When it comes to marketing your apartment community, sometimes it helps to get back to basics. You can certainly continue to offer cutting-edge technology and modern options for all your future community residents. However, creating mission, vision and values statements can keep your footing solid even while everything around you changes. These statements create a solid foundation for a better company culture–and when your company culture is positive, that positivity will spread throughout the community!
What are mission, vision and value statements?
First off, what are mission or vision or value statements? Let’s do a quick review.
Mission statement:
This tells the reader your company’s common goal or purpose. Make it definable. Make it something that can be grasped. At its most basic, just ask: Who does what–and why?
Vision statement:
This tells the reader what you hope will happen from your efforts. This is your vision for the future, and it’s where you get to think big!) When your mission is complete–the vision statement is the final result.
Values statement(s):
These are the most basic principles that your business is built on, guiding your employees and defining your brand more clearly for customers (or residents, in your case!)
Why work on your company’s mission statement?
As mentioned above, the statements are primarily for internal use and guidance. By creating a mission statement, a vision statement, and values statement, you give your company the opportunity for guided growth, while keeping a hold of your original purpose.
When your apartment community creates and displays their mission, their vision and their values, they put their heart on display for your potential residents, showing that you are rooted in something good, and you have goals for the future that guide your decision for today! The impact this can have on your company, through your employees and rental rates can’t be underestimated.
How to create your property management company’s mission statement:
However, you can’t just create these statements out of thin air. To do it the right way, there should be some collaboration and time involved. How does a company go about building their mission statement, crafting their vision statement, and aligning their purposes to create a clear idea?
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- Step 1: Brainstorm with your stakeholders. (Do one statement at a time).
- Step 2: Narrow the ideas down.
- Step 3: Create a few sample statements.
- Step 4: Revise. Revise. Revise.
- Step 5: Finalize statement.
- Step 6: Put it out there!
- Step 7: Hold fast to your statements. Stay true to the commitments you’ve made through these statements.
If all of this feels overwhelming for you, count on zipcode creative to take over the process, from beginning brainstorming stages to creating the perfect statements for your apartment community’s brand and marketing.
If you’re still ready to do it yourself, keep these DOs and DON’Ts in mind:
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- DO keep it short and simple. (Makes it memorable!)
- DON’T get long-winded or explain every piece of the statement at length.
- DO keep an open mind.
- DON’T limit yourself. The vision is forward-thinking, the mission is who you are. Be big. Think big.
- DO make it a team effort.
- DON’T create the statements in a vacuum–you’re only one person, part of a larger community, with a breadth of experiences and ideas!
Where To Display Your Mission, Vision, and Values
Now that you have your mission, vision and values statements ready to go, hooray! What’s next, though? This is where they (and you!) get to shine.
Keep your mission and vision within arm’s reach at all times. Place the mission and vision statement on the back of your brochures, near your contact info. This helps “sum up” your company for the reader.
Please note–this doesn’t mean plastering your exact mission or vision phrase all over every piece of marketing collateral or webpage you have. It does mean that it informs the voice of your content, and how you choose what to market. When you have your mission and vision and values statements in place, this allows your marketing to answer the “why” question through everything you create (and it helps you make better business decisions).
For example, if your mission is to “create luxurious homes within a welcoming community”, you’re able to highlight the welcome packages and community events as part of your multifamily community’s culture (it’s written right there in your mission!) You get to use that mission statement to inform what you highlight, what you market, and how you say it.
In addition to placing your statements (whether in full, or in part, or in generalized idea) on your brochures, make sure they appear on your website, on a special page, so that readers can understand the key ideas behind “who you are”. You can even have a header in your website that reads “Who We Are”, with your values written out, plainly for your residents and future residents to read.
Have you ever heard of “mission creep”? At its core, this is when companies begin to (unknowingly or unpurposefully) shift their “why” for doing things–the culture shifts and the mission is no longer applicable. To avoid this, and keep everyone on track with why your multifamily community does what it does, review the mission with your team regularly. Keep it in your email signature. Keep it up in a space where everyone can see it. This will help everyone internalize it, and keep it top of mind while making choices, decisions, or representing your multifamily community in any way!
Keep the Mission Alive Through Resident Testimonials
Want some proof that your mission is alive and well? Ask your residents for testimonials. Use your mission statement to ask. You can say, “How has WildTree Apartments created a luxurious home in a welcoming community for you?” With that prompt, you’ll find whether your mission is being carried out. The proof is always in the pudding.
When you have a handful of positive, specific testimonials that show your mission, place these in your email marketing and on your social media. Sometimes your residents (or future residents) want to hear from people like them–current community members!
The Bottom Line for Mission, Vision and Values:
Mission, vision, and values are mostly for internal purposes, but the end result will be outward-facing, and keep your company on track. A company that knows itself, and creates goals is the kind that residents will be interested in. Why? Because the decisions are informed by solid mission and vision statements (and positive values). You can count on it impacting your apartment marketing for years to come.