CLASS Leasing: Another Search Optimization Tool

Everyday I am proven that I have only began to scratch the surface in terms of learning details about search engine optimization and the tools that can be utilized. This morning I was doing some research and came across another neat feature that Google has that can be used not only when searching for keywords, but also when creating a website/blog and trying to determine relevant keywords to use. As a rule Google will only recognize a website as relevant if it has approximately 7% of its wording recognized as keywords. Basically, this rule keeps an individual from creating a website with nothing but keywords in hopes of making his/her website that first to pop-up when similar words are searched. Therefore, it is benefecial for one to use surrounding wording of these keywords as an opportunity to put relevant words to the keyword search. This idea is also known as latent semantics. For example, if your keyword that you are trying to highlight is "apartment" or "apartments," then some good surrounding supporting words in your paragraph would be: "housing"; "rent"; "property"; etc. In addition, if you are trying to highlight the word "apartment," it would be benefecial to make sure you include the word "apartments" in the body of your wording as well. The "s" on the end makes a significant difference. Try it out for yourself and simply place a tilde (~) in front of your search word after your search it without one and see the difference in the results that pop-up.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Bedbugs And New York

Here is an article that sums up how much of an epidemic bedbugs are becoming for at least one major US city. It's amazing how large of a problem such a small pest can cause.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: The Fun Side Of Marketing

En lieu of it being Friday, I wanted to share, in my personal opinion, one of the greatest commercials made from one of the best companies from a marketing stand point to ever exist. This company has managed to build a marketing dynasty with a brand symbol that has no words. I think you'll recognize it. Make sure your volume is on.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: A Site That Monitors Your Site

I have done numerous blogs about Apartment Ratings and other sites where individuals can go and post reviews about apartment communities. In addition, I have also advised everyone to constantly search your property on Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. in order to keep yourself up-to-date on what individuals are posting about apartment communities. Google Alerts is a website that allows you to see what people are posting/searching about a certain topic of your choice (i.e., Your apartment community). Also, you can actually enter in your email address and Google Alerts will send you an update when someone has searched or posted something about your entered topic. This would be a great thing to track if some new marketing material is implemented and you want to see if your search traffic increases as the marketing material hits the streets.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: How Are People Using Their Phones?

In the technological world that we live in these days, most individuals cannot survive without their cell phone. People are more likely now to have a cell phone as their primary means of communication than they are to have an actual land line. Cell phones are not just being used for solely talking either. Here are some interesting statistics from a study done by Ruder Finn in February 2010:

-91% of mobile users are using their phones to go online to socialize
-62% are using instant message
-58% are forwarding emails
-40% are sending general content
-38% are forwarding photos
-43% are connecting to social sites
-62% of mobile users are using their phones to manage their finances
-46% are using online banking
-40% are checking credit card statuses
-33% are reading business related blogs
-49% of mobile users utilize their phones to go online to advocate
-45% are posting opinions on social networking sites with the easy access to
breaking news via cell phone
-Mobile phone users are 76% less likely than traditional internet users to utilize
the internet for learning purposes.
-Learning requires time and patience, which cell phone users typically are in
short supply of.
-Although, cell phone users are 95% more likely than traditional internet users to go online, in order to stay informed about current events.

Kind of interesting statistics with some of them being a surprise and others not really coming across as surprising, as a cell phone internet user myself.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Managing Your Online Reputation

The apartment market has changed dramatically in the past decade. Whereas ten years ago when a prospect would drive-by a property banner and immediately call the community phone number to setup a tour, nowadays prospects do their research online before calling the apartment community. Traditional marketing is still able to be controlled by the apartment community with printed flyers and brochures, but the online reputation can often be made by disgruntled former and current residents. Don't allow your online reputation to be made by someone else. Here are a few easy ways to maintain control of what is said about your community:

1. Search your apartment community daily on a multitude of online sources.
Google, Yahoo, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Rentwiki and especially Apartment Ratings, are all sites where individuals will not only search for your community, but are also sites where damaging comments could be posted about your community. It is important that you always familiarize yourself with these sites to know what exactly is being said about your community in the online world.
2. Once reviews are located about your community, it is pertinent to read and respond to these reviews. When addressing these reviews it is just as important to resond to the positive reviews as it is to the negative reviews. Thanking a resident for a positive review shows that you are concerned with establishing a rapport with not only those previous, or current residents, but also the future ones. When responding to a negative review, it is extremely important to maintain a professional approach and also to directly address the negative comments made. Don't let any of the objections posted go unanswered, because it will make any negative statements appear that much worse if you pick and choose which ones you addresss. Google will allow you to directly address a review through Google Places for free, but some sites, like Apartment Ratings will require an annual fee to be able to address the reviews as a manager. Trust me. It is well worth the fee to directly respond to these negative reviews.
3. Google Alerts is a great way to monitor what is being said about your community via Email. Google Alerts allows you to receive notifications daily in regards to any new information that is appearing online about your community. It's as easy as entering your community specific name and a select email address and you will begin being notified when your community has new information posted about it online.
4. Create numerous property specific websites in effort to be able to control some content about your community. There are a large amount of free apartment related websites that allow you to post your community for free, but a popular few are Facebook, Twitter and even Blogspot, or Blogger to create a property specific blog.

It is very important to monitor what is being said about your community online. It only takes one negative statement to sway that interested prospect from visiting your community, so keep that in mind and become an online expert about your property!

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Making A Model Apartment Without Breaking The Bank

Furnishing a model apartment can often be a burdensome load for a community, due to the often large amount of money it can take to purchase all of the furnishings. The model apartment needs to be done in a way that shows the true potential of the community and is the only opportunity the community has to make a good first impression on the prospect. The model should be done in a way that the prospect feels invited and should not be done above the scale of the apartment community with the prospect getting the feeling that the apartment is out of his/her price range. Setting up a model apartment is an important thing to have at a community, but does not need to break the bank in order to be effective. Here are some great ideas for a model apartment that are inexpensive, but will still have your prospects wanting to join your community.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Generation Y

Here is a great slide show about the most populating generation in the United States..Generation Y. Generation Y is made up of those individuals born between 1979 and 1996 and has slowly taken over the apartment renting industry. This is absolutely the generation to familiarize yourself with, because they will makeup a majority of the prospects that you will deal with on a daily basis.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing: Sweat The Small Stuff

I am finding that many communities are experiencing a substantial and unanticipated drop in traffic, which could come as a result of multiple reasons. That, coupled with increased move outs due to econonmy drop-offs/job loss, has resulted in less than desirable occupancy percentages. In addition to increased marketing efforts, it’s important and timely to keep in mind that the little things do count. Rather than gazing out the window and wondering where all the traffic went, and speculating on when it might come back, take action and clean up your act for when it does start rolling in again.
A few suggestions:
• How many times have you pulled into a business thinking you might buy something, and pulled right back out because the place just didn’t look well kept? Do the little things: Clean the windows on your front door. Wash the coffeepot. Clean the golf cart. Have the clubhouse vacuumed daily. Examine your entry mats. Make sure there's no trash around the entrance to the property. Don’t forget the restrooms.
• Visit your competition. Have lunch with a competitor and see what kind of numbers they have been experiencing. Yes, they are your competition, but they are also another link into the traffic market.
• When was the last time your community’s clubhouse and exterior windows were cleaned? If you're still thinking, then it has probably been too long.
• Pay close attention to the your appearance and the appearance of your team. A positive and professional image is a very comforting thing for a prospect to walk into.

Above all, persevere. Weather the storm. Make every contact with prospects and residents count. Look at your community, your team, your competition and decide what you need to do become THE community of choice. Then become that community. Do it just a little better than the rest and trust me, your prospects will definitely notice when they walk through those leasing office doors..

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Making The Investment With Marketing

Marketing is a forever ongoing process that is only as successful as you make it, in terms of constantly distributing materials to spread the word of your businesses name. There's no telling when there will be that one day that you distribute a flyer and that one person that must have an apartment home today comes to your community and leases as a result of the marketing information he/she saw. Jay Conrad Levinson put together a great excerpt explaining the methodology behind the benefits of constantly distributing information:

"1. The first time a man looks at an ad, he doesn't see it.
2. The second time, he doesn't notice it.
3. The third time, he is conscious of its existence.
4. The fourth time, he faintly remembers having seen it.
5. The fifth time, he reads the ad.
6. The sixth time, he turns his nose at it.
7. The seventh time, he reads through it and says, "Oh, brother!"
8. The eigth time, he says, "Here's that confounded thing again!"
9. The ninth time, he wonders whether it amounts to anything.
10. The tenth time, he will ask his neighbor if he has tried it.
11. The eleventh time, he wonders how the advertiser makes it pay.
12. The twelfth time, he thinks it must be a good thing.
13. The thirteenth time, he thinks it might be worth something.
14. The fourteenth time, he remembers that he wanted such a thing for a long time.
15. The fifteenth time, he is tantalized because he cannot afford to buy it.
16. The sixteenth time, he thinks he will buy it someday.
17. The seventeenth time, he makes a memorandum of it.
18. The eighteenth time, he swears at his poverty.
19. The nineteenth time, he counts his money carefully.
20. The twentieth time he sees the ad, he buys the article or instructs his wife to do so."

Keep this in mind everyday you are distributing your marketing materials and keep pounding the pavement!

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Resident Life Transitions

Interesting article that tracks the typical moves correlating with a resident life span.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Acronym To Know-SEM

Per Wikipedia, SEM, or Search Engine Marketing, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of search engine optimization, paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion. SEM is a relatively new concept and will slowly revolutionize the way that searches and marketing go hand-in-hand. Research this new phenomenon and see what you can learn.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Addressing Consumer Opinions

Nowadays, individuals rely heavily upon word of mouth when it comes to making decisions, especially when choosing an apartment home. Never has there been a time when consumer opinion has been see easily accesible as it is today with technology and social media websites. Therefore, it is of upmost importance that employees know what exactly is being said about their companies, in order to educate themselves and be prepared for possible objections brought up as a result of these consumer opinions. This article gives great insight into the benefits of knowing consumer opinions and how effective they can be.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing: Fun Ad For Friday About The Power Of Google

I know I have written a few blogs in regards to Google and the importance of Search Engine Optimization. To reiterate, the closer a company's website is to the top of the Google search list, the more benefecial it is and the more likely an individual is to click on these websites. This video highlights this point to the extreme and will probably make you shake your head and laugh.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!