With the beginning of a new year yet again quickly upon us, it is time to start gearing towards the mindset of how 2012 will be different than 2011. How will the apartment industry be different? What marketing will come to fruition as the front-runner in success and what marketing will take to the back burner? These are questions that can only answered a year from now, but here is a great article put together by Jasmine Brooks in Multifamily Insiders that outlines some areas of marketing everyone should be prepared to take advantage of in 2012:
“Hey there, MFI family!
I’ve been thinking about marketing trends that our industry should take advantage of in 2012. Here’s my list. Please share yours!
1. Video tours – Ever consider filming a prospect tour? When you follow-up with the prospect, be sure to send the video also. You will surely give them the most memorable tour. (Be sure to get permission first!)
2. Community marketing video – I’m not talking about the kind of video that apartment advertisers put together for you. Get creative and put together your own video! It doesn’t take a huge budget to create a great video. All you need is a flipcam and iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. (Shout out to the Apple users!)
3. QR Codes – These babies are gaining popularity and you have to know how to use them effectively. Quick reference codes can be used to “unlock” move-in specials or host community contests!
4. ‘+1‘ – Fellow Insider Brent Williams wrote Will the Google +1 Button Amount to Anything? I think it’s safe to say that it’s time for you to add a +1 share button to your communities’ websites! (P.S. If you don’t already Facebook and Twitter share buttons, you’d better get those in a hurry!)
5. Facebook Page – I’m happy to see that many apartment communities are already on Facebook. For those of you who aren’t there - what are you waiting on?! This is simply an extension of your community and if you think your residents aren’t on Facebook, you better think again. P.S. It’s FREE!
6. Twitter – Okay, okay. I realize that if you haven’t put your community on Facebook, you probably aren’t think about Twitter. But I have homework for you: Go to twitter.com, type ‘looking for apartments’ into the search box, press Enter. Come back and tell me what you see.
7. Text Customer Service - Now this is one trend that none of you can deny! Everyone, including your grandmother, is texting these days! It’s time we started communicating the same way! We have to speak our renters’ language! Think about setting up text leasing, text maintenance, text advertising and even ongoing texting for community events and/or courtesy weather updates.
8. Handwritten Thank You Notes – Yep, I realize this is the exact opposite of #7; however, this is a great way to make a lasting impression in a world where everything has gone digital. It’s definitely more personal than e-mail. You can send anyone an e-mail but it takes time and thought to send a handwritten note.
9. Community Application – Better known as an app, you should definitely look into creating one that will allow your residents to pay rent, submit service requests and contact the leasing team right through their phone.
10. Mobile Websites – I just added this one so that I could have a list of 10 items. Your website should already be mobile-optimized by now!
11. Live Chat – Internet has bred a generation of people who need that instant gratification. They want what they want, and they want it now! Prospects want their questions answered now! Satisfy their needs by adding a live chat feature to your website!
Alrighty, that’s all I can think of for today. I will update as I come up with more ideas.
Thanks in advance for sharing!
Jasmine R. Brooks
Marketing & Social Media Specialist
TriBridge Residential
jasmineb@tbrs.com”
Great article Jasmine and I’m looking forward to seeing the success of all of these trends to come!
CLASS Leasing
Friday, September 9, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
CLASS Leasing: Quick Facebook Page Tip
Now that you have created a Facebook page for your apartment community (do so now if you haven't!), the easy part is now complete. The hard part begins now that you have to remain adamant in staying actively involved on the page, or else your Facebook page will become obsolete.
A new twist that you can add to your property page is making a unique title. As opposed to simply titling your page "XYZ Apartments," use the ability to create a title as an opportunity to right away to sell your community. If you're an apartment community that has received accolades as being the best up and coming property in the city, title your page as "(Your Specific City)'s Newest Must-See Apartments." Also, if you are an apartment community that has received an award for being the best of the best, or have a catchy slogan that individuals would associate with your community, then use this as your Facebook page title.
The reason why it is not necessarily a must have to use the property name as your title, unless of course you are trying to build web presence for a community that does not have a community website, is that Facebook users are not necessarily going to search for your community by name. Facebook is a forum whereby people learn of smaller businesses through word of mouth, so once you begin to accumulate "likes" from your residents, their friends on Facebook will see the great material you are posting through the current residents' news feeds. As more and more people see your posts, they will then see that you are a unique page that has more to offer than a typical apartment communities page. You will automatically stand out with your unique title, so choose your wording wisely.
It is important to know that once your community page does reach 100 likes, then your page title is no longer able to be altered. Therefore, think of a creative title that you would want to have forever and can be associated with your property further down the line. If you are an apartment community that has fewer than 100 likes, what could you change your title to in order to distinguish your page?
Enjoy!
CLASS Leasing
A new twist that you can add to your property page is making a unique title. As opposed to simply titling your page "XYZ Apartments," use the ability to create a title as an opportunity to right away to sell your community. If you're an apartment community that has received accolades as being the best up and coming property in the city, title your page as "(Your Specific City)'s Newest Must-See Apartments." Also, if you are an apartment community that has received an award for being the best of the best, or have a catchy slogan that individuals would associate with your community, then use this as your Facebook page title.
The reason why it is not necessarily a must have to use the property name as your title, unless of course you are trying to build web presence for a community that does not have a community website, is that Facebook users are not necessarily going to search for your community by name. Facebook is a forum whereby people learn of smaller businesses through word of mouth, so once you begin to accumulate "likes" from your residents, their friends on Facebook will see the great material you are posting through the current residents' news feeds. As more and more people see your posts, they will then see that you are a unique page that has more to offer than a typical apartment communities page. You will automatically stand out with your unique title, so choose your wording wisely.
It is important to know that once your community page does reach 100 likes, then your page title is no longer able to be altered. Therefore, think of a creative title that you would want to have forever and can be associated with your property further down the line. If you are an apartment community that has fewer than 100 likes, what could you change your title to in order to distinguish your page?
Enjoy!
CLASS Leasing
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
CLASS Leasing: Separate Yourself From The Competition
It is very rare for a prospective resident to call only one apartment community, schedule an appointment, visit that property and move-in after the visit without shopping any other communities. We are a price conscientious society in that every person, regardless of the item looking to be purchased, is going to take the time to insure that they are receiving the best deal available.
Therefore, with a prospect calling so many apartment communities, how do you separate yourself from the competition? The answer to this question may seem like a no brainer, but I guarantee you that if you were to call and shop 10 apartment communities right now, there may only be 1 or 2 max that actually do this on the phone…sell your community. This is not an answer that should come as a surprise, which is why it is always so shocking to hear when a leasing agent does not even provide any details about their community to a prospect on the phone! Without even a minimal amount of information provided about your community, as a prospect, why would I come visit your community? How are you different than the 9 other communities I have called?
With this being said all that is required is two simple things of a leasing agent:
1.Ask the prospect what they are looking for in their new home
2.Sell the features that your community has based upon what the prospect said they were looking for
This is a very straight forward approach and it really is as easy as it sounds to make your community stand out. What do you do if a prospect is looking for things you don’t have at your community? Don’t mention those! Talk about all the other great things you have to offer, because you don’t want any negative items brought up when you are selling your property. If these two simple things are accomplished by a leasing agent, then that person has single handedly gone above and beyond of what any other property that a prospect may have spoken to is probably doing. It really is a small thing to accomplish, so if you want to make your call different than other communities and get prospects interested in seeing what you have to offer, sell your property.
Enjoy!
CLASS Leasing
Therefore, with a prospect calling so many apartment communities, how do you separate yourself from the competition? The answer to this question may seem like a no brainer, but I guarantee you that if you were to call and shop 10 apartment communities right now, there may only be 1 or 2 max that actually do this on the phone…sell your community. This is not an answer that should come as a surprise, which is why it is always so shocking to hear when a leasing agent does not even provide any details about their community to a prospect on the phone! Without even a minimal amount of information provided about your community, as a prospect, why would I come visit your community? How are you different than the 9 other communities I have called?
With this being said all that is required is two simple things of a leasing agent:
1.Ask the prospect what they are looking for in their new home
2.Sell the features that your community has based upon what the prospect said they were looking for
This is a very straight forward approach and it really is as easy as it sounds to make your community stand out. What do you do if a prospect is looking for things you don’t have at your community? Don’t mention those! Talk about all the other great things you have to offer, because you don’t want any negative items brought up when you are selling your property. If these two simple things are accomplished by a leasing agent, then that person has single handedly gone above and beyond of what any other property that a prospect may have spoken to is probably doing. It really is a small thing to accomplish, so if you want to make your call different than other communities and get prospects interested in seeing what you have to offer, sell your property.
Enjoy!
CLASS Leasing
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