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Celebrate Thanksgiving at Your Apartments Celebrate Thanksgiving at Your Apartments

Celebrate Thanksgiving at Your Apartments

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

Celebrate Thanksgiving at Your Apartments

Thanksgiving gives us all a chance to focus on the most important elements of our lives – family, friends and food.  It’s easy to boost your resident retention and goodwill with some festive activities.  This year, there are so many creative ways to celebrate Thanksgiving at your apartments, you won’t even miss the hosting.  We’ll show you how to incorporate cooking classes, a one-of-a-kind cookbook and a fulfilling food drive into this month’s marketing plans.  

Cooking Classes 

Create a menu of Thanksgiving favorites and host a virtual cooking class (or a series of them) for a fun and educational way to celebrate Thanksgiving at your apartments.  Plus, a cooking demo is the perfect type of event to welcome both residents and prospects – kill two birds with one stone – or something less gruesome, you get the point! 

Ordinarily a cooking class would be an in-person event, but with COVID still underway, consider inviting a limited in-person audience so that social distancing can be easily observed while recording the demo on Facebook Live to reach a wider audience.  Make full use of the community kitchen by showing off those stainless appliances and spacious kitchen island that is perfect for recipe prep.  Work the room while you work your recipe.  Feature your gas stoves or quartz countertops with festive ingredients and flowers.  Cooking classes make for a great recurring series by demonstrating one or two recipes a week all holiday season to keep residents and prospects entertained.  Make it a whole team affair, and have each leasing consultant pick their favorite recipe to record for the series! 

When hosted virtually, residents and prospects can tune in together to follow along and connect with one another.  Hire a specialty chef to make it a unique culinary experience or connect with a local culinary school to partner with your community.  Post the menu a few days ahead of time on your socials to get residents excited and grocery shopping so they’ll be prepared to follow along at home.  Once the session is recorded, you can always repost to help anyone that missed it live.

Community Recipe Book

Although the traditional Thanksgiving menu stays fairly consistent, no two families do it the same.  A great way to connect with friends and family this year is to ask them for some of these special recipes.  Let them know about a dish you’ve always loved but haven’t recreated in your own kitchen yet.  They’ll be flattered and happy to share.

As property management teams, take this a step further and do a community-wide recipe book to celebrate Thanksgiving at your apartments. Take recipe submissions and organize them by starters, main course, sides and desserts.  And don’t forget the drink recipes – Apple Cider Mimosa, yes please!  Once you’ve got the collection of recipes, share them with the community at the beginning of Thanksgiving week, giving residents time to shop.  On Thanksgiving Day, encourage residents to share pics of their culinary creations.

This creative endeavor doesn’t have to stop with Thanksgiving.  Feature unique recipes from your residents to showcase the collection of cuisines being cooked up across your apartment community throughout the year.  The cookbook could be a great resident retention or move-in gift in digital PDF form or as a printed, spiral bound book – in either case we can help design this for you.

Food Drive

In this thankful season, it’s important to connect with others in our local communities.  Food pantries see increased numbers of families in need of holiday meals each November and December.  With this challenging year, this will be even more paramount and it’s a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving at your apartments through a spirit of generosity.  People are always happy to come together to donate to a charity or food partner that makes a difference in their community.  If your residents aren’t hosting a big meal this year, they may be able to give extra non-perishables to the food drive of your choice.  It’s easy to set up canned goods collection boxes in the leasing office or lobby to catch residents each day.  Creating a campaign around seasonal giving can be a nice way to attract prospects as they see the good you are doing in the community.  Eblasts, flyers and social graphics can be bundled to really spread the word and increase resident donations this year.  This is a year for connecting and a common goal makes this a win for your property. 

Get the Word Out

Making your holiday events come to life is so much easier when you’ve got the marketing collateral!  A recipe eblast to your residents – no problem.  Flyers to highlight the food drive donation spots – easy!  We even design social media graphics so it’s as easy as save and post. Just let us know your plans and we can make sure your events look flawless – email us today.

Marketing Strategies to Impress Prospects on Self-Guided Tours

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

Improve the entire on-site experience to show off your amenities and turn prospects into residents with these marketing strategies to impress prospects on self-guided tours.

As self-guided tours become more and more popular in our ever-changing world, there’s one question on everyone’s mind: What’s the best way to stand out to residents? 

Without a leasing agent to showcase the best features and most popular amenities during an unattended tour, property managers and owners are being forced to think outside the box to adapt. Instead of relying on an agent to sell the space, it’s more important than ever to come up with creative ways to emphasize the unique elements of your property. 

Instead of leaving residents unimpressed or underwhelmed, use these creative tactics to show off the best of what your building has to offer. 

Easy & Efficient Entry

After residents have booked their tour, you’ll want to make the entire process as easy and simple as possible—almost as if by magic! When prospective residents first arrive, create a streamlined check-in process that grants them all the access they need right away. That could mean they’re let in by a doorman and given each key they need, or you could install a smart lock system that sends a code prior to their arrival.

Whichever method you choose, be sure to do a test run to ensure it all works exactly how it should. This is the first thing prospects experience when they arrive, so it’s important to double-check that it all goes smoothly to give the best possible first impression. A good first impression through ease of entry is one of the first marketing strategies to impress prospects on self-guided tours that shouldn’t be overlooked!

Multimedia Walking Tours

Your community has much more to offer in addition to the apartment units themselves – make sure to bring attention to the amenities and unique selling points of the entire building. While the apartment itself is likely what a touring prospect is most anxious to see in person, the community amenities provide an opportunity to set your property apart from the competition.

To showcase amenity spaces, outdoor areas, or other unique features, try developing a multimedia tour of the entire building. Opt for using a map in lieu of the leasing agent to avoid unnecessary contact while also emphasizing the things that residents love most. Apartment tour maps have become one of the proven marketing strategies to impress prospects on self-guided tours during social distancing.

Develop a personalized map with different destinations, so prospective residents can move about the building on their own and see each amenity space first-hand. You can even add an interactive element like a stamp at each stop, so they can check off each space as they visit. Incentivize them with a small gift, like a Starbucks gift card, from the leasing office if they mark off each amenity to help ensure they experience the best parts of the entire building. 

Custom Signage & Table Tents

If you want to keep things simple and straightforward for both you and touring prospects, there’s no better avenue than custom signage. Try creating custom table tents to place throughout the apartment and amenity spaces to highlight special features. That way, even without a leasing agent present, prospects won’t miss the unit’s best selling points and will learn more about the most impressive and notable aspects of their future home. 

From top-of-the-line countertops or industry-leading appliances in the kitchen to elevated fixtures or high-end finishes in the bathroom, table tents or other custom signage is a great way to subtly call out details that prospects might otherwise miss. Whether you incorporate a short description, your community logo, or a custom QR code to learn more, the sky’s the limit to your creativity—which makes customized signage one of the most flexible and versatile marketing strategies to impress prospects on self-guided tours!

If you’re ready to elevate your self-guided tour experience with custom signage, get in touch with our team today! From printed maps to door hangers to table tents, we’re experts at creating effective and elevated materials for multifamily communities.

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Resident Halloween Pet Costume Contest

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

Just because Halloween will look a little different this year, doesn’t mean we have to miss all the fun.  There are plenty of ways to take your spookiness virtual while still building that coveted sense of community amongst your residents.  We’re here to show you how you can invoke that competitive spirit to showcase the most creative fur friends this trick or treat season.  Grab your craft cocktail and Halloween supplies and get ready to show your pet’s scary style. Host a resident Halloween pet costume contest at your apartment community!

How to Host a Resident Halloween Pet Costume Contest

 

1. DESIGN THE EVENT

Create categories for the award winners: most creative costume, scariest get up, best DIY style, for example. Make sure to feature dogs, cats and any other exotic pet they may have living (legally) in their apartment. With so many people working from home this year, they can use that extra time to create a pet costume masterpiece worthy of a prize!

2. INVITE RESIDENTS

Invite your residents to dress their pets in their Halloween finest. Dogs as superheroes – check.  Cats with vampire capes – Yessss.  Bonus points if you coordinate your costume with your favorite pets.  Spread the word with eblasts, flyers, signage and social media posts (we can help with this if you like!).  Come up with a hashtag so your residents will be able to share it online.

3. COLLECT CONTEST ENTRIES

Decide which social sites you’d like to post the photos on. Use Facebook and Instagram to feature all of the resident pics and have residents vote away for their frightful favorites. Residents can email their photos to the management team or post directly to social media with the contest hashtag.

Want this exact flyer customized to the branding of your apartment community? Shoot us an email with the logo and contact info and we would be happy to customize – or make a unique design just for you! 

How to Award Prizes for a Pet Costume Contest

Everyone loves a good prize. Tally all the votes and offer up some thrifty rewards.  A few months of waived pet rent feel nice for that pet’s owner.  You can go with a pet store gift card.  There are national chains or, even better, if it’s a local store or pet salon you can support.  You can also do a donation to your closest animal shelter in the winner’s name.

Since the winning pet will obviously be very photogenic and insta worthy, ask the resident if you can feature their pet’s photo is some of your marketing collateral or social posts.  Owners love showing off their pets and now you’ll have great brand ambassadors for your property – all those who participate in the resident Halloween pet costume contest!

How to Promote a Resident Halloween Pet Costume Contest

There’s a reason why pet events are the most popular type of events.  No one can resist a witchy pup on his way to collect Halloween treats.

Invites can be done through eblasts and social media.  You can even set up a Facebook Event so you can invite your residents through your property’s page.  You’ll want to post flyers and signage around the property.

FREE DOWNLOAD ALERT!

Here is a collection of FREE resident halloween pet costume contest stock images that we’ve curated to help get you started in promoting your event!

Download Free Stock Images

Of course, if you’d like help with all of the graphics and signage, we can take care of that piece to make sure your brand is on point. Contact us for custom branded designs!

Once you have all the pictures, make sure to post them together on your social media sites. Residents can support their pet and vote on others. They should also encourage their friends and family to vote, vote, vote for their favorite pet.

Ways to Celebrate Halloween with Your Residents who Don’t Have Pets

 

While your pet owners are coercing their dogs into black spandex for the resident Halloween pet costume contest, don’t forget about ways your pet-free residents can participate in the festivities.

Competitive carvings or pumpkin painting can provide a creative outlet this time of year. Pumpkin carving enthusiasts can show off their knife skills.  Painting pumpkins can impress with less mess.  Gather all the resident pictures and create a Facebook album where other residents can vote up til Oct 31st.

You can also challenge residents to a Halloween décor contest.  Who turned their balcony into a spooky graveyard?  Who’s celebrating a spider and bat infestation in their studio?  If your property is lucky enough to have enough decorations and nice weather this month, you can have residents grab their masks and walk around the property scoping out the decorations.  End the walk with some candy in the clubhouse.  Individual goodie bags or treats make it easy to grab and go.

Download Free Stock Images the gallery of pet stock images or reach out to zipcode creative to personalize your Halloween marketing materials. Use the button below to request a custom branded event flyer for Halloween celebration.

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Social Distancing Apartment Amenities Social Distancing Apartment Amenities Social Distancing Apartment Amenities

Social Distancing Apartment Amenities to Enhance Your In-Home Experience

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

Social Distancing Apartment Amenities

The times they are a-changin’. Stay-at-home orders and social distancing measures have forced us all to adapt to a new way of living. This goes for apartment living as well. Long live the days you could just pop into the office and hand in your rent check to an actual human, which let’s just be honest the only reason you opted out of paying your rent online was so you could snag a few cookies and grab a caffeinated beverage as you waited in the lobby. Remember that whole working out thing? Most of us have forgotten since the gym in our apartment complex has closed. Since lockdown orders have been put into place, the “community” feel of apartment living has been taken out. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, now is the perfect time to be the hero and bring your apartment community closer together than ever before. You can offer these social distancing apartment amenities that your residents won’t want to see go even after stay-home orders are lifted. Keep reading to get a super awesome bonus amenity, which happens to be our personal favorite!

Virtual Classes
Virtual Entertainment
Weekly Food Trucks
On-Demand Fitness Subscriptions
Streaming Subscriptions
Community Competitions
Balcony Happy Hour
Foreign Language Lessons
Community Charity Picks
Bonus: Outdoor Theater

This list could go on and on, but we thought these 9, plus a bonus one, would be plenty to get you started. A friendly tip: Amenities that you offer already, which can easily be altered to accommodate social distancing measures, start that transition, like yesterday! Then from there take a look at the list we’ve put together for you and pick a few of your favorites and get to work! Before you start going bonkers over our top 9, plus 1, list of amenities, take a look at these pointers below that will give you some ideas on how to market your new and improved social distancing amenities!

1. Social Media

Design an entire social media strategy around all your social distancing amenity options. You can have multiple campaigns dedicated to different types of offerings. If it’s a virtual fitness class, post a small video clip on your IG with just the phrase “Are You Ready”, including the dates and times below. Again, the possibilities are endless, but if you want more ideas, you know you can always come to zipcode and we’ll get you sorted

2. Web & Print

Social distancing amenities have already become a selling point that prospects are looking for. So, don’t be shy with them. Put your amenity list on your homepage  for the whole world of prospects to see! Bold that list on your brochures! Put a sign outside your complex to let anyone who drives by know that you offer all the best amenities that social distancing has to offer! This will definitely help you stand out from the competition. Distribute flyers to all your residents with the new social distancing and virtual amenities available and how they can access them. 

3. The Buddy Pass

Offer a “Buddy Pass” for your amenities. As appealing as hanging out with your complex family within a socially acceptable distance is, we’re all dying to hang out with our other buddies too! For most of the amenities that we suggested on our list, you can find a creative way to allow your residents a pass to have their friends join them. Not only will your residents be ecstatic, but it’s also a great way to advertise how awesome your complex is! There will be definite opportunities to get friends of residents to sign a lease. 

4. Email

To make sure residents stay interested in everything you’re offering, think about providing weekly newsletters. You could feature a particular fitness class that isn’t getting as many attendees and try and get them interested. Maybe highlight the most popular fitness class. You could pick a resident of the week and write a small bio on them. Always promote the next big event taking place as well as a calendar of amenities for the following week. Of course, in every newsletter be sure to include any links or codes that residents will need to join an event as well as your website and social media links.

For help with designs and strategies, contact us and we will make sure that the hard work you put into pleasing your residents with social distancing apartment amenities will not go unnoticed.

1. Virtual Classes

Virtual classes can come in many different shapes and sizes, but for the sake of this post we’ll just give you our top 7 list as ideas for social distancing apartment amenities they will love. 

Fitness Classes

Offer a variety of fitness classes so that way all your residents feel like there is an option suited for them. This means offering classes for all ages, for residents that work 9-5, classes with various levels of difficulty and everyone in between. 

Yoga Classes

Same idea as fitness, but we wanted to keep them separate because the same residents who do your fitness classes may not be the same as those who do your yoga classes. Also remember, there are different styles of yoga and it may be good to offer a variety here too. Yogi’s will appreciate that.

Meditation Classes

Same thing as yoga, right? Wrong. Again, the people who take your yoga or fitness classes may not be the same ones who take your meditation class. And, well, right now, everyone’s a little on edge and stressed and could benefit from having an outlet to help them wind down a bit. This one is a must in our book.

Another great thing about these first three options, not only will you be able to offer your residents much needed exercise while gyms are shut down, but you will also be able to provide work to local instructors , which they will certainly appreciate. 

Cooking Classes

Cooking classes can provide an opportunity to partner with local restaurants and chefs for some good ol’ cross promotion to bring your residents weekly or monthly cooking tutorials. Feature well-known dishes at local restaurants as a way to further  promote your neighborhood and offer something exciting and new! 

DIY 

DIY tutorials are great simply because you’ll never run out of options. At a time when all we have is time and most of it is spent at home, DIY is sort of an essential. This could be anything from tye dying to scrapbooking or from building projects to home-decor. Social Media is a great way to promote your resident DIY amenity. Use the hashtag #PropertyNameDIY. Create a Facebook group where your residents and staff can post and share their DIY projects. Having residents share on social is a great way to help showcase your social distancing apartment amenities to the world

Master Classes

Give residents the opportunity to better themselves and progress at a time where we all feel like our life is at a stand-still. This will require you to get to know your residents better, which is great for CRM purposes as well. You’ll need to know what types of jobs and careers your residents have or desire to have. What are their hobbies, interests etc. 

All this information should equip you to pick one hour long master class a week to offer to your residents. It could be an expert video on SEO for your residents that are in marketing. Perhaps one week could be an entrepreneur expert for residents who run their own business or would like to one day. A sewing class. A hand-stand class. Whatever the class is make sure it’s relevant to your residents.

Speakers

Sort of in line with number 6, but slightly different. Instead of having it as a class format, you could hire speakers, like the Ted Talk kind, and have them as guests for your monthly or weekly talks. You can really go anywhere with this one. You can have a speaker that specializes in the way the mind works. Or a speaker who is an expert on dreams. Or a women empowerment speaker. Go nuts. Have fun with it. Again, look to your local community to find experts in the topics you are seeking to cover. Poll your residents for ideas of subjects they would be interested in hearing about.

2. Virtual Entertainment

Most forms of entertainment generally result in large gatherings of people. Well, COVID-19 immediately put a stop to all that. But, there’s ways around that, thanks to technology. We’re social creatures and we want to share our excitement and happiness with others. So, here is our top 3 list of virtual entertainment ideas you can offer as social distancing apartment amenities for your residents to share their happiness with the rest of the community. Of course, there are so many ways you can add to this list.

Virtual Dance Party

GO ALL OUT! Hire a professional DJ. Get your residents to invite as many friends as possible. Encourage them to decorate their doors and balconies for the event. You can even leave little goodie baskets on all your residents’ porches with basic decorations and fruit punch and party hats. If you’re feeling extra crazy, you can get pizza delivered to the main office and have your staff deliver it to your residents’ door without coming into contact with them. Seriously, everyone is looking for a reason to party and boogie down right about now. Give them that reason!!!

Virtual Concert

Music is something everyone can relate to. Every Friday night, or maybe just once a month, have a local musician play a live concert virtually. Maybe feature a different genre of music each time. This is also a great way to shine a spotlight on any residents you have that may be musically inclined. You can even plan a music festival where multiple musicians will play a few songs throughout the day. Make a whole celebration of it.

Virtual Stand-Up

Who couldn’t use a good laugh right about now. Same idea as a virtual concert except you can hire local stand-up comedians to do a virtual show for your residents.

We would recommend adding disclaimers to these events, specifically age sensitive disclaimers.

3. Weekly Food Truck

Pretty self explanatory. Each week have a different food truck to come to your complex and offer food to your residents.

Put tape down 6 feet apart to mark where people should stand

If your complex is quite large, specify what times each building is allowed to wait in line

Make it diverse! Each week have a different food for a different part of the world

4. On-Demand Fitness Subscriptions

Annnnd now that your residents have just stuffed their faces, you need to offer them a way to redeem themselves! Instead of advertising your state of the art grills (that you can’t grill on) that are next to your top of the line cabanas (that you can’t cabana in?) by your heated pool (that you can’t swim in), it’s time to start advertising for amenities that your residents CAN enjoy and from right inside their homes. 

A subscription to on-demand fitness is an awesome in-home amenity to offer in lieu of the gym. It’s a perfect solution for times when the fitness center is too crowded (or closed) or for those who like to workout after hours. Below is a list of 12 fitness subscriptions and apps you could offer to your residents. Check out the 17 Best Workout Apps for On-the-Go Fitness for more details on each of these apps and subscriptions.

1. BeachBody- Best overall

2. Glo- Best for yoga

3. Grokker- Best for overall wellness

4. Physique 57

5. All Out Studio

6. Tone It Up

7. Pure Barre

8. My Fitness By Jillian Michaels

9. Daily Burn

10. Gixo

11. Obe

12. Asana Rebel

5. Streaming Subscriptions

Maybe the same rules apply as for fitness subscriptions. Who doesn’t like a good Netflix binge here and there…don’t be ashamed if “here and there” is more like everyday right now. We’re right there with you! Netflix is the most popular of all social distancing apartment amenities because people are already streaming it – be a hero and pick up the bill! 

Also, you can add a column in your newsletter for most popular shows/movies streaming in your community right now. Just a suggestion. Here goes our top 5 movie streaming sites.

For more details on cost, features and additional streaming sites, check out From Netflix to Hulu to Disney+, the best streaming sites for movies

Netflix. (Cause, uh duh!)

Amazon Prime

Hulu

Disney +

HBO Go/HBO Now

6. Community Competitions

As humans, at least American humans, to compete is in our blood. But, with all sport events being cancelled, how shall we ever get it out of our system! That’s where you step in. Offer some good ol’ fashion healthy competition to your residents as social distancing apartment amenities. Offer sweet prizes too, this will ensure more people will participate and bring your complex community even closer together! If you’re stuck on what prizes you should offer, check out our post The Top 10 Ways to Maintain Resident Retention and Sign Renewals During the Coronavirus Pandemic to get some ideas. Here’s a short-list of some competitions you could offer.

Fitness Challenge 

This could be for the most steps walked in a week, the most time recorded for dedicated movement or the most weight lost in a month.

Award for the Most Community Events Attended

Exactly as it sounds. Give notoriety to the resident that attended the most events that month. Write about her or him in the weekly newsletter!

Dance Off

Schedule a Zoom event where any resident who signs up gets to enter into a dance off. After all participants have busted a move, anyone who watches gets to cast their vote and the winner gets to bask in their glory, and of course get a big honkin’ prize from you.

Cleaning/Organizing challenge

Your residents can post before and after shots on social media and tag you in it. I mean, cleaning has never been so much fun! 😉

7. Balcony Happy Hour

This one is an absolute classic and you can even do it multiple times a week depending on apartment community vibe and participation. A happy hour event can also be done virtually instead of having residents hang out on their patios & balconies. Of course, checking ID’s would be a requirement if you are providing the drinks!

Make it fun and theme each event!  Perhaps this friday the theme could be margaritas and next Sunday could be a morning brunch special happy hour where mimosas are the theme.

Provide the drinks (to those of legal age) or provide drink recipes for the added perk of this amenity. If you choose to host this even virtually, maybe have a guest demonstrate a how-to cocktail recipe live on video.

There’s no better to celebrate your local community other than to offer local brews and wines at your happy hours. Right now, with the economic downturn, this is a great way to support your local businesses and build your community back up. It’s the perfect way to create relationships that could turn into referrals! 

8. Foreign Language Lessons

Offering a subscription to online language courses is such a move-in bonus and one of the most creative social distancing apartment amenities you could offer – stay out from the competition! Everyone wishes they could speak another language, but the hassle of finding out what’s the best way to learn one, the time needed to dedicate to learning one and then being able to afford it, is always a deal breaker. Right now, people have the time, you just need to offer them the best way and add it as a move-in amenity so they don’t have to worry about how they will afford it!

Check out, Best language-learning apps, software, and online classes, to get a list of some of the best language learning subscriptions out there. 

9. Community Charity Picks

You may think this one doesn’t seem like an amenity, but you’d be wrong. Most people want to give to charity, but never know which one they should. If you offer your residents charity picks that are not only relevant but community focused, this will help make their decision, thus provide them a service. Help a cause and create loyal fans – offer to match their donations!

Make a list of local charities that you’ve researched and give residents the option to add $1 and up to their rent each month, which will be donated directly to the charity that they’ve picked. We may not be able to advise you on different local charities by name, as the options available will be dependent on where you live, but we can give you some general ideas that are most relevant right now.

Families directly affected by Covid-19

Families who have lost their jobs due to the economic crises

Child-care for parents that still have to work, but can’t send their kids to school because they’re closed.

Nursing homes- they’re the hardest hit by Covid-19

Vet Hospitals and homes- they’re one of the hardest hit as well

10. BONUS: Outdoor Theater

This one is an absolute gem and by far our favorite social distancing amenity! Best part, you can DIY this beast and for cheap too! DIY Drive-in: How to Set Up Your Own Outdoor Movie Theater goes step by step on how you can set up your very own outdoor movie theatre. You can have so much fun with this amenity if you have the space for it!

Provide the popcorn and snacks

Lay down blankets for them if it’s in the grass. Be sure to lay them at least 6 feet apart!

Themes. Pick movies based on a particular theme and decorate for that theme. On Valentines day you could choose a romantic comedy and pass out candy hearts and decorate the movie area accordingly. Help parents out by having a kid’s themed movie night. Halloween, Christmas…you get the picture (pun intended).

Get residents involved. Offer a list of 10 movies, have residents vote and reveal the winning movie in the weekly newsletter.

self-guided tours and touchless move-ins self-guided tours and touchless move-ins self-guided tours and touchless move-ins

Apartment Self-Guided Tours and Touchless Move-Ins That Will Have Prospects Lining Up to Lease

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

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Covid-19 has disrupted our way of life, forcing us to adapt to great change. Future us will look back on these strange times and think, “social distancing was so 2020”. But, not every change born from this madness will be just another distant repressed memory. Enter the new era of self-guided tours and touchless move-ins.

Technological enhancements necessitated by Covid-19 have been completely transformative for the apartment leasing process. And we all know that you don’t have to twist the arm of a generation jacked up on technology innovations to convince them how virtual viewings and digital leasing benefits them. And persuading people to ‘opt-in’ for an unattended self-guided tour, well you had em’ at self-guided.

So, how can you become an absolute boss at touchless move-ins and have prospects virtually lining up to rent your properties? Through mastering these 3 points below.

1. Cross-Platform Strategy

2. Virtual Touring and Unattended Self-Guided Tours

3. Digital Leasing

1. Cross-Platform Strategy

Blast your touchless move-in offerings left, right and center on all your platforms. Check out our previous post, Virtual Tours Are The New Way To Lease During Quarantine And Beyond for more specific details of how you can do just that. Keep in mind that it typically takes a consumer between 5-20 encounters with a brand before they commit to a sale. As such, your goal should be to reach your prospects in as many ways as possible and as often as possible.

Website

Your website is where the magic of conversion happens. All online and offline marketing efforts should be focused on how you can drive up the traffic to your website. Which is why it’s so important to have a high quality, clean, easy to navigate website that shows beautiful images of the community, floorplans, information about the area/neighborhood, detailed amenity list, easy and clear way to schedule a tour and application to lease online.There’s no point in offering different viewing and leasing options if your prospects have no idea they exist! And chances are, if it’s not right in front of their face on your homepage, then they’ll probably never know.

Social media

Statistics from Shareaholic shows that social media is now the #1 driver of referral traffic to websites and accounts for over 31% of the total traffic. The point: get a bitch’n social media strategy. In fact, we encourage you to design an entire strategy around how prospects can be move-in ready without ever taking off their pajamas or leaving the comforts of their couch. Which, just so happens to be something we specialize in. So, shoot us an email if you want more info on our social media management and content creation service OR follow our blog for future posts on social media strategies.

Emails

Emails are so 1990’s. Wrong! Email marketing is a gold standard among marketers. You can increase conversion rates by the tons (okay maybe not tons, but close!) by simply sending well-written and designed emails (also something we offer). Even create an entire email campaign just for promoting your touchless move-in options. Here are a few ideas of what you can include in your emails to promote your touchless move-in strategy:

  • Get people excited to open your emails so they can see how awesome your touchless move-in process is by writing compelling subject lines to increase your open rates.
  • Insert a photo or short video clip of a virtual tour directly into the email.
  • Have direct links to all your viewing and leasing options.
  • Provide links to all your social platforms
  • Highlight your referral and new lease incentives. Emails that offer tangible value do much better.

Email marketing is a great way for you to bring all your goodies to the prospect, rather than them having to find it on their own. It will be much appreciated. A well-done email marketing campaign should be synonymous with increased conversion rates. Check out Email Conversion Rate 101: What You Should Know & 5 Ways to Boost Yours and 10 Email Marketing Stats You Need to Know in 2020 [Infographic] if you don’t believe us!

CRM

We all have busy lives, which is why virtually leasing an apartment fits into our lifestyle so well. However, we are social creatures and we crave attention. Use your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) to get personal with your prospects even after they’ve toured solo.

Make yourself available at the whim of every prospect and resident to be there at their every beck and call. Even more so, you want to be there when they don’t even know they want you there. Do the unexpected.

  • If a prospect reaches out with a question, answer timely and then follow up shortly after to offer assistance with other services related to their previous question.
  • If a prospect fills out an inquiry form, get back to them within the hour.
  • Offer live chats on your website. This is a great way to gather personal data, more specifically, prospect’s email address. It’s all about building that database! 
  • It’s not always about new residents. In fact, a big part of your CRM strategy should be focused on resident retention. Showing your gratitude and appreciation for existing residents is just as important. Even little gestures, like having automated reminders linked to resident’s birthdays. You can leave balloons and treats on their doorstep with a card reminding them how much you appreciate them being a part of the “family”.
  • If you offer fitness classes or host community events, find a way to record which residents participate in which activities.This way you can customize email offerings related to the activities those specific residents are interested in.
  • Honestly, simply remembering their name and saying hi to them when you see them can go a long way too. 

You’ll be surprised how much higher your retention rates will be with just a few minor enhancements to your CRM. All of which can be done contact-free.

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2. Virtual Touring and Unattended Self-Guided Tours

Now for the meaty goodness you’ve all been waiting for. And not to sound redundant, but our last blog post was sort of a gem and a must-read in the way of offering guidance on virtual-touring. Go to  Virtual Tours Are The New Way To Lease During Quarantine And Beyond to get a very detailed guide on the different ways you should be offering virtual tours. For this post, we’ll just give you a list of ways to offer virtual tours and open houses.

Virtual Tours

  • Facebook Live
  • Zoom
  • House Party
  • Skype
  • FaceTime
  • Pre-recorded videos available on your website and social media channels 

Self-Guided Tours

What we didn’t talk about in our last post is unattended self-guided tours. And self-guided tours and touchless move-ins are going to be key during while we continue social distancing and even in a post-pandemic world. If this is the first time you’re hearing about this concept, allow me to explain how it works.

First, you’ll need to choose which company will supply you with the service, hardware and software needed to offer self-guided tours. Once you are up and running, the leasing office will have access to a smart lock access control. Prospects will need to fill out an online form, provide their credit card information for identity verification and security purposes, pass a screening check and then get approved. After getting approval, the prospect will be sent a one-time passcode, which gives them access to the unit they selected and only for during the time slot they’ve chosen. The leasing staff are alerted of the prospect’s arrival and departure as well as when the doors are automatically locked when a prospect leaves.

Self-guided tours are an investment of your time and funds, the same way providing virtual tours are. But the results make it all worth the while. Data presented at NMHC’s OpTech Conference & Exposition revealed that lease conversions increased by 86% with self-guided tours opposed to when a prospect is being escorted. In addition, 65% of attendees polled during the conference said they were already strategizing ways to adopt self-guided tours within the next two years or have already done so. You don’t want to be left behind!

Self-guided tours not only further empower prospects to customize their apartment hunting experience, but it also increases the chances of them signing a lease because they had this option. It really comes down to engaging with prospects how they want to be engaged with. Give them the choice.

Todd Katler, CEO of Anyone Home, says, “62% of people who use a self-guided tour and subsequently lease, complete that tour within 60 minutes of their initial inquiry.” Also, 20% of prospects that attend self-guided tours do so outside of regular office hours, which means you are opening up an option for the workforce who wouldn’t otherwise be able to tour!

Now, this option does require prospects to turn off their Netflix and get off their couch, but I think everyone at this point is looking for an excuse to do this anyhow. Here is a list of top companies, in no particular order, that provide self-guided tours and touchless move-ins services:

For a breakdown of service features these companies offer, check out, AIM 2020 Webinar Recap: Automated Apartment Tours and Leasing (Part 1) and (Part 2).

 3. Digital Leasing Office

Offering digital lease signing is like adding a cherry on top of the prospect’s touchless move-in experience. This option is also quite appealing to resident’s looking to renew their lease and also may be an incentive. For a more exhaustive list to increase retention and sign renewals you should check out our post, The Top 10 Ways to Maintain Resident Retention and Sign Renewals During the Coronavirus Pandemic. 

The ability to sign leases digitally is not a new concept. In fact it’s been trending for the past few years. But, with recent technology, it has become safer, easier and more robust. Also, just to bust a very misguided myth, digital signatures ARE legally binding and WILL hold up in a court of law. Just in case you’re concerned. 

Just like weighing the features of competing self-guided tour providers, you’ll need to do the same with digital signature services. Below is a list of the top 10 providers (outside of the obvious multifamily software platforms):

With so many choices, you really need to know what you’re looking for in order to make an educated decision on which provider is best suited to your needs. 

Despite the magnitude of disruption to our lives Covid-19 has caused, there’s some good to come from it after all –self-guided tours and touchless move-ins. Hope this post helps!