The Final Countdown to Fall 2023 Move-In
The Gainesville market is more challenging than ever, and we're deploying resources to make sure that SwampRentals.com is supporting our customers in the biggest way possible. We've identified incoming UF students and their parents as a priority audience left to sign leases for Fall 2023, and here's what we're doing to make sure they are using Swamp Rentals as a resource.
Targeting Parents & Students at UF Preview
Incoming baby gators or transfer students and their parents spend 2-days in May, June, or July on the UF campus attending UF Preview. During UF Preview, students typically stay on campus in a dorm and parents stay in hotels around town, so our team delivered Swamp Rentals flyers to over 25 hotels surrounding campus to target these parents while they're in town.
These flyers highlight that parents can easily find the perfect UF apartment for their student with our search filters like distance to campus, budget, individual leases, and more. We also made sure to highlight that availability is running low for Fall 2023 move-in on the flyers to help grab the attention of any parents actively looking for an apartment for August. Several hotel teams shared with us that parents ask about apartment options and recommendations all the time, and our flyers will be a great resource to hand out.
The Independent Florida Alligator is the daily student newspaper of the University of Florida, and we partnered up to target students and parents as their team is on campus during UF Preview! Swamp Rentals is now featured in the top navigation of The Alligator's website, and The Alligator team will be handing out flyers referring students and parents to Swamp Rentals on UF campus. We expect over 3,000 flyers to be handed out on campus.
Targeting Students Still in Search of Apartments for Fall ‘23
Next up, our team visited all the apartment communities that are 98%+ pre-leased for Fall '23 with "100 club" business cards. On one side of this business card, we included a QR code linking to Swamp Rentals, and on the other side, we included a QR code linking to our Facebook sublease and apartment help group.
Our goal is to keep the remaining traffic for Fall '23 move-in moving and direct renters still looking for an apartment to Swamp Rentals to help all the communities hit 100% and help students find communities with availability! This time of year can be frustrating for students who are still looking for apartments, as many of our apartment partners are sold out of certain floor plans. These cards are a great resource for communities that are completely sold out or sold out of most floor plans. The teams can now hand out these cards to renters that come in for a walk-in tour for a sold-out floor plan back to Swamp Rentals. Plus, the Facebook sublease group is a great resource to refer current residents looking to sublease their room.
We continued to brainstorm additional ways to target students still looking for an apartment, and it only made sense to target Gen Z through TikTok. Our team switched into research mode and learned how we can target students living in Gainesville through TikTok ads. We produced 3 ads highlighting how easy it is to find your UF apartment on Swamp Rentals and even filmed 1 on campus with landmarks like Ben Hill Griffin Stadium and Century Tower behind us. Another TikTok took students through a "day in my life" of going on tours to find an apartment near UF, and the third highlighted video clips and photos from our local Market Director, Sarah's time at the University of Florida to convey that we're all gators and a trustworthy resource to find an apartment.