How to Create Relationships With Your Local Businesses

Multifamily is all about advertising locally. Sure, that could mean implementing local SEO , but there are non-digital ways you could be marketing your apartment community too. Creating relationships with local businesses is one strategy that benefits everyone involved – you, your residents, and your local businesses.

Why Should You Do It?

For You

Your residents and prospects are the most important group of people to you. You want to keep residents happy so they stay with your community, and you want to please prospective renters so they choose your community. What better way than with discounts, convenience, and free stuff? Who doesn’t love all that? When you partner with a local business, all of this is a possibility.

For example, when creating relationships with local businesses like nearby dry cleaners, salons, restaurants, or shops, ask if they would be willing to provide a discount for your residents. Similarly, you could create a promotion where prospective renters who sign a lease with you get a special offer with one of the businesses.

For the Local Business

Just as the business provides something to you, you have to offer something of value to them. In exchange for discounts on goods and services, you can advertise their business throughout the community, on your website, or through emails to current residents.

A few creative and effective ideas might be creating a “welcome packet” for new residents with flyers of the local business, including their business on the location page of your website, or sending emails out when the local business is having a sale or hosting a special event.

For Your Residents & Prospective Renters

More than anything else, creating relationships with local businesses creates a desirable community that reaches beyond the confines of your apartment complex. According to Apartment Guide , 62% of renters find the location of their new home more important than the unit itself. 

When you reach out to the small businesses, restaurants, and services in the surrounding area, you create a community that attracts all kinds of prospective renters. Who wouldn’t want to be able to live near a good nail salon, veterinarian, or restaurant that gives them discounts? 

Not only that, but your residents will have the feeling that they really are part of a smaller community within the city they live in because a good neighborhood can feel just like a community itself. Overall, it transforms your community into the perfect location your residents and prospective renters are looking for.

How Should You Do It?

Think About Your Target Demographic

Before you even think about partnering with local businesses, think about your current residents and prospective renters. You don’t want to blindly choose restaurants or services that those in your target demographic don’t like or use. 

Ask yourself these questions:

How old are they? The age of your residents will determine where they are in their life in terms of work, financial stability, and values. For example, millennials are known to have a stable income and are often concerned with staying healthy and active, so a local gym might be a good business to partner with.

What kinds of goods and services do they like/use? Determining your residents’ likes and interests will give some insight into what goods, services, and luxuries they use. Some people might want discounts at a local restaurant or nail salon, while others might want a coupon for groceries from the local store. 

So how do you figure out what your residents want? Ask them! Use surveys or social media to inquire about which kinds of discounts, offers, or partnerships they would like.

What types of businesses will they be interacting with during their move? Furniture stores, banks, and gyms are places people are likely to visit while they’re making the transition to a new place. You could put a list of these places in a welcome packet to make it easier for new residents to find them in the area.

List Out the Mutual Benefits

Now, you may have thought of all the components and working parts of your partnership, but you still need to bring it all together in a detailed and structured plan before you propose the partnership to your local business. 

Don’t go in blindly; make a list of all the ways the relationship is mutually beneficial – it’s not just about you! You could even offer their employees a rental special, or bring gift baskets as a gesture of good faith.

Start Getting the Word Out

As with any new event, promotion, or special, you want to make sure you get the word out. Start putting up flyers, send a community-wide email announcing the partnership, and promote it on your social media channels. 

Be sure to include an initial discount, special, or event with the local business in the announcement of the partnership so your residents know exactly what the new relationship means for them.

Now that you know the formula to successfully creating relationships with local businesses, you’re ready to get down to business yourself. Need some help with local SEO? Contact our experts today!