Author: Stacey Feeney

Young Professionals – Branding for the Resident Persona

Written by Stacey Feeney on August 30, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding.

A multifamily operator will tell us 9 times out of 10 that their target residents are “young professionals.” What does that terminology mean? How can you brand your community to reach these young professionals?

Start by understanding “young professionals”—their wants, needs, desires, and habits. Typically young professionals are beginning their careers in corporate or technical fields. Knowing who falls into this group can help tailor the community’s brand to speak directly to them, where they are (physically, mentally, psychologically). If a brand doesn’t identify who it’s trying to reach, it doesn’t know what kind of branding one needs to develop to make it be successful.

Targeting specific personas will make your budget and efforts go farther—it’s more efficient to narrow the target and more cost-effective, as well. Let’s look at what “young professional” means and how to determine whether you should build your brand around this specific customer persona.

“Young Professionals”

Who are “young professionals”? What do they do? How do they live? What do they value?

OVERVIEW

Generally speaking, young professionals are defined by their work and by their age. They’re generally college-educated and trained professionals working in either white collar or blue collar industries. Their age can range from about 25-34. The following are other demographics and stats assumed about young professionals, taken from a national average:

Young professional demographics:

$50,000-75,000 annual income
Make up 6% of all households
34% are homeowners
50% have a college degree

Knowing that 34% of young professionals are homeowners can lead you to understand that the remaining approximate two-thirds of this group make up the potential renter pool.

GENERATIONAL CONTEXT

Beyond their work and age, their defined birth year span also plants them pretty squarely within the millennial generation—that’s even more information to draw from.

Millennial statistics:

Born 1981-1996 (28-43 years old in 2024)
Concerned with financial future, even with higher education
Budget priorities:

Rent/Mortgage
Food
Transportation
Basic Expenses
Student Loans

Delay long-term commitments (i.e. marriage; purchasing home)
Use internet 3 hours, 45 minutes/day
Values:

Competitive
Civic-minded
Open-minded
Achievement-oriented

Influences/Shaped by:

Columbine shooting
9/11
Rise of the internet

Communication preferences:

Instant messaging
Texts
Email

Worldview / Seek out:

Challenge
Growth
Development
Fun work-life balance
Change

Are Young Professionals Really Your Target Audience?

Of those 9 times out of 10 our client tells us that their audience is young professionals—how many times is that fully accurate? Neither we nor our client knows until the market is assessed and the target audience is verified. If you don’t do either, you’re wasting time, money, and energy on one group when you should be examining who you really want to reach. Plus, you may need to narrow down your search even further, as “young professionals” is still a large target.

ASSESS YOUR MARKET

Create multifamily customer personas to fully align your brand. By defining the ideal resident profile (IRP) you can create your brand strategy around who is most likely to be the target audience. As an IRP is created, demographics are considered: age, gender, income. Additionally, analyzing your location (who lives and works in the area) will indicate even further information about who may want to live in your community. By understanding local growth patterns, that success can be folded into the community’s success.

VERIFY YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Compare young professional stats against the research stats. Do they line up? If not, young professionals are indeed not the main persona group renting in your market. Match your branding efforts with accurate resident profiles based on actual data and actual research.

ALIGN BRAND WITH IRP

Align the brand with the IRP and see multiple benefits:

Informing brand development – Knowing the values and preferences of the target group isn’t for nothing—they exist to establish a pattern. Slip into the predictable pattern and reach them where they are and where they will be.
Efficiency in targeting – Get your brand in front of those ready to listen (and resonate with brand messaging) and ready to make a rental decision
Cost effectiveness – Stretch your (already stressed) marketing budget further by targeting the right audience instead of wasting ad spend and messaging on those who will never convert to lease-signing residents.

Branding to Reach Young Professionals

If our client was correct, and we find through research and discovery that their target audience is indeed young professionals, then we can work to help create branding to reach young professionals.

BRANDING STRATEGIES

Use the values found in the millennial realm (which overlaps nicely with young professionals) to tailor your brand. Millennials are concerned with money, use the internet a ton, and like challenges, growth, and change. To reach and attract millennials, build a brand strategy that solves their challenges and speaks their language. They’re concerned with housing—make it easier. They’re aware of social issues—create a fundraiser. They’re constantly trying to balance between work and play—emphasize your WFH-friendly community aspects.

Meet them where they are with your marketing efforts: online on websites and social media.

Note: Location will function heavily into this. For a group of communities—do separate research for each location. Where one community may be tailored for young professionals, another may appeal to middle-aged families. That branding and messaging and targeting should look different.

Demographic research and creating an IRP should always come before developing a brand identity and strategy. You’ll spend more time up front determining your best audience, but the efforts will get more dialed in as you go. Target young professionals if that’s your multifamily customer persona. If it’s not, keep up the research to align your brand strategies accordingly.

The Psychology of Perceived Value through Brand Development

Written by Stacey Feeney on August 25, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding, Marketing.

Brand development in the multifamily market is the first step for the attention, engagement, and loyalty of your current residents and prospects. Brand reputation can create demand for units, while brand experience can keep your residents renewing. But can you leverage brand development to raise the rent? How can you help boost your community’s perceived value—through the eyes (and psyche) of your residents? Follow along to see how what residents and prospects believe to be valuable may allow you to boost your rental rates.

And if you think we forgot about our post on what renters really want—and how to provide them affordability, transparency, and excellent service, we didn’t. This is more about creating a brand that highlights the things that renters want, and allows residents to feel they’re spending their money wisely, in the right place.

What’s Customer Perceived Value?

DEFINITION AND FORMULA

Customer Perceived Value (CPV) is a combination of a few things. “Customer” is obvious here. Perception is understanding or impression—in this case, it’s more of an “impression.” Value is the amount something may be worth. That value is often up to opinion. That’s where the customer comes in.

Basically: CPV is how valuable the customer believes a service or product is, based on how closely it meets their own needs or expectations. How much they’re willing to pay is based on how high they place the product or service’s value. This CPV can influence both the pricing and demand for a product or service.

This means—a higher CPV could contribute to higher rent pricing or unit demand or both.

The quick and basic Customer Perceived Value formula:

Perceived Benefit – Perceived Cost = Customer Perceived Value (CPV)

You should always be aiming to provide a positive CPV. This means the benefits should outweigh the costs, always—in the eye of your residents and prospects. (See, math can be kind of fun!) The higher the perceived value, the higher their willingness to pay.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PERCEIVED VALUE

There is a broad spectrum of items that use this perceived value system. It can range from a store-brand, generic can of beans (ooh, $.30 cheaper!) to a full-price Rolex (ah, a symbol of the upper crust life). Both are purchased—likely by different audiences—for different reasons. But the common thread is psychology. What consumers believe. There are generally five factors that influence perceived value, though at varying levels:

Ease of Purchase – How easy is it to buy? Is it one click? That’s appealing. A “Did you forget these items? Add to cart!” prompt will get a lot of consumers, too.
Quick Delivery – Similar to ease of purchase, consumers love to have the items in their hands quickly. Free shipping is great, but same-day delivery? Even better. We value our time more than most other things, so we’re happier if the process is quicker and easier.
Prestige – Limited access and elite status. The feel of exclusivity can make some consumers shell out more money. They want to be seen as successful, and in some cases, must be seen that way in order for their own lives and businesses to continue on the path of success. Optics can mean a lot.
Lower Cost of Ownership – Look how much money you’ll save when you buy in bulk! This can also be true of paying ahead for a subscription. The annual (i.e. “pay for 12 months”) version is almost always higher in value (per month) than the 3- or 6-month subscription.

Friendly Customer Service – Great products with lackluster service are likely to hit a financial wall. If you can’t get a human on the phone to help you troubleshoot your new product, it’s not worth much. Boost the experience and support, boost the value.

Creating a High-Value Perception

If you want to raise the perceived value, you’ll need to:

Lower the perceived cost

Improve / multiply the perceived benefit(s)

Go for the benefit boost.

Based on your audience, those benefits may vary widely, but the more benefits you find to highlight, the clearer that high value will be perceived.

In terms of branding, there are few ways to create a high-value perception of your community:

STORYTELLING

The verbal aspect of your brand is made to highlight what’s different about your property. If you highlight what is rare and exclusive, this equates to the “prestige” principle. If instead you execute competitor research, work with management, and find you can charge lower rents for longer leases, you can utilize the “lower cost of ownership” principle (even though it’s still renting). Put simply: More lease for less per month.

VISUALS

The way your community is presented and its vibe, ambiance, feel (take your pick) can be improved through brand visuals—including your interior design choices. If you can extend your branding visuals from your guidelines through to the textures, patterns, colors, furniture style, and art that graces your community, you can better create an experience. It gives your prospects and residents something more to resonate with and relate too—the ultimate goal in brand development: connection. Think about the glow up of cauliflower (it’s a pizza crust! It’s buffalo wings! It’s rice!) grew because a few companies found a different way to both use it and present it: healthy veggies as the main, unmissable event.

MARKETING TOUCHPOINTS

Your brand’s presence matters. Use social media and build up your online presence to grow your connections and build up a community on social media. Your building is a physical property. Your brand is the values your residents and prospects (and anyone that comes in contact with your community) assign to it through their engagement and experience with it, and your brand is the culture they align with (“they feel how I feel!”)

More Multifamily Property Strategies to Enhance CPV

That’s not all you can do. Multifamily is a different kind of business. It’s where your residents make memories, raise their family, make friends, crush goals, rest, relax, and come home to. It’s worth finding ways to give residents what they really need so they feel they’re getting out (value-wise) what they’re putting in.

SAVE RESIDENTS TIME

Find ways to help your residents save time. Conveniences such as:

A single application for multiple communities (within a brand management family)
Easy online appointment booking for non-emergent maintenance requests
24-hour (or less) email responses

Each of these are surefire ways to keep them feeling like their time is valuable, and your community is helping keep that brand promise.

BALANCE PRICING

Premium prices say, “Exclusive.” Value prices say, “great deal alert!” Understand what your brand is offering and make sure it fits with your brand guidelines.

ESTABLISH REPUTATION

Reviews, testimonials, surveys. Establishing your credibility as a reliable community is a one-way road to brand loyalty. Partnerships and cross-promotions with other businesses that have an excellent reputation will help too (a rising tide lifts all boats). Every positive review and testimonial is one less time your brand has to say “pick us, we’re great!” Let your reputation do the talking for you, through your all-star, five-star-giving residents.

Raise your community’s customer perceived value, and you’ll be able to justify a possible raise in rents. But don’t do it without ensuring your brand is in it for the long haul and if you will commit to delivering on your brand promises. When you know your value, you can tell the story, tailor your marketing, and keep your residents coming back for more.

Multifamily Customer Persona or the Ideal Resident Profile (IRP)

Written by Stacey Feeney on August 20, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding, Marketing. 1 Comment on Multifamily Customer Persona or the Ideal Resident Profile (IRP)

One of the best rules for business: know the customer before marketing the product. Likewise for multifamily communities, you must know your multifamily customer persona. (But we like to call it the Ideal Resident Profile (IRP) in multifamily.)

When you have enough information about who you most want to reach—you can capture their attention, resonate with the audience you need, build a relationship, and retain your current residents through trust and loyalty. Plus: providing what they most want and need is the key to building up your business through brand development and targeted marketing.

What is a Customer Persona or IRP?

DEFINITION

A multifamily customer persona or IRP is a persona or profile of an individual that’s likely to use a specific business. For the multifamily industry, this is an individual who is likely to live in that specific community.

IRP FOR MULTIFAMILY

By taking real data from research, companies create a somewhat fictional profile of a likely customer for their apartment community. In multifamily, this is the IRP—the ideal resident profile. It’s the kind of resident that is most likely to live in your community. Using information based on survey data to inform demographics, as well as psychographic and behavioral tendencies, the full picture of the IRP is formed with details drawn from various sources.

The Research Part of IRPs

All this talk about learning and discovery, and no details—until now. What kind of research is required to create an IRP for apartment communities? Plenty: demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral.

DEMOGRAPHIC

This is generally the most basic info for an area. It includes:

Age
Gender
Income
Occupation
Education level
Family status

There’s more, of course, but each of these items helps you get a clearer picture of your ideal resident. You can understand what they might be willing to spend on rent. You can figure out how many bedrooms they may need. Demographics are the first step in creating a multifamily customer persona series.

GEOGRAPHIC

Next up: geographics. Geographic research tells you things like:

Location preferences
Proximity to workplaces, schools, and neighborhood amenities
Homeownership Rate

Knowing housing information related to geography can help you create another aspect of your IRP. For example, if you see homeownership rates falling in the area, there may be a shift to a bigger market share, with more people seeking communities over single-family homes.

PSYCHOGRAPHIC

Think about where your residents may work. What their hobbies are. Their favorite brands and biggest interests. Generally, look at:

Lifestyle
Values
Interests
Attitudes
Personality

Each of these bits and pieces get you one step closer to understanding their motivations and habits. Are they laid back? Do they like cardio? Do they love plants more than animals? Be the brand that they identify with.

BEHAVIORAL

Buyer behavior is the final missing piece. Knowing their:

Online behavior (meet them where they are)
Renting habits (how long do they stay in one place?)
Decision-making processes (snap decisions or pro/con list?)

Looking at their behavior patterns can help you predict what they’ll do next. Plus, it can help you identify their likely needs and preferences so you can be on the list of solutions they’ll seek out.

ADD LOCATION AND COMPETITOR RESEARCH

All the nuances come to light when you start looking carefully at the location and the competition.

Location Research and Analysis: What is the neighborhood like? Analyze the local market and figure out if public transit is nearby, if local amenities are sufficient, and if the dynamics of the neighborhood are desirable.

Competitor Research and Analysis: Is the competition fierce? Are they all A-class and you’re a B-class? How is your community different? This can help you create your differentiation early on. Look at gaps in service and possible opportunities for you to step in and nab a market share they can’t capture.

Know Your IRP for Brand Development and Marketing

After you know your audience, you can craft your brand strategy and marketing messaging to reach them. Your whole marketing plan can be built around these preferences and behaviors.

BRAND ALIGNMENT

A well-defined IRP makes for clear guidance in brand messaging (and full alignment throughout your brand identity). Because determining the IRP is part of the research and discovery phase of brand strategy and creation of brand guidelines, it’s the ideal building block. Knowing what your future audience loves, wants, needs, along with their personalities, hobbies, and habits can help you hone your messaging and make your brand into something that will resonate with them.

For example, knowing where prospective residents are hanging out and what their hobbies are can help focus marketing and advertising budgets—meet them where they are. It can also help create messaging that will resonate with them.

MARKETING EFFICIENCY

Brand guidelines are built on best practices and market research—of the IRP. Making marketing more efficient is a case of targeting the right audience. Forget “spray and pray”. Plan and aim. Plus, this also means that your advertising and marketing budget can go a little further because campaigns are focused and aligned with your IRP.

IRP Must-Haves

The key components of an IRP for a community should include conclusive details based on the research:

Demographics: Age, gender, income (and more, as detailed as you’d like)

Geographic information: Preferred locations, commuting patterns

Psychographic profile: Lifestyle, values, interests

Behavioral insights: Renting habits, online behavior, buying behavior

Multifamily communities rely on reaching residents. You can’t reach them if you don’t resonate with them. And you can’t create a brand message and marketing strategy for a specific demographic that works if you don’t put in the work ahead of time.

Do the research, create a detailed IRP, and search for experts if you need guidance on your research, analysis, and the branding that comes after it.

Connect Renter Desires to Your Brand

Written by Stacey Feeney on August 5, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding, Marketing, Writing. 1 Comment on Connect Renter Desires to Your Brand

When you know what your residents want, you can focus on giving it to them. When we saw Samantha Skrobot’s Linkedin post on resident survey data, we weren’t necessarily surprised, but we were reminded of how much everyone really hates the term “luxury” and the lease rates that get nudged up just because you slap that word on your website.

Now, we know marketers can’t control rental rates. We can’t improve the quality of construction for our communities. But we can help you get real with residents and offer them brand messaging that more closely aligns with what they want the most.

From Samantha’s survey, residents identified these top items (among a few others):

1) Affordability

2) Service/Features

3) Transparency

Residents often feel like they’re getting a raw deal. They’re paying more year-over-year, with no rewards for paying on time. They’re having to pay extra for their pet. They’re not understanding the tacked-on fees for landscaping. The places they want to live are becoming unaffordable just because of the location, though the apartments are not worth the cost.

Without connecting with your residents, you risk negativity towards the cost of your rent, the lackluster service, the mediocre features, and the lack of transparency in pricing and fee schedules.

Shift up your brand messaging to reveal the heart of your offerings. Your entire brand should bring about a positive experience. This means: delivering on the brand promise, creating community culture (top down!) and investing in a full brand experience—helping put the “negative” things that are out of your control into the broader context of an overall good experience.

Show your resident you know what they want, you have it, and you’re willing to follow through.

Renter Desires Survey Results

Co-founder of Markerheads, a multifamily focused marketing and consulting firm, Samantha Skrobot looks at the intersection of multifamily, tech, and strategy. Turning data and reports into actions multifamily companies can take is her superpower. Recently, Samantha went a little meta with her surveys, turning to residents directly to ask:

“What should apartment community managers at NAA focus on this year?”

Nearly 500 folks responded in the next 48 hours.

And they want (percentages based on number of responses that mentioned these items):

1) Affordability (46%)
2) Product Features (39%)
3) Service (36%)
4) Transparency (15%)

The percentages are based on the number of responses that mentioned these items.

These don’t seem so wild, do they? Almost basic.

Residents want to live near their family or near where they work or go to school without having to pay dearly for it. They want the amenities advertised to work and be functioning. They want their apartments to be in good working order and the phones to be answered at the leasing office when they call. They want to know why the cost of rent went up 10% when inflation only increased 3%.

Reality vs. Renter Desires

COMMON MARKETING MESSAGES

Luxury – We’ve seen it everywhere. “Luxury” in multifamily has gotten tired. So tired. Residents are recognizing that if you put in stainless steel appliances but don’t invest in proper soundproofing, that apartment will never be luxury. You’re reminded that you’re sharing several walls, and possibly a ceiling and floor with multiple other residents.

Prime location – This is apparently the place to be—but is it, if the community is falling apart and poorly maintained? For many of the residents surveyed it doesn’t make sense to charge far more than is feasible in a desirable location if the apartments aren’t nice.

Modern design – “Open concept kitchen with clean lines and modern finishes.” This is down to aesthetics. But truly, the hope for many residents is that their community will have the necessary updates and will be clean and move-in ready with few issues. Having modern design is a plus, but only if it’s well taken care of.

RENTERS ACTUALLY WANT

Affordability – This term has long been avoided by apartment communities. It sounds a bit “come one, come all” but based on the survey, it seems it’s an idea that residents are looking for. They desperately need apartments to be within their budget. (See also: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs with “shelter” taking a top category.) Plus multiple survey takers noted that the rent should reflect the average income of the area.

Features/Services – Residents are consistently hoping that “what they see” is “what they get”. And they’re being disappointed. No one wants carpet. If they’re paying a lot of money, they want high-end appliances. Another item: failed service—no one is picking up the phone at the leasing office, bathrooms are out of service for several days, and management is painting over light switches and electrical outlets.

Transparency – Living expenses are the biggest expense of all—rent, food, medical care. And when hit with an extra $50-200 extra, residents don’t understand and don’t wish to pay it.
Many of those surveyed had something to say about pet rent (get rid of it!), getting charged for non-optional items, not understanding the cost differences from starting a lease late one month instead of early in the next one, plus (and this is a doozy) not getting the security deposit back when they cleaned the apartment according to the lease agreement. Residents want clear answers to where their hard-earned cash is going.

Craft Transparent and Authentic Brand Messaging

WHY TRANSPARENCY AND AUTHENTICITY

It’s what the residents want. They need to know brands mean what they say and they’re doing the right things with their high (and getting higher) rent costs. Part of your brand is your reputation. And if your brand has a reputation of doing a lot of taking and not a lot of giving, you’re going to suffer the consequences of being inauthentic and non-transparent.

ADDRESS RENTER DESIRES THROUGH MESSAGING

Sure, there’s not much marketing can do with construction quality and rent costs (you can certainly make suggestions) but, you can create brand messaging that zeroes in on what your residents want most: the truth

Affordability: Talk about loyalty programs and cost-saving features. Show off your financial incentives and flexible payment plans. Highlight your lower security deposits and clearly outline how residents can get their security deposit back when they move on. If it’s not optional, there shouldn’t be a fee attached.

Features and services: Emphasize the practical aspects of living there. Show off your non-carpeted areas. If you’re charging a premium, list the brand names of your appliances. Highlight your 24-hour maintenance policy. Focus on good reviews that talk about your level of responsiveness.

Transparency: Be clear and honest about your policies and pricing. Have your management and marketing team trained on potential issues. Be straightforward and answer questions coming from prospective residents over the phone or during tours.

Every bit of this is part of your brand. Your reputation, the reviews, how your staff handles requests and questions—and highlighting the items your prospects and current residents care about most.

Practical Tips for Multifamily Marketers

What can you do right now to stay relevant for your residents? A couple things:

Surveys. On the reg. Without knowing what your prospects and residents want from you, you can’t give it to them. (Know their problems, be their solution.)
Ensure your brand voice can actually connect authentically with your residents—get on their level.
Use every channel you can (social, email, community events) to reinforce your brand culture, outlining the ways you have what they want—affordability, transparency, and excellent service.
Don’t exaggerate your offerings. Stop claiming luxury to charge more and be realistic with what you have. Consider upleveling with your branded amenities instead to prove your value. Transparency is key!

Bring your brand around to align with resident preferences. When you know your ideal resident, you’ve done the research, you’ve surveyed a group, and you settle into what they want most, position your community as the best possible solution—whether it’s because of your affordability, your features, or your honesty/transparency. Possibly because of all three.

Big thanks to Samantha Skrobot at Markerheads for inspiring this post. Your data wizardry is a testament to what we could be aiming for at all times in multifamily.

Apartment Branding: Beyond the Obvious

Written by Stacey Feeney on July 29, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding.

Apartment branding should go beyond the obvious. When we say “obvious” we’re talking: logo, visual identity, and verbal identity. We talk about those things a lot. They’re essential. Developing those primary three branding components are the foundation for everything else, informing visuals and messaging. However, going farther and deeper into beyond the basics, you’ll be doing two important things:
1) Doing your brand justice; and

2) Beating out your competition

Solidify your apartment community’s essential brand elements (the obvious)—and then start branding beyond.

Brand Essentials

What are those essential brand elements? Your logo. Your visual identity. Your verbal identity. They make up the primary three things that every brand should have. Let’s look through what they are exactly, and what their roles are for your community’s brand.

Logo – Apartment logo design is a quick way to represent your brand through an identifiable design, sometimes with imagery or symbolism, as well. It’s meant to show people who you are and what you do, through your name and the details around it in your logo.

Visual Identity – This is the essence of who you are, based on who you want to attract. Visual elements of your brand identity include your logo, your style/vibe, and your imagery. It’s meant to grab attention, create connection, and foster recognition.

Verbal Identity – Your apartment brand’s verbal identity is your brand, put into words. Starting with your mission, vision, and values, it contains your soul. Plus, knowing your brand identity and personality (through your brand voice) can help you tailor your messaging to represent your brand best, especially in terms of what will appeal to your Ideal Resident Profile (IRP). The role of your verbal identity: Brand consistency and relatability through all your content and messaging.

Secondary Brand Elements

All that messaging with your verbal identity is going somewhere. This brings us to the second layer of brand elements—using your voice and visuals in marketing channels.

Digital Marketing – Grab attention and craft your best selling points with your website, ads, social media, and email marketing. Expanding your brand to the internet is a must for visibility. And it should all look and sound like you.

Print Collateral – Make it pop and get to the point with print collateral. If it doesn’t look and sound like your brand, your mailers might get mistaken for another community and get tossed.

Signage – Bring your brand all the way through to the signage you place around your community—even before you open. Keep colors, fonts and imagery consistent to start your brand recognition early on.

MESSAGING ALIGNMENT

Every place you write words for your community, and every place your logo and imagery show up should look and sound like an extension of your existing brand guidelines—not like version 2.0.

Go Beyond with Apartment Branding

Now that we’ve clarified the basic elements of your brand, you need to look further afield. Go deeper, go wider, and brand everything you can. Does this mean putting your logo on everything? No. It’s creating continuity, from your walls to your hallways to your artwork to your furniture, everything just fits.

But where should you look?

PHYSICAL SPACES

As we touched on above, the community’s physical spaces are the perfect opportunity to expand the brand experience. It’s visual, tactile, and covers many of the five senses. Common area amenities, the leasing office and model units should be aligned with the brand. Have you noticed the color consistency in over-the-counter and prescription drug commercials? Prilosec OTC = Purple. Naturemade = Yellow. Mucinex = Green. They know that when their buyer goes to the store, they’ll see that color, and associate it with the commercial touting the benefits.

Community spaces can accomplish the same subscious brand recognition associations too. Your interior design details can bring in paint colors from your brand color palette. Your furniture styles can reflect your visual aesthetic. The artwork can show off the brand’s inspiration. Plus, the textures and finishes chosen for the spaces can boost or blah your brand—don’t skip out on the details.

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RESIDENT AND PROSPECT EVENTS

All across the resident journey, branding can align events and experiences from tours all the way to renewal. Each moment in this journey should SCREAM your brand, from visuals and verbals to experience. Consistency leads to trust. Which leads to loyalty.

Tour – Your brand should show up as a perfectly color coordinated info packet, with a tour guide that’s totally bought into the culture of your community (more on that in the next section). The model unit you see should use inspiration from your brand colors and your brand style to drive the point home. Maybe there’s a branded key redeemable for a caffeinated beverage in the clubhouse kitchen!

Move-in – The brand has set the foundation, and residents have signed the lease. Now, at move-in, hand them a welcome packet with information on events coming up, and applicable community involvement. You can also provide reminders of amenities (that you’ve branded to match up with your IRP’s wants and needs) and give them a nice move-in gift that falls within your color palette and has a logo on it. (Branded stationery with a handwritten note also has a good place here.)

Occupancy – Keep a good thing going. While your resident lives there, be sure to continue branding everything that the resident receives. This includes regular newsletters and updates, maintenance cards (“Maintenance was here”) and keeping signage updated. Social media channels should also stay in line with your brand so residents feel everything is in order. (Also beneficial for the on-looking prospect.)

Renewal – Well, before the resident renews, send off a campaign that coincides with their lease being up for renewal. Remind them of the reasons they came in the first place. And then: All that hard work paid off. They’re sticking around. This is a great time for a thank you note and a renewal gift. Keep them branded and ensure that you reach out for a quick testimonial to find out more about the reasons for their renewal. Determining your year-over-year success will rely on surveys and feedback to measure your mastery of your brand.

STAFF AND COMPANY CULTURE

The company culture and the way the staff interacts with each other and with prospects and residents speaks volumes about your community. Ensure it’s all on-brand by using helpful training and setting the culture from the top.

Training – It’s not always easy to get everyone in line. Training helps to answer the questions of “why this and not that” so your staff can understand the rationale behind decisions. Plus, providing them with the brand guidelines and brand personality can give them insight into the ideal customer service interaction. Give examples, and train them well (and regularly). They’re the brand in human form. Negativity and poor service can plummet your brand perception.

Brand Culture Mindset – Once your staff understands and buys into the “why” behind the brand, it will be easier for them to capture the culture with their mindset and attitudes. Their behavior and treatment of prospects, and residents should fully reflect the brand culture you’ve envisioned. If the staff’s happy, they’ll make everything a little better for the resident, too. (Think: happy wife, happy life.)

Corporate Influence – Sometimes the brand culture needs to be set from the top and trickle down. If each property has its own brand identity, that will need to be set by management. Lead by example, 100% police brand implementation, and set the tone for culture you want to see embodied.

Get beyond the obvious with your brand. Go where no other community has gone before—and create a holistic experience with your apartment branding.

Branded Amenities Will Differentiate and Drive Leases

Written by Stacey Feeney on July 21, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding.

Residents are interested in a community because of its location, but also because of what it offers. Does it have what they need? Does it have what they want? Amenities can be part of your brand strategy to achieve better occupancy rates and less turnover. But you need to figure out how to “uplevel” your amenities—they might be common, but the way you talk about them and tailor them to your ideal resident can make all the difference. It differentiates your community and it becomes a selling point for the folks you want to reach most.

Understanding Your Ideal Resident Profile (IRP)

IDENTIFY YOUR IRP

When you know your target, it’s easier to aim. Define your ideal resident profile. Learn what they want and need most. What are their goals and hopes and dreams? Do market research to segment who you want to target so you can create a brand that appeals to them—visually and verbally AND even in your amenity spaces.

FOCUS ON THE IMPORTANT THINGS

When you know what makes your IRP click, you can speak straight to their heart. Strategic branding can make your amenities appeal to them and what they want most from living in a community.

Example: To a dog mom, her “fur baby” is everything. That means amenities for the pet should be included and marketed to appeal to her. Think: an onsite dog park, a pet spa, and fun pet-themed events.

Upleveling Common Amenities

Many communities can look the same on the outside and in the description. Pool, dog park, clubhouse, community events. To differentiate from your competition, you have to go above and beyond—with the things that you know will resonate with your IRP (see above).

PET-FRIENDLY FEATURES

Again, you’re not going to stand out if you’re simply pet-friendly. That could be anyone up and down the block. Work on being pet-WELCOMING!

Current standard: Allows Pets.

Uplevel strategy: Celebrate Pets!

You could be the place for the people with pets. This means you have:

Dedicated pet parks, maybe with agility equipment
Pet grooming areas or stations
Pet events in the community (competitions or “Sit and Stay with Santa”)
Pet welcome kits for new residents (a little treat and a branded mini towel to clean messy paws)

As far as pet-friendliness, you might also consider upping the game in your pet park—add some fun human connection elements, like a fire pit, for owners to socialize around while their pups play.

CLUBHOUSE ENHANCEMENTS

If your IRP is all about finding and entertaining friends, work on upleveling your clubhouse. Any community could have a clubhouse. But it might not be up to the level you’re going to bring.

Current standard: Common clubhouse.

Uplevel strategy: Unique, reservable clubhouse or pool area experiences!

You can set up community events, of course, but you can also allow residents to “take over” the clubhouse for a fun event of their own. Consider the following options:

Reservable time slots for private events or parties in the clubhouse kitchen or pool area.
Branded pool towels for use or as move-in gifts
Stocked coffee bar and snacks in the clubhouse kitchen

Whatever you do, up the ante. Your typical amenities don’t have to be typical!

Brand Experiences in Amenity Spaces

Your amenities may be typical, but many communities forget about how their residents experience the brand through their amenities—more specifically, through the amenity spaces. If your community brand is known for being higher-end, give out branded pool towels as move-in gifts—residents can use them over and over and may be more likely to head to the pool to enjoy a refreshing swim.

Another item that can be overlooked: Putting random mugs in the clubhouse coffee area. If you have a single-serve coffee machine, or you offer special syrups and milks to add to residents’ free coffee, add branded mugs and cups. It’s easy to get closer to brand loyalty when you have solid brand recognition.

You should be designing your spaces to be on-brand. Your wall murals, accent pillows, furniture styles, plants, all of it should say Your Brand. Every space deserves to be (and should be) branded. It’s part of your community.

Telling the Story of Your Brand Differentiators

BRAND DEVELOPMENT AND STRATEGY

Your amenities may be good—but they could be great with the right strategy. Your brand should always extend to every area of your community, including how you tell the story of your amenities.

This means: You should stay consistent in your messaging. Consider naming your amenities within a framework that makes sense in the context of your overall brand. If your brand is playful, so too should your amenity names. If your brand sounds serious and business-like, extend that brand personality in how you write about your amenities. The visual storytelling you do, too, should represent your brand in all aspects. If your photos are dark and romantic, your amenity images should be “filtered” through that same idea. Your community events, too, should also be selected and themed to fit in with your overall brand development.

MARKET YOUR AMENITIES

Own your amenities. And market them well. When your amenities are well-branded, there’s a sense of pride: “Look what we have! Isn’t it awesome?” Your excitement and celebration can be contagious. And it should be in multiple other places beyond your tour: Campaigns, email marketing, social media. With your IRP in mind, focus your time on marketing the top amenity that’s most desired by them. Not sure which one? Start surveying them to find out current residents’ top reasons for coming and staying.

If you want your community’s brand to stand out, include your amenities. Even if you think your amenities are pretty typical, you can use your brand to help them stand out. By putting in that extra effort and tailoring your amenities and offerings to your ideal residents, you can attract who you want with amenities you already have. Just get strategic and brand everything.

Measuring Brand Value & the ROI of Branding in Multifamily

Written by Stacey Feeney on July 16, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding.

The value of branding in multifamily can feel intrinsic—and intangible. But if you could determine the ROI of your branding, you’d see just how valuable the existence of, the quality of, and the consistency of brand is for a multifamily community.

But how can you measure the way people feel? What numbers can you apply to “they really get me, and I’m telling all my friends”? Well, take branding vs. marketing. Yes, marketing is so much easier to measure your ROI. You spend a certain amount on ads, and then you’re able to see how many of your leases signed stemmed from those ads. Clear returns. Branding just isn’t as clear. But it’s just as valuable, if not more.

Let’s walk through the value of branding and how to determine your ROI for branding by recognizing the components that create the value of your apartment or multifamily brand.

Brand Value for Multifamily

For multifamily properties, brand value is the value placed on the relationship you’ve built with your residents, employees, partners, and prospects. Your consistent branding helps underscore subconscious recognition and trust. A strong brand can attract (we’re worth it) and retain (we’re still worth it) the right residents.

Basically: When your branding is well developed, well received, AND consistent, your prospects are more likely to accept your pricing (a willingness to pay a premium for a home that best resonates with their values) and your residents more likely to renew their lease year over year– because they see the value.

Components of Brand Value

But what makes up brand value for apartments? Generally four things:

Brand Awareness
Brand Loyalty
Perceived Quality
Brand Association

For fun, let’s pretend that Brand Value must = 4. And to have that point amount, you must achieve each of these components for brand value:

BRAND AWARENESS

Is your community being spoken of and referenced on social and around town? If you have brand awareness in your market, that’s a point.

BRAND LOYALTY

If you have residents renewing lease after lease and telling their friends, that’s brand loyalty. Having higher retention rates and getting referrals is an excellent sign of brand loyalty. Point for you.

PERCEIVED QUALITY

When surveyed, do you residents perceive the amenities and quality of features to be fair according to your prices? If yes, that’s another point.

BRAND ASSOCIATION

Like word association, but not quite. If brand awareness is word-of-mouth, brand association is what they’re saying. What do your residents and prospects think of when they hear your brand name? Do they have a split-second, subconscious positive reaction? That’s a good brand association. POINT!

Measuring Brand Value in Multifamily

Now, we measured that, but there’s a lot more to it than a pass/fail grade (point or no point). It comes down to actually measuring the quality and quantity of each of these aspects.

METRICS

Qualitative metrics will help you determine if your brand is perceived through customer satisfaction. This can be determined through resident feedback, general social media sentiment (good comments vs. bad ones) and reviews on Google, on facebook, and anywhere else you’re collecting reviews.

Quantitative metrics will help you see what impact your brand value is having on your bottom line. It’s a little closer to seeing how your overall brand is performing in “the real world”. Looking at occupancy rates, renewal rates, rental rate increases, and lead conversion rates can help you see whether your brand is getting it done.

BRAND EQUITY MODELS

There were two brand equity models we looked at to get a little inspo for this post: Keller’s Brand Equity Model and Aaker’s Brand Equity Model.

KELLER MODEL
The Keller model is a pyramid that’s based on customers. By basing your brand equity on residents, you’ll be closer to knowing what they want and need, possibly before they ever engage. Plus, each piece of the pyramid is built one on the other. At the foundation: brand identity. Then brand meaning, brand response, and brand resonance. Each of these are based more on emotions and feelings, so the best way to determine your standing is through feedback, reviews, and surveys. When you’ve built the “top” of the pyramid, you want to stay there by continuing a positive relationship with your residents—so they can keep feeling good about staying with your apartment community.

AAKER MODEL
Your brand strategy if you use the Aaker brand equity model is more about recognition, at the subconscious level. By being able to differentiate your offer and set your value provided apart from your competition, you have better brand equity. Your residents will have brand awareness, brand association, and become brand loyal. Which is a great strategy for nurturing residents that renew. As far as measurement goes, you can measure just about anything. Look at your year-over-year results and compare where your customers are, and how they’ve grown. One of the best ways is asking “Would you recommend us to family or friends?” Just using that question along with a comment box can give you vital insight that’s both measurable and actionable.

MEASURING BRANDING ROI

But again, how can all of this be measured? You must think in terms of linking your brand value to how your community is performing financially. It’s quality that rolls into quantity. If you’re seeing:

Increasing occupancy rates thanks to differentiation from your comps through strategic branding
Ability to charge higher rental rates thanks to a higher perceived brand value
Reduced marketing costs thanks to strong brand loyalty, resulting in renewals, and word-of-mouth/referrals

Plus, using analytics and KPIs to see how your brand is performing, you might see a positive performance align with events or campaigns you put together. Consistently keep an eye on how your brand is doing regularly. For example, both brand recognition and brand loyalty can each contribute a 2% increase in yearly revenue, according to Tudor Consulting.

Enhancing Brand Value

If you’re wondering how on earth your apartment community is going to get there, start at the beginning.

Ensure you have a viable brand identity. And then you can take it from there.

SMART AND STRATEGIC BRAND DEVELOPMENT

When you start strong with the right brand elements, your brand will be solid as a rock. You’ll have the guidebook to decisions and know which direction to go. This includes your logo, visual identity, and brand voice. Every bit of your brand guidelines should be informed by research and strategy after you’ve determined your target resident.

CONSISTENT BRANDING

When you’ve got your brand guidelines all set up, it will be a lot easier to keep your branding consistent. When you’re consistent, that leads to recognition and trust. Every touchpoint should be consistent: website, social media, email marketing, and printed marketing materials. (This includes your brand voice, too.)

RESIDENT EXPERIENCE

Check in with your residents. Go above and beyond. PLUS: When your brand is valued by the employees, they’re more likely to go above and beyond for your residents as well. That equates to better customer service, i.e. an improved resident experience. Be open to feedback and learn from (and fix!) the negatives.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Are you getting the pulse on how the broader neighborhood views your brand? If they don’t know who you are, that might be a problem. Start getting involved in the community. Do fundraisers and partner with local shops to increase visibility and improve your overall brand appearance. Whatever you’re doing, make sure it’s authentic.

Solid brand development and implementation strategies are more valuable today in multifamily than we’ve ever seen historically—and while it can be difficult to measure, outside industries who have long invested in their brands prove without a doubt that brand absolutely proves a worthwhile ROI.

Brand Centralization for Consistency and Recognition

Written by Stacey Feeney on July 8, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding.

Multifamily operations have been headed toward centralization for a while now, if they’re not already there. Centralization is a way to improve efficiencies and streamline operations. While not every definition of centralization in multifamily is the same, think of it this way: Centralization generally places what is scattered in operations and puts it in one location. Sometimes it’s data. Sometimes it’s minimizing on-site staff and keeping customer service, including maintenance, in one place for multiple properties. (We can talk pros and cons another time.)

Whichever way the cookie crumbles for centralization, branding shouldn’t be left to chance. With brand centralization, you’ll help improve the consistency you’re aiming for when you centralized your staff and data. You’ll also gain brand recognition by keeping your branding streamlined and consistent.

Benefits of Brand Centralization

EFFICIENCY AND COST-EFFECTIVENESS

Have you ever opened up a Word doc, worked on a piece for a while, and then your computer crashed? Maybe your computer saved it, maybe not. You’ll probably have to start over.

If you don’t have a consistent brand centralization plan for your properties, chances are you’re starting from scratch if you add a new asset. It shouldn’t be that way. It should be easy, and clear as a bell what your next step should be if you need to create a brochure for the latest addition. That’s efficiency. And by saving time, and not starting from scratch, you’re using fewer man hours. That’s cost-effectiveness.

BRAND RECOGNITION

A consistent brand presence can create buzz. It can improve brand recognition. It can help set you apart from the competition. When there are a lot of multifamily communities to compete with, making sure that you’re set apart can help put you way ahead.

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

Not everyone on your team may be gung-ho about the changes you’re making to get your brand on track. Your leasing teams or if you still have on-site staff may think it takes too much time. Ensure that you quash this resistance by giving sufficient training and help them understand the why behind your branding consistency.

Basically: consistency through branding centralization means better outcomes for your business.

Strategic Branding

WHY IT’S ESSENTIAL

Having a brand strategy can help everything fall into place a little easier. You’ll get consistency, clarity, and a streamlined way to bring your idea to your residents and deliver what you portray. Being thoughtful and thorough from the start can help you settle into your branding more quickly, and gain brand recognition more quickly, as well.

VALUE OF IN-DEPTH BRAND DEVELOPMENT

If you have multiple locations, and you’re working towards consistency and efficiency, centralizing your brand along with it will require comprehensive brand development. This means your name, your logo, your visual identity and your brand voice are all outlined and complete with clear examples. Using your branding guidelines to connect with your residents and prospects is getting to their hearts, going for human-level interaction, which is something your brand might have lost in the centralization process.

Note: If you have portfolio-level branded communities, think of how you can best keep the brands in one family, under one large branding scheme. Ensure they work together.

Steps for Brand Centralization

How do you centralize your brand? Centralizing your multifamily marketing, staff, and data was tricky enough—but how do you get your brand to be consistent across every channel? Three (relatively) simple steps:

STEP 1: COLLECT AND ORGANIZE BRAND ASSETS

There are a lot of pieces to your brand. Take your brand guidelines and assets and make them available to those who need them. Place them in shared folders, and ensure the creative agency you’re working for has supplied every asset that you’ll need. This includes:

Brand visual guidelines and examples
Brand voice guidelines and examples
Logo files
Font files
Color palette (with codes!)
Stock Images
Design Elements (like patterns or textures)
Professional Photography
Floor Plans
Sitemap

STEP 2: DESIGNATE A BRAND AMBASSADOR

A brand ambassador is someone who oversees full brand implementation. Generally, a marketing manager should have this duty. They’ll need to police it, and make sure the branding is consistent. That way, anytime an item (like a giveaway or a set of envelopes) is ordered, they can ensure it has the right colors, the right logo, and follows the guidelines that have been carefully crafted, and must be protected. In order to more easily maintain branding consistency, it’s worth training teams to understand what is the brand (and what isn’t). Anytime you can get more employees in the know about your branding identity, the easier it will be to keep it consistent.

STEP 3: GIVE YOUR TEAM THE TOOLS

Once your team has been trained in understanding the brand guidelines, give them the tools for branding centralization. Think about using Canva’s Brand Kit and getting starter templates made so you can guide your team members who may not be designers. Even at the property level, it’s vital to keep your brand cohesive.

Brand Consistency Everywhere

Sometimes you may have a little less control over your branding in the process of managing your properties. In the case of using external partners, share crystal-clear guidelines.

EXTERNAL PARTNERS

It’s likely that at some point, you’ll be dealing with third parties using your brand. This could include ordering swag or promotional items from printers. It could be the local city council. It could be a local partnership with a non-profit or coffee shop nearby. It might be with event planners, too. Each of these external partners should have a version of the logo that will work, and should have access to how to use it. More importantly, these third parties should understand how your brand must look (the brand style) when all the elements are brought together.

PROVIDE CLEAR GUIDELINES

Give these external partners the information they’ll need to know exactly how much space to leave around your logo. Provide your brand guidelines in full. However, even with full brand guidelines, they may still have questions. At that point, it’s really helpful to have your brand ambassador be the point of contact for any brand-related inquiries.

Balancing Brand Voice and SEO Writing in Multifamily

Written by Stacey Feeney on July 1, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding, Writing.

Writing for Brand Voice vs. SEO

Marketing your multifamily community means you have to pay attention to your writing from every angle. It has to sell and convince—but first it has to be found. SEO gets your audience to your website (from those magical Google results). Brand voice captures them and convinces them.

Branding is the heart and soul of your brand. If you’re consistent and clear on what your brand is, it will allow your ideal residents and prospects to resonate with you as a brand. Brand recognition and brand loyalty is tied up in branding—and using brand voice for apartments ensures your words align with every other part of your brand.

In order to achieve both website traffic and conversions (along with brand loyalty) you’ll need to find a way to create truly effective content by balancing SEO and brand voice in your multifamily writing.

Understanding Brand Voice & Tone

BRAND VOICE

Brand voice is your brand, put into words. You relay your core, the foundations of your brand. It’s who you are, what you do, what you believe, what you value, and what you bring to the table. Your soul comes through with your mission, vision and values.

With your brand personality, you can infuse your brand voice with the right words—if you’re traditional, formal, and elegant, it’s unlikely that you’d use a fragment rather than a full sentence.

BRAND TONE

Brand tone is the way you say it. Your words will be different depending on whether you’re writing a blog post about an upcoming event or writing a letter, welcoming your newest resident. One will be longer, and one may be slightly more casual. You’d also shift your tone if you were responding to a review—an apologetic and straightforward tone would work better there.

Both of these sets of writing are vital to multifamily to be able to engage authentically with your residents and prospects and keep the branding experience consistent. Build trust, build engagement, build your “fan base,” and see more loyal residents.

The Role of SEO in Website Copy

SEO, or search engine optimization, is tailoring your online presence—usually your website—to show up for more people searching for you (or for keywords related to your business). If you want to be a competitor in a crowded market, or boost your marketing with your website, focusing on SEO should be part of your regular to-do list. Writing website copy with a focus on SEO can help put you in front of the clients you want most.

SUCCESSFUL SEO FOR MULTIFAMILY

If you want SEO to work well for your multifamily website, focus on the following:

Keyword research: Understand what terms you could reasonably rank for
Focused content: Write content around the keywords you want to rank for and shift your headings and subheadings to include those keywords
Use links—both internal and external—to help boost your visibility and helpfulness

Remember: The Google algorithm is always changing. But it’s most focused on helpfulness and accuracy. Whatever is relevant and authoritative will win out.

Differences Between Brand Voice and SEO Writing

BRAND VOICE VS. SEO WRITING

The approach to both is different. The style is different. The objectives are somewhat shared. One is more about branding (who you are) and the other is more about marketing (how you reach your audience). So essentially brand voice vs. SEO writing is a new version of branding vs. marketing. Both necessary, both good.

Brand voice writing…

Is approached with the goal of communicating an idea and is formed with the brand personality and audience at the forefront.
Is more creative in style, and less information-based
seeks to portray the brand fully through words and connect with the reader

SEO writing

Is approached by taking content topics and keyword research to create content that will reach the audience through search
Style is informative, addressing one specific topic
Seeks to increase visibility through higher search ranking

Balancing SEO and brand voice is vital to reaching your audience and communicating your brand’s values. (You can’t connect with someone who can’t find your website.)

CHALLENGES

Balancing the two types of writing can be a challenge.

Weak brand voice.
If your brand voice isn’t strong enough, it can be totally overcome by SEO writing that’s technical and helpful, but doesn’t necessarily sound like you. Might even sound like a robot (*cough* AI *cough*) and if it’s boring, they’re not gonna keep reading.

Not knowing your audience.
If you don’t know your audience (and haven’t done your research) you’ll be writing to…exactly who? Everyone? Probably no one. By recognizing your audience, you can address their pain points and write content that actually applies to them. Do the research and make content they’ll connect with.

Low-quality content.

Again, write helpful content that’s infused with your brand voice—so it’s recognizable as your brand, and it’s helpful to your audience. If you’re just writing blog posts to fulfill a keyword, it shouldn’t be obvious. It should still be helpful. Start with pain points, then move to topics, then work on long-tail keywords. (Plus, low-quality content will get dinged by Google anyway.)

When to Prioritize Brand Voice or SEO

CONTENT FOR BRAND VOICE

Brand voice should be the priority when you’re working on copywriting. Think: ads (physical and digital) email newsletters (“Hey, it’s me again!”) and social media posts where you’re directly engaging with followers.

You can still maintain SEO-friendliness while focusing on brand voice. Keep your audience in mind—and be helpful with information that still sounds like your brand.

CONTENT FOR SEO

SEO is technical. Longer form content, like blogs and website copy (and especially landing pages) should focus on SEO. It allows for long-tail keywords to be used in context.

Likewise, you can still manage to communicate using your brand voice even while you have SEO-focused content. After you have the keywords where you want, go line by line and make sure everything you’ve written still communicates your brand’s personality through words.

When you write a first draft of anything, go through it with a focus on either one, but keep both in mind. You don’t want to alienate your customers with a landing page that doesn’t sound anything like your brand or an ad that isn’t particularly engaging. What we’re saying is…Both! Do both!

Balancing brand voice and SEO is no small feat. Most companies have a hard time doing either one. Look at your current strategies. See where your SEO is getting you. Start measuring your results after you develop an SEO strategy, as well as a strong brand identity, including brand voice. Make adjustments to your current copy and create a guide for your content going forward.

The digital market is always changing—and you’ll need to change with it. Be visible with SEO and connect with customers using your one and only brand voice.

Apartment Photography Checklist Optimized for Marketing

Written by Stacey Feeney on June 20, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

You know the whole “golden hour” perfect lighting part of the day? Well, the summer months are the “golden hour” season of the year—the time when everything looks a little better, a little dreamier. Use our property photography checklist to get the best photography of your communities, optimized for marketing.

The goal is always to lease-up your community. Well, having a collection of beautiful photos (the best possible ones) will make marketing’s job way easier.

Property Photoshoot Prep Checklist

You’ll want to check off every one of these property photoshoot checklist items before your photographer arrives (not while they’re trying to capture the perfect shot). You’ll both save time and headaches if you prepare ahead of time:

Quality Property Photography’s Important

LONG SHELF LIFE

When you invest in high-quality images, you’re not throwing money down the drain. By choosing the proper season (summer) and preparing in advance (with our checklist) you’ll be that much closer to taking photos that will stay useful in your marketing for a good, long while. Since the gallery is one of the most viewed pages on your website, having a great photo of your clubhouse or pool creates a longer lasting impression than any amenities list ever could. (Think of it this way: Would you rather see a photo of a pool with all the umbrellas and chaises around it, or would you rather read “large pool” in the list of amenities?)

BUILD THE BRAND

Quality apartment photography captures beautiful images—but also so much more: the lifestyle and the experience your property offers. Your space is unique, your ambiance is different, and your community isn’t the same, according to your brand. And your photos should reflect that. When you show off beautiful, well-composed photos that work within your brand guidelines, you set yourself apart. Images, or rather, photos, evoke emotion, tell your brand story, and lead to a more consistent brand image. Bottom line: Investing in quality property photos shows your prospects that you’re invested in your brand, and likewise: in them.

Apartment Photography Shot List Checklist

Capture multiple angles of the property for each of these areas in both wide/overview shots as well as tighter details when worthy.

*Adjust this apartment photography shot list checklist to the specific spaces your community has to offer. Add or remove amenities as needed.

Get the Details

While you have a photographer there, take a closer look. By adding detail shots to your list (more interesting angles, photos of people at the clubhouse, closeups of feet in a pool, someone cooking dinner in their unit) you can create an unstoppable lifestyle image library that NO one else will have. And the photos will be authentic because they’re actually part of your community. Provide your photographer with your apartment brand guidelines so they know what kind of vibe and ambiance they should be looking for and helping capture.

When you get the photos back, you can use them to enhance your brand and make completely unique visuals for any number of your marketing materials.

The heart of summer is a lovely time to refresh your property photos, and it’s our favorite for when plants look their best. (But your brand may be an “autumn”—so you do you.) Follow our checklist, invest in high-quality, professional photography, and bump up the appeal of your property to your prospects (and likely your current residents, too). Your marketing efforts are about to get an extra shot of sunshine.

Branding Multifamily Value-Add Communities

Written by Stacey Feeney on June 17, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding.

New “luxury” style communities are coming into the market at break-neck pace. As they dominate the market, older multifamily communities are struggling to keep up and compete with their newer, more modern counterparts.

Even if your older communities aren’t the newest or the nicest on the block, you can leverage their unique strengths and employ smart marketing strategies to stand out as you figure out your best methods for branding multifamily value-add communities..

Spotlight Your Community’s Strengths

LUXURY IS OVER THE TOP

New “luxury” communities are pushing their neighbors to the limit. Offering unheard-of amenities that go a little farther than necessary: golf simulators, pickleball courts, speakeasy bars. Things that residents don’t necessarily need—but could be attracted by. There are a lot of “it’s like vacation, every day!” style places that may be going overboard, because they feel the need to have all the bells and whistles to snag their residents.

ADVANTAGES OF OLDER COMMUNITIES

Just because the modern competition is bringing some wild apartment amenities to the table doesn’t mean you give up. As an older community, you’re established. You (may) offer:

An ideal or convenient location
A quiet, homey atmosphere
A mature setting with full trees, nearby parks, bike trails close by
Larger units compared to newer developments

Beyond these things (which are far better than most amenities) if you have a culture of close-knit community at your apartments, that’s huge. Long-term renters help create the family feel, and loyal employees help with familiarity, as well. Loyalty goes a long way!

Smart Marketing For Multifamily Value-Add Communities

WHADDAYA GOT?

Amplify what you have. We talked advantages. Take note of those things that make your community special, whether it’s a listed amenity, or just a feeling. Pro-tip: that vibe is part of your brand. That resident and staff loyalty is in direct correlation to how you present your brand and how you fulfill the promises you’re making.

That said, there are a few specific things you should focus on to market your older community.

MARKETING IDEAS

Emphasize location – Location matters. What are the area trends, the vibe, the history, the culture? Look into cross-promotion with another local spot, and consider offering a local hot spot tour for your newest residents.

Focus on the atmosphere and vibe – Feels like home? Easy to catch public transit? Big trees everywhere? Trails nearby? Everyone knows each other? These things are a BIG DEAL. Authentically brand your community by pointing these gems out. It’s not everyday you move into an apartment that feels welcoming and homey.

Be the neighborhood know-it-all – Get the inside scoop on everything. Even if you’re not a luxury hotel or apartment, you can still function as a concierge with pro-tips for your new residents. Throw neighborhood recommendations out like confetti, and bump the resident experience up a few notches.

Spoil residents in small ways – You don’t need to hand out golden retrievers as a party favor. Instead host events, like a movie viewing with popcorn. Or a pool party with lemonade. Give your residents small gifts, make them feel seen and valued, and bring about some community bonding in a natural way.

Branding for Lower Property Classes

Branding is value made visible and tangible. Older communities may lack amenities but branding can make up for it, even if it’s on the simpler side—lower class apartments can still use branding. (Consistency accounts for a lot.) You can create culture with your apartment brand. Here’s how:

RESIDENT EXPERIENCE

How your brand makes your resident feel is directly tied to their living experience at your community. Ensure that you are communicative, friendly, and get your residents what they need. Your brand is not your offerings. It’s how you interact, engage, and grow your resident relationships over time. Your brand can encompass a whole lifestyle: of home. Of welcome. Of comfort.

COMMUNITY CONTEXT

What does your community bring to the fabric of the neighborhood? What role do you play in the value you offer to your residents, neighbors, and the broader area? Consider how you interact with local shops and non-profits. Philanthropy and community engagement bring about a better neighborhood and make your brand more authentic and relatable to your residents, as well.

Older multifamily value-add communities can still compete.
Just leverage what you have to offer and get creative with your marketing. And use your branding! That will be your best tool to help underscore your value to your residents as they have a positive experience with your property.

Explore creative apartment branding and marketing strategies for your communities with us at Zipcode Creative—no matter the year your community was built.

NAA Apartmentalize 2024 Guide for Multifamily Marketers

Written by Stacey Feeney on June 10, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

Multifamily conference season is still going strong. Up next: NAA Apartmentalize 2024! This year it’s taking place in Philly, the city of brotherly love. Apartmentalize offers learning, networking, and solutions specifically for multifamily, and helps you stay current on industry trends and best practices.

We know that hitting every conference isn’t always an option, so if you’re going, we outlined some of the best ways to make the most of your time at NAA Apartmentalize 2024, with some scheduling tips, and top picks for sessions and speakers.

Given that we’re all up in the branding scene, we aimed to pick out our favorites for marketing and branding in multifamily. There are a ton of sessions, so we narrowed our picks to speakers we know or admire, and topics we think will be most helpful for your community branding and marketing efforts.

Organizing Your 2024 NAA Apartmentalize Schedule

With over 100 sessions and 10,000 attendees, you might feel a little lost. Take a deep breath and make a plan. Think of it as a Choose-Your-Own-NAA-Adventure. Registration is open each day, beginning on late Tuesday morning.

Expo Eats will get you a complimentary lunch on Thursday and Friday—be sure to find it.

Below are some important things you’ll want to take note of for your schedule (June 19-21):

WEDNESDAY

Education Sessions: 1-1:50pm, 2:05-2:55pm, 3:10-4pm,
General Session: 4:15-5:30pm
Welcome Reception: 5:30-6:30pm

THURSDAY

Education Sessions: 8:30-9:30am, (Express: 12:30-2:30pm) 2:15-3:15pm, 3:30-4:30pm
General Session: 10-11:30am
Complimentary Lunch with Expo Eats
Thursday Night Party: 7-10pm

FRIDAY

Education Sessions: 9-9:50am, (Express: 10am-1:30pm) 11am-11:50am
Complimentary Lunch with Expo Eats
General Session: 1:45-3pm

PRO TIP: Don’t forget to take a break, get some water, go to your room for a few minutes when you need to have a little quiet to collect your thoughts. Making a plan will help. Find the sessions you care about most, and prioritize those.

NAA Apartmentalize Top Topics

There’s a lot to see at NAA Apartmentalize. We chose a handful of topics that looked good to us—from a marketing and branding perspective, of course. If you’re feeling extra on-top of things, you can even click “add to planner” next to your favorite sessions, so you can organize it through your MyNAA Planner Account!

What’s the Big Idea? Marketing Innovators Pitch Game-Changing Strategies

Wednesday, June 19

3:10-4pm
Location: 115ABC

Education Session

With:

Esther Bonardi, VP, REACH by RentCafe

Israel Carunungan, Chief Marketing Officer at LCP Media

Josh Draughn, Vice President of Marketing & Customer Experience at Weidner

Anne Baum, Director of Marketing at Towne Properties

Expected Takeaway:

Discover how to realistically create an authentic brand that connects with potential and current renters while avoiding stock photos
Use data to assess marketing risks and rewards so you can reallocate spend and balance your marketing strategy
Learn how media assets can help improve your leasing experience, increasing engagement and conversions

Why It’s Our Pick:
Breaking open marketing norms and creating a sense of place? Yes. Learning how to use media assets to better your leases, engagement and conversions? Also yes.

Open Space #5: Romancing Your Residents to Renew: (Pets, Amenities, Community Events and More)

With:
Maria Pietroforte
Katie Rigsby, President/Multifamily Consultant at Katie Rigsby Inspires, LLC

Why It’s Our Pick:
Be part of the conversation and learn from contemporaries at this Open Space. You can help guide the conversation and be part of the bigger picture in a peer-to-peer learning event—this one is particularly interesting because it’s all about focusing on amenities and making a community feel like home for your residents. Branding is part of that culture, too!

Additional Thursday sessions we’re interested in:

From Data to Decision: Are Your KPIs Actionable or Irrelevant?

Open Space #4: How Can Affordable Providers Compete with Market Rate (Leasing Rates/Incentives, Salaries)

The Power of Market Research: Positioning Properties for the NextGen

Friday, June 21
9-9:50 AM
Location: 108AB

With:
Marcus Armstrong, Research and Development Engineer at J Turner Research
Chelsea Kneeland, VP, Strategic Partnerships at J Turner Research
Tyler Marker, Director of Marketing & Professional Development at Zidan Management Group

Expected Takeaway:

Be able to identify different types of market research, and what needs and wants are on Gen Z prospects’ minds that impact your market.
Learn how to collect and analyze market research data for better decisions.
Develop better strategies for implementing their market research findings.

Why It’s Our Pick:
Gen Z is a big topic for us. They represent a huge market share, and we should be paying attention to their desires in order to be competitive.

From Search to Signature: The Resident Experience

Friday, June 21
12:15 PM – 12:45 PM
Location: Booth 1165
Express Education

With:
Paula Munger, Vice President, Research at National Apartment Association

Carl Whitaker, Chief Economist at RealPage, Inc.

Expected Takeaway:

Explore survey results from residents who have recently searched for an apartment to learn their methods and motivations.
Consider how the survey results translate into potential future staffing models.
Discover which technologies industry professionals are using to improve the prospect experience and boost occupancies.

Why It’s Our Pick:
What’s the secret behind how prospects choose you? First they have to find you, then they have to narrow down their choices to you. With a new generation of renters, we have to meet them where they are. All IRP, all the time—using data to make decisions is smart. (Including in your branding, of course.)

Additional Friday sessions we’re interested in:

Breaking Barriers: The Impact of Adaptive Reuse Projects

Paid, Earned and Owned: The New Rules of Influence Marketing

NAA Apartmentalize 2024 Speaker Picks

The general sessions are full of award-winning stars, heroes, and actors. It can be fun to fawn over them with any fellow fans—so be sure to check out the general session schedule to see when you can catch vocalist/songwriter/author/actor Leslie Odom Jr., Medal of Honor hero and veteran Kyle Carpenter, and actor/producer/philanthropist Mark Wahlberg.

Beyond household names, we’re also interested in hearing from our own multifamily stars.

NAA Apartmentalize 2024 has broken down the rest of their sessions into:

Game Changers – Inspiring speakers from three outside industries: Comedy, AI, and Workforce Strategy
Education Sessions – 90 sessions on all manner of multifamily topics (ops, leasing, affordable housing, marketing)
Express Education – 30-minute interactive sessions with Q&A and storytellin
Open Space Sessions – Small group discussions with a dedicated topic for creative conversations

So, there are a lot to choose from here. But these were the speakers that stood out to us (and the bios are straight from the NAA website):

Noel Carson, Vice President of Marketing, Creative Director at Bozzuto

Noel Carson is the VP of Marketing and Creative Director for Bozzuto. He is charged with championing the Bozzuto brand as a compelling voice in the multifamily category and leads the team responsible for the brand development, launch, and commercial performance the organization’s new development pipeline. With two decades of experience in brand and creative direction, his work has been the recipient of over 70 regional and national awards through the American Advertising Federation, Creativity International, among others. Noel graduated from the University of Notre Dame with majors in Marketing and Design and holds an MBA from Georgetown University.

SESSIONS:

Friday, 9-9:50AM: Static to Dynamic: Revolutionizing Apartment Websites in the Digital Era

Janet Rosseth, Founder and CMO at Cadence Marketing Solutions LLC

Janet Rosseth is the founder and CMO of Cadence Marketing Solutions, a Minneapolis-based boutique consulting agency specializing in pacing new initiatives and supporting multifamily marketing endeavors. Her career spans 25+ years serving multifamily developers and operators in roles directing marketing and leasing strategies. Her expertise lies in assessing needs and deploying both traditional and disruptive solutions that aid in asset performance, optimizing marketing infrastructure, extending the bandwidth of marketing teams, and removing the friction factor in the renter experience. She leads the Cadence Run Club online community for multifamily marketing influencers, connecting & supporting marketers, operators, and vendor partners who challenge the status quo in marketing. She’s a speaker and facilitator for large and small groups, local and national industry events, often sought on panels to represent the voice of the marketing teams and clients she serves.

SESSIONS:

Wednesday, 2:05-2:55pm: Take Control of Lead Generation with On-Demand Ad Strategy

Kim Boland, Director of Digital Marketing at Morgan Properties

Kim Boland is the Director of Digital Marketing at Morgan Properties, where she leads the development, implementation, and maintenance of digital marketing initiatives for the company’s expanding portfolio. With over a decade of experience, Kim has been a driving force in enhancing Morgan Properties’ online presence and supporting promotional efforts for both apartment communities and corporate ventures. Throughout her tenure at Morgan Properties since 2009, Kim has earned numerous accolades for her exceptional contributions to the company and the industry. Notably, she was honored as a national-level winner for Connect Media’s 2021 Women in Real Estate, recognizing her outstanding achievements and leadership in the field. In addition to her role at Morgan Properties, Kim is a sought-after speaker at industry events, sharing her expertise and insights with fellow professionals. She also serves on the Advisory Boards for AIMconf, G5, Rent. and BetterBot.

SESSIONS:

Wednesday, 1-1:50pm: Surf’s Up! Marketing Channels Making the Biggest Waves

Thursday, 8:30-9:30am: The ROI of Apartment Automation: Real-World Case Studies

Kristi Fickert, Vice President of Enterprise Growth at Realync

Kristi is the VP of Enterprise Growth at Realync. She spent 15 years in a senior marketing role for a Top 50 management company before working in the technology sector of the industry. She speaks at the industry’s largest conferences and has been a featured speaker for the Cincinnati Reds, Urban Land Institute and Commercial Real Estate Women. She’s been on numerous podcasts, published in UNITS magazine and spent two terms as a City Councilwoman.

SESSIONS:

Wednesday, 3:10-4pm: Open Space #3: How Does AI Fuel Your Everyday Workflow?

Thursday, 3:30-4:30pm: Leasing Across America: Insights and Impacts From 100 Shops

And there you have it! Your 2024 NAA Apartmentalize guide—from Zipcode Creative. (Don’t forget to have fun!)

Branding vs. Marketing in Multifamily

Written by Stacey Feeney on June 2, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding, Marketing.

Zipcode Creative is a creative agency for multifamily branding. If you came here wondering about the difference between branding vs. marketing, you’ve come to the right place.

Branding Vs. Marketing At A Glance

First off, let’s get clear about what’s what.

Branding is a cohesive identity system around a company and its products or services. It’s a way to stand out visually and verbally and build up/maintain your reputation.

Marketing is the promotion of that company and its products or services. It’s a way to get leads, prospects, and customers.

If you want something more fun to identify how it all works:

You’re hosting a dinner party, and as the host you want to be recognized as the Hostess with the Mostest.

So you set the date, create the menu, and invite the guests. You set the table with amazing centerpieces and decor. You welcome every guest by name when they come in. All through the night, you’re talking with your guests, sharing stories, including everyone that’s there.

When your guests leave, they want to come back for another dinner party, because it was such a wonderful experience. (They might even try to get their friends invited.)

Marketing makes the connections by knowing your guests’ needs. Your branding is how they felt, both before and after the dinner. They know if they want to have a great dinner, they can come back and get something similar to that experience.

Now, as far as multifamily branding and multifamily marketing are concerned, that requires a little more detail.

Understanding Branding

BRANDING, AS A CONCEPT

Branding in the multifamily industry is Zipcode Creative’s reason for existing! We know that most communities today are trying to find a way to stand out and attract their target market resident. It’s difficult to do without marketing, but it’s even harder to do without solid branding. People will always need a place to live—but they don’t have to pick you!

Think of it this way:
If a brand were a person…

The name and logo are their face and facial expressions
Visual identity is their body language and fashion style
Brand voice is how they talk: What they say and how they say it.

All of these things make up how we understand a person and decide if we vibe with them or not.

Good branding defines who you are as a company and clarifies for prospects what makes your company special or different. The efforts are focused on building up the reputation of your community (or property management company) and maintaining it.

BRANDING IS MORE THAN A LOGO

When done right, multifamily branding can create culture and movement. Think a logo can make you stay top-of-mind? Maybe for 1 second. Then, it’s onto the next thing. Logos can’t do everything. But, with thorough and consistent branding, you can brand everything, STARTING with your brand’s personality, which is formed to attract your ideal resident. Your mission, vision, and values are the backbone of the whole thing, and the brand guidelines you create fall in line with it.

That means you’ll have all of this outlined with your brand guidelines:

Verbal Branding: Brand positioning, brand attributes, an ideal resident profile, and brand voice and tone
Visual Branding: Logo mark and usage guidelines, color palette, typography, and design elements (like iconography, patterns or illustrations)

MULTIFAMILY BRANDING SETS COMMUNITIES APART

Branding is exactly what you need to set a community apart, and make it distinct from all the other 2 bed, 1 baths around town. By using creative brand messaging, you can stand out in a crowded market, and edge out the competition by developing a brand that connects with your prospects.

Doing Both in Multifamily: Branding and Marketing

Multifamily industry marketing is the methodology behind reaching your ideal residents, using multiple channels for advertising campaigns, product and service information. This could be through your website, through social media, through mailers, through paid advertising. Every effort is made to obtain leads or get prospects.

You can’t do marketing well without solid branding. You want to stay top-of-mind, and you want to get residents in your communities—and have them stay there. By using branding, you can create a link between how you look, what you offer, and the reality of living in one of your communities.

The thread that seamlessly brings it all together is when branding and marketing are in harmony.

Branding in multifamily builds brand recognition and increases trust and loyalty (if the services line up with the offerings). Marketing creates brand awareness—so if you don’t have a brand, it’ll be tougher, and not really worth it, to market your community. It will look like everything else out there. With well-branded marketing collateral your image will be cohesive, with a consistent look and feel. Handy when you’re trying to create hype around a grand opening—and the color palettes and fonts are recognizable from your social media feed and website.

HOW ZIPCODE CREATIVE PAIRS BRANDING WITH MARKETING

We are the brand development and positioning experts (and your in-house marketing staff brings the strategy and implementation). Together we’ll make amazing things.

Our services at Zipcode Creative help bring branding and marketing together. For example, apartment marketing campaigns are the perfect place for your brand messaging and vibe to come together in front of your target audience.

Once you have your brand identity completed, you’re ready to put out amazing ads (for your market-researched audience). Using your well-crafted apartment branding in PPC advertising shouldn’t be overlooked—it helps build trust, and leads to more conversions.

If a brand is part of how you feel about your community, the clearest way we see branding teamed up with marketing is through a referral program! Beautifully designed flyers handed out to your current residents, allowing their experience with your brand to extend to their friends through—you guessed it—word-of-mouth marketing is a perfect pairing.

Is apartment branding worth the cost? If lease-ups and higher retention rates sound good to you, then yes. Beautiful, effective branding can help your reputation through recognition. Trust, credibility, differentiation—all part of the branding picture. And marketing helps you put it out there.

Brand well

&
Market better.

MME Conference Recap: A Look Inside the Exclusive Multifamily Marketing Event

Written by Stacey Feeney on May 26, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding, Marketing.

MME 2024 has just wrapped up! And we couldn’t be more excited for next year’s event

Multifamily Marketing East (MME) is an invite-only, limited-access conference. It’s less about being exclusive, and more about concentrated and focused.

If you missed out, the content was top-notch and the topics (and speakers) were on point. Read on to find out more about this East Coast multifamily conference.

The MME Conference

FORMAT

The conference took place at The Pendry, a waterfront boutique hotel in Baltimore, Maryland. The main thing at MME 2024: the breakout sessions.

For these breakout sessions, attendees joined their peers for small group discussions focused on topics they pre-selected at registration. Each of the 10 tables has a different topic, a sponsor expert on the topic, a moderator, and a presenter. What made this experience extra unique and special was the pre-planning that took place over virtual calls leading up to the day of the event. Sponsors and moderators got together to plan out their session topic to be prepared to lead the conversation with enticing questions and talking points. Our favorite, from Session #2 was “Scaling Branding with AI: Faster, Farther, Cohesive.”

After the breakout tables were complete, a presenter from each topic shared the group’s key insights and strategies on the main stage. In this way, attendees were able to participate in the topic they most wanted to discuss, while still reaping the benefits of gathered knowledge from the other 9 tables. Attendees gained a broader perspective, and left with actionable knowledge.

These breakout tables and reflections occurred twice, and both times, attendees came away with a wealth of knowledge. Like a book club at their own roundtable discussion—a deep dive, while the Reflections and Takeaways functioned more like nuggets out of Cliff Notes.

Breakout Sessions

Table #1

Topic 1: MarTech: Enhancing Customer Experience & Operations (Presenter: Jillian Fickert)
Topic 2: Emerging Trends: Proptech & AI (Moderator: Noel Carson)
Sponsor: Revyse

Revyse is a vendor discovery and review platform. They help multifamily professionals find their ideal proptech and vendor solutions.

Table #2

Topic 1: How AI can Help with Industry Pain Points (Presenter: Matthew Cummings)

Topic 2: Evolution of Marketing Metrics: Adapting to New Trends & Practices (Presenter: Michele Jose)
Sponsor: Hy.Ly

Hy.Ly is invested in the power of ‘Human + Machine’ to develop products as a multifamly marketing technology company that creates products to improve multifamily experiences.

Table #3

Topic 1: Unlocking Success: Mastering Conversion Ratio Optimization (Presenter: Ashleigh Dawson)

Topic 2: Maximizing Video Content: Ads and Beyond
Sponsor: Realync

Realync is a cloud-based, web and mobile platform that enables live virtual tours, live virtual open houses, and DIY pre-recorded videos of real estate—all to unlock authentic experiences to connect and convert.

Table #4

Topic 1: Maximizing Performance, Efficiency, and Timelines

Topic 2: Google Ads Unleashed: Maximizing Your PPC Potential including PMAX (Presenter: Sabrina Leckemby)
Sponsor: Digible

Digible offers seamless solutions for the multifamily industry: multifamily marketing services and technology build for apartments.

Table #5

Topic 1: Building Data- Powered Social Strategies

Topic 2: Mastering Influencer Marketing: Strategies for Success
Sponsor: Social Kapture

Social Kapture creates custom content and proven strategies for social media and digital advertising—specifically for multifamily.

Table #6

Topic 1: Apartment Branding for Marketing Success (Presenter: Jillian Letourneau)
Topic 2: Scaling Branding with AI: Faster, Farther, Cohesive (Presenter: Renee McIntyre)

Sponsor: Zipcode Creative

Zipcode Creative is a multifamily focused boutique creative agency that offers apartment branding and marketing design.

Table #7

Topic 1: Build Internal Partnerships Using Marketing Data
Topic 2: Uncovering Retention Trends in Resident Reviews

Sponsor: Widewail

Widewail is a reputation management company for local businesses, offering monitoring, review management, and review invitations.

Table #8

Topic 1: Streaming TV Advertising for Apartments
Topic 2: Mastering Geofencing: Market Rate to Affordable and Urban to Suburban

Sponsor: ApartmentGeofencing.com

Apartmentgeofencing.com offers location-based advertising technology so properties can reach prospects wherever they are.

Table #9

Topic 1: Understanding Prospect Preferences with Mobile Location History (Presenter: Elaine Delude)
Topic 2: Post Covid Rental Landscape – From Migration to Back to Work (Presenter: Eddie Vasquez, Jr.)

Sponsor: Placer.AI

Placer.AI helps properties make better business decisions through geolocation data: location intelligence and foot traffic data. Find your customers, find your opportunities.

Table #10

Topic 1: Staying Motivated and Efficient with Reduced Staff
Topic 2: Your Guide to Creating a World-Class Company Culture in 2024 (Presenter: Nicole Drayton)

Sponsor: ApartmenGeofencing.com

Apartmentgeofencing.com offers location-based advertising technology so properties can reach prospects wherever they are.

KEYNOTES

The speakers at MME are all recognized in the industry—they’re experienced and invested in learning and engagement, which made them perfect for the MME conference.

“The Making of a Love Brand”
with Kelley Shannon, Senior VP, Marketing and Customer Experience, Bozzuto

“Gaining Traction for Your Brand”
With Matthew Kilmury, Founder & CEO, ApartmentGeofencing.com

Along with these sessions, the panel discussions also offered up plenty of opportunity to see things from a different angle, or take a deeper dive.

PANEL DISCUSSIONS

“More With Less: Leveraging AI to Overcome Constraints”

Moderator:

Elaine De Lude, Vice President, LIVEbe Communities
With Panelists:

Daniel Paulino, Vice President, Marketing, Bozzuto

Moshe Crane, Vice President, Branding & Strategic Initiatives, Sage Ventures Description:
In an era where “doing more with less” has transformed from a challenging necessity into an industry mantra, we delve into the pivotal role of AI as an empowering tool. Budgets and teams may not be growing, but expectations for performance are. The question remains: how can one amplify output and efficiency with the resources available?

This panel explores cutting-edge solutions within AI that address this perennial marketing quandary. With recent technological breakthroughs, AI has emerged not just as a means to compensate for resource limitations, but as a strategy to surpass even the highest of expectations. Join us as we unpack the transformative potential of AI, providing practical insights into maximizing performance.

Key takeaways:

Cutting-edge AI solutions
Practical insights into maximizing performance

“Marketing Metrics Are Changing—Are You Ready?”

Moderator:
Wendy Simpson, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Edgewood Management
With panelists: Kevin Wilson, Director of Marketing, Strategy and Planning, Southern Land Company

Michelle José, Vice President, Property Marketing, Mill Creek Residential

Xiyao Yang, Director of Marketing Analytics, Bozzuto

Description:

Digital marketing metrics are changing, and they’re changing fast. Are you ready? In this session, we’ll explore how your marketing teams can adapt to recent regulations and innovations, and set themselves up for success in today’s rapidly-evolving digital landscape. With an eye on digital trends that transcend industry, but told through a multfamily marketing lens, we’ll dive into different marketing areas like branding/awareness, findability, and social engagement.

Key Takeaways:

How to adapt to recent regulations and innovations
How to get set up for success while digital trends evolve

Our Insights

Since this was the first year of MME, we wanted to give you the full insider scoop. So we asked Zipcode Creative founder and creative director, Stacey Feeney, to give us the lowdown.

What was the best part of MME?

All the time we got to spend together networking and really getting to know each other was so different from other conferences where there feels like such a barrier between sponsors and attendees. Breakout tables were a nice way to bring the conversations into smaller groups and really connect to and relate with one another!.

What are some key nuggets that will stick with you as you get back to work, answering emails and working on apartment brands?

Strategy and discovery is a crucial step that should always precede brand creation and it’s too important to be skipped.

Invest in what makes a brand and tells its story.

A brand needs a narrative, and that comes from strategy. That narrative may need to pivot over time, like during a phase two lease-up, especially if the goals for the property or the resident persona have shifted –a brand should be a “responsive brand”

Brand strategy should continue throughout the resident journey, even after they are living in the community. The goal with brand should be to create an emotional connection with prospects and maintain that connection while they are residents.

Educate your teams on the importance of a cohesive brand (and how to understand it), create a playbook for guidance and then empower them to create through the help of user friendly and AI tools like Canvas, chatGPT and MidJourney, for example.

Anything else?

Huge shoutout to Matthew Kilmurry, CEO at Apartment Geofencing. He and his team organized the whole MME conference. Along with the involvement of the sponsors and content committee, everyone had a part to play in this super-cool collaborative conference. Also, the Bozzuto marketing team really prioritized this event as a full-on retreat for their team. That made me feel warm and fuzzy inside!

Please stay tuned for more updates from the multifamily marketing east conference—can’t wait to see everyone next year!

Lessons in Hospitality Branding—For Multifamily

Written by Stacey Feeney on May 17, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding.

Guest Post by Stephanie Shore, Director of Marketing and Brand Development, Bozzuto (formerly with Marriott International and Hilton)

Multifamily branding and marketing could take some notes from other industries—like hospitality. In hospitality branding, the critical focus is the guest experience; customer loyalty and maintaining brand reputation are the keys to success.

Each of these principles can be easily, almost seamlessly, applied to multifamily.

At an apartment community, the resident experience is the key to retention—and that’s why you work hard on your branding, your marketing, and your resident services—to bring it all together so they renew their lease (AND tell their friends).

Before we get much further, let’s break down the hospitality experience, and what it really means to create exceptional guest experiences.

Understanding the Hospitality Experience

THE KEYS TO HOSPITALITY

The key components of hospitality branding are as follows:

Personalized Service
Attention to detail
Creating memorable moments

These each mean something a little different.

Personalized service means you receive emails with a personal greeting; welcome cards in your room; and plentiful spa treatments, dining options, and room service items that are available to your guests.

Attention to detail means every single component of your guests’ experience matters. Cleaning the remote. Making sure that order gets to them on time. The TV isn’t too small. The bedding is noticeably soft.

Creating memorable moments is getting an inside track to what your guests want most. Understanding their desires leads you to bringing them the solution—while they’ve barely uttered “Do you have….” Short of reading minds, it means you’re anticipating their every need and making sure that experience wows them.

REAL-LIFE HOSPITALITY EXAMPLE:

For Exceptional Guest Experiences: The Ritz-Carlton

The Ritz-Carlton is synonymous with service. Arguably the best known in the industry for their standards of exceptional service, The Ritz-Carlton has founded its brand on the principle, “We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen.” Its Three Steps of Service are instilled in all team members, from front desk to housekeeping to management, and guide all guest interactions to create a noteworthy guest experience:

A warm and sincere greeting. Use the guest’s name.
Anticipation and fulfillment of each guest’s needs.
Fond farewell. Give a warm good-bye and use the guest’s name.

Applying Hospitality Branding Principles to Multifamily

But how can multifamily properties adopt these principles to get improved resident satisfaction and thereby boost resident loyalty?

Use hospitality as the inspiration for your branding and marketing:

Equip your teams with training so they can serve your residents better.
Execute a brand strategy (think: brand messaging, brand differentiators) to deliver an excellent experience.
Make sure that brand is carried through every element of the customer journey, from the website to the tour to the resident experience.

But, it might be easier to show you with a few examples of stellar branding, amenity, and service.

REAL-LIFE COMMUNITY EXAMPLES:

1331

1331 in Washington D.C. is conceived to exceed expectations, and enables a lifestyle that is unattainable at any other residence in D.C. The level of service at 1331 is similar to a world-class hotel. Every need has been anticipated, beginning before a resident moves in with the Move-In Concierge to Away-From-Home Services assisting with pet or plant care while they are out of town to on-site event planning. The menu of options even extends beyond the building itself, through exclusive partnerships. Residents of 1331 enjoy access to Salamander’s spa, fitness center and restaurants, as well as catering and events. Those on the Penthouse Level receive elevated access to Salamander and an additional selection of personalized services to create an all-encompassing services experience.

The Barrett & The Claude at Chevy Chase Lake

At both The Barrett and The Claude at Chevy Chase Lake, your experience is everything.

That’s why, in addition to the world-class design and amenities, both apartments offer exceptional services for residents. Available services at The Barrett and The Claude include concierge services, Away-from-Home services, in-home customization services, grocery delivery, room service, a garage care center, exclusive retail partnerships, monthly fitness programming and events, and the Bozzuto Welcome Home commitment.

Heron at Water Street Tampa

Heron offers you every modern comfort to streamline your life and enhance your experience. From a state-of-the-art fitness studio to a green-roof viewing garden to direct access to the Tampa Riverwalk. A bike storage room even has a repair station equipped with tools so you can get back out onto the Riverwalk in no time. Life at Heron is enhanced by the bespoke services offered to residents; the24-hour concierge helps to coordinate a variety of personalized home care services for residents’ comfort and convenience, including pet care and housekeeping recommendations.

Branding Strategies Inspired by Hospitality

Hospitality is hyper-focused on branding. With good reason. A strong brand identity creates differentiation, highlights unique characteristics, and emphasizes the values of the hotel brand.

The same goes for a community. A brand that communicates why it exists through its storytelling (throughout its marketing) creates a more compelling emotional connection than any run-of-the-mill “Lease Today for 1 Month Free!” offers could ever manage.

VISUAL BRANDING

Branding’s more than a logo. But that’s certainly part of it. Brand visual identity can (and should) be used to convey the uniqueness of the community itself: its interior design, its level of service, its features and amenities. Typefaces can help carve out your identity—for example, serif fonts can feel more elevated and refined, while sans serif fonts can lean into a more approachable brand feel. Color palette can be used strategically as well: High-contrast neutral colors can feel more elegant than, say, bright, deeply saturated hues. Unique visual identifiers like design elements and imagery can aid these basics to solidify brand recognition.

Marketing Strategies Taken from Hospitality

When you know your ideal customer—guest or resident—you can attract them based on what you know about their motivations, pain points, preferences, and overall lifestyle. For someone with a dog, you can offer on-site grooming and a grass-filled, shaded dog park. For someone who works from home, you can ensure your messaging talks about flexible desk spaces and high-speed internet.

EMAIL DRIP CAMPAIGNS

Targeted marketing campaigns ensure that your messaging reaches the right audience at the right time—email drip campaigns are a great tactic to ensure your messaging is sent throughout relevant stages of the customer journey. Automation makes this kind of campaign even more frictionless. For example, if a prospect signs up for a tour of your community, you can automate an email that follows up confirming key details, and perhaps pairs brand messaging with any applicable concessions. Hospitality brands are great at this—always staying on top of their guest messaging with incentives to book another stay.

SOCIAL RAPPORT

Additionally, hospitality brands are highly active online: social channels are another lever to tell the brand story, while websites feature inspirational photography and clear booking capabilities. Communities can easily do this with desirable photography, a thoughtfully designed site, and clear calls-to-action.

Pro tip: Dedicate sections of your website specifically to service. For example, creating special callouts for your Penthouse(s) shows your dedication to deliver on those top-notch services, and differentiates your community brand from competitors.

All in all, every community and hotel we’ve shown conveys the high level of service at the property—starting from the earliest point in the customer journey.

When everything’s done in the service of the resident and in the service of the guest—the goals for multifamily and hospitality aren’t all that different. To create a successful community, keep your residents happy, and keep residents at the heart of everything you do – it’s what hospitality brands do, and it’s what we try to do in every Bozzuto community.

Branding for East Coast

Written by Stacey Feeney on May 12, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding.

Multifamily Marketing East is the premier East Coast multifamily marketing event. Held in Baltimore, Maryland, it’s exclusive—invitation-only. This year it’s free for invited attendees, and includes access to all the sessions, plus breakfast, lunch, and refreshments during the conference. (Does branding for the East Coast get you as excited as we are?)

Why are we so excited about it? Two reasons:

Zipcode Creative is sponsoring Multifamily Marketing East.
Zipcode Creative helped brand this BRAND NEW conference for multifamily.

So you might say we’re a little invested and a LOT EXCITED!

Why’d we get involved? We know that there are a lot of multifamily conferences. They end up being in California, Las Vegas, and Texas—and plenty of others bounce around all over the country.

But what if there was a conference for multifamily that was on the East Coast, where the BULK of multifamily housing actually IS?

A few quick stats for you, reader:

→New York State has the highest number of existing homes classified as multifamily: 52.5%. Close on its heels are two other East Coast states: Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

We agree: It was time for an East Coast multifamily marketing event.

The Vision Behind MME’s Branding

Our expertise in branding, specifically for multifamily, led us to an opportunity to brand MME. We took our process, and we channeled it through the vision and purpose of MME to get the attendees we most wanted to attract.

VISION

The creators of the Multifamily Marketing East conference wanted to see a conference that was made to give everyone a voice and was more about passion over profit. Together, we envisioned an upscale retreat, not a huge, wild party with more entertainment than education and heard-it-before, recycled content.

PURPOSE

Multifamily Marketing East was made to bring people together, around good food, good drinks, and fun, intimate events. The content offered will be thoughtfully designed, and the tables will be set up to foster new relationships and solid networking.

USING MME BRANDING TO ATTRACT MARKETERS

We needed to convey the message that MME 2024 was built differently. We wanted to bring in multifamily digital marketers, and invited mid-level management up to senior level executives.

Branding is obviously our jam at Zipcode Creative, and so we were tapped to attract marketers with branding—this would help solidify trust in MME, even as a new venture, and would help portray the vision and purpose of the conference through its logo, colors, and messaging. And while it’s a little different than apartment brand design, we followed a similar process.

Branding for East Coast: Branding Development Process

RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY
The best way to get to know a brand? Ask a lot of questions. So, when we worked through the brand questionnaire, we asked fun questions like, if MME were a ______ (drink, car, celebrity, song—take your pick) what would it be? Taking those answers plus the rationale behind the choice informed where we would take the branding and why.

For example, the celebrity MME’s founders chose: Tom Hanks or Jennifer Lawrence. They’re down-to-earth and manage to take complex roles and make them easy to understand. In the same way, they want MME to be friendly, approachable, and distill complicated ideas into helpful resources.

UNDERSTANDING THE REGION

After we sifted through the brand questionnaire, we immersed ourselves in the look and feel of the east coast region, to deepen our understanding. The preferences of east coasters and the regional style not just of the east coast area, but the region of Baltimore began to take shape.

When we create branding for East Coast apartments or communities, we take a look at the local flavor. For example, Virginia is relatively colonial. Upstate New York, New Hampshire, and Maine—cape cods and coastal vibes (and probably lobster, if we’re talking local flavor.) A more industrial, yet historical feel is perfect for Boston. And then we get tropical (and sun-faded but still bright colors) if we’re in Miami. And Atlanta is the heart of and soul of good ol’ Southern hospitality.

The East Coast is about as diverse in associations and assumptions as the North, Central and South bits of California—in views, vibes, and architecture. It’s absolutely not one conglomerate that has one identity—and that’s why looking deeper into the specific area can offer up some entirely unique branding opportunities.

Creative Approach

THE PROCESS

As we moved toward Baltimore and homed in on the location of the conference, we began to get more granular with the location—just as we would with developing apartment branding.

CONTEXT IS KEY

The Pendry – The MME conference will be held at The Pendry, a luxe waterfront hotel in Baltimore. So we looked carefully at the architecture, colors, and style of the hotel, to keep every piece visually connected. To amplify what the space looks like, we leaned into the venue, with imagery of the Sagamore Pendry. We used filters to stylize for the brand vibe and the map of Baltimore became a prominent style piece in which we truly celebrated location. Additionally, the color palette was a more fun, vibrant play on the brick buildings of Baltimore, and the yellow found in Maryland’s state flower, the black-eyed susan. All of this was dovetailed into the brand for MME. Plus, with the hotel being on the water, we added in both classy and fun elements.

Baltimore – The greater Baltimore area, the downtown skyline and a birds’-eye-view of Baltimore’s street grids both functioned as an additional visual motif.

Time of Year – Given that the conference is in May, positioned at the very start of summer, we wanted something cheerful, so we chose the aqua color for the MME’s classic logo. For each year, we may choose a different set of colors, and for 2024, we went with corals and burgundy, with a mustard to create contrast.

Additionally, the four corners of the MME logo function like a compass, with the directional arrow pointing East. The sharp corners give a feel of modernity while the angled letters inject a bit of playfulness.

The branding development process to create the Multifamily Marketing East conference was a labor of love—not unfamiliar, but still exciting to execute. Recognizing that regional branding is vital in the multifamily industry, we took the surroundings and allowed them to infiltrate the brand for MME on the surface and beneath it. The East Coast is where the United States began—it’s full of history and knowledge from those that came before us, and is the perfect place for the next gamechanging conference for multifamily to take place.

Learn more about Zipcode Creative’s branding projects and process.

The Power of Your Apartment’s Brand in PPC Advertising

Written by Stacey Feeney on April 29, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding, Marketing.

Pay-per-click digital advertising is essential for multifamily marketers to promote their apartments on social media, websites, and, most notably, Google as the primary search engine, with targeted advertisements incorporating text, images, and videos highlighting a property’s appearance, units, and amenity features.

Digital ads aim to increase a community’s online visibility and brand awareness across multiple platforms toward renters genuinely interested in those apartments, as that helps improve the quality of the traffic to the community’s website and, ultimately, increase lease conversions.

Hey, I’m Michael from RentVision, an apartment marketing company that helps thousands of communities like yours get better-qualified leads with an automated pay-per-click solution called Predictive Advertising (shameless plug!).

While we’re not branding experts like Stacey and her team at Zipcode Creative, we believe that multifamily marketers who care about owning a strong, cohesive apartment brand can create a powerful online search presence that wows renters and benefits leasing by prioritizing PPC ads in their marketing strategy.

Your brand empowers your digital ad campaigns and overall online presentation, allowing you to leverage your property’s appearance, logos, color scheme, and more to resonate with prospective renters and keep your apartments in mind throughout their search. Let’s look at what combining brand and PPC advertising can do for you:

Strong Apartment Brand + Apartment PPC = Trust

Let’s start with the big picture. It’s sometimes easy to forget that choosing which apartment to live in is a life-changing, financially impactful decision for your renters.

To feel confident about their selection, they must trust that your apartments meet their preferences and deliver the resident experience you promise.

Of course, your brand tells your community’s story by describing to renters how your apartment features and lifestyle benefit them and how they differ from your peers. Your brand, if done correctly, is a means by which you instill trust in renters.

However, for your community’s brand to help renters develop more trust and impact leasing performance, it is best to pair it with a strong digital advertising strategy.

Knowing initial impressions are huge, imagine someone’s reaction when, at the beginning stage of their apartment search, they go to Google looking for a community like yours. They see an ad for your community that ‘pops’ off the top of the search results page (and top rankings in the organic and local listings).

You can gain that opportunity by pairing a strong apartment brand with pay-per-click advertisements targeting specific or relevant keywords your typical renters search for online.

That authoritative presence in Google establishes a strong level of trustworthiness that will make renters feel more confident about pursuing a lease in your community.

It also helps renters to feel better about selecting your apartments when you actively show you care about your community’s overall online presentation and make it easily discoverable with advertisements across Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Tik-Tok and other large PPC platforms.

From their perspective, they equate the care you put into your marketing presence to you also caring about their needs and living experience.

Plus, the more exposure you provide renters to your community’s name, colors, property images, and other assets of your brand online in photo or video display ads during their decision-making process, the more familiarity they gain in your community. And the more familiar they are to your apartments, the more they begin to trust that yours is best for them.

Establishing trust is the power you have when you put effort into your community’s brand and pay-per-click ads.

Apartment branding drives specialization

Communities intentionally curating their brand’s presence typically have a better definition of their ideal resident and thus develop messaging and a visual identity that resonates with those renters.

This is what we mean by specialization—your brand makes you, well, you. You’re telling renters, “You can trust us to provide the lifestyle and resident experience you’re looking for.”

A great apartment brand that achieves this specialization also elevates your PPC campaigns because, truthfully, many apartments are the same.

Believe it or not, your community isn’t the only one with a pool or Pelotons in the clubhouse. While those are features you’d undoubtedly want prospective residents to know about, they don’t move the needle for everyone.

Prospective renters will choose to rent an apartment from a community that appears to know and understands their needs above amenities like a stationary bike. That is, in essence, the foundation and purpose of your brand, and utilizing such a brand throughout your marketing strategy—especially in your PPC campaigns—will drive home to renters the story about how your apartments meet their specific needs.

That is how your apartments, though they may be similar to other properties, stand out apart and above the competition in PPC advertisements.

Apartment PPC drives leasing performance

Since you’re also a multifamily marketer, and your ultimate objective is to generate leads and leases, you must also leverage your community’s brand to get it in front of renters at critical stages throughout their apartment search.

That’s why PPC advertising is essential. You gain little from your apartment’s brand if it’s difficult for renters to discover it.

Every renter goes through three stages during their apartment search:

The ‘Awareness’ stage, or “Hey, I need to move out and find an apartment.”
The Consideration stage is when you say, “Okay, here are a couple of apartment communities available that meet what I’m looking for.”
There’s the ‘Decision’ stage, where one final community has emerged as the favorite. At that point, the renter will contact the community and begin the touring, applying, and leasing process.

PPC advertisements drive visibility for your apartments throughout each distinct stage.

Sometimes, you can expedite someone’s selection process with a powerful combination of targeted ads and strong apartment branding that meets the right renters at the right time.

But since everyone’s leasing journey varies in time, you must also consider that you’ll need PPC campaigns running on multiple platforms simultaneously to maintain visibility and push more qualified traffic to your community website.

Getting started with Apartment PPC campaigns

Now, we’ve gone long enough describing the positive impact of combining your apartment’s brand with pay-per-click advertising that you’re probably wondering, “Okay, so how do we actually do this?!”

Beginning (or just optimizing) a PPC strategy for your apartments is pretty hard, so I want to share a couple of other helpful resources that go into further detail and make the process seem less daunting:

The Beginner’s Guide to Digital Advertising for Apartments
The Complete Multifamily Marketing Plan (Stacey was an awesome contributor here!)

Start there to get more depth into starting with PPC advertising. But while we’re here, let’s go over a couple of easy tips to remember as you combine brand and PPC into your apartment’s strategy:

Know what search terms people use to discover your community’s website.

You can use Google Search Console for free to see what visitors to your website searched for in Google to find your apartment community’s website. This will help you establish a list of keywords to possibly target in your PPC campaigns. One tip is to avoid using branded descriptors in keywords you would target; truthfully, you won’t get many renters searching terms like ‘upscale apartments with chic amenities in downtown Denver’. However, those descriptors, like ‘upscale’, would be more effective in ad copy.

Use your display campaigns to highlight your community’s best offerings.

Your photo and video display ads are the time and place where you want to highlight the very best of your community. Your clubhouse, exteriors, Pelotons, and pool are great features that look great in your PPC display ads; don’t overcomplicate. That said, highlighting those features in your ad campaigns is fine as long as you’re using those things to drive traffic to a website that lets interested renters see the inside of your units. That content moves the needle for renters more than anything as the space they’re ultimately going to live in is essential information they need.

Have your apartment’s logo, name, and brand visuals in every display ad campaign.

Then, in your display ads, be sure they’re designed to feature your apartment’s name, logo, and brand visuals (even if the primary item displayed is the inside of a unit). This builds recognition for your brand—which sticks in renters’ minds throughout their search in a meaningful way.

Utilize Google Performance Max Campaigns.

Lastly, one easy way to get started with PPC is by utilizing Google’s Performance Max Campaigns feature. Performance max campaigns do a lot of the hard work for you because they use whatever creative assets you give Google (photos/videos of your units, amenities, property, logo) and find the suitable variation of text/visuals that produces the most clicks and traffic to your website on both Google’s Search and Display networks (a.k.a. basically the whole Internet)! Google’s Performance Max Campaigns are excellent options for communities with great visuals and branding.

Conclusion

Ultimately, investing in your apartment’s brand and PPC advertising enhances its online presence, cultivates trust, and drives leasing performance, making it an indispensable component of your marketing strategy.

AIM 2024 Guide: Get the Most from Attending, Multifamily Marketers

Written by Stacey Feeney on April 25, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

Multifamily marketers, the 2024 AIM (Apartment Innovation & Marketing) Conference is almost here! In Huntington Beach, CA, it’s one of our favorites to attend—and to sponsor. Heading to a conference is definitely a big chunk of your marketing budget, so it’s best to plan ahead, make your schedule work for you, and prioritize the things you need to see and the people you need to speak with.

And, as much as the CA coast is basically heaven, the pull of magical multifamily collaboration is only slightly stronger than the scent of the salty air. (Or is that In-N-Out we smell?)*

With that in mind, we pulled together our top topics, speakers, and sponsors we think you should add to your own list. It’s just our opinion, but we figured it’s at least a starting point for you!

With multiple sessions happening at the same time, you’ll want to stay focused on what you need to hear most. We went with marketing topics, because…that’s our jam! Without further ado:

AIM 2024 Top Topics

The AIM Conference (besides being fun!) is focused on helping attendees do their work better, helping make apartment living more valuable to residents.

This year, AIM 2024 falls on May 5-8, and has a big focus on customer experience, AI, innovation, and ethics. We also noted a few sessions on pulling inspiration from other industries—sounds like a win!

Here are our top topics at AIM 2024, broken down by day:

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2024

Breakfast Roundtable: What Multifamily Can (and Should!) Steal from Single Family — and Vice Versa

7:45 AM – 8:45 AM
Speaker(s):
Benjamin Burns, Vice President of Digital Marketing Amherst
Brianna Massas, Director, Digital MediaIrvine Company Apartments

Brian Miller, Director, Partner Experience and Engagement, Zillow Rentals

Discussion on:

How multifamily can think outside the box
What Multifamily is getting right
How Multifamily could do better with single-family industry strategies

Why It’s Our Pick:
We’re always harping on about pulling inspo from somewhere else. Keeping an open mind is key for growth.

Opening Keynote: The Investment Case for Branding and Customer Experience: Hotelier Lessons from Hampton by Hilton

1:10 PM – 1:50 PM
Speakers:
Shruti Buckley, Senior VP & Brand Leader, Hampton by Hilton
Michelle Moriello, GID/Windsor Communities, VP, Digital Marketing

Expected Takeaways:

Investing in branding in a real estate context: How Hampton Inn uses brand as a marketing differentiator, and how Hilton uses quantifiable metrics to induce owners to invest in their brand standards;
Making customer experience tangible: defining, limiting and proving out a desired customer experience – hard and soft items, training, value, feedback mechanisms;
Creating multi-stakeholder support for ongoing investment in brand and customer experience (and knowing when a company is off-track)
Market segmentation as a path to understanding how to create real value that is perceived and appreciated

Why It’s Our Pick:
Again, parallel industries have a wealth of knowledge that multifamily hasn’t quite tapped into. Investing in solid branding could be a huge way to create a differentiator for your communities.

Building a Differentiated Brand to Captivate Owners: Strategies for B2B Marketing

3:15 PM – 4:00 PM
Speakers:
Sydney Webber
Sharon George, MIG Real Estate, Director of Multifamily Asset Management

Tina Miserendino, Avenue5, Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Communications

Expected Takeaway:

Explore marketing and business development strategies from a NMHC Top 50 management company
Understand what owners are seeking in a management company partner
Learn how to attract, convert, and retain ownership groups as long-term partner

Why It’s Our Pick:
When you brand a property management company, the goal might be to attract ownership groups. Plus, when you know what they’re looking for, that can streamline your process. Get busy growing!

Branding…….It’s NOT a Game(show)

4:15 PM – 5:00 PM

Speaker:
Elizabeth Carton, Rangewater Real Estate, Vice President, Marketing
Jerry Norman, Pedcor Companies, Director of Multifamily Marketing
Barrie Buckner, GTMA, CEO
Sarah Johnson, Willow Bridge Property Company, National Director of Marketing & Brand Strategy

Expected Takeaways:

What goes into branding
Successful brands/rebrands
Timeline Guides

Why It’s Our Pick:

First: It’s a game show! Plus, they delve into branding for any and all scenarios, including property management companies. Sounds like a win-win-win to us.

TUESDAY, MAY 7

Breakfast Roundtable: The Evolution and Anatomy of a Brand: Building a Compelling Brand in 45 Minutes

7:45 AM – 8:45 AM
Speaker: Stacey Feeney, Founder & Creative Director, Zipcode Creative

Discussion Around:

Branding is more than a logo
A new BFF in the Multifambam

Why It’s Our Pick:
We’re biased. Stacey, our founder, is pretty great at what she does. And she’s super fun. Plus, building a brand is our bread and butter—perfect for breakfast!

#2
Tuesday, May 7th

Jack, Barbie and Cinderella: Fluent Devices in Strategic Brand Marketing

9:00 AM – 9:45 AM

Speaker: Suzanne Schlundt, Cox Communications, Vice President of Marketing

Expected Takeaways:

The benefits of relatable brand personas
Attract customers, talent and investors with emotional brand strategy
How fluent devices (and their retirement) impact your insights
Learn how to elevate your brand’s impact

Why It’s Our Pick:
Learn from a Barbie marketer? Yes! Brands should get emotional. Otherwise, you won’t make an impact. We’re excited to hear about the ways charm and familiarity with your brand can be used to reach and retain.

Keynote: Using Humor to Sell

10:15 AM – 11:15 AM
Speaker: Jon Krevolin, Cronin Advertising Agency, President, Chief Creative Officer
Moderator: Tina Mortera, Bozzuto Management Company, Vice President, Business Development

Expected Takeaways:

Amplify your reach without spending MORE
Create a memory link between brand and audience
How to build a repeatable emotion-first story

Why It’s Our Pick:
Humor is one of our love languages at Zipcode Creative. So we’re curious to find out more about how our bad puns and knock-knock jokes can be turned into a lasting connection between brand and prospect.

Perception is Reality: Study Results on Leasing and Living

2:00 PM – 2:45 PM
Speakers:
Margette Hepfner, Willow Bridge Property Company, Chief Operating Officer, Residential Management
Merideth Bunting, The Dinerstein Companies, Vice President of Marketing and Management Services

Expected Takeaways:

Prioritize data-driven decisions over gut feelings
Understand Gen Y’s vs. Gen Z’s preferences (and stop generalizing them)
Align strategies to current trends

Why It’s Our Pick:
The ideal resident for every brand is different. Having the facts (and changing your strategy) about renter preferences through data will get your brand further—to the audience it needs to reach most.

Roundtable: How to Stay Ahead of Generational Shifts in Apartment Marketing

3:15 PM – 4:00 PM

Speakers:

Elizabeth Carton, Vice President, Marketing, Rangewater

Kasey Munsch, Vice President of Marketing, The Preiss Company

Sarah Gencarella, VP of Marketing, Olympus Property

CJ Edmonds, Chief Revenue Officer, Conversion Logix

Discussion Around:

Catering to unique generational preferences in marketing
Embracing technology to enhance apartment hunting/leasing
Building stronger connections with prospects and residents
Collaborating with all teams (marketing, leasing, management) to stay cohesive

Why It’s Our Pick:

The IRP (ideal resident profile) should dominate your marketing research. Find out who they are, and that will likely tell you what they like, don’t like and how they want to be approached. Can you say “marketing gold?”

WEDNESDAY, MAY 8

Differentiating Your Communities in a Rapidly Evolving Market

10:15 AM – 11:15 AM
Speakers:
Kaley Rafferty, Olympus Property, Senior Marketing Manager

Kyra Lambo, EQR, AVP, National Marketing

Lauren Carpenter, UDR, Inc., Sales Initiatives Manager

Jesse Stein, Airbnb, Head of Real Estate

Carol Enoch, Enoch & Co., CEO

Expected Takeaways:

Explore vendor-driven strategies to stand out
Enhance resident satisfaction through rewards programs
Optimize space and amenity rentals
Boost loyalty through tech engagement

Why It’s Our Pick:

If you want to survive, you have to stand out. Differentiation isn’t just a fun word. It’s vital to stay in the game!

Bees and Biodiversity: The Future of Multifamily ESG

11:15 AM – 12:00 PM

Speaker:
Noah Wilson-Rich, The Best Bees Company, Co-Founder and CEO

Expected Takeaways:

How to attract residents that care about sustainability and the environment—through bees
Bring ESG to life in commercial real estate
Honey from a hive maintained in commercial real estate (!)

Why It’s Our Pick:
The next generation of residents cares deeply about the earth. Bees are key in keeping it going, producing food, by pollinating our fruits/vegetables. Plus: HONEY!

AIM 2024 Speaker Picks

Michelle Moriello – VP, Digital Marketing, GID/Windsor Communities

Speaking on:
May 6, 2024
1:10-1:50pm
Opening Keynote: “The Investment Case for Branding and Customer Experience: Hotelier Lessons from Hampton by Hilton”

Why we picked this speaker:

25 years in multifamily? Incredible. Michelle’s our pick not only because she’s one of the keynote speakers, but also because she’s making a case for branding. We’re stoked to see what she says!

Elizabeth Carton – VP, Marketing, Rangewater Real Estate

Speaking on:
“Branding…….It’s NOT a Game(show)”
May 6, 2024
4:15-5:00pm

Why we picked this speaker:

As VP of Marketing for Rangewater, Elizabeth Carton is The Boss for creative and strategic marketing. Additionally, she’s worked in healthcare and property management, which gives her breadth of knowledge—from parallel and outside industries—a little more complexity.

2024 Must-Visit Sponsors

Zipcode Creative – Besides coming to see us at the Zipcode Creative lounge, there are few other folks we think you’d enjoy talking with—not only are they friendly, but they also have awesome solutions for apartment marketers. (P.S. Our services partner really well with theirs.)

Will You Sign My Yearbook?!

Our lounge at AIM is going to be totally boring. NOT!
???????????? Get ready to get 90s up in here! ????????????

Stop by our booth (25) at the Ocean Lounge to take an instant photo, paste it in the book, and sign your name with gel pens. Check your email or LinkedIn to nominate people for “most likely to” and other superlatives awards! We’ll be taking votes for awards through April 30!

OTHERS TO VISIT

Engrain – Their interactive sitemaps are awesome—many of our clients supply our beautiful 2D map files to them as a starting point. (It’s all coming together.)

HyLy – Email and templates to reach your ideal resident? Hyly’s got it—and the branding we design for you is easy to fold in with their CRM system.

Connect
and
Apartment Geofencing – After we’re done making your branding beautiful, you can get on the advertising train with super-smart digital ads, getting in front of exactly who you want.

LCP Media – Visual branding—beyond your shiny new logo from us—needs beautiful photography to round out your marketing collateral. Enter: Show My Property.

Social Kapture – Steadily creating your community brand is easier with Social Kapture, with custom content and smart social media strategies. Establish your brand here and it will work hand-in-hand with your digital and physical collateral.

FOR WEBSITES

Branded sites (with brand style that we help you establish) can make way for gorgeous websites with any of these partners. Plus, they’ll play nice with PMS!

30 Lines

Digible

Resi – our go-to partner for *custom* sites (with our branding expertise)

Repli

Organizing Your 2024 AIM Schedule

Feel a little overwhelmed? Just grab a pen, and start circling what you need to see and who you need to talk to. It’ll be okay.

If you’re a first-timer, go to the First Timer Meet Up (Sunday, 4-5pm and Monday, 7:45-8:45am) with Tamela Coval.
If you’re hungry, head to a breakfast roundtable each morning (7:45-8:45am) and grab lunch from 11:45am-1pm.
If you’re a night owl, definitely don’t miss the hosted vendor partner entertainment Monday evening (plus networking from 9-11pm)!
If you’re itching for a connection, check out the networking breaks each day from 9:45-10:15am.

There are a few breaks built in, so you can gather your thoughts and check those emails in between sessions. Just pace yourself and make a plan!

Special Evening Events

Sunday
Ola Mexican
Cinco de Mayo Celebration / Annual Open Networking Dinner
7pm
Seating Limited, Email or DM Kristi Fickert to RSVP

Within walking distance of the hotel, join in for a non-sponsored Cinco de Mayo networking dinner!

This is open to ANYONE attending AIM – supplier, marketer, trainer, operator, c-suite exec, owner…we have zero requirements to attend because we know the best conversations happen when we all have a seat at the table!

Monday

Bear Flag Fish Co
6-10pm
Come and go as you please, drop in for a drink and apps before your other events OR hang for the night with us at this low-key patio with a view of the beach!

Contact Stacey if interested in attending.

Tuesday

Nautical Nights – Yacht Party

By Invite Only!
6-9pm
Contact Stacey if interested in attending.

Hop on and sail in style on the Motor Yacht Mojo, departing from Newport Beach. Enjoy passed appetizers and dinner, and don’t forget to pose for the perfect influencer photo while aboard the Mojo.

*There will be an In-N-Out Food Truck Tuesday for lunch at AIM from 12-1pm. Don’t miss it!!

Photorealistic Renderings—A Game Changer for New Development Leasing

Written by Stacey Feeney on April 21, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

On the back of a napkin, a quick sketch. In Microsoft Paint, a quick pixel-by-pixel outline of a future blueprint. A developed architectural drawing of the elevation. And today: A soft-ware generated, photorealistic rendering for multifamily marketing.

What does it all mean?

We’ve come a long way, for one!

Photorealistic renderings create 3D images of a project design. Those images are based on 3D models. The computer software is used to first create a virtual model of the building structure(s) and then light, texture, and the environment around it is introduced—think plants, the sky, people.

Photorealistic renderings in multifamily marketing provide near-perfect ideals of interiors and exteriors of apartment communities.

Because of Stacey’s (Zipcode Creative’s founder) background in professional architectural photography, photorealistic renderings are our jam. Not because they’re not real photos, but because they capture the ultimate for a project.

Photorealistic renderings have the capacity to bring a project fully to life, getting it out of the designer’s head, and in front of the residents’ eyes. It showcases the design, like never before—especially when you incorporate 360 views.

Power of Photorealistic Renderings

Your prospective residents may just want to come “kick the tires”—but what if your building isn’t built yet? A new development can certainly gain some power of persuasion through photorealistic renderings thanks to both 1) accuracy and 2) efficacy.

ACCURACY

Remove uncertainty in your prospects’ minds by accurately displaying where they’ll eventually live—right down to the way the sun shines in the window on the tufted couch in the clubhouse.

CONTROL

What’s even better is the amount of control you can execute over the image. You control the lighting, the weather, and the surroundings. No random pieces of trash blowing by, or a hose that wasn’t put away. Ideal!

EFFICACY

With improved visualization (how’d you get that perfect shot?) you can use the images for any phase of your apartment marketing: pre-leasing? Check. Long-term marketing when you’re working on retention? Also check. The images you get through photorealistic renderings are the ideal shot.

With 2D drawings or plans, only a portion of your prospects can “see” it—sometimes it falls short or gives the wrong idea. But with photorealistic renderings, your prospective residents are able to visualize every piece of the community because it’s right in front of them.

Building Trust Through Realism

Potential residents’ trust can increase when you use photorealistic renderings for your multifamily marketing. Blurring the line between real and fake, your residents feel more confident in leasing since what they see in the rendering is typically what they can truly expect.

Plus, if you’re seeking out investors for a new construction, photorealistic renderings are the icing on the cake. Investors love to see a finished product—and it shows how seriously you’re taking the construction and execution of your beautiful new community.

Enhance Online Search Experience

If you’re a prospect and you search for an apartment community in Plano, Texas, for example, and you see there’s a new community, that might pique your interest. If you click and there are no images whatsoever, that may be a problem. Or worse—a few photos of empty rooms and a lackluster clubhouse with a single folding chair.

Using a rendering can help the online search experience go far more smoothly. Add some visuals, and your resident will be able to picture themselves there—because it looks real!

TYPES OF RENDERINGS

There are a few different kinds of photorealistic renderings, each with a slightly different purpose.
Photorealistic still renderings – These look like photographs of the interior or exterior.

VR Walk through tours – Prospects can digitally tour the property in an online search.

Each of these types of renderings offer a powerful prospect experience. This is particularly true with pre-leasing new constructions. In your early branding efforts as well as in your pre-leasing marketing, these renderings can help you seal the deal. If you get a jump on your branding over a year in advance, and get your marketing up to snuff for pre-leasing, you could feasibly get the first units leased before they’re even delivered. Pure magic.

You can read more about apartment branding by development phase here.

Investment and Returns

Photorealistic renderings for multifamily are amazing—but they come with a significant cost: from $800-$3000 per image for large exterior rendering. The financial investment is likely worth it for your community, though. In seeing the dividends with how many ways you can use it (thanks to its long lifespan): in brochures, on your website, in your virtual tours, as hero images for your giant banners. Count up the number of leases you may be able to get signed by using this technology and take a long look at that marketing budget.

Our Experience with Photorealistic Images

As software improves and the line between real and fake gets blurrier, finding the best artists is necessary—at Zipcode, we handpick our photorealistic artists to ensure you get a top-quality results. With Stacey’s experience in architectural photography (who knows and hates a bad photo), photorealistic renderings in new development leasing are the next frontier.

By investing in high-quality photorealistic renderings for multifamily—literally handing your residents the picture of their ideal community—could put you far ahead of your competitors.

Branding Adaptable Reuse Multifamily Developments

Written by Stacey Feeney on April 15, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding.

The advent of adaptive reuse multifamily developments is now.

But what is adaptive reuse—and why is it suddenly popular? Adaptive reuse is redevelopment that takes an existing structure and adapts it for another use. In multifamily developments, this can look like a partially remodeled historic hospital converted into a mid-rise apartment community. (The project also employed new ground-up development.) Adaptive reuse has become more popular thanks to its sustainable ideals—reusing existing structures is practical both financially and ecologically.

Mark Twain is often attributed with saying, “Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.” This can go two ways—use what you have or buy up more land. But…

“Use what you have” is behind this movement. That idea can also, luckily, be applied to branding—use the history of the building to create a brand story that will capture your residents.

Adaptive Reuse: Multifamily

Adaptive reuse for multifamily holds a few benefits over new construction in its ability to appeal to the newest wave of prospects along with residential developers—if you play it right.

AFTER SAVING TIME AND MONEY

By taking an existing building, you might avoid pouring footings, foundations, structural bits and (sometimes) masonry. This could cut down on construction time, allowing you to open for leasing sooner. Those same footings, foundations, and structural pieces that you’re not building could also save you some money.

Remodeling and renovating certainly have costs associated (think rezoning, or a possible need to gut the building), but depending on the condition of the building you’re adapting to reuse, your multifamily community could be sitting in a comfier place. Any construction savings could be funneled into beautiful branding and over-the-top amenities to draw your residents in.

APPEAL TO GEN Z

Speaking of drawing residents in, the next wave of renters is here. Time to brand your multifamily community for Gen Z. The reasons Gen Z would like a space aligns pretty closely with how adaptive reuse functions:

Eco-friendly – Taking what’s already there will cut down on fossil fuels needed—if you start from scratch, you’re redoing work that didn’t need to be done.

Sustainable: Cities are getting more crowded with population growth as well as housing prices ever outpacing income levels. Going up instead of sprawling out makes sense. And using buildings that exist will be faster and more sustainable than building brand-new.

Meaning behind the Multifamily community: What was the building before? A hotel? A hospital? A school? Taking a building that’s served a separate purpose and using it for housing offers up so much meaning to a segment of prospective residents—meaning that deep is hard to resist.

APPEAL TO RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPERS

Remember when we talked about 2024 trends in multifamily? Was adaptive reuse on your bingo card?
“Adaptive reuse will be an ongoing build and design trend in 2024,” says Esther Sperber, founder and CEO of ST Architects. “It is more sustainable to reuse existing structures than building from the ground up. Reusing old warehouses, factories, etc., will continue to appeal to residential developers in 2024 and beyond.”

Traditional, new construction might take more time and more money to create. A residential developer is interested in how urban dwellers will interact with the space—because they’re the end-user. And when Gen Z is interested in sustainability and meaning, adaptive reuse fits the bill and makes more sense as an investment.

History—the STORY behind the Brand

Meaning. It has to come from somewhere, whether it’s created, or simply needs to be tapped into. With adaptive reuse multifamily buildings, it’s not drawn out of the ether. It comes with the territory! The story is in the walls, lived a thousand different ways already. Finding the piece that connects with your ideal resident is what you’re missing. When you find it, draw it out into the branding (using it as the structure for your brand both literally and figuratively.)

TELL THE STORY OF ITS HISTORY

Telling the story you’ve uncovered in the building can enrapture your audience—your ideal resident. Learn more about the building’s previous use. Get information on the history. Identify the building’s architectural style. Read up on the current events of its hey-day. Use everything you can to create the story of your building’s brand.

Now, select the highlights of those historical elements and tie them into your branding. Architecture can inform the brand style. History can inform your amenity names. Your logos, your signage, everywhere your brand appears, you can take inspo from the building’s history. Be choosy with what you’re diving into—not everything is viable to be public-facing. But go deep and find out everything you can, so you have enough to go off of.

This is especially true of your apartment’s name. Find a name that can work with the history, not conflict with it, or ignore it. Lean in, and create intrigue. And when your residents do move in, give them a gift that goes with the building. Old hotel? Give them a hotel style keychain. Old school? Give them some branded No. 2 pencils. Previous warehouse? Do a giveaway based on what used to be produced or stored there.

STORYTELLING

Continue the thread through your community’s content and copy. Your tagline, headlines, mission, vision, values. Your website copy—this is where you storytelling gets to draw on history. While it doesn’t write itself, the structure is there, just like the building. The best part about using history to tell the story is the creativity and authenticity. When drawing inspiration from an actual place in the past, one can connect with the ideal residents to create a brand that’s never been seen before, and will never be seen again!

Brand Vibe and Personality

How does one capture the vibe and personality of a historical building? What if it was a warehouse? Ask deeper, bigger questions: What time period was the building built in? When was it in use? What kinds of items did it store? Who worked there, and were there any stories told about them? What major events happened when it was open and functional? (Wars? Riots? Parades? World fairs?)

ADAPTIVE REUSE BRANDING EXAMPLE

Rather than continuing to talk about the how and why, let’s break for recess, and take a look at an example.

Ivywild, a Colorado Springs marketplace with eats, drinks, and shops, is housed in an elementary school that closed in 2009. The communal atmosphere that developed was supported by the neighborhood, especially because it maintained a historic facade and revitalized a structure that could have otherwise stood empty, or worse, become a public eyesore. Our favorite part? “The Principal’s Office” cocktail bar. Clever. The school’s roman-columned facade is part of the logomark. One of the restaurants was housed in a short yellow school bus out front.

Though this is an adjacent industry, the multifamily realm could just as easily rise to the occasion, to bring historical buildings back into the limelight. (Take inspiration where you can get it!)

Why Adaptive Reuse Multifamily Branding?

We’re very much of the thought that you should brand everything. When it comes to adaptable reuse, this is the best possible opportunity for a brand—it’s fun, intriguing and has an outline already. The history is there, waiting for you to spin it into a yarn. Getting creative with it, no one will have the same story as you. Adaptive reuse in multifamily could be the next big thing. Save money, save time, attract GenZ-ers, appeal to residential developers, and be a little greener.

Build it and they will come?
More like: Adapt it and they will come.

Reach out to Zipcode Creative: Storytelling experts with copywriting that converts and branding that beautifies.

Corporate Rebrand for Property Management Companies

Written by Stacey Feeney on April 6, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding.

Time for a property management corporate rebrand, multifamily marketer? Perhaps the whole marketing team is in on the idea. It’s been in the works, you’ve collected preliminary quotes, estimated a possible budget, but now: you need to get the rest of the team on board.

Let’s carefully talk through why and how to get them on board.
You’ll need to grab the people that matter, consider the competition, and present some proposals you’ve collected. But first, let’s do a quick overview of corporate branding.

Multifamily Corporate Branding Guide

WHAT IS CORPORATE BRANDING?

Your multifamily company’s corporate side is a brand, too. Corporate branding, at its simplest, is creating and adhering to a visual and verbal brand identity for owners and operators, developers, and third-party management.

WHY IS CORPORATE BRANDING IMPORTANT?

Do you want to:

Make a name for yourself?
Grow?
Attract investors?

With solid corporate branding, all of that will be a lot easier. Your reputation can grow (positively), your consistency will create a basis of trust for investors, and your apartment communities may become a well-oiled leasing machine.

According to G2, consistent brand presentation across all platforms increases revenue by up to 10-20%. Capture that ROI with a rebrand that makes everything more streamlined for those inside your company—and those looking at it from the outside!

HOW DO WE EXECUTE A CORPORATE REBRAND?

Branding starts with asking the right questions:

Who is your primary target audience?

Investors?
Owners seeking third-party management?
Residents in your communities?

Your answer here determines your next branding steps; branding is built around who you’re serving—and why you’re the best one to serve them.

What is your company’s main goal?

Develop and manage communities until leased up and then sell?
Be resident-facing with a mini-ILS of your property portfolio?
Acquire properties and rehab them for long-term hold?

Your answer to this question will determine the tasks and steps you need to take to achieve your main goal.

How Much Attention Do You Want or Need?

Are you more behind-the-scenes?
Do you want to be known and recognized?

Depending on how you want to appear or want to be known, you’ll have to work on visibility and consistency more carefully if you’ll be more “out-front”. If you’re behind-the-scenes, you can turn down the amount of collateral you need. Any branding can still help with consistent company culture—which will come through in any interaction.

Take each of those bits and outline your next steps—do you need a new logo? A brand voice? A visual identity? A new mission and vision? Every branding guideline you cement now will help you stay clear and consistent in everything you choose to do for your brand in the future. (It definitely helps if you hire professionals, like Zipcode Creative.)

Now for the fun part: Getting everyone else on board. Grab your corporate branding “What, Why, and How” (see above!), and put it into a slide deck.

And THEN:

Steps To Get Your Team Onboard for A Corporate Rebrand

1. Gather Your Corporate Stakeholders

Everyone that’s necessary should be in the room where it happens. If they have decision-making power or vetoing power or both—they should be included in the process. A quick checklist of the most-wanted VIPs that should be invited to participate in your corporate rebranding:

Executives
Owners
Marketing Team (everyone!)

Executives have the ultimate power here. What they say goes. Of course, they’ve helped assemble the team, so they should be open to new ideas, especially when it’s backed by logic and possible ROI. (Plus—a better brand attracts better talent. According to Firstpost, 75% of job applicants say they evaluate employer brand and reputation before applying.)

The Marketing Team is the brains behind this corporate rebrand (yep, we’re heavy-handed with the flattery here). They see what’s going on in and outside of the industry, and they’re ready to make a move, but need a little more buy-in before they can sign the contract. They should be the main points of contact with any agency helping with the rebrand, too.

2. Showcase The Competition

Next, find a competitor that has executed a successful rebrand—one that you like. Definitely choose one example inside the multifamily industry so it feels like you’re comparing apples to apples, and not something far beyond the achievable—and then choose one in an adjacent industry, like commercial real estate or hospitality to show some fresh ideas.

When you showcase these branding strategies, highlight specific aspects and the reason behind its success. Then connect it with your corporate goals.

Employing visuals and case studies will also help bring home the point: If you were to rebrand your corporate side, you may be able to achieve the goals (higher retention) you’ve set out to accomplish. If nothing else, you’ve at least broached the topic, and this will set you up for further discussions around branding.

3. Prep For Next Steps

You’ve gathered the crew and you’ve shown off what thoughtful branding has done for the competition. When your stakeholders ask, “What now?” it’s your chance to jump into action.

Bring the proposals you’ve gathered from agencies you admire. Talk about their history, experience, and what they’ve said they can do for you—and at what cost. Outline how the investment in this now will help you reap dividends later.

Next, refer to relevant articles about rebranding. Send out links to webinars that outline the purpose, goals, and success from companies who have rebranded. Offer up our guide (see above!) with the what, how, and why of corporate branding.

Our team at Zipcode Creative helped Edison47 with a new custom corporate website with the goal of growth into third-party management. We enhanced the brand with clearer messaging and developed a visual identity, to better showcase their expanded offerings and capabilities and to build on the company culture they’d created.

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A corporate rebrand is an all-hands-on-deck situation—we’re happy to help bring you to the discussion and decision zone with your stakeholders, and walk you through what a rebrand could look like (and do) for your corporate side. Reach out today!

Happy Maintenance Appreciation Month

Written by Stacey Feeney on March 31, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

It’s Maintenance Appreciation month!

In the background of your apartment crew, and as the backbone of your community, your maintenance crew needs a little appreciation! They keep things running smoothly, often on call for your residents anytime there’s a repair needed. Thanks to their timely and tip-top service, your residents can keep calling home “home”.

The time to celebrate them is today—make sure they’re credited for the hard work they do, and that your brand story isn’t told without them. (If you’re looking for resident appreciation, check here!)

Put a Face to the Maintenance Name

Are residents unfamiliar with your maintenance crew? Not anymore!

HIGHLIGHT MAINTENANCE IN MARKETING

If you haven’t already, start highlighting your maintenance staff with your leasing staff in your marketing. Everyone is part of the team, and they’re just as important to your community’s success. Showing them on your marketing, in brochures, or on the website as part of the team helps create familiarity for newer residents, prospects, or even for residents that haven’t needed maintenance repairs yet.

HUMANIZE YOUR MAINTENANCE CREW

Walking through the grounds of the community, residents will feel more comfortable when they recognize the folks who are taking care of the building and the grounds. It humanizes every one of your maintenance crew, and it helps them feel more accessible to your residents. They know who is likely coming to their apartment when they request service. That kind of connection can only be built up through authenticity and familiarity, which you can create by including them in your marketing.

Build Your Brand Story with Maintenance Appreciation

HELP TELL THE STORY

The story of your brand isn’t a single page. It’s a multitude of stories that all come together to create a tapestry of experiences. This includes your maintenance crew. Sharing about them firms up the story of your brand that you’re already telling. It shows what you value, and what you prioritize. When you connect their story with your history, mission, and/or values, you can get engagement from your prospects, and loyalty from your current residents. Telling a story is something that appeals to the masses—it’s not just about problems and solutions, it’s about the people who are helping solve those problems (and why they’re passionate about it).

SOLIDIFY YOUR BRAND PERCEPTION

If your brand is perceived positively, congratulations, you have a brand to protect and push forward. If your brand is thought of negatively, you have your work cut out for you. Either way, highlighting your maintenance shows where your priorities lie:

You care about the residents and their comfort
You value your staff (every one!) and want to keep everyone happy with quick maintenance fixes

How to Show Maintenance Appreciation

It’s not quite enough to post about maintenance staff on socials and include them on your team page or About Us page. Make sure you show your appreciation for maintenance with something tangible, too. (Think gifts!)

MAINTENANCE APPRECIATION GIFT IDEAS

Appreciating your maintenance team isn’t quite as simple as a thank you note—but a handwritten note of thanks would go really well with these gifts for your maintenance crew, who have gone above and beyond:

Branded swag (something they can use!)
Amazon gift cards to let them do the shopping
Beer or liquor to enjoy on their off days
Extra PTO—speaking of off days, this is a fantastic thanks for hard work or extra hours put in
New tools to make their work easier

If gifts aren’t really the best way to show it, then throw them a party! At the party, you can hand out awards, and even involve your residents to help show appreciation, since residents have the most to be thankful for when it comes to maintenance. Once you connect residents and maintenance, your community will be stronger for it—jokes exchanged and bonding over a party will help solidify the positive culture you’re working so hard to keep (or create).

MAINTENANCE AWARD IDEAS

In order to really recognize your crew going above and beyond—give out awards! Based on performance and dedication, you can determine the best categories and criteria. Here are a few of our ideas:

Jack of All Trades – A maintenance person who always goes above and beyond to resolve resident issues quickly and effectively
Handyman Hero – Someone who takes pride in their craftsmanship and shows exceptional skill
Customer Service Champ – Resident satisfaction scores always skyrocket after this maintenance staff member completes their work
Team Player Award – Someone who is willing to jump into any maintenance problem to help out
Innovator of the Year – Solutions outside of the box are the norm for this staff member
Safety Star – For this maintenance crew member, safety protocols are the name of the game
Rookie of the Year – Newbie alert! This staff member has made huge strides in their work in the community in a short amount of time
Lifetime Achievement Award – If a staff member has been around for a long while, unwavering in their dedication and service, this is the award for them

FREEBIE ALERT!

Submit this form and we’ll send you the downloadable award certificate graphics!

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Your maintenance crew helps your apartment community be successful. It’s not the most glamorous job, but without a leaking tub fix or an air conditioner serviced on a hot day, your reviews might go down and your reputation can suffer.

Your maintenance crew works hard—be sure to formally appreciate them this month (and any other month you like)!

Apartment Logo Design – Branding Ground-Up Developments

Written by Stacey Feeney on March 24, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding. 1 Comment on Apartment Logo Design – Branding Ground-Up Developments

Let’s talk apartment logo design. Logos are more than a symbol—they state something, particularly in multifamily brands.

In this blog, we’ll let you into our creative process for logo design for new developments.

First, we provide multiple design options (with a little insight into the process and inspiration behind them) and the client gives us feedback.

In a typical process, we’ll hear from the owners, the developers, and the marketers. They all have a different valuable vantage point regarding how the designs may land with their ideal resident profile.

And we have a pretty good vantage point, too, that we always work to share with the client. One example: The photo-realistic rendering. We get to show them what the property looks like to give context to the rest of the artistic choices we made. Once they understand the property build and interior design, the rest of the brand strategy can start to fall into place, and make sense from the inside-out (or the outside in)

As the designers and brand creators we then corral all the opinions into one, cohesive brand that would resonate with their target resident.

Developers and Branding

When working through branding for a new development, we have a lot of voices, opinions, and ideas, as we mentioned. There are pitfalls to branding, and you’ll have to take care to not fall into the these traps as the stakeholder:

Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

Okay, we know it’s usually “cooks” but if we get too many voices and opinions, it’s going to be even harder to land on a consensus where everyone feels heard and happy. Find the most important opinions, and allow those to have more weight.

Missing the Forest for the Trees

Details are important. But when we’re creating a brand vibe, it’s the overall, overarching, general idea and feeling behind the images, the colors, and the textures. Please: Don’t throw out the entire idea because you’re not a fan of one stock image we chose.

Bottom line here? We know that developers have their finger on the pulse of the building—the product. And while we certainly take inspiration from the building itself, and the physical space and architecture, the marketers and designers should be given space to position the brand well.

Initial Concepts

With every brand development, we create preliminary brand style vibes for logo design. Whichever concept is chosen is then further developed into a fully fledged brand. Every concept leans on a different aspect of the information we’ve collected through research and discovery with the client:

Demographic (age, gender, marital status)
Location (Where’s the community, and what is the base-level of amenities provided?)
Jobs / Hobbies (Do they work nearby? Blue collar? White collar? What do they do in their free time?)
Purchasing Habits (Luxury vs. bargain; Research vs. Spend-Happy)

Each of these demographics are viable options to inform the brand vibe we create with the logo, palette, textures and photos. Here, we explore the inspo, the vibe, and the client feedback that guided the ultimate decision. (And yes, we’ll reveal the “winner” at the end!)

Seabird

The new community development is an actual luxury, Class-A property with all the bells and whistles. We created a palm-bird logo mark and a relaxed, but trim vibe. The typography in the logo has all the makings of a private beach kind of style, but wasn’t ultimately deemed seaworthy by our stakeholders.

La Boheme—at the Beach

Ripples and light dancing in the water. The tickle of pampas grass and palms. Sand. Miles of it. And crystal clear water. With natural beachy colors as well as a strong, but elegant sweep through the logo’s font, this concept was meant to feel like a Florida coastal vacation, but forever.

Eclectic Edge

Deep purples, A little haze. Plenty of dogs. A little early 90s combos of purple and blue. High contrast. And very much not bright blue, and no palm tree in the logo. We went counter to what was expected and did something different—a more abstract and lighthearted approach.

Lines in the Sand

The warmth of sand, the cool of tile, the weightlessness in pools, the evaporation of water droplets from your skin. This one is a whole feeling. Stripes make it preppy, playful dogs bring it levity. The light, yet bold typography in the logo is meant to appeal to both the young and the young-at-heart.

Grey’s Sun

Grey blue. A little chill in the air. Clean. So clean. This concept welcomed the viewer to fill in the blanks. Showing texture in design rather than photos. Showing part of an arch instead of the full picture.

The Selected Direction: La Playa

Winner, winner, beachside dinner! This one was by far the most playful. Social gatherings, happy sunkissed dogs, with plenty of simplicity to show off the “easy life”. A few angles and a few interesting shadows show the interplay between night and day, while the organic textures and shapes recall a more improvised approach to life.

Feedback:

Further development and expansion on this one resulted in a beautiful brand that stood out, had an eye-catching logo, and worked to for the IRP the stakeholders wanted to reach.

Final Brand Style (and How…and Why)

Aspire Naples, which offers a breezy, idyllic lifestyle is dedicated to be the best to appeal to a community full of culture and curiosity. The youthfulness of the logo along with the combined brightness, yet earthiness or the color palette is one that will appeal to a wide range of residents.

Breaking up the word on the logo mark creates a modern feel, while the curve of the typography keeps it from being too stark. The (mis)alignment is playful and the black color keeps it clean.

Using modern and softened approaches for the logo meant the brand’s visual direction and vibe could, too. Pulling some old and some new ideas kept it balanced, particularly for reaching their wide demographic.

By incorporating seemingly opposed elements (curved font and sans serif, black and white, organic materials and sharp shadow) the Aspire Naples brand captures the essence of a life filled with spontaneity and joy—one for residents to also aspire to.

Branding for Gen Z at Multifamily Social Media Summit 2024

Written by Stacey Feeney on March 18, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding, Marketing.

At the Multifamily Social Media Summit 2024, multiple speakers are talking on how to attract Gen Z. Do you speak Gen Z’s language? Do you know what makes them tick…is TikTok really the only way?

Understanding how Gen Z interacts with brands—in this case, apartment brands—is integral to attracting them as a lead and capturing them as a resident. Your brand should work towards that goal. Understanding, creating strategies, crafting an experience, and building community through engagement are all part of the puzzle. The key here: 76% of Gen Z consumers state that they like to buy from brands that stand for a greater mission or purpose. That alone should tell you a lot about what they want from you—and how, in branding for Gen Z, you can make it clear to them.

Understanding Gen Z Residents

Gen Zers are independent thinkers. According to Forbes, “Gen-Z is well-known for holding deep convictions and high ethical standards.” They prioritize diversity and inclusion and are focused on maintaining both their mental health and keeping their finances in the black.

GEN Z FAST FACTS

Currently Ages ~12-27 (born 1997-2012)
Prefers access over ownership (streaming vs. CDs)
Attracted to brands with a story or purpose
Values social and political involvement; racial and social justice; sustainability
Spend 6+ hours daily on phone; check online for reviews before purchases; TikTok is the #1 app
Racially and ethnically diverse
Have completed more education than previous generations
Have the most pessimistic outlook of the future and highest prevalence of mental illness

(Sources: McKinsey; Pew Research; Forbes)

VALUE AND VALUES

Because of Gen Z’s situation in life, they’re prone to look for value (bang for their buck) and values (companies that share their care for social and environmental causes). Your apartment community must align with, or at least consider, Gen Z’s values and preferences as they create their branding. This is particularly true as Gen Z gets older, moves out of the house and into the city, works toward building a career, and looks for a home—which could be at your community.

Strategies in Branding for Gen Z

Being an authentic brand, meeting Gen Z where they are, and focusing on sharing values with them will help you reach this new generation of residents. Here’s how:

AUTHENTICITY

Gen Z will see right through your barely-propped-up values statement. You’ll have to state and act on the things that your community cares about, with full proof. Being an authentic brand is more than a mission/vision/values page. It’s the events you create, the companies you partner with, and the way that you celebrate specific holidays. Transparency is key here, because they’re going to see through you anyway. Your heart has to match your appearance! Need a little homework? See our 6 Steps to Authentic Branding in Multifamily here.

GO WHERE THEY ARE: SOCIALS

Screen time knows no limits with Gen Z. Get in front of them with social ads and a full-on social media strategy. At the Multifamily Social Media Summit 2024 we’re looking forward to a specific talk on Gen Z and TikTok. Use the info to your advantage and find a way to meet Gen Z where they are.

GO GREEN

“The earth is failing and humans are to blame.” — this could be said by practically any Gen Zer. The factors of zero waste and sustainability are huge in the Gen Z generation. How will your brand address this? What kind of sustainability measures is your community putting in place? Walking the walk here will especially get you brownie points with Gen Z. Living somewhere that shares your values is a kind of heartwarming feeling that could extend into the signing of a lease. (“They know what I care about most! They know me! This is home!”)

Create a Community Through Experiences (Sell a Feeling!)

Creating a branded experience is one thing. Creating a branded experience that actually resonates with Gen Z is an entirely other thing—and it could eventually create the culture of community in your apartments.

THE EXPERIENCE OF AMENITIES AND SOCIAL SPACES

Amenities and spaces must work within the values framework you’ve built. Because Gen Zers crave authenticity when interacting with brands, creating social spaces and community amenities that feel in line with what you prioritize will be important. For example, offering a coworking space as well as flexible home office space in your apartments could be helpful for a community brand that wants to support the next wave of entrepreneurs.

TECHNOLOGICAL INTERACTION

Technological and digital updates or experiences you can add to the community can make you stand out among the competition. Gen Zers expect things to happen quickly, at the touch of a button. Having a beautiful website with branded messaging and aligned aesthetics makes it a full experience from home page to home sweet home.

Additionally, as Gen Zers spend more time on TikTok than any other group (and more time on their phones than most) work on leveraging user-generated content, get some hashtags going, and consider partnering with influencers to create a real-life feel to get more brand engagement from this target market.

As for digital marketing, make it personal. According to marketing tech company, SheerID, Gen Zers want personalized ads (preferred by 81% of Gen Zers vs. just 57% of Millennials). So start segmenting.

BUILDING COMMUNITY

Your resident events and activities can speak volumes about your values—where your priorities are. Remember how we talked about being eco-conscious or zero-waste? Host a Fix-it Fair, or offer up electronics recycling a few times each year. Create fun resident events and activities that are centered around volunteering for the community.

Most of all:

Start rethinking your branding strategies to attract the next wave of residents. Get branding for Gen Z—be authentic, be personable, and live out the values you claim to have as a brand.

(And probably don’t fake it till you make it. They’ll just know.)

Multifamily Social Media Summit 2024 Guide for Creative Marketers

Written by Stacey Feeney on March 10, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Marketing. 1 Comment on Multifamily Social Media Summit 2024 Guide for Creative Marketers

Multifamily marketers, the 2024 MSMS (Multifamily Social Media Summit) is just around the corner! We look forward to it every year. Attending a conference can be a huge investment, and planning out your personal schedule can help you see everything you want, and help you prioritize which after-hours events will help you make the connections your company needs most. As much as we love the literal wining and dining that comes with attending a conference in Napa Valley, there’s a wealth of multifamily knowledge to tap that could (maybe?) be more complex than the cabs here.

Make the most of attending 2024 MSMS with our super-quick picks of the best topics, speakers, and sponsors we think you should add to your must-see list.

Thankfully, MSMS is set up in a way that you won’t miss a session—you don’t necessarily have to pick a track and jump back and forth between agendas. The group stays together! If however, you need to grab a nap, a snack, or get a little fresh air, you can follow our guidance and go see the speakers and topics we think will be most helpful for thoughtful branding and top-notch marketing of your communities.

Multifamily Social Media Summit 2024 Top Topics

The 2024 agenda for MSMS is full of Gen Z-focused social media strategy and plenty of discussion of AI—how it can help (and we’d assume, how it might not).

Keynote speaker Jay Acunzo is a creative coach, author, and his mission is to “help others make what matters.” (Sounds like we might have something in common with him!)

Also, given that we’re focused on apartment brands, the other topics we’re most interested in seeing are:

How to Reimagine Storytelling for your Multifamily Properties to Increase Engagement, Drive Growth and Social Search

Workshop #4

Wednesday, March 20

4:45-5:30pm

With Lindsay Calabrese, General Manager, Creator Network at the Arena Group

Expected Takeaway:

Discover influential residents to collaborate and co-create together for mutual growth
Creative ways to partner with local small businesses to increase community engagement
Create engaging content to dominate social search

Why It’s Our Pick:
As an apartment brand-focused creative agency, we know copywriting is at the heart of your verbal identity. Finding new ways to creatively tell your brand’s story, quite simply, excites us!

The Urge to Act: How to Stop Shouting into the Void and Get Bigger Results with Content that Connects

Keynote

Thursday, March 21

9:15-10am

With Jay Acunzo, Cofounder, Creative Kitchen

Expected Takeaway:

How to compete on the power of your ideas, not the volume of your content
A storytelling structure to amp the efficacy of your words, wherever you show up
How to produce higher-impact content, without magically adding resources

Why It’s Our Pick:

Finding a way to connect with every segment of residents and leads is vital to a brand’s bottom line. Producing content that provides quality over quantity is a lesson anyone can draw from.

Google Tips and Strategies

Friday, March 22

11-11:45am

With Riva Akolawala, Account Manager, Google

Expected Takeaway:

Learn which key metrics to look for when assessing ads campaigns
What 3rd party Cookie deprecation in 2024 means for advertising
Enhanced Conversions FAQ
Best Practices for Google Ads: which assets and creative to use

Why It’s Our Pick:

Google continues to be the key to a powerful online presence, but using Google Ads can be overwhelming. With some guidance, your brand could capture your target resident using paid search.

Multifamily Social Media Summit 2024 Speaker Picks

There are a few to choose from, but these were the ones that stood out to us!
Our picks have a variety of experience, both steeped in the multifamily industry, and in parallel industries. We pulled the following speaker’s bios straight from the 2024 MSMS website:

A 15-year industry professional, Alex Abernathy serves as Executive Vice President at Asset Living. His primary responsibility is overseeing global portfolio marketing efforts with both centralized national and specialized regional teams. Asset Living’s Marketing Service is a vital component of their company vision – continuing to serve our industry, communities, and partners as the most trusted partner in real estate. Asset Living employs over 7,000 real estate professionals and operates over 1,600 communities which consists of over 230,000 units.

Alex’s experience includes Multifamily, Student, Build-To-Rent, Affordable, Co-Living, and Active Adult, with industry knowledge and experience spanning 200+ real estate markets nationwide and international markets including Canada, Mexico, UK, Bahamas, Colombia, and UAE. Additionally, Alex dedicated two years to transforming a Houston-based software development firm into a full-service digital product / marketing agency, Poetic, specializing in Real Estate MarTech and Marketing Services.

Speaking on:

Wednesday – 2:30-5:30: Executive Summit on AI
Thursday – 2:45-3:30: Everything You Need to Know About TikTok

Delany Duke serves as the Director of Digital Services at Landmark Properties – overseeing the social media and online presence of 80+ student housing properties across the US. Her team is an integral part of Landmark’s corporate marketing department, keeping a pulse on the everchanging world of social media marketing and creating easy-to-learn tools and methods for leasing professionals to utilize social media to increase their leasing velocity while creating meaningful customer experiences.

Delany began her career in student housing property management when she was a freshman at The University of Central Florida in 2014 – first as a part-time community ambassador and then as a full-time management position in new development marketing post-graduation. Throughout this time, Delany gained 5+ years of in-the-field leasing and marketing experience that allowed her to grow her knowledge of digital marketing and how proper implementation of social media strategy can positively influence your property’s brand exposure.

Speaking on:
Thursday – 3-3:45pm – Workshop #2: Gen Z – They’re Coming! Are You Prepared?

2024 Must-Visit Sponsors

Zipcode Creative – Besides coming to see us at the Zipcode Creative booth, there are few other folks (sponsors at 2024 MSMS) we think you’d enjoy talking with—not only are they friendly, but they also have awesome solutions for apartment marketers. (P.S. Our services partner really well with theirs.)

Revyse – This community is an incredible resource where you can shop vendors before wasting a second on a demo call! We use Revyse to start conversations with folks interested in our help!

Engrain – Their interactive sitemaps are awesome—many of our clients supply our beautiful 2D map files to them as a starting point. (It’s all coming together.)

RESI – Known for their gorgeous websites, they’re able to make custom-looking branded sites (with all your brand style that we help establish) that still play nice with property management systems.

HyLy – Email and templates to reach your ideal resident? Hyly’s got it—and the branding we design for you is easy to fold in with their CRM system.

Apartment Geofencing – After we’re done making your branding beautiful, you can get on the advertising train with super-smart digital ads, getting in front of exactly who you want.

Show My Property – Visual branding—beyond your shiny new logo from us—needs beautiful photography to round out your marketing collateral. Enter: Show My Property.

Organizing Your 2024 MSMS Schedule

Choose your top speakers and topics, write them down on a schedule. It’s easy to get blinded by the bright lights, but keep your focus and go to what you think will be most helpful for you and your company.

AFTER-HOURS EVENTS

A few questions to ask yourself before you say yes to that event invitation…
1) Does it align with your needs and what you’ve set out to accomplish at this conference?

2) Will it help you connect the dots and partner with a new vendor?

3) Will you meet other like-minded industry folks with similar roles who you can relate to / vent with?

Buuuuuut..let’s say you’re an introvert. Go for the smaller events. And definitely ask vendors personally what they may have going on.

If you’re an extrovert, maybe the larger events will work out better for you—more power to you!

Sometimes choosing the small after-hours events will help you make stronger, deeper connections because the gathering is more intimate, and you’ll be able to hold a conversation with the decision makers and the folks who want to connect with you (rather than woo you with fun parties). This can keep you from getting lost in the mix.

Can’t-Miss Events for the Quintessential Napa Experience

We’re so excited to be co-hosting two amazing excursions on the first and last days—they’re by invitation only, and they have limited space. If you’re interested in attending, please reach out ASAP!

Wednesday, March 20

Invite Only

10am – 1:30pm
Group Size: 40

Location

Meadowcroft Winery
Folktable Restaurant
Cornerstone Gardens

Hop on a bus with us from Meritage, then enjoy a glass of sparkling wine upon arrival to Folktable Restaurant & Meadowcroft Wines. Hearty appetizers will be served throughout as you sip white wine by the glass, and join a unique red wine-blending and bottling experience—you’ll also take home a custom labeled bottle as a souvenir. Mocktail tasting flights (with wines presented for smelling) will be available as an alternative. Attendees will then hear from Top Chef Contestant Chef Casey Thompson before touring the Cornerstone Gardens, weather permitting. The bus will drop visitors back off at the Meritage Hotel. (2.5 hour experience)

Friday, March 22

Invite Only

1pm – 8:30pm
Group Size: 45

Location

Turnbull Winery
The Saint Winery
Bottega Restaurant

Taking a bus directly from the Meritage Hotel, we’ll stop at Oakville Grocery for sandwiches, and eat en route to Turnbull Winery, where we’ll taste four special wines. Then we’ll stop at The Saint in St. Helena, tasting Night Wines (and others) while enjoying the venue for two hours. Dinner at Bottega in Yountville, with wine from Faust will round out the night, after which we’ll board the bus and return to the hotel. (7.5 hour experience)

Branding Apartment Emails for Prospects and Residents

Written by Stacey Feeney on March 3, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding, Graphic Design, Writing.

Your branding should be everywhere! It doesn’t stop with logos and brochures. You must bring your brand to every corner your communications and interactions reach, both digital and physical. And this certainly includes branding apartment emails for both prospects and residents of your multifamily community.

Emails are the perfect opportunity to showcase your brand to 1) remind people who “already know” and 2) attract and inform the people who want to learn more. Well-branded emails both establish and reinforce your visual and verbal identity, creating a connection between what is seen, understood, and ultimately, what’s experienced by your residents.

We can hear you already: “But it’s just an email.”
Yes, and one sub-par or off-brand email can ruin the progress you’ve made with the rest of your branding efforts. Go all the way.

Now, for the how of emails with excellent apartment branding.

Branding Apartment Emails for Prospects

Prospects need to be wooed. Make sure you’re using the right words and colors and don’t scare them away.

WHAT’S THE SUBJECT?

The subject line you craft should absolutely reflect your community’s brand and values. Is your brand voice funny? Crack a short joke. Is your brand voice serious? Bring that to the subject line, too. Everything about the email, starting from the subject line (that’s meant to get your readers to open it) has to align and be true.

MAKE IT PERSONAL

Adding in the recipient name, either into the subject line or into the greeting in the email can be a way to grab attention, and get your email opened. It may also be in your best interest to segment your emails and send different versions out depending on where the prospect is in the funnel. But that’s more marketing than branding. Whichever version you send out, make sure you’re highlighting the goods.

HIGHLIGHT THE GOODS

What goods? Simply outline (your community as) the solution to your prospects’ problems. There’s almost nothing better than a good listener—finding the pain points and solving them with your messaging and reminding them that you exist and why you exist can get leads one step closer to signing a lease.

ADD THE ELEMENTS

Have the end in mind before you begin your branding apartment email. The colors, fonts, and craft headers and footers must work within your apartment brand guidelines in order for it to be recognized and perceived as your apartment community’s brand specifically. It’s not an afterthought, but it will come right after you’ve got your content and messaging down.

Branding Apartment Emails for Current Residents

The emails you send current residents aren’t for introductions. They’re a chance to underscore what you’ve been doing all along. Particularly for current residents. Use email to update residents with community news, events, and initiatives that reinforce your brand—and what you care about most.

CONSISTENCY

With consistency comes trust, and with trust, loyalty. That’s a key part of getting renewed leases. The expectation for specific colors, fonts, logos and messaging points becomes the standard. If you deviate from the standard, it could jar your residents and cut your brand consistency off at the knees.

TEMPLATE USAGE

Easy way to brand your emails for current residents? The wonderful email template. Save a few versions, swap out the photos and content, and you are ready to go in a lot less time than it took you to create that first template. Don’t start from scratch every time. Time saver and it lowers the possibility that you’ll grab the wrong color or font.

STORYTELLING THROUGH BRAND NARRATIVES

Create your content outside of the email template and drop it in when it’s ready. By “ready” we mean it’s passed the verbal branding test. Does it sound like you? Does it communicate clearly? Does it include the thread of the brand narratives that you’re consistently weaving (thing values and vision)? If it doesn’t, take another crack at it before you drop it into the template. It’s a lot easier to edit and use comments from multiple users in document form, anyway.

EVERY EMAIL

Your community’s values and your brand’s mission should be tucked into every email, along with the visual aspects of your brand. Don’t take a day off. Don’t send an email that doesn’t look or sound like you, or it might get marked “spam”.

Email communication is your opportunity to insert your brand in the midst of your residents’ and prospects’ daily life. It shouldn’t be an afterthought, but instead, another extension of how far you can take your brand. Use it to strengthen relationships with current residents and to reach the people that don’t live at your community (yet).

Use your brand guidelines to create clear, consistent emails that could only ever be attributed to your community.

*The image in this post is ©Fairfield Residential | Work executed by Stacey Feeney, owner of zipcode creative, while under creative direction and employment at Fairfield Residential.

“Luxury” In Multifamily Has Gotten Tired

Written by Stacey Feeney on February 26, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding, Marketing, Writing. 1 Comment on “Luxury” In Multifamily Has Gotten Tired

We’re tired of luxury in multifamily. What once meant exclusive and the best-of-the-best, now seems surprisingly standard.

When multifamily overstates their offerings and over-inflates the descriptions of their usual or typical amenities, they’re not being truthful. And it doesn’t justify a super ridiculous rent increase, just because you’ve painted the cabinets and put in new countertops.

Problems with Claiming Luxury in Multifamily

Similar to the word “natural” in food packaging and marketing, there are no guidelines or rules around the use of the word “luxury” in the multifamily industry. It’s like hearing a movie is “must-see”, you go see it, and you come away from the theater annoyed and $15 poorer. When claiming an apartment community is “luxury”, there are no parameters, and suddenly it’s the dealer’s choice as to whether the community they’re advertising is actually luxury. There are at a handful of reasons using the term “luxury” for your apartments (when it’s not) is problematic; among them:

Prospect Distrust
Price Misalignment

PROSPECT DISTRUST

What they see (advertised) isn’t what they get? That sounds like a case of false advertising. When the prospect is shopping for a home, is attracted by the term “luxury” and comes to find an entirely different property class, quality level, and offering, there’s huge misalignment. The word “luxury” cannot be used for anything and everything. Being aware of your property class and branding accordingly will help your prospects get what they want, because it’s what they expect.

False advertising undercuts any rapport you can develop with your leads, and does not start the prospect relationship off on the right foot. Be upfront about what you offer. Be self-aware and be truthful. This doesn’t mean you can’t be creative—but you should still be clear on what kind of community you really are.

PRICE MISALIGNMENT

With everything costing a bit more than it used to, from groceries to housing—folks are on the lookout to find better deals and save money. If you use the term “luxury” there’s a decent chance that you’re either:

Driving away people who could afford you—because they didn’t even get far enough to see the monthly lease cost; OR
Attracting a clientele with very high expectations who will be disappointed with your offerings—because it’s not luxurious.

Work on reaching your ideal residents by being authentic with your brand, and telling the truth (by knowing what exactly you are and what you offer.)

Defining Luxury Properties

But what if you are a luxury apartment building? What if you do offer a lifestyle that goes far above and way beyond the typical?

Let’s figure out what luxury really means. (And while we’re at it, we’ll do a quick review of Class-A properties, too, to see how they align or compare.)

LUXURY

In general, luxury apartments offer high-end amenities, top-of-the-line finishes, and often expansive views from spacious balconies. They’re both conveniently located and bring convenience to the resident. Amenities of all sorts are found in the community that go above and beyond a pool and a clubhouse. If you have a pool and a clubhouse, you don’t get to automatically claim “luxe living”.

CLASS A

Typically Class A includes the highest-quality buildings on the market. This standard can vary depending on the city—but the buildings have typically been constructed within the last 15 years. The modernizing of a building through renovations may also help it become classified as Class A.

In short, luxury is more about the finishes, location, amenities, and square footage.

Class-A properties are merely defined by:

Age of the buildings—constructed less than 15 years ago;
Significant updates to an older building; and
Quality (top-tier) building materials.

Instead of Saying “Luxury” in Multifamily…

As a creative agency, it’s basically our job to tell you: be more creative. Multifamily, we can do so much better than saying “luxury”. Instead of saying “Luxury apartments” because the community is nice, use other methods.

USE ACCURATE DESCRIPTORS

Let’s kick the age-old “luxurious” and “sparkling pool”. Don’t even think about using “unique.” That doesn’t tell me anything different than the next community. Pivot. Focus on the special things you offer to your target resident.

Instead of “luxury” say “grand” or “indulgent”—if it really is.

Instead of “sparkling” pool, try describing it by the actual shape— “geometric” or “lap” or “oversized” to paint the full picture.

Instead of “state-of-the-art fitness center” be truthful—you don’t have 20 Pelotons in a row—or focus on the positives, like the fact that it’s open 24 hours or offers classes.

Most of all, use your messaging to create a picture for your leads. Beautiful photos help, too. (Show before telling.)

EMPLOY SOCIAL PROOF

Don’t just take our word for it. You’ll need to include other voices in your marketing, too.

Testimonials – Get a few residents that you know love your community. Have them share their favorite parts about the community. You’ll see amenities make the list here, and that will help leads latch on to what’s important for them, too.

Reviews – One-star and two-star reviews are a scary thing for any business—keep an eye on your review sites and see what kind of five-star reviews you can garner and share on your printed materials as well as on your website. When leads are concerned about finding “the truth” this is where they’re going to look.

Social Media – When everyone else goes “fake” you can go real. Give a few behind-the-scenes glimpses, and put some of your staff on camera to help answer FAQs. Repost photos and videos you’re tagged in. Participate and respond to connect with leads and current residents, and to give a better “concierge style” that extends beyond the front desk or leasing office.

CREATE A TRUE LIFESTYLE BRAND

Going for an “It’s super nice and you should live here!” vibe? Figure out how your brand would say it. In its brand voice. To its ideal residents. Creating a lifestyle brand apartment community can extend out to how you look and how you talk about yourself.

Community Sitemaps: The Most Beautiful and Compatible Solution

Written by Stacey Feeney on February 18, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding, Marketing.

Are community sitemaps glamorous? They certainly can be. A well-designed property sitemap is a beautiful and useful tool for your multifamily community. At Zipcode Creative, we’ve mastered the art of community sitemaps, knowing they’re key for communities to secure leases and show their professional side.

Why Our Community Sitemaps Are the Best

Not all community sitemaps are created equal. Some are basic and can lead prospects on an unintentional scavenger hunt. (Where is that dog park?) Others are clear, colorful, beautiful, and can be used in partnership with other helpful options, like interactive web-based solutions. Let’s dig into why choosing Zipcode Creative for your community sitemap might be the best choice you make for marketing your units.

BEAUTIFUL

There’s something about a well-drawn, beautifully colored sitemap that makes us feel at ease. A map that’s well labeled, correct, and attractive draws the eye, and will likely draw in your prospects, no matter where you put it, from the leasing office to the welcome packet. What’s our secret sauce? We’re a team of designers—so we know how to choose colors that work, icons that are clear, and fonts that are just right.

COMPATIBLE

Our 2D sitemaps are best printed as handouts or signage. They aren’t an interactive web solution, BUT they ARE compatible with providers who do create interactive sitemaps. For example, Engrain or Beans.ai can take our vector-based design files and pull out exactly what they need to work their magic in making the sitemap interactive. These interactive sitemaps can work wonders on your property website or on a tablet or touchscreen in your leasing office.

USEFUL

We’ve talked about how useful sitemaps are, right? The best way to help both your prospect and your new residents feel at ease is to give them the literal lay of the land—through a sitemap. By providing a comprehensive view of the way the property is laid out, they’re more likely to explore everything that’s available to them. (Not just a pretty picture anymore, is it?)

How Sitemaps Are Helpful for Leasing

Your prospect is about to sign a lease. They pause, pen on the line, and look at the sitemap. They see where their apartment is. They see how close the pool is. They see the clubhouse and the tennis courts. They scribble their signature and voila, you have a new resident.

FOR PROSPECTS AND NEW RESIDENTS

For both prospects and new residents community sitemaps help them understand the property layout at a glance and give an overview of the property. Things like how many units there are, how far away the dumpsters are, or where their parking spot is are all revealed with a sitemap. Have it on hand for lease signings to help close the deal, too.

TOUR ASSISTANT

As self-guided tours continue and in-person tours resume, a sitemap helps guide the touring prospect to the available unit. For both guided and independent tours, knowing where they are in relation to the clubhouse helps them focus on other important bits, like how often one can expect resident events. The sitemap should point out the leasing office, and other relevant areas (the BBQ area, the basketball court, the garages, the dog park, the pool)—any area amenity that might have drawn them to your community should be listed and identified.

A sitemap creates a sense of welcome for your new resident—when you provide a printed version, you can circle their unit, their parking spot, and how best to get to the leasing office or clubhouse from their door. It’s similar to arriving at a resort—the front desk always gives you the lowdown on where things are and when they’re available.

Community Sitemaps: The Perfect Marketing Tool

Sealing the deal, yes—but also getting them in the door to begin with? An excellent use of a sitemap.

SHOW THEM THE STUFF

Sitemaps are an ideal visual representation of your multifamily community. With the easel set up, community sitemap on display, you can show visually which units are leased or reserved—this is perfect for pre-leasing (set up a little supply-demand) a new construction. Use the sitemap in your:

On a 2’x3’ sign
In your welcome packet
Brochures or handouts

Use it on your website, too. That’s where prospects are going to find out more. Everytime you put the sitemap out, you’re showcasing everything (external) that’s good about your space: Green areas, trees, community amenities, ample parking, and accessibility.

By helping visualize the overall appeal of the property, you can generate interest from prospects. Get their attention and increase the number of inquiries that you may get from potential residents.

Zipcode Creative Sitemap Options

We at Zipcode Creative offer two distinct property sitemap options. Both in full color, they differ in where the details are drawn from; one’s high-end and one is more basic. They are both beautiful—but we’ll let you see that for yourself.

COMMUNITY SITEMAP (GOOGLE MAPS)

Our (satellite view) Google Maps-based property map showcases building units, the clubhouse, your interior and outdoor amenities, parking, landscaping and more.

COMMUNITY SITEMAP (ARCHITECTURAL)

This one is based on your architectural plans or blueprints. It showcases building units, the clubhouse, your interior and outdoor amenities, parking, landscaping, and more. If we can, we’ll include the interior layout of the clubhouse, too.

Is Zipcode Creative “The Sitemap Agency”?

Well, yes and no. You might be tempted to start thinking of us as the “sitemap people” but that’s far from everything we do. We’re capable of so much more. Why do so many people come to us for sitemaps? It’s our designer eye. It translates into technical maps just as well as logos and social media graphics.

But sitemaps are the least of what we do. We’re realllllllly into branding. If your apartment community isn’t a brand, we are here for you.

BRANDING IS OUR MAIN JAM

The branding work we do begins and ends with multifamily. It’s our jam.
Naming apartments? Absolutely. Coming up with brand identity statements? Of course. Crafting color palettes, fonts, and logos that signify all that is Your Brand? Our favorite. We love to take apartments and help guide them into becoming a full-on lifestyle brand. Let’s get busy creating.

And if you need a sitemap in the mix, we’ll do that too.

Ways You’re Breaking the Graphic Designer’s Heart

Written by Stacey Feeney on February 8, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding, Marketing.

Every time you open a word doc to create a design, a graphic designer knows and sighs. Unbreak every graphic designer’s heart by knowing the rules, best practices, and really, the greatest guidance for your multifamily designs.

With graphic design, it’s easy to make “mistakes”—but the worst part of making those mistakes is that a whole lot of other people are going to see those mistakes as well, when you put them on your flyers, your mailers, your postcards, and your banners. (Let’s hope they don’t end up on a billboard.)

Here are the mistakes we most commonly see. Don’t get down if you’re doing these, but…definitely commit to either fixing them or finding a graphic designer who already knows how to avoid these mistakes.

#1: Poor Image Choice

Whether stretched, squished, or cropped improperly, forcing a photo to fit in a space it can’t is bound to look strange. It looks unprofessional and will turn off the viewer pretty quickly.

DISTORTION/STRETCHED IMAGES

Stretching the image because you don’t know how to crop? Start learning! Often an email builder requires a specific image dimension. Stretching an image to fit is never a good look.

Do this instead: Crop or use clipping masks to help it fit into a space or shape. No distortion, no problem. Be sure to follow the rule of thirds as you crop, too.

BAD STOCK PHOTOS

This one isn’t hard to fix. But it’s sometimes hard to avoid if you’re not experienced with the wide set of options for stock. There are so many better stock photo options now. Avoid becoming a meme-worthy brand—avoid the stock photos that look like stills of the “Before” videos in infomercials..the woman opening a cabinet full of tupperware lids, the man cutting his hand on a can lid, the elderly lady getting tangled in a blanket.

Do this instead: Find better stock photos by paying for them and finding ones that look like natural people—i.e. not a white backdrop in front of an overly emotive person. Out with the ‘cheese’, in with the authenticity.

#2: Too Many Typefaces

Repeat after us: The typefaces you use should be no more than three in number, and should visually complement each other when used in the same design. Again, no more than three types of font.

FONT PSYCHOLOGY

This one is so complicated, we did a whole blog post on font psychology. There’s plenty to consider when choosing a font. Serif, sans serif, script, decorative. And choosing one that will align with your brand (and what you want to communicate) is vital. When you have more than three fonts, it may make the viewer feel a little ill at ease.

Do this instead: Choose three fonts max. One of our favorite tips is to use one font and choose a few different weights (thin, semi-bold, extra bold, and the like). And pay attention to how you’re using the fonts—with a proper hierarchy of headline, sub-heads, and body text.

#3: Bad Colors

Certain color combinations remind us of specific types of things. Red and yellow? Fast food and hotdogs. Green and yellow? Cheeseheads.

Colors impact what we feel, pretty easily. Did you know, for example, that red is associated with strong, passionate feelings—cupid’s hearts (or depictions of the devil) anyone? Color psychology is very real and should definitely be a factor when you’re creating any of your graphic designs. And make sure they fall within or work well with your community brand’s color palette.

BAD CONTRAST

Beyond color choice, the contrast must also be considered. The text on the background must be readable—it can’t be dark if the background is dark, and it can’t be too similar to the color in the background.

TOO BRIGHT/JARRING

Think neon’s fun? Make sure you’re using something to offset it. If you use too many different colors (kind of like using too many fonts) it will cause visual chaos.

Do this instead: Take some time to understand the color wheel and make smart color pairing choices, ensuring that you keep the variety to a minimum and include varying shades of light to dark to accomplish your goals.

#4: Busy Busy Busy

Speaking of visual chaos, you also have to determine which elements you’re going to use and which ones should be the most important. You must create a visual hierarchy in order to broadcast the message you need to.

NEGATIVE SPACE

Leave a little room for imagination. This can help you give the viewer a sense of relief—there’s room to breathe. Negative space also makes the important things stand out more. Similar to the idea of contrast, the empty space highlights the things that are there.

WORDS VS. IMAGES

Use both words and images, allowing images to speak plenty, and keeping the text to the minimum of what’s required to tell your message.

Do this instead: If you’re creating a piece with both typography and imagery, the images should take precedence. As they say, they’re worth a thousand words. Much more space-efficient, right?

WORDS VS. IMAGES

Use both words and images, allowing images to speak plenty, and keeping the text to the minimum of what’s required to tell your message.

Do this instead: If you’re creating a piece with both typography and imagery, the images should take precedence. As they say, they’re worth a thousand words. Much more space-efficient, right?

#5: Wrong Again

Designing in a bubble? Pop the bubble and make sure someone else sees it before it goes to print to prevent any easily edited mistakes to be fixed

THAT’S JUST WRONG

You forgot to proofread? Oh, no. Now your whole design is for nothing. When folks find a typo, that’s all they can think about. Make sure you have a second and third set of eyes on it. Sometimes it’s not even that a word is misspelled or misused, but rather that a letter has a design effect on it that has made it appear like something else. Get a second opinion, always.

TRENDS OR TIE IT ALL TOGETHER?

Trendy is fun. Not necessarily timeless. However: all designs must work with the brand identity. (If you don’t have a brand identity, be sure to get one!) If you have a trend that could work with your brand identity and it’s not super distracting, by all means—catch the ideal resident’s eye!

Brightly colored minimalism is fun, and asymmetrical layouts are intriguing. There’s certainly a right way and wrong way to use these—use your designs to tie everything together.

Do this instead: Working through your visual identity and ensuring it all aligns will be best for your visual identity’s longevity. Find your style, and do your best to stick with it.

Bottom line here is, if you’re DIY-ing your designs, any mistakes you’ve made…you did it to yourself.

Let us save you from poor design choices by guiding you in the right direction; we’ve been doing it long enough to spot mistakes a mile away!

Contact Zipcode Creative for graphic design without breaking anyone’s heart.

Resident Appreciation Month is Here and it’s Marketing

Written by Stacey Feeney on February 5, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

February is Resident Appreciation Month! Fewer people are buying homes, so while staying in a community is the path of least resistance—it should be more than that. Residents renewing their lease should be filled with comfort! Multifamily communities everywhere should be preparing for this (and have some portion of their budget to dedicate to it, as well.)

The truth? Without your residents, you’d be an empty building—so it’s time to bolster your resident experience and boost your resident referral program. And give a few gifts while you’re at it! Have fun with it and make this a month to remember, and set the tone for the way you appreciate residents the rest of the year.

The Rationale Behind Resident Appreciation

You might be thinking: They live here, we fix what needs fixing, we have an easy-to-use online portal—why do we have to do more for them? Remember—your resident appreciation costs are marketing expenses! This is because it’s all part of your big genius marketing ploy to retain residents and attract new ones. Still want some ideas? We got you:

REMIND YOUR RESIDENTS

This is home for your residents—not just a unit! You were the community of choice for some reason or another. The hope is that your multifamily brand attracted them and your customer service (rooted in your brand’s mission and vision) kept them there. This is an opportunity to help them remember why they chose to live at your community, and you can sweeten their “remembering” when it comes time to renew the lease.

You can also remind your resident of you who are at your core. Your brand is gentle, eco-conscious, and modern? That zero-waste-experimenting resident will appreciate being reminded that your “Fix It Group” is gathering in the clubhouse later that week.

How to Show Your Residents Appreciation

GIVE A GIFT

This doesn’t have to be something exorbitant. But thoughtfulness is great. You can communicate appreciation for your residents through gifts. Get creative, but try to give them something they would want. From a gift card to a local coffee shop to a little treat, here are some simple and effective ideas:

#1 Locals Only – Gift Card to Local Spot

A gift card to the coffee shop around the corner? Perfect. It helps you nurture your neighborhood relationships, and spotlights the best things in your community.

#2 Sweet Things – Grab-and-go Goodies
Valentine’s Day is also in February, so put out a self-serve candy bar with cute bags in the lobby. Brand the bag with your logo, and add a note that says, “Having You Here Sure is Sweet!”

#3 Taking Care of Business – Small Plant
And taking care of a small succulent or little plant in a pot is an adorable way to add life to an apartment for your residents, and remind them that you hope they’ll thrive in your community, too.

BETTER EXPERIENCES = BETTER RENEWAL RATES

It’s not a like-for-like comparison, but wouldn’t you rather do business with a brand that is well-known for its responsiveness and outstanding customer service? Taking your residents into account when you make updates and launch initiatives is going to create a kind of “gift that keeps on giving”. Consider a few value adds:

Streamlining a maintenance system, creating an option that’s less intrusive
Retrofitting the apartments for energy efficiency (great for eco-conscious and budget-conscious residents alike)
Upgrading to smart home tech with doorbell cameras and touchless key entry systems
Adding or upgrading the dog park (if Fido’s happy, everyone’s happy)

Everything we listed above can and likely will be added to the “Pros” side of the pro-con list they may be making when deciding to renew! Tilt it in your favor.

1: You have a resident referral program and it’s working well.
Nice! Keep it up. And remind your residents what they can get from you when they refer a friend successfully.

2: You have a resident referral program and it’s not really working.

Time to revamp. Offer something a little better and market the rewards with branded materials. Include plugs for the program in your emails to residents, and in flyers for welcome packets.

3: You don’t have a resident referral program.
This is a perfect opportunity for you. Hone your brand message and try kicking off the referral program with an event. “Bring a Friend for a Barbecue!” or “Happier Hour With Friends.” (The trick is to plan an event that residents and their friends would want to attend.)

When you have events or advertise your program, ensure there’s enough reason to support the resident’s referral (they must love it there and/or the reward must be great!) and there must be reason enough for the referred friend to want to live there, too. Referral programs aren’t one-size-fits-all, but you can check our blog for more detailed ideas behind expanding your word-of-mouth.

Resident Appreciation Recipes for Success

Equal parts brand consistency and clarity will get you to the next level with your resident appreciation. This means that everything—giveaways, events, and reward flyers must be branded and tell the same story lof how your community has solved the problems of its residents and it will continue to do so. And when your research leads you to a specific IRP you can get that much more specific with your branding and your messaging.

Need extra help? Reach out to Zipcode Creative—we appreciate your residents, too.