23 Ideas to Market Your Coworking Space

When we first started working with clients in the coworking industry, we noticed a trend in the questions that were being asked the most.

The questions weren’t about their operational workflows, community engagement, or tech stack. By and large it was about their marketing strategy. 

We put together this guide to support our clients in building out approachable and effective marketing strategies. It’s divided into four key sections:

• Free digital marketing ideas for coworking spaces
• Paid digital marketing ideas for coworking spaces
• Referral and partner marketing ideas for coworking spaces
• Traditional marketing
• Event marketing ideas for coworking spaces

Consider this guide a brief introduction to the world of marketing for your coworking space. Use this guide to gain knowledge, get inspired, and dive deeper into what works to help you find success in your coworking journey.

Free digital marketing ideas for coworking spaces

1. Optimize your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile is a free service by Google that lists information about your coworking space including hours, reviews, photos, and more.

It shows up in Google maps and the search engine results page (SERP), and it is also one of the most valuable free marketing tools you have as an operator.

The better optimized your profile is, the more likely it is to appear when someone searches for a keyword like “coworking space near me” or “coworking space in Atlanta”. This translates to more leads and more potential customers.

The best place to start with optimizing your profile is:

• Fill out the profile in its entirety
• Ask for reviews (and reply to all of them!)
• Update your profile regularly

Setting up a Google Business Profile is always one of our first recommendations to new operators. There’s no downside to having a profile.

2. Create video content for social media

Most operators have a love/hate relationship with social media. They know it’s important for their brand, but they lack the time and knowledge to really find success with it. Interestingly enough however, in a recent webinar, the #1 most effective channel for coworking operators according to attendees was social media.

If you want to maximize your organic reach and reap the most rewards from your content, then our number one piece of advice is to lean into video content. This works because:

• Instagram is prioritizing reels to compete with TikTok and is pushing video content organically more so than other kinds of content
• People prefer videos and are more engaged with video content over other types of content

Your videos don’t need to have a high production value in order to be successful. TikTok and Instagram have video making tools baked into the platform that make it easy for anyone to make a video.

Just be sure to use trending sounds, create videos that will appeal to your audience, and post consistently to see success…and manage your expectations. Social media is a long-term play and success isn’t guaranteed.

 

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3. Grow a digital community

Creating a digital community before you open your doors is a really smart tactic if you have the time. It can help build a membership base and serve as a proof of concept, increasing your chances of success. Long term, a thriving digital coworking community can help you:

• Build brand awareness
• Grow your membership base (and revenue!)
• Obtain partnerships with local businesses

We’ve found that the best way to make a community a success is to educate, entertain and encourage a sense of connection – like in the We Run Flex Facebook community for coworking leaders.

4. Join a coworking passport program

A coworking passport program gives individuals access to multiple coworking locations for a single monthly fee. It is typically used by those who travel often and are looking for places to stay all over a region or even the world. 

Members like it because they’re able to access multiple coworking spaces at a lower overall cost. But it can also help you as an operator by increasing brand visibility and getting your name out there in front of more people – typically at no cost to you.

If someone drops in your space under the passport program and they really like it, they will then be more inclined to commit to a long-term membership.

5. Create listings on Craigslist

Craigslist remains a popular destination for people looking for housing or office spaces for rent, garnering more than 50 billion page views per month.

Listing private offices or hot desks on Craigslist can be an inexpensive idea for marketing your coworking space. The trick to increase visibility is to optimize your listings and update them often.

This includes:

• Using 4-10 professional photos
• Including keywords in your headings
• Writing a detailed description that includes price, square footage, and contract terms
• Linking to your website

When I was supporting marketing a coworking space several years ago, we found we needed to create 8-10 different Craigslist listings and post them multiple times a day, throughout the day for them to be seen. Keep this in mind if investing heavily into Craigslist ads. Also note that there could be a small fee for posting an ad based on the category your products are in!

6. Build your email newsletter list

Email is a direct line of communication to your audience and an amazing way to build and nurture relationships with your members. It’s also highly effective – the average ROI of an email is $36 for every $1 spent.

There is so much you can do with email marketing including:

• Sending a weekly or monthly newsletter to current members
• Building an automated email flow to prospective members offering a sign-up discount
• Creating an onboarding email flow to familiarize new members with your space using Automations

We see most operators start off with an email onboarding flow and a monthly newsletter for their community, along with ad hoc emails for special events and announcements. Learn how Optix Automations can help you automate email communications with your members.

7. Use SEO to drive more traffic to your website

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the practice of modifying your website to increase its visibility in search engines and improve its organic rankings. There are three primary elements that make up SEO:

• Technical: site structure, internal linking, 404s and redirects, duplicate content
• On-page optimization: keyword research, H1 and H2 tags, meta descriptions
• Off-page optimization: backlink building, guest blogging, social media marketing

SEO can be overwhelming if you’ve never done it before. That’s why we wrote this complete guide to coworking SEO for new and seasoned operators.

Page speed is one of the most important factors when it comes to ranking in Google and is overlooked by many SEO beginners. One small change you can make to improve your website rankings immediately is to improve your website speed using a tool like PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix. 

Check out this guide on free digital marketing tools for coworking spaces to learn more about how to use GTmetrix.

8. Optimize your website for conversions

While SEO is about getting more traffic to your website, conversion rate optimization (CRO) is about getting more of that traffic to convert, more often.

A standard website optimization rate is anywhere between 2-5% of overall traffic depending on the industry. So if you get 100 visitors a month, you can expect 2-5 of them to book a tour of your coworking space.

Therefore, one of the most effective ways of getting new leads is to improve the rate at which your website is converting. You can do this by testing different copy, call-to-actions, and offers. 

This guide from HubSpot does a great job of introducing you to the basics of CRO – it’s a good place to begin if you’re not sure where to start.

9. Launch a podcast for entrepreneurs

Podcasts are the new blogs – everyone has one. They work well as a marketing tool because they:

• Help your audience feel more connected to you
• Serve as a pillar piece of content that can be broken up and redistributed across other channels
• Provide value for your audience
• Are interesting, informative, and on-trend

A coworking space here in Vancouver hosts a podcast for small local business owners to chat about their entrepreneurship journey. The content is educational, entertaining and appealing to their ICP of local small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Like SEO, it takes a while to see results from podcasting. You need to be committed to creating high-quality content and promoting that content on a consistent basis in order to see results. If you can crack the code however, it can be incredibly effective.

Did you know Optix has a podcast? Check out the We Run Flex podcast to learn how to succeed as a coworking operator.

Paid digital marketing ideas for coworking spaces

10. List your space on coworking syndicators and marketplaces

Coworking websites, syndicators and marketplaces are just like Craigslist, but they’re only for coworking spaces. Here, you can list your space in exchange for commission for any booking made through the site.

For some operators, marketplaces are their number one source of bookings. For others, it’s a nice passive way of increasing occupancy.

These services are highly targeted, so the leads and/or bookings that you do get tend to be of much higher quality. Some of the most popular websites are:

• LiquidSpace
• Instant Offices
• DeskPass
• Free Office Finder
• PeerSpace

There’s no harm in listing on multiple sites, as you’ll usually only pay if a booking is made. Most coworking operators choose to list their space on multiple marketplaces in order to cast as wide of a net as possible.

11. Run Google search ads for high-intent keywords

There are two types of Google ads: display and search. Search ads tend to be the most effective marketing channel for coworking spaces. Here’s a simple rundown of how they work.

• You write an ad for your space promoting your private offices
• You bid on the keyword “private office in Toronto”
• When someone searches for that keyword in Google, your ad appears at the top of the search results page 

Google search ads typically have a click-through rate of around 3% for the real estate industry. 

However, the people that do click are looking for exactly the product you’re offering, which oftentimes leads to higher conversion rates than other types of ads.

12. Run localized social ads to your target audience

Your audience is on social media. But how do you reach them? If you’re struggling to reach your audience organically, it’s worth experimenting with social ads. The platform you choose to run ads on will depend on where your audience spends the most time online. Most coworking spaces will find success with Meta (Facebook and Instagram) ads.

You may also want to consider LinkedIn ads if you have a professional audience, like Pacific Workplaces did.

A successful ad comes down to two primary components:

• The right messaging (copy, creative, overall message)
• The right audience (targeting)

Running ads isn’t overly complicated, but there are a lot of nuances to the different platforms that can take some time to understand. We recommend working with a professional to help manage all of your paid advertising campaigns, including Google. Otherwise, this guide from Hootsuite is a good place to start.

13. Sponsor a podcast

Sponsoring a podcast is a popular and effective advertising channel for consumer product goods. But what about coworking spaces?

The trick for effective podcast sponsorship is to sponsor a podcast with:

• A localized audience
• A topic that appeals to your target audience
• An alignment in values

This tactic is best suited for those with multi-location networks or coworking space franchises with locations across North America and a very specific niche that you serve.

Referral and partner marketing ideas for coworking spaces

14. Create a referral program for current members

The most effective marketing tactic across every industry, including coworking, is almost always word of mouth. The challenge is, it’s also the hardest to get. Creating a referral program encourages your happiest members to spread the word about your community. The best referral programs are:

• Win-wins: both the referrer and the referee get something they want, like a discount on their membership plan
• Transparent: everyone understands the guidelines so there is no confusion with what you get and when
• Promoted: members are aware of the program and are reminded of it consistently, be it in an email or on a poster

If you have great reviews and a strong community of happy customers, consider creating a referral program for a lower customer acquisition cost, better customer retention, and more leads overall.

15. Co-market by creating partnerships with local businesses

Many coworking spaces offer member perks and benefits exclusive to their community, like 10% off a monthly yoga membership or 15% off at the local coffee shop next door. Not only can these perks and discounts improve retention and satisfaction, they can also serve as a form of co-marketing and partnership building.

Here’s how it works:

• Find a coffee shop in your neighborhood that your members love
• Create an offer for their community in exchange for something that you can offer yours
• Create materials that will be housed in both areas, like a flier or business card

Building partnerships with local businesses benefits both you and the businesses you’re working with by increasing exposure and improving member acquisition at a relatively low cost.

16. Use influencer marketing

If you think “influencer marketing” is just models posing with beauty products, think again. Entrepreneurs who are heavily involved in your city’s start-up scene and well-connected to other entrepreneurs (think: local celebrities) could be an “influencer” you want to partner with.

We’ve seen some spaces have great success with reaching out to people who are well-known in their community and creating mutually beneficial partnerships in exchange for content or promotion of your space. The arrangement can be a win-win: individuals get access to a space where they can work from, and you get publicity for a larger audience.

Traditional marketing

17. Send out a promotion via direct mail

Direct mail is any communication that is sent directly to prospects via the postal service (otherwise known as snail mail). It’s frequently used by real estate agents and other local services, and has been making a comeback for businesses in recent years.

The key to running a successful direct mail campaign is to be very intentional with your targeting and to make it fun. That means:

• Figuring out your ideal customer profile (ICP)
• Creating an ideal offer just for them
• Designing an eye-catching asset
• Distributing it in local neighborhoods

18. Create flyers to hang around the neighborhood

Flyers are one of the original forms of marketing. Hang them in a busy area with lots of foot traffic a block away from your space and they could catch the eye of a passerby (and potential customer).

Here are some ideas for distributing flyers:

• Create posters to hang on telephone poles on city streets
• Hang flyers up on bulletin boards in public places, such as community centers
• Talk to local businesses and see if they would be open to letting you hang your flier in their shop

Flyers work best if you have a large image, clear copy, contact information, and some kind of promotional offer included.

19. Hire a street team to hand out promotional flyers

Street teams are people who stand outside busy areas and hand out flyers to people walking past. It’s a popular tactic that food delivery services like Uber Eats deploy when they enter into a new market to help gain awareness of their presence in the community.

The advantage of hiring a street team as opposed to just hanging fliers is they tend to be more engaging and drum up more interest from people walking by. There’s also an opportunity to accompany your promotional flier with a physical item, like a piece of candy, to really make people stop.

20. Purchase a bus stop or bench ad

They say it takes as many as 12 touch-points with your brand before someone is ready to buy.

Bus ads, bench ads, billboards, and vehicle wrappings can serve as that first touchpoint, aiming to increase brand and name recognition in your community to eventually drive more sales.

It is almost impossible to measure the effectiveness of these campaigns. You’ll have to look at trends over time to see how well they’re working. However, it could be a good marketing idea for a multi-location coworking space if you have the budget to spend.

Event marketing ideas for coworking spaces

21. Host a monthly open house for prospective members

Hosting events in your coworking space can help build community and cultivate connection amongst current members. But it can also be a powerful marketing tool to get new members in your door.

One of the most successful strategies we’ve seen clients implement is a monthly or quarterly open house for anyone interested in your coworking space. You can:

• Serve complimentary food and beverages
• Offer exclusive promotions to encourage new sign-ups
• Give tours

It can be hard for people to commit to a membership before they see and feel the space for themselves. An open house is a great opportunity for prospective members to get the vibe of the space before they commit.

22. Organize bimonthly keynote speakers

Keynote speaker series are a way to bring people together and educate your audience, while promoting your space.

We often see operators offer the event free to members and charge people outside of the community a small fee to attend. Not only is it a great marketing tool, it’s also a way of broadening your business model and opening up additional revenue opportunities for your business.

23. Hold a weekly coffee meeting or meetup for the community

If you’re looking for something more informal than an open house or keynote speaker series, you could try a simple weekly coffee meeting that’s open to the public. Here’s one way to set it up:

• Choose a weekday morning – something like Wednesday morning from 8am to 10am
• Hold an open invitation – anyone who wants to come can come
• Choose your activity – whether it’s enjoying some complimentary coffee and socializing with others or doing a group bike ride

This tactic works especially well if you are a niche coworking space with a very specific target market. You can advertise your event as an opportunity for people in the community to come and network with others with the same interests

It can be tricky to get these meetings off the ground. But once they start, they can be a wonderful way to engage your current community and bring new people into the space.

Get started with marketing your coworking space

Marketing your coworking space can feel like a massive undertaking. Don’t feel like you need to do everything at once. Take the ideas that you like and begin experimenting with a few of them. You’ll learn quickly what works for your space (and what doesn’t).

Be open to failing, learning, and growing and you’ll be sure to find a strategy that works best for you.

Looking to start a coworking business? Check out these 30 questions to ask yourself before starting a coworking space.