What Multifamily Can Learn From Single-Family Marketing
A lot of strategies can be carried over in apartment marketing. Here's how.
Single-family and multifamily marketing may be different in many ways, from target audience to unit types to lifestyle and property features, but that doesn’t mean that multifamily marketers cannot get several valuable insights single-family marketing strategies.
Personalization

A key focus of single-family marketing is personalized experiences tailored to individual buyers or renters. Multifamily marketers can learn and adopt this approach by segmenting their target audience based on preferences, demographics and lifestyle, and delivering targeted marketing messages accordingly.
Personalization in a marketing strategy means to create relevant, engaging and effective campaigns that resonate with the selected audience. It includes customized messaging—a marketing strategy for a senior housing community will differ quite a bit from one tailored for young families. This means the message, the words within the message, the tone, as well as the format, and includes all vehicles of communication from email campaigns to website content, social media posts and advertising messages.
Storytelling
Often, single-family home listings come with compelling storytelling that highlight unique features or the lifestyle associated with the property. Multifamily communities can also create narratives around the property’s amenities, resident experiences, or neighborhood attractions to gain appeal to potential residents.

This means featuring the distinctive characteristics and amenities of the property, from inside-out. Whether it’s the in-unit washer and dryer, the fully equipped fitness center, the rooftop terrace with panoramic views, or the pet-friendly environment, these features can be brought to life through storytelling. More so, this can be the first interaction between the prospective resident and the neighboring area. Storytelling can be used to introduce local restaurants, shops, parks and cultural landmarks, showcasing the community and its social life.
Through storytelling, marketers can also create emotional connections with prospective residents by tapping into their aspirations and desires. By sharing stories that resonate on an emotional level, properties can differentiate themselves and forge stronger bonds with their audience. In addition, storytelling can include experiences from current residents; this can add authenticity and credibility to multifamily marketing efforts.
Visuals
Single-family marketing pays great attention to high-quality visuals to showcase the property properly. Professional photography and virtual tours are the standard. Multifamily marketing can boost their efforts by investing in visually engaging content that showcases the property’s architecture, interior design, apartment layouts, common areas and amenities to attract prospective residents.
Virtual tours really took up during the pandemic and have remained a favorite. According to the National Apartment Association’s Property Management Industry Pulse 2023 survey, 60 percent of renter prospects are willing to rent with only a virtual tour. Whether it’s a 360-degree virtual tour or a guided video walkthrough, this type of visual helps prospective residents visualize the layout, flow and features of the property before scheduling an in-person visit.
Aerial photography and videography offer the best perspective as these help the prospects place themselves on the map. Drone footage is increasingly popular and budget-friendly.
Visuals should be consistent with the property’s branding and design aesthetic, maintaining a cohesive and professional look across all marketing channels. This means consistent use of colors, fonts and imagery help create the property’s identity and build brand recognition.
Digital marketing
Single-family marketing has been fast to adopt digital channels, email marketing and search engine optimization to reach their target audience. Some have even gone so far as to have their own shows on TV networks and streaming platforms. Multifamily properties can also leverage these channels to increase brand visibility, engage with prospective residents and drive leads.
This also means a well-designed, user-friendly website with high-quality images, videos and graphics. To ensure that potential residents can find the property online, the website needs to be optimized for search engines. This further leads to search engine marketing, which involves using paid advertising to increase visibility in search engine results pages. Multifamily properties can use pay-per-click advertising on platforms like Google Ads to target users searching for apartments or rental properties in their area. Effective keyword targeting and ad copy can drive traffic to the property’s website and generate leads.
A good website can be made better by adding a blog populated frequently with pertinent content marketing such as posts, articles, videos and infographics with information about apartment living, neighborhood highlights, moving tips, and so on. Content marketing helps establish the property as a trusted resource, which can improve search engine rankings and social media engagement.
READ ALSO: Apartment Marketing Ideas Checklist
Digital marketing also means constant social media content with eye-catching photos and videos, resident events, resident testimonials, promotions, community highlights and behind-the-scenes glimpses of life on the property. Whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, X, or TikTok, these platforms provide valuable opportunities for multifamily properties to connect with potential residents and showcase multifamily properties.
Probably the most valuable tool to marketers in the digital era is data analytics and performance tracking. Technology enables multifamily properties to track the performance of their marketing efforts and make data-driven decisions to optimize results. There’s Google Analytics to monitor website traffic, user behavior and conversion rates, and tracking key performance indicators like website visits, leads generated and leasing conversions can help assess the effectiveness of the digital marketing campaigns and identify the areas that need improvement.
Customer service

It’s well known that single-family marketers prioritize exceptional customer service to build long-term relationships with buyers and renters. Multifamily properties can stand out by offering responsive customer support, taking care of resident concerns promptly and providing value-added services to enhance the resident experience. This means easy access through multiple channels—phone, email and in-person visits—and promptly addressing prospective resident requests.
AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants have entered the scene. They learn with every interaction to be efficient and answer resident and prospective resident questions accurately 24 hours per day. While AI is still in development mode, many multifamily marketers are testing it and eventually it will become an integral part of property managers’ toolkits.
Flexibility
Single-family marketers are also known for their flexibility in transactions. They can offer flexible pricing and financing options to accommodate buyers with varying budgets and financial situations. Multifamily marketers can learn from this by offering several leasing options such as short-term leases (month-to-month or three-month leases) or lease-to-own programs, to accommodate different resident needs and preferences.
This also means allowing residents to renew their lease on flexible terms, such as transitioning from a short-term to a long-term lease or adjusting the lease term based on their changing needs. This option is especially powerful these days when individuals have been relocating for work more than in other periods.
To make it easy on all parties involved, multifamily properties can market lease break options that allow residents to terminate their lease early under certain conditions, such as relocating for a job or experiencing financial hardship. Another option would be to allow residents to transfer their lease to another qualified individual, subject to approval by the property management team. Lease transferability can help minimize vacancies and turnover costs.
Lease extensions represent another option the multifamily property can offer to its residents. Residents can benefit from month-to-month rental agreements at the end of the initial lease term. It allows them to maintain continuity and stability while exploring their future housing options. It adds to their overall satisfaction, which can only do good for the client testimonials section.
It’s highly important that the policies are transparent and communicated clearly. These should be made available on the website, in the marketing materials and during leasing consultations to ensure that residents understand their choices and obligations.
Emphasis on long-term value
Single-family marketing often highlights the long-term value and investment potential of homeownership. Multifamily marketing can emphasize the value proposition of renting, such as maintenance-free living, access to amenities, but also financial flexibility.
Some multifamily operators and marketing teams have already started to include these marketing lessons and experiments in their marketing strategies, and their investments are paying off. Some are still in the early stages. Advancements are and will continue to be made in both sectors, so, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on what others are doing. Use their experiences and learn from the results. Also, share one’s own experiences.