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

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

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

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

AIM 2024 Top Topics

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

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

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

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2024

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

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

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

Discussion on:

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

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

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

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

Expected Takeaways:

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

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

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

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

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

Expected Takeaway:

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

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

Branding…….It’s NOT a Game(show)

4:15 PM – 5:00 PM

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

Expected Takeaways:

• What goes into branding
• Successful brands/rebrands
• Timeline Guides

Why It’s Our Pick:

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

TUESDAY, MAY 7

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

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

Discussion Around:

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

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

#2
Tuesday, May 7th

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

9:00 AM – 9:45 AM

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

Expected Takeaways:

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

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

Keynote: Using Humor to Sell

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

Expected Takeaways:

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

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

Perception is Reality: Study Results on Leasing and Living

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

Expected Takeaways:

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

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

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

3:15 PM – 4:00 PM

Speakers:

Elizabeth Carton, Vice President, Marketing, Rangewater

Kasey Munsch, Vice President of Marketing, The Preiss Company

Sarah Gencarella, VP of Marketing, Olympus Property

CJ Edmonds, Chief Revenue Officer, Conversion Logix

Discussion Around:

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

Why It’s Our Pick:

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

WEDNESDAY, MAY 8

Differentiating Your Communities in a Rapidly Evolving Market

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

Kyra Lambo, EQR, AVP, National Marketing

Lauren Carpenter, UDR, Inc., Sales Initiatives Manager

Jesse Stein, Airbnb, Head of Real Estate

Carol Enoch, Enoch & Co., CEO

Expected Takeaways:

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

Why It’s Our Pick:

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

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Bees and Biodiversity: The Future of Multifamily ESG

11:15 AM – 12:00 PM

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

Expected Takeaways:

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

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

AIM 2024 Speaker Picks

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

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

Why we picked this speaker:

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

Elizabeth Carton – VP, Marketing, Rangewater Real Estate

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

Why we picked this speaker:

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

2024 Must-Visit Sponsors

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

*Will You Sign My Yearbook?!*

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

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

OTHERS TO VISIT

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

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

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

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

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

FOR WEBSITES

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

30 Lines

Digible

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

Repli

Organizing Your 2024 AIM Schedule

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

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

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

Special Evening Events

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

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

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

Monday

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

Contact Stacey if interested in attending.

Tuesday

Nautical Nights – Yacht Party

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

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

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

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

What does it all mean?

We’ve come a long way, for one! 

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

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

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

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

Power of Photorealistic Renderings

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

ACCURACY

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

CONTROL

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

EFFICACY

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

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

Building Trust Through Realism

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

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

Enhance Online Search Experience

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

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

TYPES OF RENDERINGS

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

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

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

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

Investment and Returns

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

Our Experience with Photorealistic Images

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

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

The advent of adaptive reuse multifamily developments is now. 

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

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

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

Adaptive Reuse: Multifamily

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

AFTER SAVING TIME AND MONEY

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

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

APPEAL TO GEN Z

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

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

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

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

APPEAL TO RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPERS

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

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

History—the STORY behind the Brand

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

TELL THE STORY OF ITS HISTORY

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

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

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

STORYTELLING

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

Brand Vibe and Personality

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

ADAPTIVE REUSE BRANDING EXAMPLE

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

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

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

Why Adaptive Reuse Multifamily Branding?

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

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

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

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

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

Multifamily Corporate Branding Guide

WHAT IS CORPORATE BRANDING?

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

WHY IS CORPORATE BRANDING IMPORTANT?

Do you want to:

• Make a name for yourself?
• Grow?
• Attract investors?

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

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

HOW DO WE EXECUTE A CORPORATE REBRAND?

Branding starts with asking the right questions:

• Who is your primary target audience?

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

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

• What is your company’s main goal?

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

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

• How Much Attention Do You Want or Need?

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

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

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

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

And THEN:

Steps To Get Your Team Onboard for A Corporate Rebrand

1. Gather Your Corporate Stakeholders

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

• Executives
• Owners
• Marketing Team (everyone!)

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

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

2. Showcase The Competition 

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

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

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

3. Prep For Next Steps

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

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

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

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

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

It’s Maintenance Appreciation month! 

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

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

Put a Face to the Maintenance Name

Are residents unfamiliar with your maintenance crew? Not anymore!

HIGHLIGHT MAINTENANCE IN MARKETING

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

HUMANIZE YOUR MAINTENANCE CREW

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

Build Your Brand Story with Maintenance Appreciation

HELP TELL THE STORY

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

SOLIDIFY YOUR BRAND PERCEPTION

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

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

How to Show Maintenance Appreciation

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

MAINTENANCE APPRECIATION GIFT IDEAS

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

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

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

MAINTENANCE AWARD IDEAS

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

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

FREEBIE ALERT! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Developers and Branding

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

Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

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

Missing the Forest for the Trees

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

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

Initial Concepts

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

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

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

Seabird

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

La Boheme—at the Beach

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

Eclectic Edge

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

Lines in the Sand

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

Grey’s Sun

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

The Selected Direction: La Playa

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

Feedback:

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

Final Brand Style (and How…and Why)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Understanding Gen Z Residents

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

GEN Z FAST FACTS

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

(Sources: McKinsey; Pew Research; Forbes)

VALUE AND VALUES

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

Strategies in Branding for Gen Z

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

AUTHENTICITY

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

GO WHERE THEY ARE: SOCIALS

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

GO GREEN

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

Create a Community Through Experiences (Sell a Feeling!)

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

THE EXPERIENCE OF AMENITIES AND SOCIAL SPACES

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

TECHNOLOGICAL INTERACTION 

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

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

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

BUILDING COMMUNITY

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

Most of all:

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

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

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

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

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

Multifamily Social Media Summit 2024 Top Topics

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

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

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

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

Workshop #4

Wednesday, March 20

4:45-5:30pm

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

Expected Takeaway:

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

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

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

Keynote

Thursday, March 21

9:15-10am

With Jay Acunzo, Cofounder, Creative Kitchen

Expected Takeaway:

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

Why It’s Our Pick:

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

Google Tips and Strategies

Friday, March 22

11-11:45am

With Riva Akolawala, Account Manager, Google

Expected Takeaway:

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

Why It’s Our Pick:

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

Multifamily Social Media Summit 2024 Speaker Picks

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

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

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

Speaking on:

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

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

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

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

2024 Must-Visit Sponsors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Organizing Your 2024 MSMS Schedule

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

AFTER-HOURS EVENTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can’t-Miss Events for the Quintessential Napa Experience

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

Friday, March 22

Invite Only

1pm – 8:30pm
Group Size: 45

Location

Turnbull Winery
The Saint Winery
Bottega Restaurant

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

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

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

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

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

Branding Apartment Emails for Prospects

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

WHAT’S THE SUBJECT?

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

MAKE IT PERSONAL

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

HIGHLIGHT THE GOODS

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

ADD THE ELEMENTS

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

Branding Apartment Emails for Current Residents

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

CONSISTENCY

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

TEMPLATE USAGE

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

STORYTELLING THROUGH BRAND NARRATIVES

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

EVERY EMAIL

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

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

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

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

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

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

Problems with Claiming Luxury in Multifamily

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

1. Prospect Distrust
2. Price Misalignment

PROSPECT DISTRUST

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

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

PRICE MISALIGNMENT

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

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

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

Defining Luxury Properties

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

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

LUXURY

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

CLASS A

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

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

Class-A properties are merely defined by:

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

Instead of Saying “Luxury” in Multifamily…

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

USE ACCURATE DESCRIPTORS

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

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

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

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

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

EMPLOY SOCIAL PROOF

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

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

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

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

CREATE A TRUE LIFESTYLE BRAND

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