The 4 Phases of a Proven Apartment Lease-Up Strategy

A lease-up in multifamily refers to filling vacant units at a property and usually starts when a brand-new property is being built. A successful apartment lease-up strategy needs to:

• Build brand awareness and generate qualified leads
• Convert leads to leases to establish a stable rental income
• Set you up for long-term occupancy

Because the property is brand new, your lease-up marketing plan is introducing your audience to a brand, offering, and experience they have likely never seen before — all while encouraging them to move in and become a resident. That’s why it’s so important to get your strategy started early: we’re talking 18+ months before opening early. In fact, starting too late can have a significantly negative impact on your property’s success.

Our proven apartment lease-up strategy happens in four phases: Discover, Build, Connect, Sustain. Now, let’s dive into the details about when each phase starts and what your lease-up needs.

Lease-up strategy phase 1: Discover (18+ months before open)

We call the first phase of a successful apartment lease-up strategy Discovery because we work together with your team to understand the unique who, what, when, where, and why of your new build. This fact-finding discovery process helps define your goals and also puts all the necessary information at the fingertips of your chosen creative team so they can craft a brand that resonates with your target audience, clearly shows off your community offerings, and positions your asset for success in its market.

The goal? To get granular information on these essential questions:

• Who are your competitors: Understanding your advantages and disadvantages guides marketing decisions and brand personality so yours always stands out.
• Who is the target audience: Beyond area demographics, this explores what your audience values and what they do in their free time so you get a brand that resonates deeply.
• What does your community offer: This is especially focused on the emotional and tangible benefits you offer and why the target audience would choose to live here.
• Where is this community located: This includes insight about important, nearby cities, neighborhoods, and attractions that bring people to the area as well as any nicknames for those places so your brand feels local.
• When are the major construction milestones: Outlining groundbreaking, top-off, installation of the first interior finishes, temporary certificates of occupancy, and certificates of occupancy helps inform marketing timelines and associated ad spend.
• Why is this community being built: Different than who and what questions, this can help explain your marketing goals and find out what problem you’re trying to solve for your audience.

With the right interactive brand discovery workshops and processes, this essential phase ensures all the marketing for your brand is informed by results-driven strategies that speak to your unique audience and market. The earlier you get started in the development stage, the better your results will be.

Lease-up strategy phase 2: Build (12+ months before open)

In the Build phase, we apply the in-depth information collected in Discovery to the earliest (and often most identifiable) elements of your brand — from the name people will tell their friends to the logo that will stand out on signage.

During this phase of your apartment lease-up strategy, you set your asset’s marketing foundation, including brand strategy, brand messaging, visual identity, and essential elements like the website. In short, it’s everything a community needs to begin marketing and sales efforts.

Success in these areas ensures you’re set up to crush it in phase 3.

Brand Name

Your brand name is your earliest identifier: it’s what people will search on Google after they drive by, what they’ll say to their family when they sign a lease, and what they’ll text their friends so they can come over.

It’s important to establish a name early on during construction to give the audience an identifier they can get curious and excited about. With the right name on your early announcements and fence scrim, you ensure their curiosity is informed and consistent through every marketing touchpoint.

Remember: if they get curious about a temporary identifier announced early, but then you change the name later, you could lose curious individuals and potential residents who can no longer find you. So get the right name locked in as early as possible.

What is the right name? Choose something that stands out from the competition, gets you clear results on Google searches, and sets the vibe for what your community will be.

Brand Strategy & Messaging

A formal Brand Strategy describes your market positioning, brand values, audience personas, and more. Documenting these early on cements the work put in during phase one to ensure everyone is on the same page about what drives and inspires your brand. Having something like this approved by your team before starting the design and logo process helps that process go more smoothly because it’s informed by a clearly defined strategy.

This is a good opportunity to also move into additional Copywriting services, like Brand Messaging, which gets you documented brand messaging guidelines and taglines that can be used on preliminary signage, announcements, and marketing collateral.

Visual Identity & Design

With brand name, strategy, and messaging done, it’s time for your logo and visual identity to come to life with a streamlined process that’s backed by strategy. At this stage, that can include:

• Logos, including badges and icons for diverse applications
• Color palette, which sets the mood and sends a subtle message to your audience
• Typography and fonts that keep brand applications and interactions styled consistently
• Supporting elements, like patterns, textures, icons, and photo treatments
• Lifestyle photography that depicts situations your audience will resonate with to make your brand feel more approachable and suited to their lifestyle
• Moodboard and application mockups that show how all the elements can and should work together in future collateral

The more layers and elements you include in your visual identity, the more dynamic and unique your brand experience will be for your audience, which helps you stand out from competitors.

Another piece to consider at this stage is providing realistic renderings and/or investing in professional community photo and video — at least once construction is more complete. By pairing imagery with your visual identity, you help showcase your brand and community in a realistic context, which helps prospects picture themselves living there (giving you a conversion rate boost). Plus, you’ll be ready to set up virtual tours as soon as possible.

One-Fold or One-Page Website

Depending on your construction timeline, you may not have enough information or content to fill a multi-page website as early as phase two, but you shouldn’t push pause on establishing your domain and website. A one-fold or one-page website is great for generating interest and getting leads.

Plus, you need a domain and successful multifamily website early in order to:

• Establish your domain and start growing your domain age, which improves SEO results long-term
• Get contact info from interested prospects through a VIP list or contact form
• Send searchers, email marketing recipients, and paid ad clickers to the right place to get more information on your community

Later, when you do get additional details, like a site map, full amenity lists, and floor plans, the transition from one-fold to one-page to full community website is seamless. It keeps the same domain to establish authority in search, carries over designs and brand applications for consistency, and maintains all data and analytics.

Activate and double check all your listings before you try to verify your Google Business Profile (GBP). With multiple online sources to prove your community is real and consistent, Google determines your brand as trustworthy, improving GBP verification timelines and SEO results.

Collateral & Signage

With your visual identity and a lead-generating website, your community needs more on-site, digital, and print collateral to inform your audience about the brand and community. Whether you use coming soon messaging or you’re ready to roll out all the details, this includes:

• An essential marketing package with business cards, letterheads, envelopes, folders, and social media templates
• A printed and/or digital rack card, flyer, and brochure
• Detailed items like floor plan inserts, site maps, and location POI maps
• Temporary signage for construction like fence scrims, flutter flags, A frames, and bandit signs
• Permanent signage, like your monument and wayfinding signage, for an immersive brand experience on-site

And, in early marketing, be sure there’s clear communication about where your prospects’ future home will be and where they can meet the leasing team in the temporary leasing office. The temporary leasing office should always be advertised on construction site signage, on the website, and all other locations where the goal is to secure a tour or visit.

Social Media & Digital Presence

As soon as you have your design and messaging guidelines set, we recommend creating all your preferred social channels early. Getting these set up, even without posting, can help give your brand credibility with audiences who are trying to learn more online. And while we know it can be tempting, don’t start posting right away. Wait to post until you have your social strategy determined with enough content planned for at least a month so you can post regularly and stay top of mind for your audience.

Equally important, get started on your Google Business Profile (GBP) verification as soon as you’re able to have someone on site. Your GBP gives searchers a succinct result on the search engine results page (SERP), including:

• Address and Google Maps link
• Clickable contact information
• Direct website link
• Your community photos and business posts
• Google reviews
• Your official opening date

Once verified, your profile will be visible on Google as soon as 90 days before your set opening date, which gives your marketing team more control over what information the audience gets about your community when they search for it.

Note: sometimes, Google pauses verification until you have permanent signage in place, but it still may be possible through video verification, so make your first attempt early. If you wait until the last minute and hit a snag, Google Support can be time-consuming.

Lease-up strategy phase 3: Connect (6+ months before open)

About 6 months before the community gets its certificate of occupancy and all the way through move-ins, the Connect phase is when strategies and elements developed in phase two are rolled out, launched, and executed, giving you the chance to fully connect with your audience. The goal is to move already secured leads and new prospects through the sales funnel and, ultimately, lease the community to occupancy and stabilization.

While many creative branding elements were established through phases one and two, the majority of phase 3 brings to life the digital marketing that’s essential to your apartment lease-up marketing plan. To be most effective, digital marketing requires careful optimization to ensure it’s reaching, enticing, and getting clicks from the right audience.

By launching these phase 3 strategies well ahead of the first move-in, you give your campaigns plenty of time for successful optimization — so you get peak performance by the time pre-leasing begins.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a long-term strategy to make sure your online content shows organically in relevant searches online, and it takes time to see results. That’s why it’s important to get SEO strategies started as soon as possible.

To make sure you’re set up for success in search, be sure to:

• Verify your Google Business Profile and get reviews. If you’re following this apartment lease-up strategy, you should have already secured your domain and begun GBP verification, but now is the time to confirm everything went through. Then, as soon as your on-site team begins tours and pre-leasing, encourage future residents to leave reviews on Google; getting positive reviews early helps your online reputation and organic search ranking.
• Update all your core business information on relevant ILS. That means your name, address, phone, website, and other essentials in places like Apartments.com and local directories. When you make sure these are accurate and consistent across the web, Google determines your business and website are trustworthy, which makes your community more likely to show in search. Bonus perk: Google may also reference listing services to show information about your community in AI Overviews at the very top of SERP.
• Log into Google Search Console (GSC). This search data goldmine is created as soon as your website is live, allowing you to get data about organic clicks, impressions, ranking, and more. GSC also allows you to submit your website for indexing, which means Google will crawl and record site changes on your mark instead of waiting to discover them on its own. This is especially important when you’re making website updates, adding elements like virtual tours, or publishing new content.
• Build “do-follow” backlinks. Luckily, as long as you complete the steps above, you’ll get backlinks naturally from ILS and directory listings. These improve your authority on Google, which boosts your ranking in search. Just remember: Google needs to recrawl your listing pages after your updates and that takes time, so update everything as early as possible to build those backlinks and SEO results ASAP.

As you work through your SEO apartment lease-up marketing plan, remember that even manual indexing through GSC can take a few weeks, so stay on top of this to-do list, and stay patient as you climb the rankings.

Paid Ads

For lease-up marketing strategies, we generally recommend higher budget brand awareness campaigns for Google, geofencing, social, and CTV ads. This collection of paid media allows you to stay in front of potential renters on all their devices — from browsing on their phone to watching TV on a big screen.

By starting these ads before your community opens, potential customers can get familiar with your brand early, build anticipation, and even submit contact information if you have a contact form or VIP list set up.

In terms of optimization, early ads can also help gather data on which keywords, ads, and audiences perform best, so your campaigns are already running optimally by the time you have move-in availability and in-person tours. In this time, advertisers can test different messages, refine targeting, and better understand what appeals to your customers.

Social Content

Social media is a valuable marketing tool at any stage, but it’s especially useful leading up to your opening as it helps generate excitement, increase interest and following, and set a strong foundation for brand awareness.

Your first social strategies should have those goals in mind, allowing you to post regular, high-quality content that:

• Gives the audience a sneak peak: Use anticipation to your advantage with short sneak peaks that don’t give everything away, like “hard-hat” tour snippets or future floor plan layouts. Don’t be afraid to show construction scenes as long as they’re quality images.
• Shows off your community: Post high-quality renderings and content that reveal completed areas and amenities.
• Highlights your location: Mix it up with popular activities and nearby hotspots in your area to paint a picture of the complete lifestyle and network with nearby businesses.
• Builds trust: Introduce management and on-site teams and show reviews from current tours or other owned properties to establish credibility.
• Encourages action: Use calls to action that encourage people to sign up for updates or interest lists, and link people directly to your website.

By sharing strategic content about 3-5 times a week, using relevant hashtags, and partnering with influencers, you can introduce your brand and start getting leads in an organic way that doesn’t feel obnoxiously sales-driven.

Video Tours

Many renters now prefer virtual tours as a first step in their apartment search because it allows them to decide if they’re genuinely interested without having to go out of their way. Offering these tours demonstrates your commitment to providing a convenient and modern leasing experience and gives you a chance to highlight the community’s best features, like finishes and amenities, as soon as they’re available.

When done right, video tours create anticipation and excitement about your new community, even before it’s officially open. That anticipation can help build your interest list and collect early leads. Then, once the community officially opens, your leasing team can focus on converting those qualified leads who have already seen the property virtually — streamlining the leasing process and increasing occupancy rates.

Another bonus: people moving from out of town or state can get a realistic feel for your property, amenities, and unit layouts without needing to visit in person. This significantly expands your potential renter pool. Plus, renters who feel genuinely interested after watching a video tour are more likely to schedule an in-person visit next. Marketing tools like easytour let those qualified leads watch immersive video, schedule a tour, view accurate pricing and availability, and contact your team directly — all in one, easy-to-use website widget.

Lease-up strategy phase 4: Sustain (after stabilization)

First things first, let’s celebrate. Pop the champagne, have a dance party, give everyone a high five. You’ve stabilized.

Once your community reaches stabilization leasing goals, this four-phase lease-up strategy moves into Sustain, successfully transitioning from an aggressive lease-up marketing strategy to one that resembles a stable asset. Now, the focus of the marketing strategy shifts from only driving new leads to driving new leads, retaining existing residents, and turning happy residents into brand advocates.

Often, this change comes with reduced marketing expenses as there are fewer homes to lease, you’ve established better brand awareness, and many of the early marketing strategies, like SEO, have had time to mature. But there are several important additions to keep the success going strong.

Reputation Management

Successful reputation management generates positive online reviews, mitigates negative ones, and gathers actionable data on resident feedback. While positive reviews help convert new leases, it’s the mitigation and resident feedback that has the biggest impact on resident relationships and renewal rates. Doing this in a multifamily-specific platform that connects with your PMS gives residents a way to share their concerns and gives your on-site team a chance to build trust and make improvements — before frustrating resident experiences become negative reviews.

Then, with their concerns heard and addressed, happy residents become your biggest brand advocates, leaving positive reviews of their own on places like Google, Yelp, Facebook, and Apartments.com.

Marketing Campaigns

Even in stabilization after a successful apartment lease-up strategy, you may still have specific leasing goals, and marketing campaigns are an effective way to hone in on these. For example:

• Lead generation campaigns attract and gather information from potential residents through various channels, like social media, email marketing, and paid advertising, then retarget to get your brand in front of those people more often.
• Special offers and promotional campaigns get the word out about time-limited deals and incentives to encourage immediate leasing decisions.
• Brand awareness campaigns reinforce brand recognition and keep the apartment community top of mind for the target audience.
• Community engagement campaigns may include hosting events, sponsoring local initiatives, and interacting with residents on social media to foster a sense of community and improve resident satisfaction and retention.
• Review generation campaigns encourage satisfied residents to leave reviews on platforms like Google and Yelp to build your positive reputation online.
• Resident retention campaigns can be used to reward long-term tenants, offer renewal incentives, and maintain relationships.
• Renewal or move-in campaigns can be especially effective for student communities that operate on a cyclical timeline.

Remember: campaigns are most effective when objectives are clearly defined and campaigns don’t try to cover too many goals at once.

Ongoing Social Strategy

As outlined in phase 3, the best social strategy before opening focuses on building awareness and generating excitement. After you’ve opened and welcomed new residents, it’s still just as important to keep a regular, engaging social schedule. But instead of posting sneak peeks and renderings, you get to show real experiences and media that includes people and residents using your spaces.

With a shifted focus on filling remaining vacancies and promoting resident engagement, ongoing content should include posts that:

• Share resident experiences and positive reviews
• Showcase community events and promotions, like pet costume contests
• Spotlight your on-site team to personalize the brand
• Display lifestyle elements and amenities that highlight the community’s appeal

Creating and posting on social channels early during lease-up is important to build your brand’s credibility and personality online. Staying consistent through the full lifecycle of your asset reinforces that authority and awareness, helps reach new users organically, and continues building strong relationships with your audience and local network.

Find the right team for your apartment lease-up strategy

Choosing an agency team that works exclusively in multifamily gets you centralized lease-up marketing services based on years of industry expertise — so you’re set up for success from phase one to infinity.

Not ready to reach out? That’s okay, we have plenty more marketing ideas and insights to share. Check out our blog where we have other guides on topics like making a rebrand land and building a successful website.