Getting Your Brand to Stand Out in the AI Crowd
In the age of AI-driven search, a clear, compelling brand might be your strongest amenity.
As a renter, looking for a new apartment is always an adventure.
I’m old enough to remember looking for an apartment on Craigslist. (Maybe you still can?) I remember that half the ads were fake. I’d show up for the advertised “spacious two-bedroom apartment with natural light on a tree-lined street” and the broker would say that that particular apartment was already gone, but would I like to look at the studio that didn’t technically have windows but that I could get good ventilation if I kept the front door open.
Of course, times change, and there are a lot more ways that people search for apartments. And apartment marketers also have a lot more tools in their toolbelt. When Google was king, SEO reigned supreme. Did your community have a pool? Did the units have big closets? Was the community located on a tree-lined street (of course it was)? That had to be listed on your apartment website so that the community would hopefully pop up in searches. And that’s still important!
But now there’s AI. Which makes finding an apartment for apartment seekers—and corporate investors—easier. In theory. In practice, it’s very hard to get your community to stand out. Most people just look at the AI Overview when they search, so it’s important to make sure your brand is clearly defined.
This is why your marketing plan, whether you’re selling your corporate brand to an investor or an individual unit to a renter, needs to tout what makes the community unique. But before you do that, you need to make sure you can define it.
“The vast majority of our clients have no idea what their own brand is or what it promises,” Kyle Jones of REACH by RentCafe told reporter Robyn Friedman in “4 Strategies to Make Your Apartment Brand Pop in the AI Age.”
Have you defined your brand for your investors and prospective renters? If you need help getting started, check out Friedman’s article, which offers a list of actionable steps. I hope you find it useful!
