Coworking spaces are rising in popularity, largely because of savings they offer over paying rent for an office.
With many people embracing remote work, teams may only gather periodically, making a permanent office unnecessary.
Coworking spaces are convenient because you only pay when you use them. This makes them ideal for freelancers, entrepreneurs, and corporate clients.
A Harvard Business Review shows that people actually thrive in coworking spaces. They don’t have to deal with office politics, they have more control over their work hours, and feel a greater sense of autonomy.
If you own a coworking space, knowing how to market your business will help to fill it with happy members. This article covers some effective marketing strategies.
1. Define Your Target Audience
A solid marketing plan is designed for a specific target audience. For a coworking space, your audience may include freelancers, businesses, and corporate clients. With the rise of remote work, some companies need space to collaborate and connect when the need arises.
Find the places people go to work outside of the home or office, such as restaurants, coffee shops, and libraries. Then visit these locations to connect with your target audience and gather information. Don’t be shy about starting conversations. Ask what people think about coworking spaces. Since they are a newer concept, some people may not know much about them, and these conversations can give you an opportunity to talk about your space. Ask those who have used them to share their experiences or feedback. These insights will help inform your marketing plan.
2. Focus On Creating Strong Branding Elements
Branding is essential because audiences will identify your business with your brand. It also presents an opportunity to differentiate yourself from your competitors.
Branding encompasses a wide range of factors. These include:
- A Logo: This one of the most critical elements of branding. The design should be professional, memorable, and eye-catching while communicating your brand’s personality. Memorability is crucial because you always want people to remember it. The logo will go on every company asset, including your website, marketing collateral, office documents, and social media pages. It's easy and applicable to create your own logo with online tools without worrying about hiring professionals.
- Color palettes are another essential identifier because they communicate the brand’s personality. Bright colors show the brand is fun and bubbly, red is intense or energetic, while blue is calming. Understanding the psychology of color and how it impacts human behavior will help you pick your color palette.
- Taglines summarize your brand messaging. It’s best to stick to short, memorable taglines, such as Nike’s “Just do it” tagline.
- Other branding elements are fonts, shapes, and imagery.
Branding is also about how your team represents the company. Imagine a group of startup companies pitching ideas for a business.
One group hands out stapled printouts, but the other has their documents in carefully designed presentation folders so you can see that a lot of care went into the info packet. Their corporate imagery is displayed prominently on the front-facing cover. Contact details are visible on the back cover and, when you open the folder, its pockets are packed with informative marketing materials that add value to the presentation.
The second group is demonstratively more competent, which is how you want to present your coworking space to investors as well as the public.
3. Find a Point of Differentiation
You may not be the only one offering coworking spaces in your area. So, why should someone choose your space over the competitors? That is the whole point of finding a point of differentiation.
Your offering may be similar to others, such as a well-designed workspace with the usual amenities, such as snacks and beverages, internet, meeting rooms, and printers.
Analyze your microenvironment, especially your competitors and their value proposition. Is there anything more you can offer? Maybe your software lets customers see availability, book and pay online, or provides another useful feature. If you offer the convenience and efficiency of booking with a coworking app, that may be a differentiator you want to mention in your marketing. A self-service portal that helps members connect is yet another perk that just may help you to attract more customers. It simplifies communication and collaboration, letting members interact, invite others to meetings or events, buy products or join events.
You may also want to consider offering affordable childcare for working parents. Some spaces work out a partnership with a nearby daycare facility, offering a discount (as well as peace of mind) to parents who can have their children close by while they work.
Easy access to the facility is another selling point. Available systems include mobile, passcode and key card entry. The key card option gives you a chance to brand the card holder so your customized logo is visible and your company is always front of mind. This custom card sleeve created for an Ohio-based coworking space is a good example of practical branding using this method.
Analyzing the insights you get from talking to potential customers can help you know where there are gaps you could fill in local coworking services.
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4. Develop a Website
The internet is the first place people will go to search for a coworking space so you’ll need an online presence to build both credibility and a customer base. But it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. These days, you can easily create a business website, even with a limited budget.
We recommend working with a professional web designer. Their expertise and knowledge will ensure you end up with an attractive and functional site. Some of the things you need to focus on are:
- An attractive, engaging design that will capture audience's attention.
- Good performance, which includes fast loading and easy-to-navigate pages.
- Mobile optimization to make your site more accessible on mobile devices.
- Search engine optimization to ensure a stream of free traffic from organic search.
- Proper placement of elements and branding for a strong visual impact.
5. Have a Presence on Social Media
Take time to develop a strong social strategy for your coworking space. Popular platforms offer the greatest opportunity to connect with your target audience.
Many freelancers use the same platforms to advertise their services and join networking groups. The same is true for startups, small businesses, and corporate clients.
For most spaces, LinkedIn will be the top priority because there is no better place to connect with professionals.
Consider allocating a small budget for advertising on social media. Facebook is a great choice for ads because it allows for accurate targeting. On Facebook, you can focus on localities where potential clients spend time. People tend not to read lengthy text on Facebook or social platforms in general, so include high-quality imagery in your posts.
Where possible, link social media pages in order to drive traffic to your website. The links make it convenient for audiences to connect since one click (or tap) will take them to your site.
You can also automate booking by allowing customers to reserve space through the social media page, eliminating the extra step of registering for another site to complete their transaction.
The key to a social media presence is posting regularly. The word social connotes communication, engagement, and interaction. By keeping the conversation going with your audience, they’ll be more engaged–resulting in more likes, comments, subscriptions, and sharing of your content. One easy way to do this is by developing creative and unique hashtags to describe your space. When using hashtags correctly, they can bolster engagement and grow interest in your brand.
6. Have a Local Marketing Strategy
A local strategy is focused on targeting people that live in your area. If your neighbor searches for coworking space near me, yours should be in the top results as long as you have setup a business profile on the platform being searched. Popular platforms include Google, Bing, Yelp, Facebook, and Apple Maps. Some ways to increase your local presence include:
- Localize your website landing page by optimizing it for your geographical location. The same should apply to additional pages, blog posts, and images.
- Claim your listings on Google My Business, Bing Places, and Yelp.
- Focus on creating local content that is relevant to those living in the area.
- Embedding a location map with a pin on your website to make it easy for people to find directions to your coworking space.
7. Have a PR Strategy in Place
PR is effective because third-party endorsements are more persuasive than advertising and marketing. Public relations is all about building relationships and managing what other people say about you.
You can achieve brand visibility using PR strategies such as:
- Posting your positive reviews and testimonials on your website and social media platforms.
- Developing relationships with the media by sharing newsworthy content or press releases about your industry can get you a mention in local publications.
- Creating a local presence within the community–participating in corporate social responsibility activities such as community cleanups is an inexpensive way to get your name known in a positive light. Just make your team wear their company swag!
- Raising awareness with local user-generated content. Encourage participants in community events to send in pictures and post them on your online platforms and social media.
- Partnering with a local influencer. Be strategic about choosing an influencer who aligns with what it is you’re offering. An influencer who talks to entrepreneurs or freelancers would be more relevant than someone who reviews makeup.
- Hosting events that target specific audiences. These could include seminars, conferences, meetups, and so on.
Final Thoughts
The growth of your coworking space depends on a solid marketing plan. We have looked at some of the key areas you need to focus on. Think about your target market, branding elements, and differentiation.
Get your name out there with an online presence in the form of a website, social media, and a local strategy to make your business visible to the local audience.
And finally, take advantage of powerful public relation tactics to grow exponentially.
The article was written by Daniel Martin. Creating winning content teams is Daniel Martin's passion. He has built high-performance teams that have produced engaging content enjoyed by millions of people. In addition to playing ping pong and photography, Dani loves to travel.
