What We Do
DJC Marketing runs the full lease-up marketing cycle for affordable housing developments — from the moment you're ready to announce to the day you hit stabilization.
We are not a general marketing agency. We know how affordable housing is financed, what income-qualifying means, how lottery and waitlist processes work, and what regulators and investors need to see. That specificity is what makes our campaigns convert.
DJC Marketing is a Black-owned, woman-owned business — a certified MBE and SBE with the Maryland Department of Transportation, and SAM.gov registered. We handle every piece of the marketing operation so your property management team can focus on operations — not outreach.
What's Included
Before a single ad runs, we build your campaign strategy around your unit mix, income tiers, target applicant profile, and timeline. We create a pre-leasing plan that builds interest and a waitlist before doors open — so you launch with momentum, not from zero.
Apartment listings on Apartments.com, Zillow, Craigslist, and AffordableHousing.com. Targeted Facebook and Instagram paid ads. Google Display. Organic social. Every ad is geo-targeted, income-aware, and optimized weekly based on performance data.
Billboards, construction-site banners, radio spots, newspaper ads, and community publication placements. We handle placement, production, and vendor coordination — you don't manage any of it.
Partnerships with local churches, community organizations, workforce agencies, and social services. We attend job fairs, host information sessions, and build the ground-level trust that turns awareness into completed applications.
We manage all inbound inquiry volume — answering questions, distributing applications, tracking submissions, and keeping prospective residents informed. Your property management team stays in the loop without being buried in calls.
What You Get
At the start of every engagement, you receive a written campaign strategy outlining your target applicant profile, channel mix, budget allocation, and timeline milestones. Throughout the campaign, you receive:
- → Bi-weekly campaign performance reports (impressions, clicks, leads, application volume)
- → Applicant tracking — inquiry count, application submissions, qualification rate
- → All creative assets — ad graphics, listing copy, social posts, print-ready files
- → Stakeholder-ready summaries you can share directly with investors, lenders, or housing agencies
- → A single point of contact — Dakotah leads every engagement personally
Packages
Campaigns start at $20,000, all in. Media spend, production, and vendor costs are inside that number — we do not bill them on top.
Every engagement is scoped to your development — unit count, income tiers, market, and timeline. The examples below reflect how we've structured past campaigns.
Apartment listings on major platforms, targeted paid social ads (Facebook/Instagram), and organic social content. Includes campaign setup, weekly optimization, applicant inquiry management, and bi-weekly reporting. Typical fit: developments with strong in-person property management support.
Digital-first scope plus traditional media — billboards, construction-site banners, radio spots, newspaper ads, and community publication placements. We manage all vendor relationships and production. Typical fit: developments that need broad awareness across digital and physical channels simultaneously.
Multi-channel scope plus active community outreach — information sessions, partnerships with local organizations, job fair presence, and resident engagement events. We become an extension of your team on the ground. Typical fit: developments in communities where trust and local visibility are essential to leasing success.
Add-Ons
Our application success manager personally contacts applicants whose submissions were initially rejected — helping them correct errors, gather missing documents, and resubmit. This keeps your pipeline full of qualified candidates who otherwise fall off. At 9410 Hough, this single add-on drove a greater than 20% re-apply rate.
We design, source, deliver, stage, and photograph a tour-ready model unit from scratch — handling every vendor and every detail. Professional photography is included. After lease-up, furniture can be donated to an affiliated nonprofit and distributed to incoming residents, giving the owner a charitable contribution benefit while supporting the community.
Case Study
