My, how times have changed since I was a student. I found it a real hassle to find a place to live near campus, search online and asking around – I even checked out the campus notice boards. 

But now a new SMS marketing initiative will make landlords and university accommodation services re-think how they connect with their student clientele.

The new SMS messaging system is the brain child of Asset Campus Housing, a property management firm which specialises in the student accommodation market in the US. The new SMS service has been a triumph, generating up to 100 new leads a day with the knock on affect of both viewings and rentals up.

The system is made up of two components. The first gets prospects to opt in to receive alerts about properties.   The second creates a database of prospects and a separate one of residents for the property managers. The company and property managers can then use these for SMS messages tailored to either residents or prospects.

Asset Campus Housing’s marketing director, Joe Goodwin, is convinced that the success of the campaign is due to it being a SMS marketing initiative.  He says the students are responding to SMS alerts much faster and much more frequently than they ever did with voice and email.

Certainly I can see why students would be attracted to this SMS-based approach. It’s low cost, quick and above all convenient. 

It would seem that when trying to reach the Generation Y market, mobile technology marketing, such as SMS marketing is the way to go.

I wonder how long it will be before mainstream rental agencies and estate agents get in on the act?