Writing apartment taglines or headlines isn’t as tough as you might think. All it takes is a touch of creativity and a few tried-and-true guidelines. Work within our handy tips and you’ll be writing memorable taglines and headlines for your community in no time!
Before you dive in, a few things to keep in mind about taglines: Make sure it still communicates clearly and concisely and it stands out. For headlines, the most important role is telling the reader what the content is about—and it should draw them in to read more.
Determine your Headline or Tagline Goal
Are you aiming to educate, solve a problem, enumerate for easy reading, grab attention with your weirdness, or ask a question everyone is asking (and give an answer)? These are different headline types that can amp up your audience’s attention:
- Solve a problem: “How to Hit 100% Lease Up Before Your Doors Ever Open”
- Educate: “How to Manage Your Resident Events Using SignUpNow”
- Make a list: “10 Ways Your Signage Stops Lease Signing”
- Get a little controversial: “The Good Housing Market is Great for Rental Communities”
- Give a “how-the-sausage-is-made” heading: “The Marketing Team: Behind the Scenes”
Each of these serve a distinct purpose, and it will be up to you to determine what will keep your desired audience reading from the title and into the content.
Clever or Clear or Both?
Ever wondered what would happen with your content if your headline was too clever? Get too tricky with your headline, and you could sacrifice the time and energy you put into content that will never be read by your ideal audience. Always make sure your message can come across. Seek to draw in, but also to push forward into the main content.
Figures of Speech in Apartment Taglines and Headlines
Idioms are a fun way to grab attention. Metaphors can help paint a picture. Proverbs can help your reader feel like they’re in the know. Using a catchy figure of speech can enhance your brand message, and inject a dose of personality into your content (see what we did there?) When you do use a fun figure of speech for your apartment marketing tagline, make sure the message is still able to come across!
Tip #1: Alliteration
This is one of our favorite tagline tips. Alliteration is a pattern of speech that uses the same letter or sound at the beginning of two or more words that are close together in a statement or a phrase. Many companies or authors use it to etch a reminder in their consumers’ minds. Think: Mickey Mouse, Coca-Cola, Severus Snape, Gilmore Girls. These are all catchy in their own right, and remarkably easy to remember. Aim for subtle alliteration. More than two words with the same beginning sound in a row, and it becomes silly rather than sleek.
Example: “A Lifestyle for Real Residents Like You”
This tagline example imbues personality and a touch of memorable luxury into the phrase. If you have a phrase you’re already keen on, break open the thesaurus and see what might work instead to amp up your next apartment taglines with alliteration.
Tip #2: Anaphora
Similar to alliteration, anaphora is a language tool that takes it one step farther—it repeats the first word or group of words at the beginning of each phrase. This makes it easy to read, and rolls off the tongue. Apartment taglines and headlines that are easy to read will be even easier to understand and believe. Anaphora is widely used in writing because it stops us in our tracks and makes us pause. “Get busy living, or get busy dying.” “Go big or go home.” “I wish I may, I wish I might…” These are all perfect examples of anaphora. If you can use it well in your apartment marketing headlines, you’ll certainly catch the attention of any reader.
Example: “Live Actively. Live You.”
This tagline example eases into anaphora with a semi-generic phrase, and then drills down into a more call-to-action style statement with “Live You” beckoning the reader/prospective resident to find out more about how they would be able to live their life in their own way. Use anaphora to create opposing thoughts, or to create big picture/small picture ideas for your residents.
Tip #3: Hyperbole
If you don’t follow this tip, everything you do will fail! Just kidding, that’s just hyperbole. Hyperbole (pronounced high-PER-buh-lee) is an exaggerated statement for effect, and isn’t meant to be taken literally. Similarly “I’m starving!” or “My feet are killing me!” or “I’m the king of the world!” are all hyperbole and are just emphasizing a point. Sure, they could have said “I’m hungry” or “My feet hurt” or “I feel successful and super important” but where’s the fun in that? Turn up the passion and bring the point home using hyperbole in some of your next apartment taglines.
Example: “Kitchens that Promote You to Executive Chef”
This example is hyperbole that gives an aspirational call out—haven’t you always wanted a kitchen that has ample countertops and storage, a big, beautiful sink, and a convection oven? It’s a great way to win over those who might be on the fence by showing up in their daydreams. Try it for yourself, and make sure your hyperbole is a positive one.
Tip #4: Personification
Personality and charm go hand-in-hand with this figure of speech. Personification is the art of giving human-like characteristics to non-human or non-living things. Like: “The sunshine dances over the water in the pool, and the shades shimmy in the gentle breeze.” Personification endears specific aspects of your apartment community to your prospective and current residents. It’s fun to create descriptions of your spaces, making it really come alive with hints of personification sprinkled throughout.
Example: “Living Spaces that Hug You Back”
In this apartment marketing tagline, the reader gets to assume what “hugs” mean to them: cozy, soft, inviting, and warm. When you apply that human characteristic to what could be simply “cozy” and “inviting” the personification calls out to the resident to fully engage with the idea more deeply.
Tip #5: Similes
This is a popular one. It’s as easy as pie. Similes compare two different things using “like” or “as”. Can you float like a butterfly and sting like a bee? Probably not—there’s only one Muhammad Ali. But you could certainly brag like The Greatest. When it comes to your apartment community, marketing it with taglines and headlines that offer up similes is going to be your bread and butter. Take the familiar and put it in a new context.
Example: “Do Home Like You’re on Vacation.”
Again, take the familiar and put them side by side in comparison. Your resident knows home. Your resident knows vacation. But a home that’s like being on vacation? Maybe too good to be true—but certainly a claim interesting enough to make it worth taking a tour of the community.
Think outside the Box with New Taglines
Often, coming up with a creative tagline doesn’t have to mean starting from scratch. A few of our favorite methods from POP! By Sam Horn are:
- Contraband – State the opposite of whatever is true / go against the grain: “There’s no Way it’s as Good as it Looks.” -The Other Guys
- OnoNAMEopeia – Think Pop-Tarts or Roomba or Ziploc—the sound and the action go together
- Meaningful Metaphors – Think of ways your community’s qualities can give it meaning to your residents: “Our community opens new doors.” (See our section on Personification)!
Create apartment taglines that bring something new to the table, and watch as residents start lining up. Need help sounding professional – we’ve got you covered. Copywriting is one of our primary services at zipcode creative.
