Staging Apartments for Winter Tours

Written by Stacey Feeney on December 7, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

Have you ever walked into someone’s home during the holidays and felt that instant sense of coziness and belonging? There’s a reason for that feeling. Your host has put time and energy into creating an inviting atmosphere that exudes warmth and peace. You can make your prospects feel right at home with these winter apartment staging tips and you’ll be sure to make it worth their while!

Staging Outside

You don’t need to have a curb to make your leasing office appealing to passersby. A simple welcome mat and a clean (repainted if necessary) door will put visitors at ease. Wintertime also often means muddy boots and wet shoes. Give your prospects a place to take off boots and shoes before they check out the model apartment. Have a chair or a bench nearby if possible–you don’t want to have them struggle just before they come inside. If your model unit has a walk up, ensure any and all leaves and snow/ice are removed for a safe and clean entry to the front door.

Staging with Nature

Bring the outdoors in (but not too much)! Have a simple green wreath for the front door, and have a plant or two in bathrooms or in the kitchen. Having a little greenery inside the apartment can help it feel like an ideal living space. If you want to go more towards a holiday feel, create a simple centerpiece (with candles or ribbon) so your potential residents can imagine hosting holiday parties or feasts during Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s and any other holidays they volunteer to host. A bowl of oranges in the kitchen will be a nice pop of color, as well.

Staging with Light

The days are shorter and colder, which means you want as much light inside as possible. Turn on a variety of lights at varying heights throughout the apartment you’re showing so your prospects feel comfortable walking through, not having to ask about turning lights on or off. Open up all the curtains and let any and all natural light in. Bonus points for open curtains in the night time, as they’ll be able to see the home-y glow from the outside as they walk up. If you’re able to point out the cozy glow from the apartment’s windows before you get there, they’ll picture themselves pointing holiday visitors to their home, too. Having your lights on a timer will help make this task a bit simpler, while still saving you a little cash on electricity.

Staging for Coziness

Over the last few years, we’ve all heard a new word from the Danish: hygge. (HOO-gah). The easiest way to make your space “hygge” is by lighting a candle. Make it cozy. Put warm blankets on the arms of the couch. Have a few pillows out. Turn up your thermostat a little higher to make sure no one is shivering when they step into your apartments. (This is another moment where timers can help–set the thermostat to turn up to the 70s when you’re touring, and have it turn back down after your tour times are over.) If your apartments are appointed with a fireplace, have it on before the tour begins, and stage your living area around it, to fully captivate your prospective residents–in the winter, your fireplace should be the focal point. Create a hot drink or coffee bar with mugs and a selection of teas, hot chocolate, and hot cider to warm guests up and get them thinking about how nice the view is while they sip their fresh coffee. Appealing to the senses is an easy way to get your future residents on board.

Staging with Color

Grey, beige, tan, and white are the most neutral colors to have in a space, and will therefore appeal to a broader audience. If you do choose to go with a pop of color, stay consistent. If you present a new color theme to your prospective residents every time they move to a new room, the apartment decor will have a lack of continuity throughout. Choose one or two colors that you’ll have throughout the home to keep your future residents’ attention as they tour your staged apartment. For wintertime, you can go with a deep navy and a mustard yellow, or a deep burgundy with plenty of greenery throughout. Whatever you choose, don’t go overboard.

Staging for the Holidays

This could be the space where your future residents host many happy Thanksgivings, warm Christmases, joyous New Years–help them envision it even better. Place bells on the doorknob, place a bunting around the porch. Battery-operated candles in the window make for a festive (and safe) way to welcome visitors, as well. If you’re tempted to simmer spices on the stove or bake cookies, keep it real and keep it light. Just a little apple cider could be plenty to help create a warm atmosphere. Avoid fake smells with sprays and plug-in diffusers–many are sensitive to artificial scents–the real thing is so much better!

Staging for the Right Audience

You know better than anyone else who your ideal resident may be. If you are in a Jewish community or neighborhood, don’t put up a Christmas tree. Likewise, don’t put up Hanukkah decor if you know that your neighborhood primarily celebrates Christmas. The best method with the decor you choose, is to keep it festive, without being specific. Avoid Christmas trees, Santa, nativity scenes, and other religion- or culture-specific holiday decor. If you decorate with winter items, warm smells, and glowing lights, you’ll be welcoming everyone.

The bottom line with winter apartment staging? Keep it simple, and keep it consistent, and you’ll make it easy for future residents to imagine their holidays at home in your community.

Reviews: How to Generate Them & Why They Matter

Written by Stacey Feeney on December 3, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

Today, the majority of renters are from digitally native generations. As a result, their first instinct is almost always to look everything up online—and their apartment search is no different! When prospects are on the lookout for their dream home, they’re likely to start with a Google search before almost anything else.

Along with apartment listings, community reviews are likely going to come up when prospective residents are on the hunt for more info about a certain apartment or building. It’s important to put your best foot forward with as many positive reviews as possible, so prospects get the full picture of what it’s like to call your community home.

Don’t discount the power of reviews. When it comes to online buying, 90% of people read at least one review before making a decision. Even more important? 94% of people reported that a negative review caused them to avoid making a specific purchase. Reviews have a strong hold on consumers, and it’s no different when it comes to renters and the multifamily industry.

Start putting more stock in your online presence and encourage your residents to rate their experience. Here are a few easy steps to getting started.

Creating Accounts on Popular Review Sites

There are endless sites online that aggregate reviews, but there are a few in particular that are important for multifamily: Google, Facebook, Apartments.com, and Rent.com. While all of these sites have their own guidelines and regulations, positive reviews across these platforms will go a long way in demonstrating the perks of your community to prospects.

Be sure to set up your community on these sites—and any other local review sites or apps that may be relevant—so that residents who are willing to write a review can easily find you online. Making it as straightforward as possible for residents will increase the likelihood they’ll submit a review, helping you gain social clout and a positive brand reputation.

Encouraging Resident Reviews

Getting your community on popular review platforms is just the first step. Then comes the important part: getting residents to actually write the review! This can be one of the hardest parts of the process. Instead of expecting that residents will go out of their way to leave a review on their own, there are a few different ways you can encourage them and generate reviews quickly.

Just Ask!

Most of the time, residents won’t realize you’re in the market for online reviews. The easiest way to let them know? Tell them! Send out an email, create a flyer, and post it on your social media channels. Connect with residents across channels and touchpoints to make sure reviews are top of mind.

Don’t stop with just one attempt. Create a campaign that reaches out to your residents two or three times with gentle reminders that will make them more likely to engage.

Offer an Incentive

If you find that simply asking your residents to leave reviews isn’t doing the trick, it may be time to consider some sort of incentive. From a free gift to a review bonus, the reward can range from big to small. Choose something that your residents care about and offer that up to entice them to take the time to write a thoughtful and personal review.

But let us be clear, incentivizing someone to leave a review is technically a no-no and we are not suggesting you buy reviews! If you decide to incentivize, make sure you are absolutely clear on the following points and do so at your own risk.

No purchase (lease) necessary to participate
Incentive is in exchange for an HONEST review (good or bad)

Don’t Forget Reputation Management!

Once you’ve convinced residents to leave reviews, don’t forget to frequently check in across the different review platforms. While you’re hoping for all positive reviews, it’s unlikely that everyone will leave five-star commentary. Instead of ignoring the negative, it’s important to manage and address concerns as they pop up and apologize for any instances where you or your staff could have improved.

Taking the time to respond to reviewers and actively participate in the dialogue shows that your community values and listens to resident feedback and concerns. This can go a long way to rectify any negative reviews and help quell any concerns for prospects.

Don’t forget to also respond to positive reviews! Thanking residents who take the time to leave feedback is an important part of the process to ensure they continue to have an amazing experience with both your staff and your community.

Ready to get started on your resident review marketing campaign? Reach out to the zipcode creative team today!

Images in this blog post are ©Fairfield Residential | Work executed by Stacey Feeney, owner of zipcode creative, while under creative direction and employment at Fairfield Residential.

cultivate community this christmas cultivate community this christmas

Cultivate Community for your Residents this Christmas

Written by Stacey Feeney on December 1, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

Home is the place where you can get hot chocolate, put your feet up, wear your coziest sweater, and relax–that’s the inspiration behind our latest blog post on cultivating community during the holidays.

Even if there’s a chill in the air, you can still keep the warmth in your residents’ hearts with this list of wonderfully wintry ideas on how you can cultivate community at your apartments! Hoping to make your community feel more like coming home for the holidays? Try just one activity, combine any two ideas, or do every single thing on the list–it’s entirely up to you.

Holiday Events That Cultivate Community

For long-standing residents and for just-moved-in newbies, it’s nice to meet your neighbors and make new friends. During the wintertime, it’s important to build those connections and make sure everyone feels at home when they’re an apartment resident in your community. Try these events on for size:

Secret Santa Gift Exchange

Anyone who wants in, can join! For Secret Santa, you’ll need to collect names of participants, and give them out so folks can buy gifts ahead of time. Use this secret santa online gift exchange organizer to make it easy! A gift exchange is one of the easiest and most successful ways to cultivate community among residents and staff.

White Elephant Gift Exchange

Not interested in planning so much? A white elephant gift exchange often makes for hilarious results.

Write down numbers on little pieces of paper, have everyone draw one slip of paper, and whoever gets “1” goes first.
They choose from a stack of gifts (everyone has brought one wrapped gift around $10 in value that could appeal to anyone) and open it.
Participant “2” goes next and may choose to steal the first opened gift, or pick a new one from the pile.
You’ll need at least 4 participants for the game, but 6+ is better. The more people you have, the longer the game will last!

Scavenger Hunt

Have your residents explore areas of your community they might not have ventured into before! Identify things around your community, create a scavenger hunt online through goosechase or create handouts for everyone to check off and fill in. Invite the whole community, hand out the scavenger hunt instructions and papers, and give a prize to the first, second, and third place winners after you verify their answers. Questions can be something like: “How many plants are in the front lobby?” or “What is the ribbon color on Apartment 314’s door?”. It’s best to do raucous activities like these on a weekend, during the day so that residents who choose to sit out are not disturbed. Make it Christmas-themed with the swish of a wand by adding in a few questions about your holiday decorations.

Pro-tip: Pick four activities and do “four festive weeks of christmas” or “holidays” – based around the clubhouse or other gathering area – create a flyer with the important dates and details, and place one in every mailbox, or send an email to every resident (or both!) Remind everyone through your social media with custom graphics to sign up and show up for these moments of casual community fun!

Wreath Competition

Set your residents up with a friendly front-door wreath competition. Create categories: Most Creative, Most Festive, and Best in Show. Set up rules, if needed, along with a deadline, and send out your residents to go check out the wreaths for the day of judging/awards. Bonus points if you send them out with their hot chocolate and have them come back to vote by ballot. Give the winner a gift card to a local shop! Sit back, relax, and enjoy the simple community camaraderie created by boxwood wreaths and bows!

Have a bigger budget? Try an alternative: have everyone gather in the clubhouse, and level the playing field with supplies set out for them. This gives them more time celebrating and collaborating through a craft!

Christmas Caroling

Buddy the Elf wasn’t wrong: The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear! Share your songs with the rest of the community residents and go door-to-door with anyone who would like to join you. Send out an email to the participants with a list of the songs + lyrics you’d like to serenade the community with. Pick a time around 6:30pm–the sweet spot between dinner time and young children’s bedtimes. Friday and Saturday nights work well, since there isn’t typically work or school responsibilities the next day. If you’re feeling particularly organized, gather up your carolers to visit a local children’s hospital or assisted living senior community–be sure to call ahead and ask the organizations which time and date works well for them.

Cookie Decorating

This is a relatively simple one, but might make it easier for families to come enjoy decorating a few cookies without making their whole kitchen a flour-bomb explosion! You can pick up ready-to-be-decorated cookies from your local grocery store, and supply all the best stuff: frosting, sprinkles, food coloring, and plenty of printed-out ideas and inspiration. Looking for a more challenging alternative? A gingerbread house competition! Either option provides a great way to utilize that clubhouse kitchen while you cultivate community!

Hot Chocolate Bar

This will warm everyone up, head to toes. Provide hot milk or water, along with the mix-in powders, and don’t forget the toppings that everyone loves: whipped cream, marshmallows, sprinkles, and candy canes. A little drizzle of caramel or chocolate syrup brings it to the next level. When everyone gathers together to create their hot chocolate. This easy activity pairs well with other activities in the list, like the Christmas pajama party or cookie decorating. Remember to keep food preferences in mind, and have allergen- and vegan-friendly options handy, too.

Christmas Pajama Party

Whether they’re footies or long johns or matching waffle-knit pjs, getting the community together in pajamas is a fun, comfortable (and cozy) way to enjoy the holiday times. Costume parties and pajama parties are easily a conversation starter, and neighbors will begin to get to know each other quickly. Karaoke and pajamas could be a hilarious mix as well! Keep reading…

Christmas Song Karaoke

If any of your residents have ever gotten a hankering to holler “Silver Bells” — now is their big chance to “ding-a-ling”. Set up a full karaoke sing-along, complete with all the favorites. Don’t forget the microphone. If you make it a BYOB event, you might see an increase in participation, as well! There’s nothing better than karaoke to cultivate community at Christmas time.

Cultivate Community Between Staff and Residents

It’s not just about connecting with neighbors over the holidays. For residents, it’s also important to feel valued, and cared for by the community directors and managers. Personal touches or small tokens of appreciation will go a long way when it comes to making your residents feel special.

cultivate community with a greeting card

Simple Christmas/Holiday Card

This is an easy, handheld way to show your gratitude and warmth. Get personalized stationery or branded holiday cards for your residents. If possible, sign it or write a handwritten message. Taking the time will mean so much to your community during the holidays. Make sure you get one into every mailbox, and start early so you have plenty of time to personalize!

Group Service Project

‘Tis the season of giving, including our time and talents! Get everyone involved in giving back to your community. You could host a food or toy drive, choose a city clean-up project, or look into serving at a local soup kitchen. The warmest feelings during the holidays often show up when we work together for the good of someone else. Send out an email or have a sign-up sheet in your foyer, and remind residents to sign up so you can have an accurate volunteer count for the organization you’ll be helping. Check out volunteermatch.com to find opportunities near you.

Small Gifts

Check out our best last-minute gift ideas for apartment community residents and staff. It doesn’t have to be a big gift–but this token shows your appreciation, and is a physical reminder of your gratitude.

Pro-tip: If you have a new resident, and they’re moving in right before the holidays, be sure to include the upcoming event flyers in the apartment welcome packet.

Winter is coming, but hearts can be warmed with all the fun events you’ll have lined up for your community. Helping their community feel like home for your residents is just one more way to show them how welcoming your community really is–they may never want to leave)!

Directional Signs and Maps are Vital to Apartment Marketing

Written by Stacey Feeney on November 17, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Graphic Design, Marketing.

It’s finally time to open up your multifamily community, or re-launch your next leasing cycle. The leasing office is welcoming. The grounds are tidy. The surrounding neighborhood is excited. From your marketing analysis to the move-in of your residents, every step is vital to ensure an easy transition to life in your community! In order to make sure your residents’ journey to their new door is as easy as possible, give them a crystal clear map of what to expect and where to find all the amenities and offerings they’re looking for with directional signs and maps.

Today’s residents rely heavily on word of mouth (do their friends like it?), impressive/cohesive branding and marketing, and online reviews. On top of that, residents want to make sure that they’re located close to the amenities they want, both within the community they’re considering, as well as the surrounding neighborhood. Beyond an outline of community and local amenities, practicality is key for prospective or new residents–no one wants to be lost, despite all those “Not all Who Wander Are Lost” bumper stickers floating around. That’s where directional signs and maps will be vital.

Directional Signs

Much like street numbers that are easily visible on a house, providing directional signage in the community is important to ensure a sense of welcome, ease, and expectation.

Bootlegs/bandits, which are also called yard signs, are helpful for giving directions to the leasing office for prospective residents, with a combination of text and arrows. (If a resident can’t find the leasing office, it will be difficult for them to sign the lease.) Make it as clear as can be with your directional signs.

When a prospective resident comes to your community, to find out whether they’d like to live there, signage should be clear, regular, and consistent. If the signs don’t match your typical branding styles, it may be confusing. If there are no signs, it can be a source of frustration. Just like a focus on customer experience with a website is vital, you should also focus on the customer journey through your physical community! Avoid wasting their time, causing them embarrassment, or becoming a source of frustration or confusion with well-branded directional signage.

If your community is multilingual, consider having your signs show two languages, so that everyone feels welcome, and can navigate without necessarily having to translate.

In addition to leasing office directions, having signs for parking can be a godsend. Not every visitor is confident in their ability to find parking, with some even previewing Google Earth to pre-plan their parking. Anticipate their needs, and have them saying “I saw the sign!”

Sitemaps

The custom property sitemap, one of zipcode creative’s specialties, is like the corner piece of the puzzle for many apartment communities. Though most everyone has a smart phone with a web browser, GPS, messaging functions and many other apps, they don’t have a way to navigate your community beyond the front door. The residents and prospective residents are relying on you to create a map that helps show them where the apartments are in relation to everything else in the community.

Perhaps they’re a young couple, and they’d like to be close to the pool area. Perhaps they’re a family with older kids, and the barbeque area is more important. Or maybe they’re a single person that wants to meet others, and being near the clubhouse is high on their list. Depending on what their needs are, they should be able to easily see where your community amenities are in relation to the unit they’re considering.

zipcode creative’s sitemaps can be formatted for your use in both digital and printed versions, so you can share the map on your website through an email marketing campaign, or through a printed apartment welcome packet. With our help, we’ll make sure to identify the most important aspects of your asset: the lease office, parking, unit buildings and numbers, landscaping, and your special amenities that may include clubhouses, pools, and barbecue areas that your residents desire.

Location Maps

Beyond the borders of your apartment community, your residents will want to know: “Where’s the best place to ________?” in the surrounding neighborhood. You can answer that question, no matter how it ends, with a custom-designed location map from zipcode creative. With our detailed and stylized neighborhood map, you can identify all the good stuff that’s just a couple of blocks away, including restaurants, cafes, conveniences, and other points of interest (stadiums, golf courses, oh my!) Your residents will be excited to move in because you’re close to their favorite grocery store, or within walking distance of a cozy coffee shop.

PRO-TIP: Partner with a local business, and give your newly-signed-on residents a gift card to a restaurant or coffee shop!

The location map can be tailored to your ideal resident. For example, if you’re a senior living community, you can highlight nearby golf courses, healthcare facilities, and shopping centers. In contrast, student housing communities may choose to highlight the nearby university, coffee shops (“this one has free WiFi!”), gyms, and have more of a focus on nightlife.

No matter who your resident is, it’s always helpful to center them with a simple “You Are Here” message. Directional signs will welcome them, while sitemaps and location maps help them feel right at home in your community.

Contact zipcode creative to roll out the welcome wagon today.

Merrick, Areum, and Rize artwork is ©Fairfield Residential | Work executed by Stacey Feeney, owner of zipcode creative, while under creative direction and employment at Fairfield Residential.

Multifamily Marketing Through Local Partnerships

Written by Stacey Feeney on November 17, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Marketing. 1 Comment on Multifamily Marketing Through Local Partnerships

When your residents decide to live in your community, they often aren’t doing it only for the apartments. The surrounding neighborhood and community typically play an important factor in where they decide to live, too. Create a more dynamic experience for your residents and help them engage with other local businesses by creating a robust local partnerships program that benefits you, your residents, and other local business owners.

Leveraging local business owners to cross-promote your offerings is a win-win situation for everyone. Consider these different types of creative partnerships that will help engage your residents and create stronger bonds with your neighborhood.

Restaurants

Reach out to nearby restaurant owners to create a special discount for your residents. From a percentage off of their meals to different coupons for discounted items, you can help to encourage your residents to bring more business to these local hotspots.

You can even commit to partnering with specific restaurants for prospective resident events or other community events to build stronger ties. In return, encourage the restaurant to promote your community to their customers through flyers or signage. That way, you can begin to build brand awareness and more easily promote your community through the word of mouth of local partnerships.

Animal Shelters

Local animal shelters are an important part of every community, so it’s an ideal opportunity to do some good and promote your available apartments. If your community is pet friendly, partner with a local shelter or rescue and host an adopt a pet event.

The event will allow you to meet local pet owners and pet lovers and be able to showcase all of the pet-friendly amenities that you have to offer residents, from a dog park to dog grooming services. Even if event attendees aren’t currently in the market for a new apartment, they’ll be able to spread the word to their network and are likely to keep you in mind as an amazing place to call home for both themselves and their furry friends.

Movie Theaters

Bring movies right into your residents’ backyards! Partner with a local movie theater to host an outdoor movie in your community courtyard or even a movie-pool party event. Offering exciting resident events will help encourage community engagement and increase resident happiness, all while helping the movie theater get its name out there.

Instead of one event, consider making it a monthly series to give residents something to look forward to during the warmer summer evenings. Be sure to also promote the event or series using email marketing, signage, and other collateral to get the word out there.

Classes & Demonstrations

Local partnerships with businesses like grocery stores, food shops, fitness studios, or bookstores to host a demonstration or class for your residents. Whether you offer a free yoga class, a seasonal cooking event, or even a book reading or signing, there are countless ways you can leverage your community partners to engage your residents. Your partners can even offer residents additional discounts or other incentives to encourage repeat business, making it a beneficial way for them to expand their customer base.

Preferred Employer Programs

When it comes to marketing partnerships, think beyond events! Develop a rent incentive program for certain local companies or specific professionals, like doctors, nurses, and teachers. That way, you can encourage faster lease-up while also offering a preferential rent rate to those who are making a positive impact in your community.

Ready to promote your partnerships? Work with a creative agency, like zipcode creative, to develop multichannel marketing assets that will help you spread the word. Get started today!

Capriana brunch flyer is ©Fairfield Residential | Work executed by Stacey Feeney, owner of zipcode creative, while under creative direction and employment at Fairfield Residential.

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Curated Stock Images Will Capture Your Residents’ Attention

Written by Stacey Feeney on November 3, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

Every marketing director knows: branding is important–it tells your ideal future resident what you’re like, what to expect, and how seriously to take you. Curated lifestyle stock photos can help you build your brand while painting a picture for prospective residents to help them imagine what it would be like living at your community. But we’re not just talking about any stock photo. Since there is a wide assortment of images available to be used, we’ll help you understand why picking the right one (or set of images) can make or break your apartment building’s brand. Let’s talk about using stock photos, and using them well.

Why should I use stock photos for my Apartment Building Marketing?

Stock photos are key in helping you save time, save money, and keep your marketing materials fresh. It’s well known that “photos are worth a thousand words.” Another fun fact about images from Brain Rules by John Medina for you:

Three days after hearing information, you have a 10% chance of remembering it. Add an image, and you’re 65% more likely to recall the same information.

Think of it this way, too: when reading a chapter book to a child at bedtime, they’ll likely want to see pictures (if there are any). They can imagine it more clearly, and understand more of the context. Adults aren’t all that different–if you can help them picture themselves in your apartment building or multifamily community through an apartment marketing brochure, that’s all the proof they may need.

Bad Stock Photos Are Worse Than Nothing

When is a stock photo a bad choice? Beyond the obvious pitfalls (“brings up more questions than it answers” or “doesn’t relate to the topic at all”), here’s what else to look out for:

1) When the stock photo is cheesy:

Ah, the bad stock photo. We’ve all seen it: the woman laughing uproariously while eating a salad or a group of blazer-wearing businessmen high-fiving each other in front of a backdrop. They’re absolutely posed and not believable in the least. This next generation of tech-savvy residents will notice it if you try to fake your way through.

2) When the stock photo is overused:

Ever shown up to a party wearing the exact same thing as someone else? Embarrassing. The same thing can happen when you choose the same overused stock photo as another company. Gen Z (and a couple of other possible residents) will notice, roll their eyes, and move on to another apartment community.

The key? Look for photos that are natural-looking, candid. Ones that don’t look posed. Try to avoid stock photos with white backdrops, since that’s rarely a background to anything in real life.

Save Time with Curated Stock Photos

There are an estimated 350 million+ stock photos available online. In case you’re not great with math, that’s a ridiculous amount, even if you have something particular in mind. To have to sift through that number of stock photos will take more time than it’s worth. And, as we all know in the business world, time is money.

Another good thing about curated stock images is that they can help you stay on-brand and consistent. When you look at a set of curated images, they can have all the same filter, effect, or style. You’re already saving time by not taking the photos yourself (and getting better quality, too, we’d wager). Keep saving time and money by hiring zipcode creative to compile and curate stock photo sets for you to use that fit within your brand style guidelines.

Keep on Top Of Content with Stock Photos

Content is still king–and the need for continuous, updated content has skyrocketed, but your budget probably hasn’t kept up with the shift. Stock photo costs can add up, and hiring a photographer can be pricey as well. Keep things fresh with relevant, perfectly curated photos that help showcase your unique apartment community or multifamily building. With calendars and a bevy of on-brand stock photos, you can engage with current and future residents through posts on social media, and anywhere else you think needs to hit the Refresh button.

Stay on track with your brand style guidelines with plenty of images to choose from. zipcode creative can help you sift through the wide assortment of stock images to get exactly what your apartment community needs for your next marketing material refresh.

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Grand Opening Marketing Campaign for Apartments

Written by Stacey Feeney on November 3, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

When your community is first opening or reopening after a renovation, it’s time to celebrate! It’s an important milestone and an exciting time to show off everything you have to offer to your local neighborhood and prospective residents. Instead of flying under the radar when you open, make an impact with a thoughtful grand opening marketing campaign. By generating excitement, offering incentives, and broadcasting the event across different marketing channels, you’ll make your mark early on to increase brand awareness and name recognition.

Creating Your Campaign

Your grand opening isn’t the time to hold back. Think big to create a can’t-miss event that will have your entire local community buzzing.

Invite Your Community

To generate even more excitement around your event, invite people from across the local community. From politicians like the mayor or city council members to local business owners and their staff to residents of the surrounding area, welcome a wide range of people from across the community to your opening celebration. This will help you generate word of mouth and increase brand awareness, all while also ensuring that everyone has a great time!

Information Booth

Make it easy for those interested in learning more to get the additional info they need. Set up a booth or table at your event with flyers, brochures, and other information about your community. It’s also the perfect opportunity for staff meet-and-greets. From your property management staff to the building maintenance team, have everyone attend the event to build relationships and showcase the top talent your community has to offer.

Food & Drinks

Who doesn’t love a good spread of food and drinks? Be sure to cater your event with enticing food that will have people clambering to attend. Whether you opt for a theme or just offer light bites and cocktails, having food encourages people to linger and engage with your community even further.

Swag

You worked hard on your community’s branding, so it’s time to show it off. Create free swag giveaways for the event that help spread the word about your opening. From tote bags to pens to umbrellas, create different items with your distinctive logo or branding that attendees can take with them. That way, they’ll get to leave with some freebies for a win-win way to spread awareness!

Early Leasing Incentives

If prospective residents attend your event, incentivize them to their lease right then and there. Grand opening leasing promotions are a great way to increase urgency and help you lease up faster. From signage at the event to flyers you tuck into the swag bags, make sure you actively promote the incentives to encourage prospects to make the leap. Consider offering a free month, discounted amenities fees, and other cash incentives or other perks to sweeten the deal.

Marketing Your Campaign

Before hosting your event, you need to make sure you shout it from the rooftops. Leverage strategic marketing materials to generate buzz and amplify the event for a few weeks before it happens with a grand opening marketing campaign. That will help to maximize attendance and encourage local partners, prospects, and the general public to stop by.

When it comes to marketing, it’s time to think big! Don’t limit yourself to just one or two marketing channels. Instead, opt for a 360-degree campaign that includes:

Email Marketing

Leading up to the event, be sure to send a blast to your email list with all the details. Consider sending a formal invitation and at least one follow-up reminder to make sure people mark their calendars.

Mailers & Flyers

Don’t rely on digital marketing methods alone. Printed mailers and postcards are a great way to reach your local community and can even be distributed in local shops and restaurants for a two-pronged approach.

Signage

Create signs specifically for the event, but also outdoor signage leading up to the event. From flags and boulevard banners to large building banners, the sky’s the limit to the type of signage you can create.

Handouts & Brochures

Don’t let those who attend the event leave empty-handed. Be sure to have brochures, property sitemaps, and other relevant handouts handy for people who are interested in learning more about living in your community. You can even tuck them into the swag bags to be sure people will see them later.

If you’re ready to get started on your grand opening marketing campaign, consult an expert like zipcode creative. We’ll work with you to create a cohesive and holistic approach to your event for the best possible experience for everyone!

Get in touch today.

MAVE Design are ©Fairfield Residential | Work executed by Stacey Feeney, owner of zipcode creative, while under creative direction and employment at Fairfield Residential.

A Resident Referral Program that Works to Sign New Leases

Written by Stacey Feeney on October 14, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

When it comes to your community, your best advocates are your residents. As the people who experience all of the best of your community every day, they can vouch for the apartments, the amenities, and the overall living experience firsthand. As a result, resident testimonials and word of mouth are often the best ways to entice prospective residents to opt into your community. But instead of leaving it to chance, why not create a more formal resident referral program to incentive residents to help you lease-up?

The Benefits of a Resident Referral Program

Resident referral programs are a great way to create a thriving community that also positively impacts your bottom line. Resident referral programs can:

Lower resident acquisition costs. By encouraging your current residents to refer people they already know, you won’t have to spend as much time and money on marketing and advertising.
Minimize resident turnover. When residents encourage people they know to move in, they’re building a welcoming and thriving community. As a result, they’re less likely to move out, helping to increase resident retention and minimize turnover costs.
Lease-up faster. When you do have vacancies, filling them becomes much easier with a referral program. Instead of your staff working tirelessly on marketing materials or coordinating with leasing agents, you have a built-in network that makes word-of-mouth marketing easy.
Foster a stronger community. When residents already know their neighbors, it’s simple to build a strong and engaged community. From attendance at resident events to positive interactions in amenity spaces, this helps bolster both participation in your community programming and overall resident happiness.

How to Start a Resident Referral Program

Referral programs are incentive-based programs that reward your residents for referring friends, family, and acquaintances to your community. Because 92% of people trust word of mouth recommendations from friends and family over all other forms of advertising, a referral program is an effective way to encourage interest in your community.

When a resident refers someone to the community, they receive some kind of bonus when that person signs a lease. The program bonuses could include everything from a cash bonus to discounts on rent, or gift cards to local restaurants and businesses. To maximize the benefits, consider creating a referral program with no limit offering tiered bonuses that increase with each referral. That way, the more people a resident refers to move-in, the more their reward, making it a win-win solution for both you and your residents.

How to Advertise the Referral Program

Once you’ve determined your program details and identified what incentives you’ll be offering, it’s time to generate interest in the program and your community itself. While traditional marketing methods like emails, flyers, and signage are a great way to engage your community, you can also think outside the box to drive interest in your referral program.

Develop Program Positioning

First, come up with campaign positioning or slogans that will make an impact on residents. Consider a catchy name like “Friends Make the Best Neighbors,” or “It Pays to Have Friends.” You can then use this catchphrase across different marketing materials like flyers, emails, and social media posts to promote the program more widely to your residents.

Host Resident & Prospective Resident Events

You can also host resident events and encourage them to invite their friends and family. That way, prospective residents get an inside look at what it’s like to be a member of your community and can witness all of the perks and benefits firsthand. From barbecues to cocktail hours, these events are the perfect opportunity to encourage prospects to view your community in a brand new way.

Develop Local Partnerships

Expand your community network by partnering with local businesses you love. Offer staff incentives to these partner businesses when their employees refer residents to your community. From cash bonuses to gift cards, you can create a compelling way to encourage other community members to direct residents to your property. You can also promote their businesses to your residents for a mutually beneficial relationship, making it a win-win option for everyone.

Encourage Realtor Referrals

When it comes to referral bonuses, you can also think beyond just your residents and community partners. Opt to partner with local real estate agents to expand your reach and encourage additional referrals. While many realtors overlook multifamily because it’s not traditionally an avenue for commission, you can make it worth their while to refer their clients to your community. After all, the majority of real estate transactions come from referrals, so expanding your referral network is one of the easiest ways to lease-up faster.

Ready to kick-start your resident referral program? Work with multifamily experts like zipcode creative to develop your advertising materials and any other assets you may need to get it off the ground!

Get in touch today to get started.

Areum Flyer is ©Fairfield Residential | Work executed by Stacey Feeney, owner of zipcode creative, while under creative direction and employment at Fairfield Residential.

Flyers are Still Effective for Marketing Apartments

Written by Stacey Feeney on October 5, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Graphic Design, Marketing.

These days, when you hear the word “marketing,” your mind might jump right to flashy Instagram stories and virtual TikTok videos. But don’t forget about tried-and-true marketing methods, too. Printed materials like flyers are an easy and affordable way to reach your ideal customer. Branded marketing flyers are the perfect complement to digital marketing efforts, like email marketing or social media graphics. By combining the two approaches, you’re more likely to reach your target audience and make it easier for them to engage in your community.

And the best part about flyers? They’re one of the most versatile pieces of collateral you can create. From announcements to events and everything in between, learn how to incorporate stylish and strategic flyers into your marketing plan.

Flyers For Current Residents

Announcements & Reminders

Flyers are an easy, affordable, and effective way to communicate any updates with your current residents. From announcements about upcoming events to reminders about community news, you can display flyers in the lobby and property management office so they’re in high-traffic areas. For especially important reminders, you can even slip flyers under residents’ doors to ensure they won’t miss the news.

Upcoming Events

Developing a sense of community is vital to keeping your residents happy. Generate additional interest in your events, like happy hours, movie nights, and more, with a well-designed and eye-catching flyer. Include all the info that residents need; like the date, time, and location of the event, so it’s a one-stop place for everything they may need to know about your event. Events make it easy for residents to get to know their fellow residents, fostering community and camaraderie.

Community Services

Make sure that residents know about all of the available services that can make their lives easier. From concierge services and valet trash to online rent payments and a mobile portal where they can submit maintenance requests, a flyer is the perfect reminder to help them stay organized. Add it to welcome packets so residents can keep it on their fridge or on their desk, so they always have the info handy when they need to reference it.

Meet & Greets

Building a relationship between building staff and residents is one of the easiest ways to create a better sense of community for both groups. Organize community meet and greets where property management, maintenance staff, your leasing team, and other staff members can mingle with your residents. Promote it using flyers in common areas like amenity spaces, the building lobby, and offices. That way, residents will get to know the people who keep their community running smoothly.

Flyers For Prospective Residents

Leasing Incentives & Specials

Flyers aren’t only useful for delivering information to current residents. Leveraging flyers in the leasing process is a smart and effective way to engage prospects, too. Keep flyers in the office and on-hand for leasing staff to use to promote ongoing leasing incentives and specials. Add them to your brochure or any other printed materials that prospects already receive, so they have all the information they need to make the best decision.

Amenity Offerings

Apartment communities are about more than just the apartments themselves. Highlight all of your amenity offerings like reserved parking, storage units, garages, and more with flyers. You can tuck these into your brochures, add them to resident welcome packets, or use them at prospective resident events to generate more buzz about your property and showcase everything that you have to offer. Don’t forget to include less traditional amenities too, like a coffee station, electric car charging stations, or valet trash services.

Available Programs

If your community has ongoing programming, like an accent wall program, be sure to create a flyer to promote the option to both prospective and current residents alike. Place the flyers in the lobby, in the management office, and in the leasing office to help generate interest and excitement.

If you’re bursting at the seams with ideas for community flyers, it may be time to bring in the experts. Agencies like zipcode creative specialize in creating well-designed and eye-catching flyers that will help your community achieve—and exceed—their goals.

Get in touch today to get started!

Avaire “valet trash” and Berkeley Place “get up and go” flyers are ©Fairfield Residential | Work executed by Stacey Feeney, owner of zipcode creative, while under creative direction and employment at Fairfield Residential.

Reputation Management Marketing Strategy

Written by Stacey Feeney on October 5, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

What Is Online Reputation Management?

Reputation management is a multi-faceted concept for companies. There are different kinds of verbiage and definition for reputation management as it is a growing marketing strategy for companies. Let’s focus mainly on online reputation management.

Online reputation management is a strategy of monitoring, improving, and managing your brand’s online reputation. A company should be aware of what people are saying about your brand online and how people will think about your brand when scouring the internet. A business has a digital footprint where customers can find your online business listing (Google, Yelp, Apartment Guide, Apartments.com, etc) or social media profiles (Facebook).

Online Reviews

A key component of your online business listing and/or social media profile is receiving online reviews through it. Most all business listings have an area where customers can write a review. The reviewer will decide a star rating from the lowest negative star rating of 1 to the highest positive star rating of 5. The third-party listing will aggregate the star rating of all reviews to create an overall rating.

The overall rating showcases what customers think about the business and its performance. You will always want to strive to obtain an overall rating above four. Potential customers will look at the overall rating and review comments. The comments are helpful insights into what it will be like to be a customer of your company.

Multifamily Online Reputation Management

For Multifamily, every apartment community and corporate brand should have a Google listing where people can publish reviews. There are other top content providers that have reviews like Yelp, Facebook, and Bing. Multifamily specific third party sites include the RentPath network (Apartment Guide, Rent), CoStar Network (Apartments.com), Apartment Ratings, and so forth. Your company should own all third party listings and respond to every review.

Like stated above, reviews are an important part of your business marketing strategy to control and be aware of what people are saying about your business and its performance. The comments published by prospects, current residents, and other customers are crucial feedback to your company’s performance and business operations.

Best Practices for Online Reputation Management

There are some best practices each business should start with. Claiming all third-party listings like Google, Yelp, Facebook, and so forth is the first step. Third-party access is needed to respond to reviews. Another best practice is having review email alerts that notify of any new reviews published. If you have a decent amount of business listings, as Multifamily will have individual apartment communities listings, a reputation management program will be helpful with email alerts. The most common best practice is that every review should be responded to whether it is negative, neutral, or positive. Again, a reputation management program will be an added help to have one place to respond to all reviews. Negative reviews are a hot topic right now. The best practice for removing reviews is learning about the third-party review policy. Each review site has an option to report reviews to be removed. A business should report a review if it violates the review policy.

Review Marketing Campaign

Potential residents see recent reviews as trustworthy and important for a business. A review marketing campaign is the next step once you have the above best practice accomplished. Most of the time, people will take the time to leave a negative review. By asking current residents and prospects to review, the chance of receiving a positive review will increase. There are some actions a business cannot do when asking for online reviews like incentivizing and review gating. Some sites, like Yelp, want reviews to be organic and do not allow asking for reviews. Be sure to review the third-party review policy before generating a review marketing campaign!

How We Can Help

Online Reputation Management has many layers where additional help will alleviate some stress off of your marketing and leasing team. Review generation is important to boost your local SEO, increase rating, and improve online perspectives of your brand and services. zipcode creative can relieve some of your duties by helping create all of the visual marketing components to running a review campaign:

A Leave a Review card
An Email Campaign asking for reviews
Flyers asking for reviews
A Tabletop Signage asking for reviews
Run a review campaign
And much more!

Image is ©Fairfield Residential | Work executed by Stacey Feeney, owner of zipcode creative, while under creative direction and employment at Fairfield Residential.

Effective Print and Digital Advertising for Multifamily Communities

Written by Stacey Feeney on September 7, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Marketing. 1 Comment on Effective Print and Digital Advertising for Multifamily Communities

When it comes to getting word out about your apartment community, marketing through print and digital advertising is the name of the game. By developing a thoughtful marketing strategy, you’ll be able to build brand awareness, generate interest, and convert prospects into residents. Any good marketing strategy is not complete without ads. From classic ad types like newspaper ads to more modern alternatives such as pay per click ads, the ways you can advertise your community are nearly endless. Learn more about the different ad types and how to craft compelling ads to maximize your apartment marketing efforts.

Print Ads

Local Newspaper

When it comes to print advertising, there’s nothing more well-known than newspaper ads. There’s a reason this classic ad option is still used—because it works. When you place an ad in a newspaper, you’ll reach a large audience all at once to cast a wide net. Plus, newspaper readers trust the publication, so there’s a built-in level of trust for your brand, too. This helps build brand awareness and drive interest to help you lease-up faster.

Magazine Ads

Advertising in your neighborhood magazine is a traditional and effective print advertising option. Placing ads in these types of periodicals is an easy way to get a lot of eyes on your advertisement, and using high-quality images and attention-grabbing headlines can help to drive a lot of interest in your community. This approach typically works best for the senior living demographic.

In addition to local publications, consider advertising in trade publications, too. Look into what publications are circulated in your area to identify some out-of-the-box advertising opportunities that will drive brand awareness and generate additional interest in your community.

Direct Mail

Instead of placing an ad in a third-party publication, you can also create your own. Opt for direct mail pieces, like postcards or flyers, that help you to build awareness, generate interest, and promote upcoming events.

Brochures

You can also hand out brochures to prospective residents that showcase everything your community has to offer. From full booklet brochures to smaller gatefold alternatives, there are nearly endless options for your brochure design. That way, you can create a design that caters to your specific audience. Consider this your long form of print advertising.

Designing an Effective Print Ad

Print ads give you the opportunity to showcase your community in a creative way. From clever copy to breathtaking photography, you can create an eye-catching ad that will attract attention. When designing your ad, be sure to include:

Property photos, especially of kitchens or pools
A short “about” paragraph
Condensed amenities list – the top most desired
Contact information
Ongoing promotions
A call to action, such as “schedule a tour”

Be sure to also include information about the units you have available, whether that’s one-, two-, or three-bedroom apartments. If you have space, print ads are also an amazing opportunity to use lifestyle photography, giving prospects a better sense of what it might be like as a resident.

Remember to design your ad with your apartment’s branding in mind so that your ad is cohesive with all of your other marketing materials.

Digital Ads

Display Ads

Display ads incorporate images, text, and video to create a multimedia digital advertising experience. Display ads can take many forms, from banner ads at the top of a website to video ads on YouTube. These digital ads can display on a wide range of websites, helping to increase your reach and drive interest from a wider range of potential residents.

Social Media Ads

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are known for their engaging content, but they also offer advertising opportunities for businesses. You can set your ads to run specifically for your defined target audience to drive even higher engagement and reach those who are more likely to convert. No matter if you’re trying to increase brand awareness or drive people to sign up for an on-site tour, social media advertising helps you connect with prospects at every stage of the sales funnel for a versatile and flexible option.

Email Marketing

Instead of buying ad space through online publications or social media platforms, create your own email marketing campaign to market to the leads you already have. This allows you to totally customize the look, feel, and message of your emails for an eye-catching final result that helps drive leases.

Designing an Effective Digital Ad

Digital ads are often very small, so it’s important to develop thoughtful designs. This ensures that people can easily read and digest all of the information in the ad with just a glance. When designing digital ads, there are a few key elements you should always include:

One property photo
Your logo
Short line of text or your tagline
A call to action

When writing your copy and call to action, be sure to define what your community is—especially if the word “apartment” isn’t in your logo or featured in your photograph. This will help prospects instantly understand what you have to offer.

You should also spend time on your call to action. Make it concise, clear, and to the point. Choose something like “Tour today” or “Learn more” and link prospects to your website. That way, they always know exactly what you want them to do next.

If you’re struggling with your print and digital advertising designs, expert designers like zipcode creative can step in to develop an effective ad campaign that will help you drive ROI and make your ad placements more effective. Contact us today to learn more!

ENSO Bragging Rights & NEO Apartment Designs are ©Fairfield Residential | Work executed by Stacey Feeney, owner of zipcode creative, while under creative direction and employment at Fairfield Residential.

What Makes the Perfect Apartment Website Design?

Written by Stacey Feeney on September 1, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Graphic Design.

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In the digital age, having a website is integral to succeeding in any business—and multifamily housing is no different. Creating a unique digital footprint online for your community is the perfect way to increase your reach and pique prospective residents’ interest. Whether you’re looking to revamp your existing website or are starting from scratch, there are a few must-have elements you should consider for your apartment website design to create the best possible user experience. From site navigation to design elements like photos and videos, be sure to take these six things into consideration before you get started.

1. Website Structure

Having a clear website structure ensures that your site is intuitive and easy to navigate. When prospects arrive on the site, they should be able to instantly find whatever information they are looking for without digging through pages and clicking on multiple links.

At the top of the apartment website design, create a clear main navigation bar with large, easy-to-read buttons that link to other pages within the site. There are a few important pages that every community’s site should include:

Homepage
About
Gallery
Amenities
Floor plans
Neighborhood
Contact

In addition to these pages, many sites also have an online application and a resident portal available, making it a one-stop shop for both prospective and existing residents to find everything they may need.

2. Photography

There’s a reason they say that a picture is worth a thousand words. When prospective residents are evaluating your community, using professional photography is the best way to show off every detail. From the interior of your units to your industry-leading amenity spaces, high-quality photos allow potential residents to get a real sense of what it might be like to call your community home. Be sure to incorporate photos throughout the individual pages of the website in addition to a comprehensive gallery that has imagery of everything from the lobby to the model unit.

3. Video & Virtual Tours

While photography can help show off your space, video is what brings it to life. From sizzle reels that you can use to show off community highlights to full-blown virtual video tours, there are endless ways you can use video to showcase what your community has to offer. Consider adding a video to the top of your homepage to make it as eye-catching as possible when a new visitor lands on the site. You can also add video tours to your gallery page, making it easier for prospects to explore your community without having to come on-site.

4. Copywriting

While photography and videos show your community in the best light, expert copywriting will help seal the deal. Having a professional write all of the content on your site will ensure that it’s compelling and catchy to attract attention, even in a crowded market.

A copywriter knows exactly how to convey certain emotions, highlight specific benefits, and convince prospects to convert. From headlines to calls-to-action, make sure that you carefully consider every piece of copy on your website to put your best foot forward and create a cohesive and on-brand experience for web visitors.

5. Floor Plans

Floor plans are one of the most important things to feature on your apartment website design. Add floor plans for all available units so prospects can get a sense of the size, layout, and flow of any apartment they may be interested in. This will allow them to compare and contrast between different units and understand what they can get for their budget.

Consider having 3D floor plan renderings created of your available units to bring them to life, making it even easier for prospects to imagine themselves living in the space.

6. Neighborhood Info

When residents are evaluating your community, they aren’t just looking at the apartment. They’re also looking for a neighborhood feel and easy access to nearby attractions. To showcase your surrounding area, add an interactive Map to your website with all of the local attractions plotted. Add favorite restaurants, parks, and other outdoor activities, nearby shopping, schools, and anything else that may be important to your prospects. Then, they can see everything—all in one place—an added selling point to what makes your community so great!

Professional Website Design

Let the experts in multifamily apartment marketing help create the perfect apartment website design for your community instead of trying to DIY your way through. At zipcode creative, we’re experts in everything from branding and logo design to website copywriting to create an industry-leading online presence for our clients. We handle everything from the site structure through to the 2D and 3D floor plans, ensuring that your site has a polished and professional look. We’ll even tackle the photography and renderings, making zipcode creative a one-stop shop for all of your web needs.

Our partners, Results Repeat and Resident360, handle website development, management, SEO, and will oversee digital ads, ensuring that each community has access to all of the experts they need to drive leads and increase their presence on the web.

Get in touch today to learn more about our services.

The James website is ©Fairfield Residential | Work executed by Stacey Feeney, owner of zipcode creative, while under creative direction and employment at Fairfield Residential.

Floor Plans for Apartments in 2D and 3D

Written by Stacey Feeney on August 23, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Graphic Design. 2 Comments on Floor Plans for Apartments in 2D and 3D

Floor plans are the key ingredients to every apartment marketing toolkit. Leasing specialists need to demonstrate the unique selling features and accurately convey unit layouts when directing prospects to the right home. Having high quality and visually appealing floor plan images is paramount to the apartment leasing process – they will be used on the community’s website, brochure, and individual floor plan marketing sheets. Floor plan renderings are surprisingly affordable and worth every penny – scroll on to see your options!

2D – Line Drawings

The original, classic design without any extra fuss! Architects and developers love this style. If you have simple floor plans that don’t need a lot of explaining, the 2D style will work just fine. Add in dimensions so renters can decide if their favorite couch or bed fits. These are a sleek, modern option you can dress up on your floor plan sales sheets. Simple, yet to the point and effective for demonstrating your apartment unit layouts.

2D – Finishes & Furniture

If your property has distinctive finishes, add them to your 2D floor plans. Showcase which rooms have carpeted and hardwood floor styles. Personalize the kitchens to feature colored cabinetry, countertops and your appliance package. Once you’ve laid down all the property details, layer in some furniture to show how to maximize the space. With WFH spaces being so popular these days, try showing a desk as part of the furniture styling package.

3D Floor Plans

The 3D customization options are endless – these are great for new developments where people may not get to tour a real model until construction is complete. They also work for older properties where you may not have the budget to decorate a model unit. 3D floor plans allow any type of property to finesse their floor plan style with different finishes, furniture and color schemes. Modern, contemporary or customized furniture collections allow you to match these to your brand aesthetic. Virtual leasing has become the top way to lease this year, a premium floor plan will help you close that sale on the spot!

Marketing Sales Sheets

No matter which style floor plan you create, marketing sales sheets can bring them to life. Brand them with your property’s logo, colors and unique design elements. Label them with the square footage, bedroom and bathroom count. List your apartment’s features and amenities so prospects will be reminded of all the selling points of your property. Maybe add a price quote area so leasing consultants have room to personalize and create a sense of urgency. Make sure to include the community’s contact information, have them printed and send this handout home with those still browsing.

How to Order Floor Plans

Just reach out – send us an email or fill out our website contact form and you’ll be on your way to beautiful new floor plan images. If you have architectural floor plan blueprints, send them over with a mood board of your interior finishes to let us know what color of carpet or wood-look flooring is in the unit; also cabinet colors, appliances, countertops, etc. If your community was a takeover you may not have access to the original architectural files and that is okay! Simply provide any existing floor plans the community has been using or have your onsite team snap a few pics and measure the space for us! Either way, we’ll get it done.

Maximize your new floor plans by putting them everywhere – your website, social media photo albums, ILS ads, email templates and, of course, your brochure. zipcode creative can help with all of the above to make your apartment branding look amazing.

Apartment Copywriting That Will Convert Prospects

Written by Stacey Feeney on August 8, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Writing. 1 Comment on Apartment Copywriting That Will Convert Prospects

Apartment copywriting is more than just what you see in Mad Men. While copywriting from bygone eras was all about catchy ad campaigns, the copywriting discipline has expanded over time—and especially as digital and social media have exploded—to encompass anything and everything related to marketing your apartment community.

From taglines to full website copy to social media captions, copywriters are experts at conveying emotion, showcasing a brand’s unique selling points, and getting prospects to convert. If you’re looking for help creating a distinct identity for your property management company and to elevate the marketing experience across your assets, it may be time to enlist an expert.

Establishing a Brand Voice

Just like your visual branding, creating a distinctive voice for your brand will help set you apart. An experienced copywriter will help you develop everything from your voice characteristics to your brand guidelines to ensure you have a strong personality and clear presence across all of your marketing materials. That way, everything from your website to your direct mailers to your onboarding materials all sound cohesive and consistent across your apartment copywriting.

Developing a Tagline

Taglines are short catch phrases or slogans that help to supercharge your marketing. They often accompany your logo or community name to help reinforce your brand and make it more unique. Like Nike’s “Just do it,” or Apple’s “Think different,” taglines should embody your brand, your mission, and your personality—all while also being memorable.

While a tagline may seem simple, it is actually one of the most challenging marketing elements to develop. An experienced copywriter will be able to distill your brand into a few words—typically between three and six—that evokes emotions, is aspirational, and tells a story.

Writing a Headline Library

Headlines are the first thing that residents or prospects see when they review your marketing materials, so you need to make them count! Instead of using the same phrases over and over or opting for commonly used terms and turns of phrase, creative headlines can really draw people in and help them engage with your community.

Work with a professional who knows the industry to develop your apartment copywriting and create a comprehensive headline library for all of your marketing materials. From one-pagers to resident events, they can craft a wide range of different phrases that you can plug-and-play into the website or new marketing materials. You’ll have everything you need at your disposal, all while developing interesting and engaging content for your community.

Phrasing for Your Amenity List

The features and amenities at your apartment community are what set you apart from the competition, so it’s important to have a quick-reference amenity list that draws prospects’ attention. Professional apartment copywriting will transform everything that you have to offer into a concise, easy-to-digest list that speaks to the exact amenities prospects are looking for today. Order of popularity, current trends, and industry phrasing will all be taken into consideration when entrusting the amenity list to a copywriter.

Brochure and Website Full Length Copy

When it comes to marketing, your brochure and your website are some of the most visible materials, so it’s best to have a pro create the content. From your homepage to your contact us form, having a copywriter handle the content creation will help to create more compelling content that keeps people engaged and converts prospects into residents.

Every website and brochure should have similar content, including:

About Us
Community & In-Unit Amenities List
Floor Plans
Photos
Neighborhood Information
Contact Us

By working with an experienced multifamily copywriter, you can showcase your community in the best possible light and demonstrate how you differ from competitors. Attract more prospects, lease up faster, and minimize turnover with professional apartment copywriting as part of your marketing plan.

Ready to revamp your marketing materials with a copywriting pro? Reach out to zipcode creative today to get started!

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Marketing Collateral Must-Haves for Multifamily Branding

Written by Stacey Feeney on August 3, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Branding. 1 Comment on Marketing Collateral Must-Haves for Multifamily Branding

Create a cohesive, branded experience for residents and prospects alike with strategic marketing collateral. For apartment communities, the prospect and resident experience is about more than just the apartment itself. That’s why it’s vital to build a cohesive experience from their first interaction with your community, through when they move in, and even until they move out.

By creating an improved experience at every stage, you’ll keep residents happy and pique prospects’ interest, all at the same time. Here are some of the must-have marketing collateral you’ll need to deliver an elevated approach to multifamily living.

Postcards & Mailers

Even before you get prospects in the door, postcards and mailers can help you drum up interest and create new leads. Send out postcards with your eye-catching branding to nearby neighborhoods to generate interest in on-site tours. Give prospects a sense of what your community offers and what sets you apart through your marketing collateral before they even set foot through the door.

Stationary

From letterhead paper to envelopes to business cards, customized stationery is the perfect way to incorporate your branding across your marketing collateral. Whether you add a subtle embossed logo or opt a full-color approach, there are nearly endless ways you can customize your stationery to suit your needs. Use it for thank you notes after on-site tours, to give to prospects after they visit, or to send notes to vendors and partners for a more polished and professional touch.

Brochure

A brochure is one of the most important pieces of marketing collateral you can create for prospective residents. From showing off floor plans to emphasizing your wide array of amenities, a brochure often includes the most important information about your community. That way, they can reference it after their tour as a refresher of their favorite aspects. Consider using your brand colors and design elements in unique ways while keeping the brochure effortlessly blending in with all of your other marketing collateral.

Floor Plan Sheets

Having a one-pager handout available with the floor plan a prospect is interested in is an easy way to send them home with a reminder showcasing exactly what they were looking for in a home. Prospects will be able to get a better sense for the different units, and can easily understand the different layouts. Try making your floor plan sheets the same size as your brochure. Then you can simply tuck in the extra floor plan sheet of their interest in the front cover of the brochure for an all-in-one info packet about your community!

Sitemap

Property sitemaps are based on your community’s architectural plans and feature a bird’s eye view of the property itself, while displaying the location of community amenities, units, parking, offices, and more. As a result, they’re the ideal way to give prospects a good sense of the community at a glance. Just like with your floor plan sheets, keep your sitemap the same size as your brochure so it’s easier to create an all-in-one package with everything that prospects need to know.

Flyers

Creating a cohesive experience doesn’t stop after your residents move in. For resident events, renewal specials, or for referral incentives, create flyers that mimic your community’s brand. By using the colors from your branding and incorporating your community’s logo, it’s an easy way to create a put-together and unified look throughout your marketing collateral.

Greeting Cards

Small touches are what distinguish the great communities from the good ones. Don’t forget to prioritize your residents’ birthdays and holidays with thoughtful notes or greeting cards. Infuse each card with your community’s colors and your logo for a thoughtful way to stay in touch with your residents for their entire lease. You can even add one in their welcome packet for a more personalized touch.

Maintenance Card

Create a more elevated resident experience with the addition of maintenance cards. Design a business card or 4×6 card that your maintenance staff can leave on the kitchen counter or in the entryway to alert residents that they’ve been inside their home working on repairs. That way, your residents will be notified when someone has entered their private space and will also know that their issue has been resolved for a win-win solution.

“Leave a Review” Card

Generating positive reviews about your community is one of the easiest ways to attract prospects and generate leads. Encourage your current residents or those or are moving out to leave a review of your community. Add a postcard to your marketing collateral and hand them out a few times a year to generate continuous new online reviews to increase your ratings.

Need help crafting the right marketing collateral for your community? At zipcode creative, we’re experts in developing multifamily branding and translating that across materials for a cohesive and impactful experience. Get in touch today to learn more!

Design examples in this post of Capriana, Exchange, ENSO, LORE, and Talia are ©Fairfield Residential | Work executed by Stacey Feeney, owner of zipcode creative, while under creative direction and employment at Fairfield Residential.

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Apartment Welcome Packet for Move-Ins and What to Include

Written by Stacey Feeney on July 26, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Marketing. 2 Comments on Apartment Welcome Packet for Move-Ins and What to Include

You’ve wowed them enough with the first impressions, and move-in day has arrived. Now how to keep those positive vibes flowing? Ensure their move in is seamless, and they have all the need-to-know details that they could ever use. Here are the essentials to make your apartment welcome packet for new move-ins shine and what exactly to include!

Branded Folder

Take some design cues from your property’s brand style guidelines, and create a streamlined folder. This will serve as a branded carryall for your apartment welcome packet that you’ll stuff with info, offers and goodies.

Pro Tip: double the useful life of these folders and use them to send touring prospects home with your floor plan sheets and other marketing materials.

Business Card

Include your business card in the apartment welcome packet folder flap so they have all of your contact details on hand. You’ve worked up a rapport with these new residents, and they will probably reach out to you, directly, with their first few questions and requests.

Welcome Letter

Future residents may not have met the manager on their leasing journey. Provide a nice introduction to your management team so they will recognize the friendly faces. This is also a perfect opportunity to showcase some of the highlights of your management company – your mission, vision, and values. Residents like to have a trust factor with management so they can feel at ease in their new home.

Info Sheet

Provide a simple one-pager with the essentials your new move-ins are going to need – their apartment number, parking space number, gate code, community rules and amenity hours. This is also a great place to include emergency maintenance information – no one likes to get locked out or have their AC go down, but it happens. Provide hours and contact info for your emergency procedures.

Property Sitemap

Your big meandering property can be a maze to new residents. Include a branded sitemap in the apartment welcome packet, and mark their new apartment, carport or garage space. Demonstrate the quickest ways to get to the amenities, clubhouse and mailboxes from their new home.

Valet Trash Flyer

Keep residents in the loop on important days like trash pick-up times and etiquette if you offer a valet-trash service at your community. They will be happy to know how to recycle all those move-in boxes, and make it easy to haul away the trash so they quickly transition into their new space.

Concierge Services Flyer

If your community offers concierge services – include a flyer in your apartment welcome packet outlining your menu of these extra amenity add-ons! Present some of the most-used services and any applicable fees.

Package Service

If you provide a package receiving company as an amenity, such as Luxer One Package Lockers, walk them through how to retrieve their packages. New residents often have incoming shipments and this handout will make it easier for them at move-in time.

Event Calendar

The fastest way for new residents to feel welcome is by attending a fun event. Show them how to jump in, meet new residents and keep up with the events you have taking place in your community by including the current month’s calendar of events.

Local Business Information

Consolidate all of your favorite local spots in one document, and have this handy in your apartment welcome packet. Residents will appreciate knowing the closest hospitals, vets, airports, schools, etc. When it comes to restaurants and bars, connect with your community to provide custom discounts or specials. Sure, residents could just google a new Thai restaurant, but it takes your service up a notch when you provide a thoughtful package of deals tailored to your residents’ busy lifestyles!

Welcome Door Hanger

Deck their doors with a door hanger welcoming them to the community – it will be the first thing they see in their new home. It’s the thoughtful details that go the extra mile to ensure your residents feel they’ve made the right decision leasing at your community.

Welcome Gift

A beautiful welcome gift placed inside their apartment will feel like the nicest touch when they first walk in the door. Gifts don’t have to be extravagant – include something personalized to your brand or simply deliver a fresh baked bag of cookies from a local shop.

Reviews Notecard

Statistics show, residents are happiest on move-in day. Ask them to write a review on the website of your choice. Include a ‘leave us a review’ card in your welcome packet folder asking them to rate their experience on Yelp, Apartment Ratings, Google or the property website.

Resident Referral Flyer

It’s never too early to start asking for referrals. They may know plenty of other people in the market for a new apartment, and they’ll be excited to show off theirs. Include a resident referral incentive flyer in your apartment welcome packet to let them know from day one how they will be rewarded for inviting their friends to become neighbors.

As you assemble all these pieces for your bustling Welcome Packet, no need to get overwhelmed. A professional like zipcode creative is always able to pretty them up so it’s cohesive, informative and on brand!

Avaire valet trash flyer, The Eugene concierge services flyer, and Share Your Experience reviews notecard are ©Fairfield Residential | Work executed by Stacey Feeney, owner of zipcode creative, while under creative direction and employment at Fairfield Residential.

Realtors and Apartment Locators Helping Generate Leads

Written by Stacey Feeney on July 12, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

In multifamily housing, the competition is stiff. In 2019, over 400,000 new apartment units were under construction—and that number is only expected to grow and grow. That means that, when renters are on the hunt for their next apartment, they have plenty of options to choose from. So the question becomes: How can you stand out in the crowd and get prospective residents in the door for a tour?

Marketing to realtors and apartment locators should most definitely be a part of your prospect marketing strategy. Experienced real estate agents generate leads from a variety of sources – often, the most effective leads come from referrals or repeat business, which make up the bulk of real estate transactions, at 89%. Having local realtors and apartment locators on your side will drive ongoing leads for your community with only a little effort up front to establish the relationships.

Locating the Locators (and Realtors)

Any realtor could potentially become the right partner for your community. While multifamily experience is a big bonus, many realtors mistakenly overlook the multifamily housing space because they aren’t aware of the opportunities for commission. Build relationships with realtors in your local area and equip them with the tools they need to 1. Understand your apartment community and all it has to offer, and 2. Incentivize them with commissions for their referrals.

An apartment home may just be the perfect fit for those who have already sold their home and need to rent temporarily as they seek the right house to buy, or the right time in the market to buy. Having a realtor who can direct these prospects to your property will benefit you both in the long run – having a comfortable home for 6-12 months in the interim is sure to create a loyal and happy client for the realtor. In other cases, there are times when realtors will have clients who want an apartment for the easier upkeep and maintenance. Whether young professionals who are rarely home or empty nesters who are looking to downsize, moving from a home into an apartment is sometimes the best approach. If that’s the case, your ongoing relationship with the realtor helps to ensure they think of your community first!

Marketing to Realtors and Apartment Locators

Experienced real estate agents generate leads from a variety of sources – often, the most effective leads come from referrals or repeat business, which make up the bulk of real estate transactions, at 89%. Outside of their clients and referrals, realtors often connect with new leads through networking at events, on social media, or even through cold calling. Once they’ve identified a promising lead and evaluated their needs, they can promote your community to those who fit the right criteria.

Begin building these relationships by hosting realtor events at your community like breakfasts, luncheons, and happy hours so you can get to know them, give them a tour and share the marketing assets they need to sell your units. While realtors are pros at generating interest in various properties, they also need to be equipped with the right tools to close the deal. Be sure to create a packet of marketing materials that they can use to educate their clients about your community. Include things like:

Community Brochures
Amenity Sheets
Price Sheets
Floor Plan Sheets
Property Sitemaps

With these resources, they can become an expert about your community and serve as a partner to help you lease-up. If your current materials are a little lackluster, consider teaming up with a design agency like zipcode creative that can bring your community to life with these creative branding marketing materials!

Incentivizing Realtors and Apartment Locators

Realtors and apartment locators can be a valuable asset to your leasing team – especially if you’re in a crowded market, encouraging realtors to promote your property is vital to getting more prospects in the door.

Realtors work on commission, and their livelihood depends on selling homes. You’ll have to offer a generous incentive to make it worthwhile for them to suggest your community over encouraging a home sale, where they will on average earn between 3-6% of the sale price of a home. Consider offering the amount of 1-2 month’s rent as a commission when their referral signs a 12-month lease – a win-win-win scenario for the realtor, their client, and your community!

Want to arm your realtor partners with the best possible marketing materials? Get started with zipcode creative today!.

Example image of Cimmaron price sheet is ©Fairfield Residential | Work executed by Stacey Feeney, owner of zipcode creative, while under creative direction and employment at Fairfield Residential.

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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!

Pet Friendly Apartments and How to Leverage to Prospects

Written by Stacey Feeney on April 28, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

People love their pets. In 2008 alone, more than 11 million searches were conducted on Apartments.com for apartments communities that allow dogs and cats. As the numbers of renters grow, that number has only increased. Nearly 90% of renters own pets—and of the 10% who don’t, half reported planning to become a pet owner within the next year. As a result, finding pet friendly apartments is often at the top of prospective renters’ wishlists.

Show off your commitment to your residents’ furry friends by strategically investing in pet-friendly amenities that make pet owners’ lives easier and by dedicating resources to engaging and retaining your pet-owner community!

Community Amenities for Pet Friendly Apartments

It’s not enough to just allow renters to have pets. Creating community amenities and adding personalized touches that welcome furry friends is vital to ensuring pet owners feel right at home from the minute they step foot on the property.

Dog Park or Dog Run

When you have a four-legged friend, getting them adequate exercise is a pivotal part of keeping them happy and healthy. Instead of forcing residents to go off-site for access to open spaces for dogs to play and run, add a dedicated dog park to your property. A secure, fenced-in area allows the dogs to play safely and also gives owners a place to socialize and build stronger community ties. Consider adding a drinking fountain, agility equipment, and a waste bag station so that owners have everything they need right at their fingertips.

Dog Waste Bag Stations

Keep your community clean for pet owners and non-pet owners alike with the addition of dog waste bag stations. These small stations make it easier to ensure that you won’t have a property full of unwanted surprises. Place them in the areas around your community where dogs are most frequently taken out, especially near grassy or mulched areas that pups tend to love. That way, owners have the tools they need handy if they’re unprepared or taken by surprise.

If you’re having issues at your community with residents not picking up after their pets, consider a service like PooPrints. It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it, and your staff is far too busy to spend time picking it up. When signing their lease, make sure your pet owning residents are fully aware of PooPrints’ services and understand any consequences of not picking up after their pup. That way, your community stays clean for pet owners and non-pet owners alike.

Dog Wash Station

Instead of forcing residents to keep their pups clean in their sink or bathtub, make it simple for them to keep their four-legged friends squeaky clean. Add a dog wash station in a common area, or outside near the dog run, with a hose, tub, and bucket. This allows owners to wash their dogs off in a designated area, so you won’t have mud or dirt tracked through the building and residents can keep their personal spaces cleaner—it’s a win-win for everyone.

Image Courtesy of Walter Wash.

Water Bowls & Treat Jars

Add a water bowl and treat jar to pet-friendly areas around your community, like the lobby or the resident lounge. That way, pups can always stay hydrated and enjoy a special snack, even when they’re not home. This helps to make pets and their owners alike feel welcome to help foster a sense of community and belonging!

Pet Friendly Apartments Programming

Don’t simply stop at amenities, create a program that will help engage your pet owners and develop a sense of community to keep them—and their four-legged friends—happy at your pet friendly apartments!

Branded Swag

Create camaraderie among your pet owners by offering them branded swag that shows off your community. From dog poop bag holders and leashes to bandanas for the pups themselves, these small touches make pet owners feel included. Plus, it’s also a smart way to market your community to other local dog-lovers.

Waive Pet Fees

Incentivize prospective tenants to sign a lease by running leasing specials associated with their pets. Try waiving the monthly pet fee or deposit, or consider a referral program for existing tenants. That way, you can generate additional interest in your property and appeal to pet owners, all at the same time.

Special Pet Treats

To increase resident retention, consider sending special treats to tenants that have pets. Whether you do it for the holidays or around the time they’re set to renew their lease, this shows your attention to detail and care for all of your residents to help keep them happy and engaged with your community.

Adoption Events

Go beyond helping your own residents and engage with your local neighborhood, too. Organize a pet adoption event with a local shelter. Bring adoptable pets on-site and promote the event throughout the surrounding areas to both showcase what you have to offer residents and also do some good for your neighborhood. Promote the event on-site with signage like table tents or banner stands, and use email marketing to notify your entire database. That way, you’ll get more people to attend, which will lead to more adoptions!

Pet Photo Contests

Create a designated hashtag and have residents submit photos of their furry friends for a “Pet of the Month” feature or for holidays like Halloween or Christmas. That way, you can show off your adorable four-legged residents while also enticing more pet owners to lease at your pet friendly apartments. Consider awarding the monthly winner a small prize or piece of swag to up the stakes and increase engagement. Show off the winner through community signage in common spaces and elevators so they get the attention they deserve.

If you need help developing materials for your pet owners, defer to the experts. Creative marketing agencies can look at your community holistically and help you devise a strategy and a plan for promoting both your amenities and your community programming. Ready to take your multifamily marketing to the next level? Get in touch today!

Pup Culture Images are ©Fairfield Residential | Work executed by Stacey Feeney, owner of zipcode creative, while under creative direction and employment at Fairfield Residential.

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Maintenance Appreciation: How to Celebrate Your Service Team

Written by Stacey Feeney on April 26, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

Maintenance is the team that never stops. They’re handed challenges on the regular and deal with countless, and sometimes endless, resident requests. They are the frontline team that touches your resident base more than any other group. Maintenance teams rake in the highest satisfaction scores on resident surveys. For these reasons and more, it’s nice to flip the script and celebrate them for a week. Spoil them with some food, host team building and educational events or personalize some service awards. We’ll show you how to plan the best maintenance appreciation week that will make your staff feel like the stars they are!

Maintenance Appreciation Event Ideas

One day is hardly enough to fit in all the appreciation efforts. Find a week that works for your portfolio or property and block off some days. You’ll want to pick one event per day and pair it with some social media posts (more on this to come below!).

Plan a mix of meals, giveaways and events. Warmer weather is coming so it’s a great opportunity to expand outdoors. Themes work well and allow you to get creative. Superheroes or “Shining Stars” would make your maintenance week stand out against other communities. If your team is the competitive type, you could design a Maintenance Olympics theme and have some daily challenges….complete with prizes!

Educational

Invite a vendor to come in and present something that your team would find useful. For example, host an appliance repair class for the maintenance team to become familiar with the most common problems and get hands on with the real appliances.

Team Building

After all they do, they probably deserve an afternoon off. Hit up an escape room, axe throwing or the driving range to let them spend some time taking it easy.

Breakfast

Cater special morning treats to be there when your team arrives – a coffee and donut bar is always a hit. The extra caffeine will help improve everyone’s day. Another great way to do breakfast is with a build-your-own omelette station!

Lunch

Provide lunch for the team from their favorite local restaurant and give them some time off to enjoy it!

A Meal with a Theme

Provide a lunch or dinner with a theme! Taco Tuesdays is great and who doesn’t love a good taco?! Or have someone man the grills and serve a BBQ lunch by the pool.

Food Truck

Contact a fun food truck and arrange for them to pull up to your property promptly at lunch time. You can pay for your maintenance team to get served and then open up the food truck line to your residents.

Happy Hour

End the week with an early happy hour at a local brewery or pub. Let the team head out early and buy the first round of drinks and apps for your team.

Gifts for the Team

A Yeti tumbler for when they’re on or off the clock
Branded swag from your company
Amazon gift cards to let them shop for their own favorites
Paid day off – who wouldn’t love extra PTO?!
Cash Bonus to truly show some appreciation
Beer or Liquor gifts are a nice way to celebrate
Gift Cards to local restaurant or a fancy steakhouse
New equipment or tools to make their days a little easier

Service Awards

For a small team, you can personalize different service awards for everyone. Play up their specialties and make them fun and creative.

If your company does resident surveys, there are tons of data points you can look at for service awards. Maybe one community clears out all their work orders within 12 hours! Another may have a 4-star rating on new move-ins. See where your properties stand and read through the resident comments to find meaningful milestones you can celebrate.

Vendor Partnerships

Now is the perfect time to talk to your go-to vendors to see if they can sponsor an event for your team. Many vendors will be happy to be a part of the maintenance appreciation campaign. They can provide lunches for the team, provide branded swag gifts or help with tickets to an event. This will help you offset the cost of your maintenance week and build connections with your vendor partners.

Promoting your Maintenance Appreciation Week

Give your maintenance team the spotlight and show them off on your socials. Feature one or two people a day for the whole Maintenance Appreciation Week. Your residents will get a chance to “meet the team” and your staff will feel the glow of the spotlight. Be sure to feature their photo and some fun details about their background. You can do a Q&A with the team to prompt their responses and post the best answers online. Residents will love seeing the team that takes care of their apartments each and every day.

Encourage your residents to get involved and share the love. Ask residents to submit their best maintenance appreciation stories and you can post those comments to the properties Facebook and IG. The comments mean more when they come directly from residents! You could set up a form on your website that allows easy entry or just ask residents to email the office directly with their stories.

If you’re managing a whole portfolio of properties, spotlight a new property each day on the corporate social channels. The property teams love showing off their team members and it helps build the content for your corporate social brand.

Appreciation Weeks are like gift giving; it’s the thought that counts. No matter which events and gifts you choose, your team will love the gesture and residents will see how well employees are valued throughout your company! Let us help you create a visual campaign around your event that is two fold – 1. It will give your maintenance appreciation event that extra touch that shows them how much thought and effort you put into acknowledging your team and 2. A maintenance appreciation event campaign will catch the attention from prospects and give them all those fuzzy feelings about living at your community when they see how well you treat your staff!

Don’t forget about Resident Appreciation Week!

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Energy Efficient and Eco Friendly Apartments Sell Themselves

Written by Stacey Feeney on April 15, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

Putting the planet first is becoming increasingly important for everyone—and especially for prospective residents who are looking for a new community to call home. As more and more people are putting “green apartment” at the top of their wish-list to both make a more positive impact on the planet and also lower their monthly utility expenses in their new space, multifamily has to keep up. From energy efficient appliances to water-saving shower heads, learn more about the best ways to increase efficiency while also appealing to prospective renters.

Why Should You Go Green?

Multifamily housing uses the most energy per square foot of all housing types in the United States. Older infrastructure, outdated appliances, and lack of modern technology all combine to create a perfect storm of inefficiency—which also contributes to added cost. Sky-high utility bills for both owners and for residents are an annoying—and unnecessary—monthly expense.

But it’s not just about the cost. Creating an eco-friendly asset helps both your community and the planet by eliminating excess energy consumption that contributes to growing climate concerns. Plus, it also helps to attract residents. 93% of residents want energy- and water-efficient features, and 64% would even be willing to pay more to live in a greener community, showcasing the growing need for owners to make it a priority.

Opting for greener alternatives in your community helps your bottom line and creates a better resident experience for a win-win solution. Here are some easy ways to upgrade for more eco-friendly alternatives.

Energy Efficient Appliances

Instead of outdated dishwashers and washing machines that overuse water or refrigerators and air conditioners that pull excess power, upgrading your appliances is an easy way to reduce your carbon footprint and increase your monthly cost savings. Energy-efficient appliances save so much energy, that they can reduce energy use up to 30% to help residents save on their monthly utility bills—making your community more appealing than less energy-efficient alternatives when they’re adding up total monthly costs.

Smart Thermostats & Lighting

Instead of wasting energy to light and heat empty spaces, smart home products like thermostats and lighting allow residents to control their spaces from anywhere. That way, they can turn off the lights when they’re not home or raise or lower the temperature to avoid heating or cooling an unoccupied apartment.

Thermostats brands like Google Nest offer a cost savings of between 10 and 15%, which adds up in the long run. Similarly, smart lighting options like Hue help to save money and energy by allowing remote control of the lights and ensuring that the LED bulbs are more energy efficient than their older, incandescent counterparts. .

Both of these smart home solutions are gaining traction in multifamily for the efficiency and cost savings, but also because they allow property managers to manage vacant units. Once a resident moves out, property managers can adjust the settings in the empty space to increase energy efficiency until the next tenant moves. As a result, smart home products are a holistic solution that drives cost savings for owners and operators—all while also delivering an improved resident experience. Smart home technology is one of the top amenities that renters are looking for, so it’s important for communities to keep up with the demand to minimize turnover, increase retention, and remain competitive.

Energy Efficient Shower Heads

Did you know that showers make up 30% of typical household water usage? While you can’t regulate the time your residents spend in the shower, you can still help to cut back water consumption with one easy fix: a low-flow shower head.

Today, typical shower heads use 2.5 gallons of water per minute. Low-flow designs, on the other hand, use two gallons or less for significant long-term water savings. It saves so much, in fact, that installing a low-flow shower head can save nearly 3,000 gallons annually per household. Multiply that by the number of units in your community, and you can see how adding them to every apartment can make an impact.

Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

In 2019 alone, electric car sales topped $2.1 million, accounting for nearly 3% of all global car sales—and that number is only going up. With a 40% increase between 2018 and 2019, it’s likely that the electric car craze isn’t going anywhere. To give your residents the tools they need to be more eco-conscious consumers, add electric vehicle charging stations to your garage or parking lot. With costs as low as $300 to install, it’s an affordable upfront cost that helps you and your residents make a small difference for the planet.

Marketing Your Energy Efficient Campaign

If you’re trying to go green, you can’t do it alone. It’s important to showcase your green initiatives throughout your community so that residents join in! That way, not only will you have the energy efficient infrastructure you need, but you also can get your entire community on board to help make a real difference.

Share tips with residents on how to best leverage your new, energy-efficient upgrades, like turning off the lights while they’re away or only running the dishwasher when it’s full. These campaigns can highlight the easy and simple changes in their day-to-day will make an impact—and especially if they’re adopted by your entire community.

Table Tents

Create table tents for your lobby and amenity spaces with different eco-friendly ideas for your residents. From turning off the lights in the gym when they’re finished working out to avoiding printing documents in the business center, you can leverage location-specific reminders to help create a more aware and environmentally friendly environment for all of your residents. Table tents like these in common spaces will inevitably catch the attention from touring prospects and soft sell them on these features without much effort on your part.

Email Marketing

Try creating a series of emails that feature eco-conscious alternatives that your residents can adopt. From turning down their thermostat before they head out for work to drawing the shades during the heat of the day, there are small changes that make a big difference—and your residents might not even be aware of them. Consider creating a three or five-email series that generates awareness for these easy-but-impactful changes.

Then, repurpose the same email series with wording tweaks to make it prospect-focused and send to your leads as a campaign that promotes your green initiatives and incentivizes them to rent with you.

Flyers & Rack Cards

Being environmentally conscious is an important factor for residents, so make sure you’re also showcasing your initiatives to prospects who come on-site. In addition to your standard flyers and take-away materials that they’d get after a showing, create special printed materials like rack cards or new flyers that show off your commitment to sustainability. That way, prospective residents know that they’ll be joining a community where the environment matters. Make sure you have these printed on recycled paper and place a note of that somewhere on the marketing handout to bring your campaign full circle.

©Fairfield Residential | Work executed by Stacey Feeney, owner of zipcode creative, while under creative direction and employment at Fairfield Residential.

Naming a Multifamily Asset in 6 Simple Steps

Written by Stacey Feeney on March 19, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Branding, Writing.

Whether you’ve just acquired a new asset, are wrapping up renovations, or are breaking ground on a new construction project, there is one thing that all apartment homes need: a memorable name. As more and more communities pop up in cities across the country to meet renter demand, a catchy and unique name makes standing out in a competitive market a little bit easier. If you’re grasping at straws trying to find just the right name for your new community, we have some helpful tips and tricks to get you started on the journey of naming a multifamily asset.

1. Think About the Target Customer

When naming a multifamily asset, one of the most important things is keeping your target audience in mind. If your ideal renter is a single millennial, for example, different words and phrases will resonate with them than with an empty nester who has different needs and priorities. Identify the traits that appeal most to your core customer by doing market research and a competitive analysis of the surrounding area. Then, leverage that information to brainstorm names of different styles, lengths, and formats to create a wide array of initial options.

2. Consider Local Conveniences and Attractions

Your property’s location is also an amazing starting point for naming a multifamily asset. Because your location is totally unique to your property, it can serve as the ideal anchor for the name. Consider incorporating well-known street names, historical markers, and other points of interest that you can leverage to influence the name. That way, your community becomes as recognizable as the city’s most iconic attractions.

If your community is in a city or neighborhood that has distinguishing characteristics, you can also use those words or phrases to set your assets apart. In New York City, for example, you could utilize words like “Skyline” or “Hudson” to take advantage of words and phrases that people naturally associate with the city.

3. Leverage Community Amenities

If your property is the only one in the area with an indoor pool or you have an amazing roof deck, use these distinguishing features to your advantage when brainstorming your name. Think about words related to whichever amenity you want to highlight; a roof deck, for example, is the perfect opportunity to leverage words like “air,” “sky,” or “heights.”

Don’t forget to think not only literally, but also abstractly, about naming options. Because the sky is blue, you could leverage words like “azure” or “indigo.” You’re only limited by your creativity!

4. Stay Consistent with the Brand Style

If your community is a luxury asset, you’ll want to be sure that you keep your name elevated and sophisticated. Similarly, if you have a more casual and accessible vibe, you’ll want the name to fall in line with that style. Keep this in mind when brainstorming your names to ensure that you don’t alienate your target audience with a name that sounds off-brand or unapproachable. Once the perfect name is selected, a thoughtful logo design and brand style guidelines will bring it all together to get your message across.

5. Check Name Availability

You’ve landed on the perfect name, but naming a multifamily asset isn’t the end of your naming journey. Now it’s time to do your due diligence. Perform a business name search to ensure that no other communities or companies are operating under your chosen moniker. You should also check for available URLs for your website and social media handles to create enhanced brand recognition. If one (or more) of these are unavailable, you might want to reconsider for consistency.

6. Finalize with Legal Council

Once you’ve done your own vetting, it’s time to bring in the experts. Consult with your legal team to get all the paperwork in order to ensure your name is yours. From purchasing domains to copyrighting or trademarking, lawyers can more easily navigate the entire process from start to finish to ensure that all of your paperwork is buttoned up—which means you don’t have to go back to the drawing board in the future.

If you still can’t find a name that perfectly embodies your community, we’re here to help. As multifamily marketing experts, we’re experienced in every element from naming a multifamily asset and brand identity, all the way down to crafting marketing emails and direct mail campaigns. We’ll put our expertise to work for you to help you find the ideal name for your community.

A Moving Campaign for Prospect Leases and Resident Renewals

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

Moving is SUCH. A. HASSLE. Many of us are guilty of bouncing from place to place when we’re young and carefree. Roommates come and go, jobs change, or you level up to your first adult apartment or into a 55+ active adult community. There are a million life changes that can make it feel like it’s time to move. At the end of the day, moving is expensive and takes a ton of time out of your schedule. Minimizing this pain point for both prospects and residents through a moving campaign can boost your leasing and occupancy trends. This two-pronged marketing campaign will show you easy strategies to overcome that moving objective and keep your residents happily renewing.

Prospects: Overcome Moving Objectives

Prospects who are out looking for apartments can quickly become overwhelmed by the realities and cost of moving. It’s no picnic! If your prospects are on the fence about moving in, there are ways you can tip the scales in your favor to close the sale.

The Cost of Moving Objective

Structure your leasing incentives to waive upfront fees like admin or security deposits. By reducing the financial friction at moving time, the move becomes an easier sell. To really up your moving campaign, partner with a local moving company to create an exclusive package deal for your apartment community or offer to cover the moving service cost!

The Hassle of Moving Objective

If your community wants to cover that fee, that’s even better for the prospects. It’s likely you already have a few preferred moving companies that you always work with. To really make it a white-glove service, you could handle the logistics, payment and elevator scheduling for the prospects to make the move completely seamless for them. Moving complete!

Marketing Your Moving Campaign

Now that you’ve got your moving incentives lined up, how to get the word out? Customized email marketing works well for your existing prospect pipeline.

Use bullet points to focus your copy on all the ways you’re saving your prospects – time, money, stress. Everyone is into less stress in 2021!
Tally up a dollar figure that you are saving them and add that to the headline.
With COVID-19 considerations on everyone’s mind, let them know that your moving company understands the situation and will take care of their move in a professional and appropriate manner.

As you mine through your prospect pipeline, focus in on prospects who toured your community 9 months ago and didn’t rent. They are likely coming up for a lease renewal at their existing community and could be tempted to give your property another look!

To cast a wider net, expand your prospect reach with geotargeted social ads. The advertising creative should convey a carefree move and people enjoying their new apartment. Be sure to use your prospect data to determine where people typically move from to your community. A geofencing campaign can target exact competitor properties or a simple five-to-ten mile radius around your community. The more targeted the prospect, the more customized the ads can be. zipcode creative can help you craft that ideal prospect and the digital ads to connect with them online.

Residents: Using the Hassle of Moving to Secure Renewals

Staying at home for the last year during COVID may have pushed some residents to an understandable level of cabin fever. To make sure they resist that siren call of moving, design a simple renewal campaign focused on facts about moving and a dose of resident appreciation.

Armed with your moving costs data, repurpose that to use with your residents when they are hesitant about renewing. You can present the information on a flyer with the key cost savings achieved when they decide to renew. Pretty up the data in an infographic. Data points are much easier to digest as an infographic and zipcode creative is a pro at these! When it’s time for those renewal letters to go out, attach the flyer or graphic and personalize it with a note saying that you would love for them to stay at your community.

To focus on boosting that resident retention number, add a small renewal incentive to your campaign. Craft a catchy title like “Renew & Refresh”. Create a list of upgrades you could offer in their apartment as their renewal incentive. The easy upgrades like carpet, paint, ceiling fan installs or enhanced countertops still apply. Also, get creative and add some online features like a fun subscription box service to receive each month or pet-sitting gift card they could use over the next year. Doordash delivery for their favorite restaurant or instacart grocery delivery work wonders as resident perks. Residents can choose the offer they like and enjoy their space even more. The idea is to have people be more invested in their apartment so they are more likely to stay.

A Moving Campaign that Swings Both Ways

It can be easy for your property teams to get distracted and focused only on the next wave of move-ins. But, a truly balanced approach to prospect and resident lifecycles allows you to make marketing campaigns that resonate with both audiences at the right time. Moving is the common denominator facing your entire prospect and resident base. By facing this daunting task head-on with a few manageable data points, timely communications and applicable incentives, you can minimize this hurdle and keep both prospects and residents where they need to be – at your property!

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

Accent Wall Program 2-Step Marketing Campaign Strategy

Written by Stacey Feeney on February 27, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

The apartment accent wall program model is growing in popularity—and for good reason. These programs give residents the opportunity to personalize their space to suit their individual style, helping them to create a welcoming environment to come home to everyday. A cozy apartment home with custom colors proves much more desirable than a sterile and impersonal all-white space. Especially when we’ve all learned what it was like to be in our homes 24/7 during a pandemic – renters are now putting apartment unit features and amenities top of their list from here forward!

Accent wall programs can give your community a leg up over the competition with the added amenity of home customization. It might just be the perfect incentive to get renters who are on the fence to commit and sign that lease that they’ve been thinking about.

Keep reading to learn exactly how to create an accent wall program and develop corresponding marketing support for your apartment community. Maybe you’ve started an accent wall program but are having a hard time generating leads, it might be time to take your marketing to the next level. Let us show you how to turn the program into a campaign that gets prospects and residents excited!

Step 1: Designing an Accent Wall Program

To get your accent wall program off the ground, partner with a paint store or specific brand, such as Sherwin Williams, to curate the perfect color palette. Pick between five and seven different shades that coordinate with your existing interior design and complement your community branding. That way, everything will still feel cohesive and aesthetically pleasing while also giving residents the variety of choices they want.

You’ll also need to identify which walls can be painted through the program. Pick at least two different walls for each floor plan. Consider more efficient options like non-windowed walls and be sure to include options in both the master bedroom and the main living space. That way, residents have even more ability to customize their home to suit how they plan to use the space.

Step 2: Accent Wall Program Campaign Marketing

Once you’ve hammered out the program details, it’s important to advertise the offering to entice prospective residents. A well-rounded campaign should spread the offer or message through a variety of platforms – both print and digital. Read on to see the strategies we recommend for building and promoting an effective accent wall program marketing campaign.

Accent Wall Program 2-Step Marketing Campaign Strategy

Flyers

Flyers are the perfect way to advertise your accent wall program with prospects, providing you with an easy and informational handout. Create a well-designed flyer that showcases all of the program details and visually shows off the benefits. Include information about the color options available, which walls can be painted, and in which units. That way, prospective residents have a comprehensive understanding of the program when they’re viewing different units and can better visualize what their living space might look like.

Email Marketing

Leverage your lead database to create an email marketing program to showcase your accent wall leasing incentive. Email is a perfect forum to share more about the program thanks to the digital format. You’ll have plenty of space to describe the program, show off existing examples, and give prospects an idea of the different colors they can choose from. That way, they have all the details they need and can see what their space would look like once it comes to life.

Consider creating an email marketing automated series instead of a one email announcement. That way, you can utilize a series of three or five emails to generate more interest among leads. They’ll get used to seeing your community’s name in their inbox which increases brand awareness and, over time, will help you lease-up faster. In the email series, feature the accent wall program, other amenities, property photos, and the most popular floor plans you have on offer to showcase information that will pique their interest and convince them to book a tour.

Signage

Well-designed and positioned property signage will draw attention to your accent wall program before a visiting prospect even speaks with a leasing agent. Signage can also reiterate the benefits of your incentive program during a tour while helping prospects to visualize making the space their own.

Strategic signs like banner stands and tabletop banners scattered about the property are effective ways to advertise this ongoing promotion. Use the signage to highlight the details of the program—including the color options—to give prospective residents a sense of what their space could look like if they decide to sign a lease. You can even use table tents in the model unit to draw attention to the specific walls that can be painted to emphasize the available color palette and make the program come to life.

Direct Mailers

Though direct mail is can be thought of as an antiquated marketing method, there’s a reason it’s been around for so long: it works. If your accent wall program is an incentive that sets your community apart from the nearby competition, include direct mailers into your campaign.

From showing off amazing property photos to highlighting the paint colors available through the program, mailers will help you position the program to a broader audience. A custom branded direct mailer design can allow you to showcase the best your apartments have to offer while helping drive traffic through the incentivized accent wall program.

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Working with a professional branding agency, like zipcode creative, will help you strike the perfect balance between text, imagery, and white space to create the most effective marketing possible throughout your accent wall program marketing campaign and so much more. Get in touch today!

Life in Color Featured Image is ©Fairfield Residential | Work executed by Stacey Feeney, owner of zipcode creative, while under creative direction and employment at Fairfield Residential.

Signage Marketing that Generates Leads who Lease Signage Marketing that Generates Leads who Lease

Marketing Signage that Generates Leads who Lease

Written by Stacey Feeney on February 21, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Graphic Design.

Signage is a pivotal—and often underrated—way to market your multifamily community. While digital forms of marketing like emails and social media have become the go-to approach for brands and businesses across industries, sometimes there’s no replacement for good, old-fashioned signage marketing. Use well-designed signs to attract attention and lease-up faster, all while building a more engaged community.

When you’re developing a signage marketing strategy for your property, be sure to think holistically about where you can leverage different signage styles both inside and outside to drive viewings and showcase your building’s best assets and information in a compelling way.

Exterior Marketing Signage

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Building Banners

Building banners provide an opportunity to showcase your community and share contact information before anyone steps foot in the building. Whether draped over the front entrance or strategically positioned on the highest-trafficked side of the building, banners are an effective way to get your message to a large number of people, all at once. Be sure to include, at a minimum, your logo, phone number, and website on the banner so prospective residents can easily jot down your info, even on the go.

Bootlegs/Bandits

Whether you’re having a community open house or want to showcase your latest leasing special, bootleg signs—also called bandits or yard signs—are a great way to add a pop of your branding to your landscaping. Perfect for catching the attention of pedestrians walking by or local neighborhood drivers, bootleg signs can be made in different sizes and custom shapes to give you an endless variety to choose from. Keep it simple these signs are often viewed by passers-by on the go so they need to have short phrases that are large and easily readable.

Flags & Boulevard Banners

Create buzz about your community before people even step foot on the property. Boulevard banners and flags are an eye-catching way to promote your available units along major streets or thoroughfares in the neighborhood. That way, people will begin to recognize your branding and you can pique their interest, all thanks to foot traffic alone.

Add your best property photos, showcase your top amenities, and highlight your logo to create compelling content for your banners that will get your community noticed.

Directional Signage

If you’re looking for a fast and easy way to direct prospects to the leasing office or give guests a better way to navigate to the parking garage, directional signage is your new best friend. Typically designed with a combination of arrows and text, this versatile sign style can be made in your specific brand colors to ensure it blends effortlessly in with the rest of your marketing signage—all while still acting as a functional tool for your residents, their guests, and prospects who visit the community. Use any size and sign format to accomplish your directional needs.

Window Clings

Take advantage of the large window real estate you have and fill them with custom window clings for a large and impressive approach to marketing signage. The beauty of this type of signage is that the material used – it shows the design from the exterior view but allows visibility to the outside from the interior, similar to a two-way mirror! This signage strategy works especially well for urban apartment communities.

Interior Marketing Signage

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Banner Stands

Banner stands are the perfect set-up-anywhere signage solution for your entire community. From the lobby to the gym to your model unit, you can easily add a banner stand to almost any space. Use them to welcome prospective residents who have arrived for their tour, display your community’s best features and amenities for visitors to see, or use them to promote a program or initiative you offer, like being a pet-friendly place to live.

AFrames/Windsigns

Commonly called “sandwich board signs” these self-standing one or two sided signs can be great for placing right outside or inside the leasing center entrance doorway for quick reference information such as office hours, contact information when the office is closed, directional purposes to find the leasing office or an announcement of open house or other event.

Table Tents

Table tents are a must-have to show off elements of your model unit to prospective residents. As an affordable solution for self-guided showings, you can call out different finishes in the kitchen, apartment amenities like a washer and dryer, and community amenities like a gym or rooftop deck with table tents. Even without a leasing agent, prospects will feel like they get a holistic understanding of your community. Plus, as an added bonus, they are an effective way to showcase brand consistency throughout the community.

Table Top Banners

Table top banners are a versatile way to promote your property. From a coffee bar in the lobby to a towel station in the gym, you can pepper them in several different spaces to advertise any upcoming events and increase resident engagement. That way, everyone is always in the know and you can help foster an engaged community without a lot of extra added effort. Make sure you are utilizing a variety of sign types and placements for a well-rounded and effective signage marketing campaign.

If you’re ready to take your signage to the next level, a branding agency like zipcode creative is the perfect resource. As an expert in multifamily design, we can guide you on how to leverage your branding and how to create a cohesive marketing signage strategy throughout your property to help you accomplish your goals and make a positive impact to your bottom line.

Images in this article of ORA, Talia, Rize, Seta and Inwood Station are ©Fairfield Residential | Work executed by Stacey Feeney, owner of zipcode creative, while under creative direction and employment at Fairfield Residential.