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!

CLASS Leasing: Creating A Blog For Your Community

Creating a website can often be very time consuming, as well as extremely expensive for many businesses to produce on their own. Often times an individual must be hired to actually design the page for a company, taking some of the personal touch out of the companies hands. An alternative to getting an expensive website designed is for the company to produce a daily blog.
Blogging is extremely user friendly and best of all, it is absolutely free. There are many benefits to creating a company blog, including: quick and easy; very inexpensive to setup; provides easy access to company news; its search engine friendly; it makes the company appear easily accessible; it allows the company to appear authoratative; its a relationship building opportunity for the company; it allows the company to gain insight to their customers; it's very easy to update and maintain.
Here is the website to get your blog started. In addition, there are many things that you can blog about, especially when it involved talking about apartment related issues/events. There's no right or wrong way to blog, so have fun with it and get to blogging!

Enjoy!