Should You Start a Blog for Your Community? The Pros and Cons

Are you considering blogging to get more eyes on your community's site but aren't sure if it's worth it?

If you have all the leads and returning residents you could possibly want, then you're all set. Otherwise, blogging can be a powerful tool to drive more organic traffic and conversions.

Research shows that 56% of consumers surveyed made a purchase from a company after reading their blog, and 10% of marketers say blogging generates the biggest return on their investment.

Like any other marketing tool, blogging has pros and cons, and your success depends on how you approach it and what you want to get out of it.

Pros of Community Blogging

Before you write your first draft and hit 'publish,' here's what to know about the upsides of blogging.

Reaches Potential Residents Early in the Process (Which is Difficult to do)

Blogging is a powerful way to reach potential residents early in their apartment search–or before they've started looking at all.

You can get in front of people looking for answers to:

Q: How much is the average apartment rent in Columbus, OH?

Q: Is Columbus, OH a good place to live?

Q: Which apartment complexes have waterfront views in Columbus, OH?

Strategically answering questions gives your community a distinct advantage over your competition that doesn't have a blog.

Prospects searching for these topics likely haven’t gotten deep into their apartment search, which is an opportune time to position your community before they even see your competitors.

An interesting and engaging blog also gives apartment hunters a reason to keep coming back for more, whether they're looking for more information about a community or trying to figure out where to move next.

Provides Value to Your Current Residents

Before you start blogging, consider which audience you're trying to target and why. For example, you can answer questions like:

✅ How late is the pool open?

✅ How do I take care of fees for late rent?

✅ Is there a referral program for our community?

Your answers may help someone, but do they target the audience you want to convert?

Pick and choose topics that offer value to current residents that also benefit apartment hunters.

For example, a round-up of all the amenities in your community and when they're open benefits multiple audiences.

Pro tip💡: If you're worried about your current residents getting overlooked, you can start a "Community Members" corner to answer specific questions or assemble a one-sheet of info that existing residents can download.

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Enhances Your Organic SEO

Blogging is a powerful way to enhance your organic SEO and attract relevant traffic to your community website.

Tools like Keysearch, SEMRush, and UberSuggest can all help you narrow down relevant keywords that prospective renters are looking for.

Here's a quick round-up of relevant keywords when someone searches for "Columbus OH apartments" on Keysearch:

• Columbus apartments for rent
• Downtown Columbus apartments
• High-rise apartments in Columbus Ohio

Once you have an idea of what keywords people are targeting, it's wise to see how they're doing in Google Trends, which analyzes the popularity of search queries.

Google Trends will also show you other related queries and topics, which can help supercharge your blog content to give audiences what they’re looking for.

You want to make sure your community website doesn’t have thin content, and blogging is an easy way to combat that.

Can Help Optimize Your Marketing Budget

Writing a blog is a low-cost way to get in front of your target market and trigger higher conversions.

In an ideal world, you either write reasonably well or have someone on staff who does. You only need time to research, write, and market your content.

In other words, you don't need to allocate actual marketing dollars to blogging if you don't have it.

Beyond blogging being a low-cost method, it can also help optimize the rest of your marketing budget and provide content for:

✅ Social media

✅ Google Business Profile

✅ Email marketing campaigns

✅ Marketing materials and promos

The more you blog, the more momentum you gain, and it could potentially reduce other areas of your marketing budget.

For example, you may not need to run as many PPC ads for specific keywords and promotions if you're earning organic traffic.

The Cons of Blogging

Beyond all the pros of multifamily blogging, there are some cons to consider. Here's what to know before diving in.

Takes Time to See Results

Blogging as a content marketing strategy takes time to see results.

You may see immediate results if you create great content and send it directly to leads through your email list.

It can take months for Google to start ranking your posts and start earning reliable, targeted traffic that converts.

On the upside, it's usually easier and faster to command local search traffic for your community than globally.

Pro tip💡: For example, you'll see better results in Columbus, Ohio, than trying to target keywords to attract an audience for general search terms.

When Not Done Correctly, Blogging Takes Up a Lot of Resources

Blogging doesn't work by accident. It requires a strategy to see results and the conversions you want.

Truth 💣: Erratically posting or writing about topics that aren't interesting to prospective residents is a recipe for disaster.

You'll end up spending too much time and resources on a blog that isn't returning anything to your rental business.

Worse, a poorly executed blog could dilute your community brand by not offering any value or relevant info when someone lands on your posts.

If you're brand new to blogging, you can recruit someone to help or assess the skills of your current team members interested in tackling it.

But your best bet is to see which of your competitors are already ranking on Google and reviewing their posts.

• What are they writing about?
• Where do they post their articles?
• What kind of images or videos do they use?

The goal is never to copy your competitors–Google swiftly penalizes sites for duplicate and low-quality content. Or you could end up with a blog that Google isn't ranking favorably and showing up at all 😱😱 😱

Instead, get a framework of what blogs are showing up in results and how they're structured.

Pro Tip💡: Once you've gathered some intel on what's going on in your area, the goal is to stand out from the competition by offering more value, consistency, and quality with your own blog.

You Still Need to Market Your Blog

It's tempting to think the secret sauce to attracting tons of new residents is in a great blog post.

But once you post an article… then what?

You still need to market your content by sharing it with your email list and social media and refining your approach to keyword research to get found by Google.

Although blogging doesn't have to take up hours of your week, it will take some time to get it going and figure out the learning curve to get comfortable.

Make sure you embrace blogging as part of your multifamily marketing toolbox, not the only tool you rely on.

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