How to Market Student Housing | Effective Strategies to Increase Occupancy – Reach Millions with 138.9 Million Reels Played

Though student housing is always in high demand, this sector of the housing market can be very competitive. The winners are clear: student properties with the best marketing often see the highest occupancy rates. Are you looking to take advantage of this upside?

This short guide outlines the most effective strategies to market your student properties and increase occupancy, with a step-by-step guide to reach your objectives. Read on and discover how to market student housing and give your student housing business a competitive edge.

What Are the Best Student Housing Marketing Strategies?

With these top strategies, you don’t have to stress about marketing student housing. They are all tried-and-true methods for generating awareness, interest, and action.

Pro tip: using multiple strategies will deliver the best results.

Social Media Marketing

According to our research, social media platforms are ideal for marketing your student housing properties engagingly and interactively.

Here’s why. As of December 2024, there are 5,900,000 searches on Google in the average online minute. These recent statistics also show an astonishing 138.9 million Reels played on Facebook and Instagram per online minute. And many of these users glued to their screens are college students.

If you choose this method, include clear photographs and short but high-quality videos with student property descriptions to get the best results. Where possible, incorporate user-generated videos or virtual tours with existing tenants, but only with their consent.

Property Websites

When you look for a property to rent, you likely check the most popular property websites first. Students do that too. That’s why local property websites specializing in affordable rentals are an obvious choice for marketing your student housing rental property.

If you own or manage several student housing properties, you may also choose to create your own website.

Your page should include information about qualifying criteria, lease requirements, and a list of all amenities. Highlight features like high-speed internet, as this is very important to college students.

Don’t forget that a picture says a thousand words. Include high-quality images to showcase your properties’ best features.

Word-of-Mouth

Do you want to know how to market student housing without spending a dime? Take advantage of one of the oldest marketing tactics around: word-of-mouth advertising. Businesses of all types are still advised to leverage word-of-mouth marketing, and it can work for you too.

Your current student tenants are your customers and your best student housing ambassadors. Keep them happy in their student properties, and they will likely spread the word amongst their peer groups.

In our experience, the right student property management strategies make student housing even more appealing, and thus more marketable. Our powerful tips to streamline operations will help.

Outreach Marketing

Outreach marketing is a well-known B2B marketing strategy that can also be used very effectively when marketing student housing.

With outreach marketing, you’ll connect with influencers, bloggers, businesses, and other individuals or groups that have a significant presence in the student community. Contact them directly via email and DMs, or on the phone and discuss how your student housing meets the needs of their student audience.

You will leverage their reach, reputation, and credibility to market your student housing to the right audience. That’s why the best people and businesses to approach are those involved with various aspects of higher education and college life.

But sometimes, the simplest approach is the best. A classic example of this is the humble printed flyer handed out on campus, or posters on campus walls.

Paid Search

Paid search marketing matches ads with people who are searching for the type of product or service on offer. In this case, those will be internet users looking for student housing in their area. This digital marketing strategy is perhaps best known in its most common form, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

PPC advertising involves paying search engines to place your student housing ads higher on the most relevant search engine results pages. It’s an affordable strategy, as you don’t pay anything until someone clicks on the ad.

Signage

You are probably familiar with real estate signage such as “For sale”, “Open House”, and “To Let” signs. These signs can catch passersby’s attention and direct them to housing opportunities they never knew about. Adapt this strategy to market your student housing and increase occupancy.

Your signs could say “Student apartments available now” outside student apartment buildings to generate awareness and interest. And signs that say  “limited student rooms available, enquire within” or words to that effect, will also create awareness but with a sense of urgency.

To appear more professional, use a professional signage company. The cost will be worth it, as these signs can be reused. Keep the font clear and uncomplicated, and the messaging concise. This ensures your signage is eye-catching but also legible and to the point.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Marketing

Your online marketing efforts are only useful if they appear high up in the search results and people visit your website or other online content.

This is where SEO marketing can help. This digital marketing technique optimizes your web pages for search engines, increasing organic traffic, enhancing online exposure, and ultimately, increasing visibility in search results.

You can be found more easily online, and attract more website visitors in general, with SEO marketing. Local SEO marketing is even more effective, targeting local searches. When students enter specific search criteria, looking for student housing in your area, your content will be more visible.

Choose an experienced, reputable SEO agency to formulate a marketing strategy for your student housing online content.

Public Relations (PR)

While learning how to market student housing, you’ll notice that it often overlaps with some basic PR tactics.

Your student housing is a business, so treat it like one. Awareness is the first step to increasing student housing occupancy. Consider participating in community initiatives to raise awareness of your student housing development, or issuing a press release about new amenities on offer.

Five Steps to Reaching Your Student Housing Marketing Objectives

If your student property management role includes marketing the properties to prospective tenants, you need to know how to market student housing effectively. It’s easier than you think and can be achieved in five steps.

Step 1: Define the Problem

Unless you first define the problems you’re facing, your future marketing efforts may be futile. Think about your biggest challenges. Perhaps there is not enough awareness about the different types of student apartments you offer. Maybe potential tenants are unaware of all the amenities you offer.

This first step can give you clues as to what your marketing focus should be.

Step 2: Determine Your Marketing Goals

The next step in learning how to market student housing with greater return is to determine your marketing goals.

This will help you choose the most suitable marketing approach. You can refine your marketing strategies and meet your goals, with up-to-date and accurate data. College House provides data analytics and market reports specifically aimed at the student housing sector.

Let’s illustrate what we’ve been talking about. Our findings show that different approaches are needed for marketing properties to students to increase occupancy, versus marketing to potential investors. That’s why our insights for success in student properties include essential tips for investors and developers, too.

Step 3: Identify Your Target Audience

Do you want to know how to market student housing successfully every time? Get to know your target market. All the best student housing marketers know that identifying the target audience is the key to their marketing success.

When you know which type of renter you are trying to attract, you can choose the most suitable marketing tactics. It’s also a lot easier to market student properties and increase occupancy in areas with the highest need for student housing.

You’ll more readily capitalize on student housing needs if your properties are near universities with the highest enrollment. Our guide to the universities with the largest college enrollment will explain this further.

Step 4: Research the Marketplace and Your Competitors

Get to know the trends that impact potential student renters’ choices in student housing. This will show you what to focus on and which marketing tactics to use. The more research you do, the better.  Our insights into real estate housing market trends are a good place to start.

Your competitors can also unwittingly offer you clues as to the best student housing marketing strategies. Look at how they are marketing their properties. Which of their strategies have had the best results? You may just decide on a similar marketing strategy for your student housing properties.

Step 5: Choose the Best Marketing Strategy for Your Goals and Audience

Once you have defined your specific pain points, determined your goals, identified your target audience, and done the necessary research, you’re ready to start marketing. But the final lesson on how to market student housing is this: always choose the best strategy for your goals and audience.

Different types of student properties appeal to different types of students. The needs of students in one region may differ from the needs of students in another. Therefore, each student property development requires a unique marketing strategy.

Even the most innovative marketing strategies will not bring the results you desire if you ignore this fact. It may take a little more time and effort. But crafting a marketing strategy for each type of student property you manage is the best way to increase occupancy in them all.

Conclusion

Learning how to market student housing properties is easy when you have the right advice and the most up-to-date student housing market data. And that is where College House can help.

We offer intelligence, data, analytics, and insightful market reports for today’s vibrant student housing market. Property owners, developers, investors, and property managers all over the U.S. trust College House to get the results they want. Book a demo and discover how you can too.