Outreach Marketing Isn’t Dead

Digital marketing gets most of the attention—but some of the best leasing opportunities still happen offline.

In this episode of The Multifamily Marketers Podcast, hosts Josh Grillo and Caroline Mills break down why outreach marketing is far from dead and how apartment communities can use local relationships to generate awareness, referrals, and leases.

From employer partnerships and resident referrals to creative collaborations with local businesses, this episode explains how outreach marketing can work alongside your digital strategy to reach renters before they ever start searching online.

You’ll learn:

• Why outreach marketing still matters in a digital-first leasing world
• How employer partnerships can create new leasing opportunities
• Creative ways to collaborate with local businesses and stand out
• Why resident referrals are one of the most overlooked marketing tools
• How events can turn residents into organic brand advocates
• Common outreach mistakes that limit results
• Why combining outreach + digital creates the strongest renter journey

To suggest a topic, get in touch!

For more multifamily marketing help, connect with us at Resident360.

Drop Us a Review If You Enjoyed the Episode!

TRANSCRIPT

Episode 45: Outreach Marketing Isn’t Dead

Podcast Co-Hosts: Josh Grillo and Caroline Mills, Resident360

Josh: Welcome back to the Multifamily Marketers Podcast. I’m your host, Josh Grillo, co-founder here at Resident360, and as always, I’m joined by my co-host, Miss Caroline Mills. Caroline, good morning, or I guess good afternoon your time in Orlando, Florida. How are things going?

Caroline: Good afternoon! We’re doing well. It’s been a little while since we talked, because you just got back from a trip to Catalina Island.

Josh: Yeah, it was great, actually. The weather was perfect, which is always a bit of a guessing game. You never know when the marine layer will come in and swallow the island, so it can be cloudy and gloomy or sunny. We had sun the whole week we were there, so it was nice. The kids were on their best behavior, and the water was fairly warm, right around 67 degrees, so perfect for swimming. Blue sky, blue water. You’re on an island. Great drinks.

Caroline: Talk about digital marketing: I’d never heard of Catalina Island until you told me about it last time. Since we talked about it, I’ve gotten two different ads for Catalina Island. I said, “You’re joking. That’s crazy.”

Josh: Spooky! They’re listening to you out there. They’ve got you targeted now.

Caroline: Targeted.

Josh: The ads will draw you in for sure.

Caroline: It looks beautiful.

Josh: It was a nice time, and it’s an easy trip. We drive up to Dana Point, which is about an hour and 15 minutes from my house, and get on the ferry. It’s a big, fast boat, and you get there in about an hour and 15 minutes. Then you’re on the island. You check into your hotel and kick back and do whatever you want. It’s about three hours to get back home, and that’s it. It’s an easy way to get away from life here in San Diego.

But that leads right into our topic today, because it’s summer, and today’s show is all about the summer leasing season, which is officially here. I think when most teams think about filling units and occupancy, they immediately jump to Google Ads, social media, SEO, and ILS listings. But today we’re talking about something that often gets overlooked: outreach marketing. Outreach marketing isn’t dead. So let’s talk about how we’re going to win some leases this summer, Caroline. Let’s jump right in. What are your thoughts on today’s topic?

Caroline: I’m excited. This has been coming up a lot on our calls recently, with clients talking about challenges they’re facing and what’s happening in their markets right now. As digital marketers, we spend a lot of time in the spring prepping for summer. Now summer is here, so we shift and start talking about outreach marketing and what we’ll do in our communities. I’m excited to dive in today.

Josh: All right, let’s start simple. When we say outreach marketing, what are we actually talking about?

Caroline: Outreach marketing is any marketing effort that gets your property in front of people outside the traditional digital channels. This isn’t Google or something they see online. It’s about building relationships with local businesses, employers, schools, realtors, and community organizations, and even using your current residents to your advantage. It’s about creating awareness and referrals in the community before someone ever starts searching for apartments online.

Josh: So just to be clear, outreach marketing isn’t replacing digital marketing.

Caroline: Not at all. It complements it. Think of it this way: Digital marketing captures existing demand, while outreach marketing helps create demand. If someone hears about your community through a hospital partnership or their employer and later searches for apartments online, that’s where your digital marketing closes the loop.

Josh: So why summer? Why is summer such a great opportunity for outreach?

Caroline: You always hear it mentioned most this time of year, but it truly is peak moving season, wherever you live. A lot of things contribute to that. You’ve got new graduates entering the workforce, families relocating between school years, corporate transfers, and interns moving. It’s naturally when the most leases expire, so there’s simply a lot more movement happening. Communities that position themselves in front of these prospects early often win before those prospects even start searching online.

Josh: And that’s where outreach comes in.

Caroline: Exactly. Everyone is fighting for attention online. We’re all paying to play. But outreach lets you meet prospects where they already are, out in the community.

Josh: So let’s get practical. If I’m listening today, which outreach initiatives could I start right away at my property?

Caroline: The first one I always recommend is employer outreach. Every market has major employers around it: hospitals, school districts, universities, big manufacturing facilities, large companies, hospitality groups, corporate office buildings. Reach out and introduce your property. I always suggest offering some kind of preferred employer program. What’s the benefit of working there and living with you? It could be waived application fees or a special move-in offer. So many employers relocating people to the area just don’t know which apartments and housing options exist around them.

Josh: What about local businesses?

Caroline: That’s a huge opportunity. You could partner with coffee shops, fitness studios, pet groomers, doggy daycares, restaurants, or moving companies, which is a big one that I love. You could create welcome packages for new residents while building visibility for your property and getting involved in the community. It becomes a win-win for everybody.

Josh: With these local businesses, are you just putting brochures up at their locations, or does it go way beyond that?

Caroline: Ooh, good one. We have a new development we’re working with right now that has a coffee shop down the street, and they’re creating a custom branded coffee with the coffee company. The coffee will be named after the property, with something fun like a pun on the property name, and they’ll sell it for a limited time. It’ll be a collaboration when the property opens, and they’ll be posting about each other on social media. That’s a lot more creative than walking in somewhere and saying, “Here are some flyers. Hand them out to people.” I’m very excited about that one. I think it’s really cool.

Another one I personally love, and have done myself: We’d take custom-etched pint glasses to a brewery. We’d partner with the brewery for the weekend, and they’d serve their beer and wine in our custom-etched glasses. So everyone getting a beer looks at the glass and sees your property’s name, and it doesn’t feel salesy. Then they see your table or booth over there and think, “Wait a minute, that’s really cool. Now I want to go talk to them.” There are a lot of creative ways to do this in your community.

Josh: So it sounds like creativity can really pay off. But who comes up with these ideas? Is it the marketing manager and on-site team brainstorming great outreach ideas together, or is it a property partnering with a marketing agency? How are they coming up with ideas like that coffee one? I thought that was awesome. I never would have thought of it.

Caroline: That one is really cool. It depends. If you’re a marketing manager and you’re not located in the same city as your property (sometimes we’re regional, or cover a whole state), really talk with the on-site team and understand what matters in the community. If walking downtown, getting coffee, and going to art museums is the local lifestyle, a coffee collaboration makes a lot of sense. If the coffee company is way out of the way and there aren’t many coffee drinkers around, maybe it’s not the right opportunity.

So I always say: Partner with your on-site teams, find out what’s really big in the community, and know which demographic will pay off most for you. Then go after that demographic. Breweries are huge in Wilmington, North Carolina, so that’s where we did the brewery partnerships and ran specials for our apartments. Do something in your community that the on-site team knows about and feels excited about, and that makes sense for the demographic you’re targeting. Don’t go somewhere just because the idea sounds creative if it’s not the right demographic for your community.

Josh: All right, let’s dive into resident referral programs. I feel like resident referrals don’t get enough attention. Do you feel the same way?

Caroline: I do. I think a lot of people focus on getting someone moved in, say, “Fantastic, you’re a resident,” and then forget about them and move on to the next thing. But your residents are your best salespeople. They live the experience every single day, and summer is a great time to run limited-time referral promotions if you can. The key is making them easy to understand and easy to participate in. If residents have to jump through a bunch of hoops, they won’t bother. But if it’s as simple as getting a discount on next month’s rent after the person they referred moves in, whatever it may be, you can use residents to spread the word and do the marketing for you.

Josh: All right, let’s talk about events. Everyone loves events, and it’s summertime now. So what about events?

Caroline: Summer events are some of my favorites. When I was working on site, summer and Christmas were the best for events. Summer events create great energy because people want to be outside and are more engaged. They’re taking vacations and have family and friends visiting. There’s a lot of fun stuff going on.

Pool parties are always a good one; we just had one at my community last week. Food truck nights are great, because people love eating outside and hanging out together in the summer. Outdoor movie nights, too. We’ve done movies by the pool and movies on blow-up screens on the lawn. Pet adoption events are great in the summer, because everyone’s outside walking their new dogs, and they get to use your dog park and see your amenities. Local vendor markets are also great. Everyone loves a farmers market or a craft market, so host something like that on site.

The goal isn’t just attendance. You want people to come, but the real goal is creating moments worth sharing on social media. Residents take out their phones and post stories about the ice cream truck at your food truck event or your pool party. Now they’re talking to each other and posting, and it’s all happening naturally.

Josh: All right, let’s flip it around and talk about outreach mistakes. What mistakes do you see properties making?

Caroline: I’d say only investing in outreach when occupancy drops, when you get worried because it suddenly dipped. These relationships take time, so if you wait until you’re struggling, you’re already behind. This should be something you’re always doing. Especially in a lease-up (oh my gosh), you should be getting involved in the community from the beginning and doing as much as you can to get your name out there.

Josh: What else are you seeing? There have to be more mistakes than that.

Caroline: A few common ones. Let’s put our digital brains on for this: not tracking anything. Use custom QR codes and custom URLs so you can track where people are coming from, especially if you’re doing a lot of outreach. That’s always key.

We’ve talked about generic outreach emails and follow-ups, and I see that often here, too. You finish the event and think, “Oh, shoot, let me just send a big thank-you for coming.” But take the time. If you want to nurture these people like any other lead, you have to take the time to personalize your follow-up. Or worse, having no follow-up process at all.

And don’t expect immediate results the next day. You’re getting out in the community and letting word of mouth spread. The best outreach programs are ongoing, so treat this as a real relationship-building effort.

Josh: Okay, let’s talk about combining outreach with digital, because I’d say that’s probably the winning combination, if there is one. They’re not competing strategies, obviously. They work together, right?

Caroline: Yes, exactly. The strongest marketing uses both. Take a typical renter journey: Someone hears about your property through their employer. Maybe they work at a hospital or a local business, whatever it may be. They start thinking about it. A week later, they search on Google, and your ad pops up first. They visit your website, look at your reviews, and go to schedule a tour. Multiple marketing channels worked together to create that lease. The outreach just happened first. They already had positive brand sentiment attached to you, so they clicked your ad because they felt good about it.

Josh: So if one of those touchpoints were missing, you might never get that prospect.

Caroline: One hundred percent. If they’d never heard about you at work, they might have scrolled right past you among the seven ads they saw that day. Or vice versa: They heard about you at work, but when they went to look you up, they couldn’t remember your name or exactly where you were, and they never saw an ad for you. So the two really do work in tandem.

Josh: Awesome. Let’s wrap this episode up, but first, let’s give listeners a challenge. If you could only spend $500 this month on outreach marketing, what would you do?

Caroline: Ooh. If it were me, I’d focus on employer outreach and resident referrals. Create a simple referral campaign, print materials for key employers, and spend time building those relationships. Those efforts can keep producing leads and new prospects long after the initial investment.

Josh: Oh, I like that a lot. So everyone listening, challenge yourself this week: Identify one outreach initiative for your property and take the first step toward launching it.

Caroline: You might be surprised how many leases can come from simply being active in the local community. I think that’s what surprises people most: Even though we live in a digital world, outreach isn’t dead. It’s definitely still here.

Josh: Okay, I’ll wrap this episode up right there, Caroline. We’ll be back next week with another episode. I appreciate everybody listening today. Caroline, enjoy that Florida sunshine, and I’ll see you next week.

Caroline: Thank you, guys. Bye!

Josh: Take care. Bye-bye, guys.