident feedback to continually improve your Google Business Profile content. Conduct surveys or interviews with current residents to understand what information they found helpful when they were searching for a home and use this feedback to enhance your profile listing.

By staying adaptive, utilizing the latest business profile tools, and integrating your brand’s profile with a comprehensive digital multifamily marketing strategy, your business can not only keep pace with changes in renter behaviors but can also anticipate future trends and position itself as a leader in the multifamily industry.

As renter behaviors and online search patterns continue to evolve, keeping your Google Business Profile aligned with these changes is not just beneficial—it’s essential for multifamily marketing success. If you do not have the resources or experience needed to optimize your Google Business Profile, then you want to find the best multifamily marketing services to handle it for you.

Primary360 understands the nuances of these shifting audience dynamics. As a full-service integrated multifamily marketing agency with a sharp focus on place marketing and property branding, we are uniquely positioned to help rental complexes like yours adapt and thrive. By partnering with us, you’ll ensure that your profile is more than just a listing—it’s a dynamic platform that works tirelessly to attract and engage potential renters.

The marketing ex-pats at Primary360 can guide you in navigating the digital landscape effectively, turning your Google Business Profile into a powerful extension of your multifamily marketing strategy. 

Contact us to transform your online presence and connect with the modern renter in meaningful ways that drive occupancy and community satisfaction.