Category: All Articles - Page 27

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An Apartment Marketing Brochure Design for Print and Digital

Written by Stacey Feeney on July 7, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Graphic Design. 2 Comments on An Apartment Marketing Brochure Design for Print and Digital

Does even thinking about marketing your community make your palms sweat? If you get easily overwhelmed when you think about all of the possibilities, there’s an easy and effective place to start: an apartment marketing brochure to showcase your community and drive in leads.

Instead of shelling out all of your budget on flashy marketing tactics, a brochure is a proven option that will help you convert prospects by showing them all your community has to offer. It’s a great option for a tangible keep-sake for visiting prospects and a great first introduction to those browsing online.

WHY HAVE AN APARTMENT MARKETING BROCHURE

For multifamily communities, marketing is an integral element that ensures your building leases up quickly and retains residents. From digital channels like email marketing and social media to printed materials like business cards and flyers, there are nearly endless possibilities for how to market your property. But there’s one piece of collateral that you can’t go without: a marketing brochure.

Brochures, whether printed or digital, are the perfect way to give prospects a high-level overview of your property. Gorgeous photos of your amenity spaces, floor plans, and everything in between all can go into your apartment marketing brochure to provide a ton of information in a small package. That way, prospective residents don’t feel overwhelmed by dozens of sheets of info or multiple links, and instead can learn all of the most important info on your community, all in one concise place.

TYPES OF APARTMENT MARKETING BROCHURES

The best part about brochures is that they are not one-size-fits all. The style and format is flexible enough to accommodate different communities, ensuring you can always find one that works for your community and your budget.

Booklet Brochure

If you want to provide a comprehensive way for people to learn more, a booklet brochure is your best bet. This bound style can have as many or as few pages as you need to provide more details about your community. You can even include multiple pages to highlight each different aspect like floor plans, the neighborhood, and more. The size and shape are completely flexible with a booklet apartment marketing brochure, rectangle, square, horizontal, vertical – dealer’s choice!

Trifold Brochure

Trifold brochures are a classic for a reason. This rectangular style is folded twice over the center section, resulting in six different sides while opening up to a standard 8.5×11 sheet of paper. With a trifold you have plenty of space to share more information about your community, and can even designate different panels to different focus areas, so they each get the spotlight they deserve.

Gatefold Brochure

A gatefold style is made up of four folded sections, resulting in an eight-panel brochure. The paper used is the same size as a tri-fold, but simply folded differently to create additional panels or sections. This way, you have several pages to showcase different elements of your community, so you can emphasize the most important details.

Bi-Fold Brochure

If you want to keep things short and sweet, a bi-fold brochure is the perfect option. This style has four larger sides—a front and back cover and two inside pages (still totaling a standard sheet of a paper when unfolded like a trifold and a gatefold) —so you can give a high-level overview of your community’s most eye-catching amenities, pricing and floor plans, and enough information to pique a prospect’s interest.

WHAT TO INCLUDE IN AN APARTMENT MARKETING BROCHURE

With so many styles to choose from, it can be hard to know where to start. But there are a few key elements that will make your brochure as successful as possible, no matter which style you choose.

Photos

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so don’t forget to include them throughout your brochure! Photos are the first thing a prospect will look at before even reading a single word on the page, so make sure to select your best images of both the community amenities and interior units.

Pro tip: Kitchens and pools are the most sought after photos when shopping for an apartment community.

About

Share more about your community to give prospects a better sense of what it would be like to live there – from describing your top amenities to nearby location conveniences – paint a picture with words to entice the reader.

Amenities

An apartment building isn’t just about the unit itself—it’s also about the shared amenities and social aspects. From community spaces like pools and dog parks to roof decks, be sure to emphasize all of the different areas available to residents to round out their lifestyle. Keep it simple and list out your top features!

Floor Plans

The size and layout of an apartment is often one of the biggest factors when prospects are looking to move. Make their lives easier by including the floor plan information right in the brochure. That way, they don’t have to do any digging, and have all the info they need on hand.

Pro tip: If you have a lot of floor plan options, including them all in an apartment marketing could be overwhelming. Instead, try creating individual floor plan marketing sheets. That way, you can give prospects the exact floor plan they’re interested in and tuck it into the brochure, so they have all the info they need in one place.

Neighborhood

The neighborhood is just as important as the community itself. Consider adding a location map with favorite restaurants and shops to showcase all that the area has to offer in nearby proximity to their new home.

If you’re ready to make the leap and design an apartment marketing brochure that will wow prospects, give us a shout!

Get started on your brochure with zipcode creative today!

Talavera brochure featured under ‘gatefold brochure’ section is ©Fairfield Residential | Work executed by Stacey Feeney, owner of zipcode creative, while under creative direction and employment at Fairfield Residential.

Apartment Branding Inspired by Interior Design

Written by Stacey Feeney on June 17, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Branding.

At your apartment community, the interior design aesthetic is often one of the first things that prospective residents notice. Whether you have a minimal and modern style, or skew more towards the traditional, having a strong interior design point of view helps to create a memorable space that residents want to call home.

But interiors aren’t the only design element you need to think through. If you’re creating new apartment branding for a new construction project or upgrading existing branding for a remodel, creating a consistent and cohesive aesthetic for your community should be a top priority. Instead of developing your branding in a vacuum, look to your interior design for the inspiration you’ve been lacking.

Whether you use the same mood board as your interior designer or simply pull elements from the space for ideas, here are a few easy ways to create apartment branding that is expertly influenced by your interior design.

Aligning Color Palettes

One of the easiest ways to make your interiors and your apartment branding feel similar is to reference the same color palette. From sticking to similar cool tones to incorporating the same accent color, using this element to tie together your marketing materials and the physical space is a no-brainer. But don’t feel limited by the added elements of the interior like the furnishings or the paint color. Instead, you can also pull colors from architectural elements like brick, wood, or metal as a more subtle nod to the space.

PRO TIP: More often than not interior design’s color palettes will be mostly neutral or subdued colors that work well for painted walls. Consider adding at least one vibrant ‘pop’ color to your palette for drawing attention to important information such as phone number, website URL or specials on signage and other marketing materials.

Incorporating Pattern & Texture

Just like interior design, incorporating different textural elements and various patterns is an important part of creating compelling graphic design. Using only solid colors can cause your apartment branding to fall a little flat. Try picking a single texture or pattern and use it in different sizes, colors, and scales to ground your branding and give everything a put-together feel. From marble or brick to geometric to organic patterns, you can choose almost anything to serve as the common thread between your interiors and your community’s brand identity.

Including Design Elements

You don’t have to stop at similar colors and patterns. You can also draw inspiration from individual decor or architectural elements in the space itself to create a logo and apartment branding you love. If your space is filled with plants and greenery, for example, you can incorporate leaves or roots into your brand marks. If your space is filled with mid-century modern furnishings, use a retro font to mimic the vintage design. This allows you to blend together your physical space and your marketing presence for a more holistic way to think about your community.

Working with Experts

Your community’s branding is one of the most important and most visible elements when you’re marketing the property. Instead of trying to DIY a solution, full branding packages are usually best left to the experts. Branding agencies like zipcode creative have worked with dozens of communities to develop branding that stands out in competitive markets. From simply refreshing your logo to work for your remodel to designing a completely new logo for new construction or rebrands, we’ll work with you to bring your vision to life.

Get in touch today to get started!

Example interior design mood board and brand style guidelines showcase the Halston brand by Birchstone Residential in partnership with 1413 Design Studio.

Summer Resident Event Ideas You Can Invite Your Prospects To

Written by Stacey Feeney on June 10, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

Residents are always down for a good party, and the fresh summer air is already calling! Events keep the resident engagement vibes flowing and allow everyone to meet the property management crew too. A full calendar of events doesn’t have to be costly or time consuming. Better yet, you can shuffle some of the costs from resident retention to marketing when you get your prospects involved. Prospective residents love to get a sneak preview into the feeling around their new community. Here’s our juicy list of summer resident event ideas that you can invite your prospects to!

Pool Party

Whether it’s a big, sparkling-with-the-palm-trees resort pool or the sleek, downtown rooftop plunge variety, pool season starts ASAP and runs all summer. Pool parties are easy invites because it’s already the place everyone wants to be. Hire a DJ, or have your team create a playlist. Cater some appetizers and light eats so it’s easy enough to eat while mingling. Tropical cocktails are best served in plastic to stick to the pool rules. An evening party may require a few extra lights or floating candles for sparkle effect.

Poolside BBQ

Pools and grills just go together. Set aside an afternoon and reserve all the grills for the event. Have your team man the grills to take your service up a notch. Burgers, hotdogs, chicken, pulled pork…. all easy enough menu varieties to please a crowd. Have a local brewery bring in some kegs of beer. Large pitchers of iced tea and lemonades also fit the bill. Cater some easy sides like creamy potato salad, mac and cheese or cornbread. Set it all up on a red and white checkered tablescape with picnicware and you’re done!

Snow Cones by the Pool

A summer treat for every age. Snag a snow cone machine from a local party rental store. You can serve the whole rainbow of colors or trim it down to just your community’s branded color scheme. Invite a whole group of prospects to tour at party time, and end the tour with a snow cone. They’ll be happy to stay at this summer resident event!

Ice Cream Social

Retro treats from the ice cream truck are a hit. Arrange an afternoon where the ice cream truck shows up with all of the frosted goodies. If you’d rather make the delivery extra special, swing door-to-door with your ice cream push cart. When prospects see all of your residents enjoying poolside ice cream, they’ll be sure to envision themselves moving in!

Food Truck Block Party

Block off a big area in front of the clubhouse, or take over some parking spots to host an epic Food Truck Block party. Schedule 3 or 4 food trucks to show up for an afternoon at your property. The food trucks will love to turn your residents into customers. If they are food trucks with a big social following, even better, it will help drive extra traffic to your property. You’ll want to invite your prospects and show off how much buzz you have at your property. Tour the prospects and then treat them to lunch while they fill out the application!

Catered Taco Tuesday & Margaritas

Sure, we can all go out now…. but it’s even better when the food comes to you! Find the most authentic restaurant in town, and invite them to host a night in your lobby or clubhouse. Tuesdays are better with tacos. Extend your leasing hours that night, and invite prospects for a late-night tour & taco. A summer resident event with tacos and margaritas is sure to draw crowds!

Fourth of July Festival

When we’re lucky enough to have this holiday fall on a weekend (like 2021), extend the festivities and make it a whole weekend-long affair. Food trucks, BBQ or cookouts are all festive options to consider. Book a band to perform poolside. If a prospect rents over the holiday weekend, give them 4 pool guest passes as their move-in promo. It’s a summer resident event turned prospect marketing promotion!

Picnic on the Lawn

No need to stress with furniture rentals. Set up a cute Picnic Party on the lawn. You could do an afternoon event or host just before sunset. Residents can BYO-Blanket. Wine and cheese are nice picnic offerings. Plenty of restaurants will make sandwich/lunch box options to offer a variety to your residents. Hire a jazz band or string quartet to up the ambiance. Let your residents invite a guest or two and remind them of your current resident referral offer. This will expand the eyes on your property and show off the amazing natural environment you have to offer.

Outdoor Movie Night

Keep those picnic blankets handy, pair them with a projector and you’ve got an outdoor movie night. Rent a popcorn machine, or assemble some grab and go popcorn beforehand. Poll your residents a few weeks ahead to see what type of movie they’d be most interested in seeing. Movies in the courtyard, on the lawn or pool deck is a fun way to offer a summer resident event at night!

Dog Park Playdate

Doggie events are so fun to host. The dogs will enjoy fancy treats from a bakery, and the pet parents will appreciate early morning coffee and donuts. Create easy treat bags for residents, and include your branded swag for the prospect versions. Go through your guest cards and invite the leads with dogs. They’ll be impressed that you reached out to them on something so personalized. Maybe they’ll even meet a new friend at the event!

Beach, Hike, or Local Park Day Meetup

After a year of being inside, residents are dying to get out! Arrange for a meetup where residents can get to know one another in a smaller setting. You can break up the group into a few time slots or days. Send them off with branded water bottles and a picnic lunch – a perfect summer resident event to foster relationships.

Bicycle Ride to a Brewery Meetup

Biking is better with a destination…. like a brewery! Reward yourself with a beer and residents can meet a few new faces. Find a few groups of 10 people who want to head out at staggered times. Send them with a $100 gift card to the brewery, or call ahead to arrange to cover the first round of drinks. Prospects will love the chance to meet a few current residents and see some of the local activities.

Yoga on the Lawn or Rooftop Deck

Hire a yogi to do a summer resident event series. Sunrise or sunset are unique offerings. When you have a prospect on the fence about leasing, you can invite them to clear their head and find their focus (and next apt) during your yoga session.

Donut 5K Run

Coffee at the starting line and donuts at the finish. Hydrate accordingly! If your property is big enough, map a course throughout the parking, amenities and wooded areas. Residents can do a few laps. You’ll want prizes for the top runners. Challenge your residents to come out for charity. If you get 100 runners, donate a certain amount to a charity that fits your property’s mission.

Last Day of School

Kids are counting down the days to the end of school. Meet them at the bus stop or front gate with popsicles to kick off their summer. Moms will definitely appreciate the snack and tell other families how great their community is! It’s little touches like this that keep your residents happy and renewing their leases.

Field Day

You can set this one up for just the kiddos or get all ages involved. Residents could sign up as a team or be paired up on the day of. Have each team wear a certain color. Set up games like a sack race, cornhole and water balloons. With games, food and prizes, this is a summer resident event you can’t miss.

How to Promote Your Summer Resident Event

The first step is to ensure your residents are in the loop and coming! Email blasts, social media posts with graphics and text reminders all help set the stage. Send save the date and reminder emails so they can’t miss the date. RSVP’s help if you reeeeeally need the exact count but residents often miss that step. Don’t make it a barrier to your attendance.

Now to get the prospects included! Take a look at your resident calendar and see how you can twist the events to make them prospect friendly as well. If you’ve noticed touring prospects tend to respond positively to your fitness center, for example, invite them to the hike meetup or yoga session. Dog owners will be happy to swing by for a pet-friendly event. Touring prospective residents during resident events always makes a bigger impression. Since you’re still wooing these prospects, it’s all about the personalization. Do some personal outreach calls to leads in your pipeline to let them know you’d love to see them at the event. Once you’ve sent resident eblasts to your property, forward the email to a prospect and personalize it for them and invite them to be your guest at the next event. This will help boost your follow up and give them a good reason to come back. Post pictures of all of your fabulous events on your socials and invite prospects to follow you there for an insider’s view.

Your community works hard to pull off events that your residents will love. By blending in the prospect component, you’ll be taking the events even further and setting your prospective residents up for a smooth transition into your community….all by attending a fabulous summer resident event!

Virtual Leasing Tools that are the Top 10 Must-Haves

Written by Stacey Feeney on June 2, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

Over the past year, the path to leasing an apartment took a major detour. Most companies had their preferred virtual tools to help move the leasing process along, but the pandemic forced a complete and total shift in the landscape. Virtual leasing became the exclusive path, and many companies were scrambling to make up for any gaps in their virtual leasing strategy. Whether you’re looking to sharpen your virtual offerings, or add a new arsenal to your toolkit, this article will help you find the virtual leasing tools that are must-haves for converting leases at your apartment communities.

Top Ten Virtual Leasing Tools

1 USING THE RIGHT CRM – RENT DYNAMICS & RENT TANGO

A quality CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software is one of the most critical virtual leasing tools you can have in marketing. This is where you house, manage and track all of your incoming leads. As leads flow in, your leasing team can view and respond to each viable prospect. The CRM tracks all of your lead management activities and allows for seamless follow up – calls, emails, texts are all performed through the platform. Advanced platforms will also score leads for you so you spend your time harvesting only the most viable prospects. As a marketing exec, the CRM is your most trusted ally in tracking marketing spend and ROI. The reporting shows which leads are converting and which ad sources gave you those critical leases.

Your property management system should offer CMS systems from basic to super savvy. Top players in the multifamily space include Entrata, ILM Lead Management through RealPage and RentCafe through Yardi. Rent Dynamics is a newer company in the space with a full suite of CRM products to match the industry vets and worth a try. Rent Tango offers the whole package plus some extras like listing syndication, for marketers, and broker access – a great solution if you’re looking for an all-in-one. Many of the best CRMs out there don’t stop at the prospect level. They’ll continue to help you manage communications well after the lease signing on the resident journey.

2 CHATBOTS AS YOUR VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS – KNOCK

Chatbots provide important answers to prospects’ most frequently asked questions. Website visitors ask questions and get immediate responses from the chatbot. According to Knock’s data, their chatbot answered 96% of prospects’ questions, without even having to bother your leasing staff. Chatbots also sync with your leasing calendar and allow prospects to schedule real (or virtual) leasing appointments. This real-time technology turns your website into a 24/7 operation that is able to accommodate prospects at any hour. Imagine coming into work with a calendar full of appointments and now you just have to convert on the tour. It’s ideal!

Knock is a strong contender to the chatbot game, and they are showing a lot of innovation in their product offerings. Anyone Home offers unique chatbot services that blend both automated and human interactions.

3 WEBSITE LEASING WIDGET – PERQ

Perq is a leasing widget placed on your existing property website to help drive conversions. It acts as a chatbot and supercharged guest card all in one. It asks prospective residents what is most important to them, stores that data and then allows you to email prospects by hitting on those top wish list items. Instead of prospects wandering through your website narrowing down the floor plans that fits them best, the Perq widget proactively matches them to their next apartment. Though Perq won’t be your first-touch advertising source, the Perq leasing widget pushes those leads through the funnel. In a case study that comprised a lease-up and a stabilized property in Tampa, the Perq widget assisted over 38% of leases.

4 RESIDENT REFERRAL TOOL – RENTGRATA

Rentgrata is a sleek resident referral tool that allows prospective residents to speak directly to current residents. Prospects are matched up on the website and have a chance to ask real questions about living in the community. Prospects get authentic feedback, which is the gold star when it comes to insider info! Residents are paid a referral fee if the prospect moves in and appreciate being in a VIP resident base that helps improve resident engagement. Rentgrata’s property management companies average a lead-to-lease conversion rate of over 40 percent

5 VIRTUAL TOUR VIDEOS – REALYNC

When leasing is virtual, video is key. Realync makes video creation easy, professional and trackable. Your leasing team is able to create virtual tours of apartments, in minutes, that they can email to prospects. Pair your personalized video with your property site map to paint the picture of exactly where the prospective resident will call home. All the videos are stored in the Realync app, and your marketing and leasing team will see which videos are converting and resonating with your audience. The best videos can be showcased on your website. Virtual tours, hard-hat tours, videos showing off the neighborhood vibe…all of these are simple to create. With 1 in 3 prospective residents now preferring virtual tours over in-person tours, you’ll want to seamlessly offer both.

6 SELF-GUIDED TOURS – TOUR24

The easiest way to practice social distancing? Let prospects take their own self-guided tour! Companies like Tour24 take the showing completely off your leasing consultant’s plate. You’ll create the tour path you want prospects to follow. The prospects are buzzed into the building when it’s time for their tour (with the proper ID of course). They’ll follow the tour path, and as they hit certain predetermined amenities or vacant / model apartments, they’ll hear, on their phone, your marketing description of each area.

The self-guided tours help in markets where people have trouble showing up in the traditional office hours…and according to Tour24’s platform of users, approximately 30% of tours happen after hours.

7 PHOTOGRAPHY, RENDERINGS AND VIRTUAL STAGING

Photography and renderings are able to take the place of a traditional showing. Pro-tip with photography, make sure you have both high-resolution photos for your marketing collateral and smaller web-resolution photo versions ready for easy emailing. If you’re new construction and won’t have photos ready yet, renderings are hyper-realistic and provide a picture-perfect representation of your property.

New construction, or even an older apartment that may not have the budget for a model, check out virtual staging. Companies will take the photography you have and add furniture. The furniture fills in the space to help prospects envision the apartment in a way that that prospects typically can’t with a vacant apartment. Prices start at $30 an image and give you even better content to feature on your website. BoxBrownie is a simple, all online, company where you just upload your photo, pick your furnishing style and go!

8 EMAIL MARKETING – HY.LY

Once you have all of these virtual tools in place, you’ll still need a way to proactively reach out to prospects. Email marketing campaigns are getting smarter by the day. If a prospect likes your ‘A3’ floor plan and wants to move in the next month, your email marketing can use those data points to accurately showcase the right apartment at the correct time. Email specialists, like Hy.Ly, use the data in your property management software to send email drip campaigns with personalized content to each prospect. If you’d rather manage all the emails in house, MailChimp and Constant Contact provide templated options and affordable package options.

9 WEBSITE DESIGN & SEO

Ahhh, the place where you house ALL of your digital assets. You can’t get anywhere without a great website to showcase it all. Stunning photography, 3D floor plans, SEO-rich copy and all the technology tools should be carefully integrated within your website in a way that represents your brand and directs prospects through the leasing journey. Website design is integral to both the branding and conversion. Teams like zipcode creative (custom design) and Results Repeat (the apartment SEO specialists) balance the brand and the functionality to give you a top-notch website that aids your leasing team with every step.

10 VIRTUAL LEASE SIGNING

Now that you’ve converted all of those leads to real life residents, it’s time to make it official. It’s a nice touch to go over the lease paperwork in person, but it’s not always feasible. Prospect preferences are changing, and, many times, the client will prefer to read and sign the paperwork on their own time. Property Management Software (PMS) systems give you the ability to generate the lease and forward to the prospect electronically. Each leaseholder can sign on their own schedule, and it makes the document management a breeze since it’s all done through your PMS. Yardi, Real Page and Entrata all have simple lease integration to keep it all paperless.

It’s been a year of adaptability, and marketers are up for the challenge. The bright side to all of this change, is that there is absolutely no shortage of virtual leasing options and companies to choose from. The product suite offerings are getting better by the day, and now your hardest job will be selecting the best partners to achieve your company’s goals.

Create Video Content to Increase Social Media Engagement

Written by Stacey Feeney on May 24, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

The way people use social media is changing. Instead of overly curated photos that are posted just to your Instagram feed, video content now reigns supreme. Outlets like Instagram Stories, TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit offer a more authentic, approachable way for people to get to know not just their friends, but brands, too. As a result, video content has now become the top-performing type of content across social media platforms and is the most likely to go viral.

When you’re trying to market your apartment community or trying to lease up, consider adding more videos to your feeds to up your engagement, increase eyes on every post, and get more prospects in the door.

Ways to Create More Video Content

If you’re struggling to come up with creative video content to feature across your social media platforms, here are some ideas to get your started.

Vacant Unit Tours

Show off your available apartments with quick walk-through videos. Your leasing team can narrate the tour, calling out the distinctive features, high-end finishes, and other must-haves like outdoor space, high ceilings, and natural light. That way, prospective renters can see the space before they even set foot on the property to help pique their interest. Film vacant unit tours to send to leads who have reached out showing interest and then repurpose the video by posting it on your social media channels! Win win.

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Close-Up of Apartment Features

Show off your attention to detail. Instead of focusing just on the big picture, zero in on the small details that set your community apart. From the beautiful kitchen tile backsplash to the luxury faucets in the bathrooms, emphasize the tiny things that make your apartments a cut above the rest. Video content doesn’t have to be lengthy, in fact – the shorter the better to capture the attention of your audience on social media. Taking quick 15-30 second videos of these amenity details is an easy way to create shareable content for social media!

Amenities Tours

Prospects aren’t just interested in what’s inside the unit—they’re also interested in what your entire community has to offer. From doing a tour of the state-of-the-art gym to showing off the dog-friendly amenities like a dog park or washing station, create different videos for each amenity space. That way, you can give prospects a holistic picture of what it’s like to live there. Same rules apply – capture tour-like walk-throughs and quick video clips that showcase the details of your amenities, then share the videos everywhere you can!

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Staff & Resident Introductions

Introduce your property management team, maintenance staff, and highlight stand-out residents with video content that introduces them to your social audience. Showcasing actual people will help to increase engagement and also give you an opportunity to discuss promotions, events, and resident reviews. That way, you’re adding a personalized and authentic element to your feed instead of just sterile photos of empty units. Think about offering a gift card to any resident who stops by and films a video review of the community with you – make sure to get their permission to publish the video.

Tips for Filming Top-Quality Video Content

If you’re a beginner at creating video content, try these tips and tricks to create a more high-quality final product. Professional equipment is by no means necessary – your smartphone will do the job just fine!

Use a Tripod or Stabilizer

To add a more expert look to any of your videos, invest in a tripod or stabilizer for your smartphone. This will eliminate any shakiness or unsteady camera work, instantly elevating your videos from amateur to professional. That way, instead of focusing on keeping the camera steady, you can focus on more important details to really sell the space. Something simple with a smartphone mount is great!

Embrace Natural Light

Everything looks better in natural light—try to film your indoor videos during the brightest time of day and make sure to open all the blinds. Natural light will make everything look more beautiful and also ensure that colors and finishes look as true to life as possible. Keep your back to the window when filming, angling your camera away from the window – pointing it directly at a window may cause the room to look dark as your camera’s auto settings expose for the bright outdoor light. Avoid shooting videos at night—overhead artificial lights look harsh on camera and will create awkward and unflattering shadows.

Don’t Forget About Audio

While it’s easy to forget about the audio component of your videos because they default to mute on most platforms, many people watch Instagram Stories or Reels with the sound on. Make sure that you eliminate any background noise that may interfere before filming, the person speaking is no more than 5 feet away from the camera, and they speak loud and clear. Consider adding video subtitles as well for those who listen with the sound off or are hearing impared.

Where to Post Your Video Content

Social Stories

Instagram and Facebook Stories allow users to share more real-time content with their followers. You can pick from both photos and videos to add to your Stories, and embellish them with question boxes, gifs, and polls for added customization. Each Story can be up to 15 seconds long, and if you post a video that’s longer, it will simply break it up into 15-second segments. Stories only last for 24 hours, so it’s content that must be consumed quickly. You can, however, add old stories to a Highlight on your profile, so people can go back and reference them in the future.

Instagram Reels/TikTok

Similar to TikTok, Instagram Reels allow you to create 15- or 30-second videos and set them to music. You can then share them to your Stories and on your feed, and they may even show in other users’ Explore Feed. Reels are the perfect opportunity to get creative thanks to the editing capabilities, so don’t be afraid to think outside the box!

IGTV

IGTV is the perfect place to post longer videos of your full length model, vacant unit, and community tours. Videos must be at least one minute long, and can be up to an hour. With IGTV, you have plenty of time to go into detail on any particular subject to give more info and context for your viewers. IGTV videos can be shared to your feed with a preview, clickable to watch more.

Feed Posts

You can always post video content to your Instagram, Facebook and Twitter feeds. Just like regular photos, these videos will show up in the feed of those who follow you. Try adding strategic hashtags to further your reach and get your content in front of more people. Just keep in mind, the max length is 60 seconds—if your video is longer, you’ll have to select a 1-minute clip.

YouTube

With more than a billion hours of video streamed everyday, YouTube is perfect to upload all of your video content in one place. Aggregate the content you share across Instagram, Facebook, and other social media channels onto YouTube to make it a one-stop-shop for prospects who are interested in learning more. Unverified accounts can upload videos up to 15 minutes long.

Feeling overwhelmed by managing all of your video content? Instead of doing it yourself, outsource it to the experts. At zipcode creative, we offer full-service social media management so you can take one thing off of your to-do list.

Get in touch today to learn more!

A Property Sitemap is a Must-Have for Apartment Marketing

Written by Stacey Feeney on May 4, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Graphic Design.

Years of work and planning go into every new apartment community and every renovation before it’s complete. From carefully identifying the perfect amenities to designing stylish interiors to planning the landscaping throughout the property, no detail is left unfinished when creating a new multifamily asset. That way, residents have the best possible experience from the minute they step foot on-site to view an apartment. Use a well-designed property sitemap to get them excited to stop by for a visit.

So why let all of that thoughtful planning go to waste? Showcase every element of your community in a unique and practical way: with a property sitemap. This piece of marketing can be crafted in both print and digital versions to use as an integral piece of your sales toolkit to show off the best your property has to offer.

What is a Property Sitemap?

Especially perfect for new construction communities but also extremely beneficial to any apartment community new or old, property sitemaps are a versatile piece of marketing collateral. Based on the property’s architectural plans, sitemaps show a bird’s eye view of the property and identify the location of community amenities, units, parking, and offices. They also have a legend that highlights points of interest throughout the community, like the lobby, mail room, and handicap-accessible areas.

How Can I Use a Property Sitemap?

Sitemaps are ideal for prospects and new residents signing a lease. The detailed map helps them understand the layout of the property, allowing them to see all of the amenities and perks of living on-site at a glance. When new prospective residents arrive, show them where the unit they’re viewing is located, and point out other relevant areas on the map when they visit the leasing office. That way, even if they view a unit without a leasing agent, they are armed with the information they need to explore the property on their own. And alternatively, use the sitemap to welcome home a new resident by guiding them to their unit, circling the mailroom and their parking space, while also helping them navigate the property.

Sitemaps can also be used as a marketing tool. Whether sent out as a direct mailer, in a marketing email, visible on the community’s website, or featured in a brochure, the sitemap is an engaging visual way to showcase the strengths of your community – amenities, green space, parking, and accessibility. A sitemap can generate additional interest in your property by helping one to visualize the big picture of all your apartments have to offer.

What Should be Included on a Property Sitemap?

Experienced brand designers like zipcode creative are experts at developing property sitemaps. By using a community’s architectural drawings (or google maps if that’s all you’ve got!), we will develop a sitemap that represents the entire property, from the landscaping to the parking lot to the clubhouse and apartment units. By creating both detailed and high-level versions of the map, you’ll have everything you need, whether you want to hang a map in the office or hand them out for on-site tours. We’ll also incorporate your branding like logo, brand colors, and fonts to ensure that the entire map looks cohesive and effortlessly fits in with your other marketing collateral.

Ready to get started on your own sitemap? Reach out today!