Tag: multifamily marketing

Apartment Branding for Faster Lease-Ups

Written by Stacey Feeney on September 16, 2024. Posted in All Articles, Branding. No Comments on Apartment Branding for Faster Lease-Ups

Apartment Branding for Faster Lease-Ups

We’ve probably all heard at some point “Build it and they will come.” But that little phrase carries a lot of questions with it: What should I build? Who will come? And how quickly will they come? It’s just a phrase—but we’d like to offer as an alternative:

“Brand it, and they will come faster!”In the multifamily industry, apartment branding hasn’t always been the priority. Apartment communities are built on the idea that a place to live, shelter, is a necessary item. While it’s true it’s necessary, it’s also true that there is a lot of competition.

To maximize your lease-up speed and revenue, apartment branding is more than a “nice-to-have”—it’s a core factor.

Apartment Branding for Marketing Success

Branding vs. Basic Supply: The Difference

There is a housing shortage for both homebuyers and for those that wish to rent. So, if you follow rules of supply and demand, the housing will eventually lease up because it’s in demand—but maybe not as fast as you’d hoped.

Competition has become fierce in the market. There are many apartment communities near yours, offering similar amenities and units. Why shouldn’t they pick your competitors? Why should they choose you instead?

Branding. Branding can expedite the process, tightening up your lease-up process. By creating an emotional connection with prospects and residents, and helping seal the deal with full end-to-end branding that emphasizes clarity and consistency and forms trust.

Or, if you’re more into the money side of things, think about it this way: If you have units vacant for longer, that’s missed revenue. That’s an increase in marketing costs to reach a wider group to see if someone in that group will convert and sign a lease. Also, if a resident moves into an apartment, and the unit next to them is empty, they may begin to question why they signed a lease at this place instead of the one across the street.

Identify End Goals Before Branding

What’s your end goal? In multifamily, there are two primary goals for properties: Build-to-sell or long-term hold.
Before you brand you’ll want to know which direction you’re headed in. Then, you’re better prepared for strategic branding decisions.

BRANDING APPROACHES

Branding approaches will be different for each path. For:

Build-to-sell: Will you maintain the brand for the new owner or allow for rebranding? If your plan is to sell before leasing up, more intensive branding development may not be the right move for you. Alternatively—if you plan to lease up before selling, branding will be vital for you to attract residents before you sell.
Long-term hold: Investing in more extensive brand development makes a lot more sense if you’re retaining the property for the long-term.

Knowing what’s next in terms of ownership can help marketing teams understand the role of brand strategy. It’s possible that a light touch with branding may be enough to get the property sold. If you plan to hang on to the property as part of your portfolio, branding should be a larger budget line item and a bigger consideration—as it can, as mentioned above, help with leasing rates and speed.

How Branding Accelerates Leasing

THE POWER OF APARTMENT BRANDING

Excellent apartment branding is the key to reaching the brand’s ideal resident profile (IRP) and possibly raising rental rates (be sure to offer actual value along with that perceived value, though.) Branding sharpens targeting, and it helps keep focus where it’s needed: on the resident.

A well-crafted brand points to your community like a beacon—“pick me!” Your community can stand out if you choose to make it different in the ways that you can: with branding. When you create perceived value (“this is worth it!”), you can speed up leasing.

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Refresh Your Property—Including Your Brand

Flooring isn’t the only thing that needs a good refresh every so often. Your apartment brand could use a little zhuzh.

Your property upgrades shouldn’t be limited to the physical. Think about your verbal and visual brand identity too. Is it still serving your current IRP? Does it still look good? Does it still sound good? Your countertops and flooring will get worn out with time, and your brand may also become a little lackluster over the course of several years, especially when compared to the new kid on the block.

Instead of a full-on brand revamp, consider a brand refresh. Tighten up your design elements, tailor your colors to be more appealing, and work out a brand voice that sounds more like the brand you’ve become (if that’s what the brand should be).

Wondering when you need a brand refresh? Here are the tell-tale signs and times:

Shifts in the target demographic (keep up with who you want!)
Competitor landscape changes (keep up with the Joneses!)
New market trends or community repositioning (be accurate to your offerings and stay in the limelight!)

Maximizing an Apartment Brand Investment

ROI is always a consideration for marketing decisions. How can one prove the importance and the efficacy of an apartment brand?

Track it all.

And start off on the right foot.

In order to effectively maximize your apartment branding investment, please do the following:

Invest in high-quality design and messaging from the start—not when something “just isn’t working.”
- Rationale: Upper management won’t be keen on spending more money if your first branding efforts were haphazard or sub-par. Goodbye marketing budget increase request.
Create a brand that addresses long-term goals—whether you’re selling or holding.
- Rationale: If selling, your brand should paint a picture for the new investor or buyer. It won’t be doing all of the heavy lifting though. If you’re holding the asset, you’ll want to work harder on creating a brand that will last and does what you want. Focus on your future goals and align your brand strategy with it.
Use data to track your branding effort impact
- Rationale: Is the community leasing up faster? Are occupancy rates higher than before branding was developed? Track it all. This is evidence of ROI—and should be brought to any budget or progress meeting for the marketing team.

Apartment branding can help with faster lease-ups and higher returns (if you do it right). It’s a long-term investment with a sometimes-large up-front cost. However, when you’re dealing with a competitive market and strong demand—standing out is a necessity. And branding can help you get there.

What is Copywriting and Why Does Multifamily Need It?

Written by Stacey Feeney on October 16, 2023. Posted in All Articles, Writing.

Copywriting, Defined

What is copywriting? Copywriting is promotion, through words. These words can be persuasive or interesting, and they prompt the reader to use a business, a service, or an organization. Copywriters have to create text that can be adapted for any number of channels: print, radio, website. Copywriters also need to be able to adapt the copy (also sometimes called content) to different audiences.

BRAND VOICE VS. BRAND TONE

Brand voice is your brand’s personality, through words. It can be mature or youthful, jovial or serious, succinct or verbose, mysterious or open-book. Every way you would describe a person, can usually be used to describe a brand as well. Your brand attributes help create your brand’s unique voice.

Your brand tone is how you approach different scenarios. Similar to what we said above, the copy should be able to be adapted to meet the requirements of that particular time and place. A press release versus a brochure will have a different tone. But your brand voice will still be tucked in there.

Brand voice is WHAT you say.

Brand tone is HOW you say it.

COPYWRITING VS. COPYRIGHTING?

We do get this question. No, we’re not in the business of copyright law—and we never will be! You’ll have to find a law firm for that.

Copywriting means using words to promote a business.

Copyrighting means to register and mark an original piece of work as your own, with the © symbol.

We don’t do that last bit at Zipcode Creative. But we do plenty of copywriting for multifamily.

Using Copywriting For Multifamily

How can multifamily benefit from copywriting? First let’s look at how it’s used.

COMMUNITY/APARTMENT/ASSET NAMING

Naming multifamily assets is fun, and has long-term impacts on your brand. Hire a place that can do the research and guide the decision. It sets the tone for the rest of your brand, since it’s how people will refer to you—and can steer the direction of your logo and style.

BRAND GUIDELINES IN MESSAGING

Brand guidelines will get you places you’ve never been before. It’s a little like a superhero power card as if your brand were a person (or a Pokemon?)—but everyone at the company can see it. Once your brand voice (alongside your brand statements) is established using research and discovery and determining your ideal resident profile (IRP), you can go on to create some pretty sweet things like:

Brand Tagline – Like a slogan for your community—garner interest with your words summed up in one short phrase.

Brand Headlines – More catchy things to say about the community that keep your prospects reading or scrolling.

Brand Vocabulary – Naming your amenities creatively or strategically can help create a sense of interest, intrigue, and brand loyalty among your residents.

Each of these are part of the brand guidelines that we’ll create to keep your brand on track. Our copywriters take care of the verbal parts. Our designers take care of the visual parts. We put it all together to create a singular, beautiful guide to everything Your Brand.

Also: Your taglines and headlines simply HAVE to grab attention. Sometimes that’s all anyone will ever read, of alllll the things you’ve written. Sad, but true. Make sure you’ve got a few of these up your sleeve: Tricks for Better Taglines and Headlines.

MULTIFAMILY COPYWRITING FOR EXTRA CREDIT

Hoping for a few bonus pieces of copy? There’s plenty more.

Website & Brochure Copy: Headlines, subheads, paragraphs, calls-to-action, it’s all copywriting. Make sure it’s good.

Campaign Copy: Whether it’s a moving campaign or pet-friendly campaign, ensure the words you’re using really sell the deal.

Email Copy: First your readers have to open the email—get them with a good subject line from your favorite copywriter.

Social Media Copy: Writing captions that fit in your brand voice is harder than it sounds.

CORPORATE COPY

Mission / Vision / Values: Writing these clearly and having them out in the open—it’s more for internal purposes, but will help guide your client-facing brand. (It’s not easy, but that’s why we’re the professionals.)

Team Bios: Your experience and personal approach to property management should shine in your bio—and help you connect with the reader.

Client/Owner/Investor Messaging: We’ll make certain your message is geared to your client. Seal the deal whether seeking investors or presenting your management acumen to owners.

Why is Copywriting Important for Communities?

Copywriting for community brands can = SUCCESS

Spell it with me: S-U-C-C-E-S-S. It has a nice little rhythm to it.

What do you most want from your efforts in your community?

Success…which comes from signed leases.

Which comes from prospects that turned into leads that turned into residents.
How do you get from prospects to residents? By connecting, showcasing, and converting.

Copywriting in multifamily communities is key to those three things.

CONNECT

Make an emotional connection by establishing your brand voice and telling a STORY.

SHOWCASE

Show what you have and how it’s the answer to their problems through clear and enticing communication.

CONVERT

Give them a reason to click the “Apply Now” button. You’ve gotten them this far, now convert leads with your brilliant copy (including amazing CTAs.)

When you have a resident—you want them to stay. A strong brand, which is BOLSTERED by excellent copywriting, will be able to maintain loyalty and retain residents—possibly even turning them into your own influencer-style, walking-word-of-mouth-ad brand advocates!

A Professional Copywriter vs. Your “Good Enough” Colleague

If we haven’t convinced you yet, now’s the moment. You’re considering having your colleague who’s “pretty good at writing” pen some copy. For your brochure, for your website, for your social. There are a few places where this could be…fine. Not great, but fine. Social media doesn’t require a huge amount of writing chops—but it could still impact your brand negatively if it’s not up to snuff.

If your colleague really is a good writer, great—use them. But also be aware that because “copywriter” isn’t likely their job position OR in their job description, they won’t be prioritizing the writing you’ve asked them to do (and all the research that has to go into it). Additionally, it’s not the best use of their (or of your) time and will take them longer than a pro.

A professional copywriter for multifamily, like the ones we have at Zipcode Creative offer three things that your “good enough” colleague may not:

EXPERIENCE

A professional copywriter is just that. They have processes that they’ve developed over years. They’re in the know with copywriting trends, as well as what is most likely needed for each job.

Your “good enough” colleague will probably know your audience’s challenges and pain points, but those can easily be communicated to the copywriter as part of their research prior to writing.

EFFICACY

A pro copywriter for multifamily can create an emotional connection. They know what builds bridges, what entertains, and what kind of copywriting grabs attention. Keeping it short, tight, and compelling are all in a day’s work.

Your colleague of “decent writing chops” may end up writing too formally or casually, or worse: ignore your brand voice completely. All that work on the brand guidelines, for nothing!?

EFFICIENCY

A copywriter working professionally for apartment communities can easily follow your requirements. You’re the client, they’re the hired help. Pros also tend to know what needs to be done without being asked—even in a niche field like multifamily copywriting.

Your colleague—bless their heart—might not know the basic rules of copywriting, and therefore, waste time and money and energy on something that falls flat.

The best kind of copywriting for apartments tells a story, creates emotional connections, and helps build up the brand’s value. That sounds like a happily-ever-after to us.

Branding and Marketing Corporate Multifamily Real Estate

Written by Stacey Feeney on May 18, 2023. Posted in All Articles, Branding.

Multifamily branding and marketing is fantastic. We love it. But it’s not all we do. We also work on branding corporate property management companies. All that to say: we speak your language, regardless of which side of multifamily you’re on, be it management, ownership, or development—or all of the above.

Zipcode creative is happy to serve everyone in multifamily communities, from the leasing office all the way up to the investors and owners, including the corporate side of things.

We work with:

Third Party Management
Owners and Operators
Developers

Before Branding and Marketing Corporate

Your multifamily real estate company—even if it’s behind the scenes—is a brand, too. If you want to make a name for yourself, grow, and attract investors, a solid brand is key.

There are a few questions you’ll want to ask prior to branding and marketing the corporate side of your multifamily company:

Who is your target audience?

This question helps identify whether you need to speak to investors, if you need to reach the owners that are seeking third-party management, or perhaps you do it all in-house and the end customers are the residents at your communities. The answer to this question will make your message very different.

What is your goal?

When you answer this question, it can help determine the tasks and steps you need to take to achieve what you’re setting out to do. For example, if you’re hoping to develop and manage an apartment community until it’s leased up and then sell it, your tasks will vary greatly from if you’re trying to be resident-facing and be a sort of mini-ILS with your portfolio of communities on a website.

If you purchased a community to rehab it, a rebrand is the perfect way to make it very clear that it is under new ownership and management, showing that staff is helpful and interactions with residents are positive!

When we partner with the corporate marketing team at your company, we consider your audience and goals first. That sets the stage for what kind of branding and marketing you should ideally be doing—and how MUCH of it you should be doing.

How much attention do you want or need?

If you’re hoping to stay behind the scenes, then doing the whole kit and caboodle with branding and marketing may not be what you need. But if you want your brand to be known and recognized, you need to work on visibility and consistency.

At zipcode, we get your multifamily real estate company from all angles. Asking these questions can help us get you where you need to go.

Details of Branding and Marketing Corporate

Depending on your answers to the questions above, you may have a couple of different options with your logo and usage. When you’re looking to bring your corporate brand to the community level, you’ll need to determine whether you should:

Stamp the corporate logo on all marketing materials, use your color palette, and create a standardized logo design for all your communities so they’re recognizable as “one of those Easy Street Communities”

OR!

Simply place the corporate logo in the footer of all marketing materials, and let the communities stand completely on their own with unique branding.

It’s a choose-your-own-adventure type thing, but make a decision and stick with it.

If you want to be known for your beautifully branded communities, relocating residents can look for one of your communities—“you know, the ones with easy online leasing renewals.” Once you get to be known for something (if it’s positive) you want to keep that good thing going.

DON’T FORGET

Branding and marketing corporate also means you need to create and brand the culture you offer to your employees (and prospective employees). You want to attract the right talent for corporate roles and roles on-site.

When Branding Your Corporate Side Won’t Work

Branding the corporate multifamily real estate company isn’t for everyone. For example, if your portfolio niche is C minus communities with less than desirable reputations, you may not have the bandwidth and budget for corporate branding (Think ROI.)

If you’re the owner/operator of a long-term hold and you’re managing your own assets, you might not feel the need to brand because you don’t have big growth goals. That’s fine, too. (Although, a beautiful brand will still be appreciated.)

Keep in mind: If you’re trying to acquire and purchase or grow and develop, you’ll want to dial in your company’s true brand, and then market the heck out of it for possible investors. When all of your communities are on the same page, it looks like it’s a tightly run ship—which is always a good sign to investors.

Depending on your needs, we can find a branding and marketing solution that pushes you toward completing your goals.

Creative Problem Solving in Multifamily Marketing

Written by Stacey Feeney on March 28, 2023. Posted in All Articles, Graphic Design.

When it comes to creative problem solving in multifamily, creativity is key. Sometimes, it’s a struggle as a creative to come up with solutions to things that get in the way of a beautiful and effective design. But there are a few scenarios that appear regularly, and we’ve figured out the best workarounds for each.

A Logo Design With “The”

Using “The ________” in your apartment brand name seems like a good idea—making a statement about how you are THE place. It’s a traditional power stance verbally. Yet visually, it’s tough. Even though it’s really short and quite small, it’s a challenge to design it interestingly without overpowering the main event (which would be “Watson” in The Watson, for example).

Example: The Watson

A special workaround we sometimes recommend—if you’re in the planning stages, you can drop the “the” (say that five times fast) for something fresh and modern. That eliminates the ugly stepchild syndrome that can happen to little articles (a, an, the) in a big design.

Creative Problem Solving A Long Brand Name

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet—we promise. Sometimes we’re so caught up with a name that we don’t consider where it has to go and how it has to work. When a name is longer, it tends to be locked into being used only as a horizontal logo, because that’s the only way it will work. Think of all the digital platforms that are square—which is most of them, honestly. Placing your logo horizontally in a square or circular space (or heaven forbid in a vertical use) as your profile pic makes everything smaller.

So, should you keep the long name? Think through the pros and cons. Is it perfect? Is it easy to say? Consider how it would land with your ideal residents. Would shortening it keep it snappy and memorable, like these famous brand names?

Nike
Pepsi
Lyft
Google

A Lengthy Tagline in the Logo

Creative problem solving in multifamily extends beyond the logo, too—to the tagline. We like to keep them separate for a reason. Please, please don’t make us put the tagline in the logo. Taglines are vital, so absolutely keep them front and center in your designs. In your flyers, on your website, plastered on your window graphics—but not in the logo. The only exception we can think of? If we need to say “Apartments” under the name.

Beyond this, designing the tagline to go with the logo everywhere is a challenge. The balance and readability is a problem (because the tagline is longer than the logo and can become tiny and hard to read). If you can’t let the logo and tagline go their separate ways—consider having two versions: a logo with the tagline and a logo without the tagline.

Brands to Stand Out (Without Making Waves)

If edgy, cutting-edge, sharp, and rugged are how you identify your brand’s personality, but your target audience or ownership group are more traditionally minded, you may find yourself in a pickle. It’s important to create a stand-out brand identity, but you also have to design with your audience in mind. What will appeal to them? Sometimes, it’s best to focus on infusing your differentiators and voice with that personality rather than the visual elements. Being creative means you can avoid being boring, and still get in front of the resident you want to attract the most (while keeping your investors and management happy).

Keeping the Brand Style On Track

Many brands we work with already have a brand style and a guide. But, they may make a design request that comes straight out of left field and doesn’t align with the brand guidelines. As professional designers, we have a duty (an unspoken oath if you want to get weird about it) that we will stay true to known brand guidelines so the brand has consistency and cohesiveness across all platforms—this should sound familiar. It’s what we’re always preaching. Why? Because without it a brand doesn’t have brand recognition. When we get a wild request, we gently push back and remind the client of the brand guidelines. Just because you’ve got a brand guide doesn’t mean your designs have to be boring—we can work within constraints and still bring all the creativity we’ve got. We typically end up compromising, or creating an addendum to the brand standards so the new approach can be captured. Just be sure that the new addition is going to be used more often, so you can keep the train rolling towards brand recognition.

When There Are Too Many Words and You’ve Asked Us To Create Something That It Just Won’t Fit Into It No Matter How Small We Make The Font

Weird heading, right? Here’s a hint: It’s too much copy. If you’re not a designer, using too much copy or content in a marketing piece doesn’t seem like a big deal. That is, until it gets to us and we’re trying to lay it out in a limited space, like the constraints of a mailer or brochure. If we put all the words in, it will look cluttered, the text will be too small (visual proportions that are suddenly unsettling) and it will risk the audience either skimming it or skipping right past it.

Less is absolutely more—take our professional design and copywriting opinion. We’ll definitely ask before we cut content down, and if you think it all needs to stay, we’ll do our best to work with it. Our humble request: audit and edit your content for clarity and conciseness (un-fluff it) before you send it over.

Ugly Photos on Beautiful Marketing Pieces

It’s a match made in…the bad place. If your branding is the absolute best, with the most creative graphic designer in the world working on it, and then you have crappy photos, you can throw that flyer straight in the trash. No one will take it seriously. You’ve lost street cred and the perception of the whole piece goes down thanks to those fuzzy, poorly lit, oddly composed photographs. Forget the lipstick on a pig attempts, and invest in an actual professional photographer or get quality renderings of the space. (Please.)

We all have opinions on what requires the most creative problem solving in multifamily. Our promise to you is that we’ll always find unique ways to solve (at best) or workaround (at worst) the biggest design problems plaguing your apartment brand.

Fair Housing Act Compliant Marketing Fair Housing Act Compliant Marketing

Fair Housing Act Compliant Marketing for Multifamily

Written by Stacey Feeney on March 12, 2023. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

Make sure you have fair housing act compliant multifamily marketing. It’s vital that it follows all the rules that are put forth in the Act—especially so you don’t end up redesigning or reprinting your marketing collateral and adding in extra expenses. Some portions of the Fair Housing Act are much easier to follow than others, but it’s best to review the fair housing compliance regulations specifically around marketing and branding for apartments.

The Fair Housing Act

QUICK OVERVIEW

The Fair Housing Act was introduced originally as part of civil rights. It helps prevent discrimination against protected classes.

WHO ARE FAIR HOUSING ACT PROTECTED CLASSES?

The protected classes under the fair housing act are the following: Familial status, disability, religion, race, skin color, nationality, sex.

Some regulations vary by state, so please check your local resources (your state government website, i.e. ca.gov) to see if there are additional classes that must be considered for protection against discrimination locally. Sometimes that includes marital status, military status, student status, source of income, age, sexual orientation, and creed.

At its most basic, the Fair Housing Act helps provide equal treatment to all for housing. Making sure you have fair housing act compliant multifamily marketing is common sense.

Avoid Fair Housing Act Violations

DIVERSITY

Every diverse situation should be represented in your marketing and branding materials. In photos, in messaging, ensure that your resident images run the gamut in race, age, ability, and familial status and type. Even when it comes to the photos that are hung up in the leasing office or in any handouts, it’s important to keep those updated and diverse, as well.

EQUAL HOUSING ICON USE

Use the equal housing icon on everything, not just some of your marketing. For example, if you print a brochure with a lease special with no logo, and then later print a brochure that includes the logo, you might be flagged for attempting to charge more money for someone in a protected class. Make sure it appears in the footer or corner of everything you put out.

INCLUSIVE MESSAGING

Whenever you’re creating content for your apartment community, it’s always better to describe the amenities and the services instead of the ideal resident that would live in your community. That is, describe what you do have and what is permitted rather than saying “No ____” or “No ____.” That is, unless it’s pets. Quick note there: Service dogs are not pets, and saying “No service dogs permitted” is the opposite of inclusive and could create a lawsuit.

SPREAD THE SUPPORT

Giving is good! Supporting different causes is great. Having transparency about where your donations go can be helpful to show you support a variety of groups and causes and aren’t just looking to donate to Christian-only organizations. If you hold fundraisers, advertise for them equally. Put the same amount of effort into each. And be sure that the organizations you give to are inclusive in the way they aid the community and reach different populations.

TREAT PROSPECTS EQUALLY

Prospects as well as applicants and residents are considered in fair housing act compliance. They’re all protected. This goes for in-person, over the phone, and via email. Anyone that walks in the door should get the same (high) level of attention and service. Ensure your staff is well versed and well trained in this.

Final Reminders for Fair Housing Act Compliant Marketing

QUICK TESTS

Short on time but you still want to make sure your multifamily marketing is fair housing act compliant? Use these quick guidelines to help:

Use FHA logo in all ads
Try to vary people in your photos
Describe amenities, not the resident you want to live in your community
Make every part of your marketing welcoming to all

REMINDERS

1️⃣ Describe the property, not the resident—it’s okay to have internal very specific ideal resident profiles, but those shouldn’t show up anywhere outward-facing.

2️⃣ Keep materials consistent so that what you say is the same as what you have on your brochures. Never ever say “no children” or “a place for professionals.” Both are 100% discriminatory.

3️⃣ Use neutral words when talking about residents: “people” good “elderly” or “family-friendly” might be a little too identifying / could be considered discriminatory in extreme circumstances.

4️⃣ Be mindful of how you give directions—using landmarks that are neutral is best (not a country club, not a church, etc.)

5️⃣ Senior living and 55+ communities have special exemptions. See more about their fair housing act exemption.

FHA RESOURCES

If you’re still seeking out more FHA compliance answers for your marketing, check out the hud.gov sites. They’ve made multiple resources available, including fair housing advertising overviews, HUD advertising guidance, and they’ve also created equal housing opportunity graphics in varying sizes for use on all of your multifamily marketing collateral.

Authentic Branding in Multifamily in 6 Steps

Written by Stacey Feeney on February 23, 2023. Posted in All Articles, Branding.

Authentic branding in multifamily can truly create a difference in your resident retention and loyalty. Like most things in life, the proof is in the pudding. That means: the goals you set, the relationships you build, and the people that you bring in as part of your staff are actually what makes residents’ dreams come true. Delivering on promises made is authenticity.

Marketing (and research and discovery) gets you to a certain point in preparing for success, but it can only take you so far. How does authentic branding in multifamily come about?

1. BE REALISTIC

Create attainable goals for your brand. Make a mission you actually believe in—not just one that sounds good. And whatever apartments or lifestyle you’re “selling”, make sure you’d buy into it, too. When you convince yourself first of the value of your community, you’re better positioned to speak to those exact values to someone who needs to hear it.

Scripted or not, reality TV is a booming business. Because people want reality—or at least some form of it. A voice, a personality, a brand they can relate to (or see something of themselves in) is ideal. In fact, reality and authenticity is expected. The FleishmanHillard 2021 Authenticity Gap study showed a significant gap between what consumers expect of companies and what they provided: 95% of the industries studied aren’t meeting expectations when it comes to providing customers better value. And when residents find something out of alignment, it’s more noticeable. Be honest. Be realistic. Be transparent. Follow through.

2. FOCUS ON RELATIONSHIPS

It can be an arduous journey to get to this point in your brand building. You’ve worked hard on creating long-term goals, an aligned mission, vision, and values, and messaging and visuals that work hand-in-hand. What’s next? People over profits. Community over competition. Be genuine with the way you start and maintain relationships with your residents—or really anyone who comes in contact with your brand. (More info on good apartment branding here.)

3. GO LONG

Have you ever met someone who knew exactly what they wanted to do since they were young, and then did it—and didn’t let anything stop them? Be like that, but in brand form. Taking a long hard look at your brand goals (1, 5, 10 years out) is helpful to pinpoint what your priorities are and where you want to go. Your community shouldn’t be treated as here today, gone tomorrow. Put down some roots and invest in those around you. By building relationships over time, you have a better shot at creating a full 360-degree brand that looks consistently authentic from all angles.

4. LEAD NURTURING

People like to be wooed and pursued (within reason). The market is saturated with options and everywhere they turn, there’s an ad that feels tailored to them. The internet is full of research and search engine results, and finding authentic branding in multifamily will stand out and offer transparency and grab attention. And once you have that attention, nurture, nurture, nurture. Figure out your best “prospect” journey, and stick with it. (Relationship building, remember?)

5. HIRE “BRAND AMBASSADOR” EMPLOYEES

You have to hire the right people. Get current staff aligned with your brand message (post it, say it, bring it up in meetings). Create trainings around how to treat residents and prospects—your bread and butter. Ensure that every opportunity is taken to deliver fantastic customer service, along with honesty and transparency in interactions. Keep your reputation nice and clean. Encourage your staff to play the long game, and get to know the people they’re talking to on the phone, via email, or in person. Remembering details adds the authenticity of a human touch to your apartment brand.

6. AVOID SALES-SPEAK

You can close sales without being “salesy.” Instead, seek to provide value through:

Helpfulness – “Here’s our most popular floor plan. Folks love the open concept kitchen and living space. But we do only have a few of these left.”
Encouragement – “Moving can be so stressful! Let me know if there’s anything I can help with.”
Patience – “Whenever you’re ready to talk move-in dates, let me know—I’m available via phone or email.”
Kindness – “Is this your first apartment? How exciting!”
Gentle reminders – “Just wanted to quickly remind you that our leasing special is over at the end of the week. I’d be happy to give you another tour. Let me know how I can help!”
Tours are key for excellent first impressions.

Friendliness and genuine interest from staff shift your apartment brand into Authentic Mode. That’s the space where sales happen and leases get signed.

Authenticity in Branding

That certainly covers the customer service portion of your brand, which is essentially your messaging proven true. Branding with consistency is key to authenticity, because it makes something expected, predictable, and worthy of your residents’ trust.

Branding is the starting point of those promises, those relationships and the solutions you offer. When you begin with knowing your audience, you can tailor your brand voice and tone to reach the audience you want to build said relationship with. When you create messaging that’s helpful, you can start solving problems. When you create imagery, fonts, colors that are a visual representation of your brand, your staff can extend that “brand” to every interaction your resident has with your community. Authentic branding for multifamily starts from the very beginning, when they first see your sign or contact you, all the way through to their maintenance request as a resident.

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.

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.

Direct Mail Marketing Direct Mail Marketing Direct Mail Marketing

Direct Mail Marketing for Apartments That Will Drive Leases

Written by Stacey Feeney on January 13, 2021. Posted in All Articles, Graphic Design, Marketing.

In our digital age, direct mail marketing pieces are often-overlooked in favor of flashier online alternatives. But taking it back to basics with a marketing mailer can be one of the best ways to generate interest among prospective residents.

From showing off property photos to advertising special promotions to highlighting your amenities, direct mail marketing is a simple and effective outlet to talk about what makes your community unique. If you’re considering marketing mailers to help fill current vacancies, try advertising a few key events to pique prospects’ interest.

Direct Mail Marketing Stats

• On average, Americans receive 605 emails and 16.8 pieces of mail every week.

• For roughly every 36 emails you receive on average, you get 1 piece of mail in your mailbox.

• The average lifespan of an email is 17 seconds, compared to direct mail’s average lifespan of 17 days.

• 73% of American consumers say they prefer being contacted by brands via direct mail because they can read it whenever they want.

• 58% of the mail American households receive is marketing mail.

• 59% of US respondents say they enjoy getting mail from brands about new products.

• 60% of catalog recipients visit the website of the company that mailed them the catalog.

• Up to 90% of direct mail gets opened, compared to only 20-30% of emails.

• Prospects are 15% more likely to respond to an oversized mail piece if they have never done business with you.

• Per USPS, 98% of people check their mail daily and Americans spend upwards of 30 minutes with their mail on a single occasion.

• 68% of marketing respondents said combining digital and direct mail increased website visits.

• 60% of marketing respondents said combining digital and direct mail increased ROI.

New Construction Grand Opening

If you’re new to the neighborhood, putting your list of leads to good use with an eye-catching mailer will help you drive brand awareness and generate more interest for your new community. By reaching out to prospects to showcase your available units and announce your presence can lead to a full schedule of tours, and ultimately, help you lease-up faster. Use mailers to get prospects in the door before opening for pre-leasing visits or even hard-hat tours to generate more demand.

Promote Events

If you’re hosting events for your residents regularly, why not invite prospective residents, too? Send out a mailer to invite them to happy hours, meet & greets, or holiday get-togethers. Attending these events will give prospects a sense of what it will be like to live in your community and help show that your building is more than just a place to live—it’s about a community. Just be sure to send the direct mail marketing with enough notice that they can pencil you in ahead of time!

Leasing Promotions

Leasing promotions are one of the best times to send mailers to prospective residents. By letting them know they can get a free month, waived application fees, or even a lower deposit, you’re very likely to grab their interest and get them in the door for a tour. Be sure to showcase the promotion prominently on the front of the direct mail marketing piece so they won’t miss it and ask them to “bring in this mailer” to get the deal.

Mailer Design Formula

When you’re pulling together the information to include on your mailer, there are a few tried and true items that should always be included. Your logo, bedroom count, property photos, and contact information are vital to show off your community and let people know how to get in touch if they’re interested. Including key features and amenities of your community, the tagline and a short ‘about’ paragraph is a great way to provide more detail and really sell prospects on all your property has to offer. Be mindful that it’s best to keep text to a minimum so your mailer doesn’t become crowded with information. Working with professional branding agencies like zipcode creative to design your direct mail marketing makes it easy to be sure all of the essential information is included in an elegant and eye-catching way.

PRO TIP: Add a QR code on the mailer that leads to a landing page for your campaign or promotion. Doing so will enable you to better measure the interest your mailer created among potential leads! (Pro tip couretsy of Christine O’Toole)

Once your design is finalized, your local printer can print, address, stamp, and mail the mailers so you don’t have to worry about doing all of the legwork or adding another administrative task to your to-do list. Try sending out a modest batch of mailers to the warm leads in your CRM or target prospects by surrounding zip codes for the most effective approach.

If you’re interested in diving into direct mail marketing for your community, get in touch today!

Stats sourced from Compu-Mail.

property management social media property management social media

Property Management Social Media Tips for Success

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

For apartments and property managers, social media can be a daunting task. Between all of the operational needs and maintaining the day-to-day, it’s easy for social media to slip way down your to-do list. But it plays a pivotal role in increasing resident happiness, appealing to prospective renters, and showing off all that your community has to offer. Kick-start your online presence with a few of our insider property management social media tips and tricks to get you going.

Consistency is Key

Across all social media platforms, posting regularly is the most important aspect of engaging your audience. Between finicky algorithms and shifting news feeds, posting at least a few times a week will ensure that most people are seeing the content that you spend so much time on.

Try posting at different times each day to see where your engagement is the strongest. Once you get a sense for when your audience is online, start posting around that same time to increase your likes and comments and drive engagement. Instagram and Facebook provide insights that will tell you exactly what days of the week and times of day your posts are getting the most engagement.

Create High-Quality Content

Scheduling posts isn’t just one-and-done in property management social media. To create quality content that will get you noticed, you need to think about how the photo, caption, and graphics all work together to tell a story and add value for your audience.

For your imagery, be sure to pick something that grabs your attention and will stand out in the sea of sameness across social platforms. Consider outsourcing custom branded social media graphics to zipcode creative for both your organic posts and paid ads to help you really stand out.

Once you’ve chosen your image, use your caption as an opportunity to deliver valuable insights that will spark a conversation in the comments or get your content shared with the masses. Finish it with a clear call to action so your audience always knows exactly what you want them to do next.

PRO TIP: The two most popular types of posts either 1. Provide a lot of value on a topic of interest or 2. Are real and authentic, ideally showing real people (your staff or residents)

Share What Residents Care About

No matter how high-quality your content is, you won’t see the engagement numbers you’re looking for if you’re not tailoring it for your audience. Pick relevant topics for your community and your staff—like Resident Appreciation Day/Week and Maintenance Appreciation Day/Week, resident event announcements, and rent due reminders (although they may not be happy about these posts!). Remember, it’s primarily residents and staff who follow you on social — highlight timely events and important updates for the people who follow you. That way, you’re giving them the info they need while also upping your engagement. If a prospecting renter stumbles upon your page they will see everything you have going on and realize how fun it is to live at your community! For their benefit, intermix plenty of interior and exterior property amenity pictures and talk about them in the captions. If you can nail down a solid hashtag strategy you will reach more people outside of your circle.

Prospect Focused Posts

If you want to cater to prospects, tell them all about your property! Seems obvious, right? Think of it this way – if it’s in your brochure, talk about it on social!

Plan Ahead

Posting on the fly never results in the kind of quality content your accounts deserve. Instead of snapping photos last minute or repurposing old materials, be sure to think about your social media calendar at least a week ahead—even more if possible. Quality over quantity.

There are countless free tools online that let you plan your posts and set a calendar to keep you organized and on top of it. Try Hootsuite, Loomly, or Sprout Social to streamline your process from start to finish. Alternatively, you can also hire a creative agency like us to manage your platforms for you and run point on strategy and planning, content creation and scheduling, and ongoing engagement.

Ready to get started on your property management social media plan? Work with zipcode creative on developing all of the social media assets you need to “wow” prospective residents and current tenants alike! We’re always here to design custom branded graphics for you anytime you want to take your posts to the next level. Get in touch today!

Virtual tours are the new way to lease during quarantine Virtual tours are the new way to lease during quarantine Virtual tours are the new way to lease during quarantine

Virtual Tours Are The New Way to Lease During Quarantine and Beyond

Written by Stacey Feeney on May 12, 2020. Posted in All Articles, Marketing.

You’re sitting on your couch binge watching Netflix trying to come up with some stellar ideas to get your properties seen by the outside world that are also just sitting on their couches binge watching Netflix. The answer is right in front of you…and everyone else…Since our social range has been restricted to a 10-foot radius from our computer screen and couch, you need to start strategizing ways you can get on their screens and get your properties seen right from people’s couch! Virtual tours are the new way to lease during quarantine.

Virtual tours are getting such a good response that we are certain it will be here to stay well beyond this pandemic. Just think of all the DIY millennials – they love their technology and figuring things out on their own. Virtual tours are also a perfect solution for working families who can’t easily meet for an in-person tour during business hours. It’s time to pick up your devices and get filming, the new era has entered in.

Here’s a list of ways that you can get your property to stand out and get prospects inside your properties without ever leaving their couch.

Go Live, Or Get Recording.

You should probably do both. Mix it up; people like options. Offer as many ways as possible for prospects to digitally view your property. All you need is access to a smartphone, tablet or computer. Of course, you can always go the professional route and hire someone to shoot the video for you, but considering the times, DIY is probably best.

Here’s how you can make all that magic happen.

1. Facebook Live Virtual Tours

Never done it before? You should. Facebook Live videos experience three times the engagement compared to other videos shared on social media. It’s a great way to reach a large audience all at once. It’s more complex than just a simple virtual viewing using Facetime/Skype. There’s more pressure on the production side of things considering it’s quite literally a virtual event. The trick is to look comfortable and act natural in front of the camera, but at the same time be sure to come prepared! Here’s some way you can do just that!

Private Broadcast

Use this option to test out your lighting, pace, time and format before going live!

Be Content Ready

Have a script or an outline of topics you want to cover. This will help you stay within the time frame you set for the event. Also, it will help in avoiding awkward silences.

Interact

Respond in real time to comments people are posting. Read certain comments out loud and say the person’s name that posted the comment to make it more personal. Give emphasis to positive comments posted on the amenities as you’re doing the walk-through. If someone posts: “Oh what I would give to be swimming in that pool right now!” You can mention how even though it’s a cool day outside, she should be quite comfortable in your pool since it’s heated. Anything to set that conversational tone.

Introduce And Reintroduce Yourself

Be sure to continuously introduce yourself and give context to what is currently happening every so often when you see new people join the event.

Provide Links

Post important links for everyone in the event to see and be sure to announce it more than once that those links are available. For example- post a link to your online application, website, social media etc.

Sharing Is Caring

Be sure to remind people to follow you on your social media and to share your content. Perhaps offer incentives to do so!

Close The Deal

Give an option to have them schedule an appointment on the spot to speak to an agent to get further information and help with any online application questions. Virtual tours are the new way to lease during quarantine and beyond so be prepared for next steps.

2. Video Conference Virtual Tours

For example, Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing service perfect for large audiences or even small gatherings using a split screen. This app is more like being in a standard teleconference, but slightly cooler. In 2019, it was reported that over half of Fortune 500 companies used Zoom.

All the same ethos for any virtual touring option applies here:

Find time to take Q&A’s. Personalize it by using people’s names when answering any questions.
Direct the group to links and your website throughout the video.
Give them plenty of options for connecting with you and your staff when the video call ends.
Find ways to get people to leave their contact details in a private message.
Make them smile

Hands down the best Zoom feature for giving live tours-prospects can record it! The whole thing. It’s the perfect feature for partners or roommates that weren’t able to join the live tour. Perhaps the only shortcoming is that Zoom isn’t as universal as Facebook Live, just yet, so not everyone has it or knows how to use it. But hey, if it’s good enough for the Prime Minister of UK, Boris Johnson, to use it to hold cabinet meetings, then it’s good enough for us!

If you check out 16 Advanced Zoom Tips for Better Video Meetings and What is Zoom and how does it work? Plus tips and tricks, you’ll get a fuller idea of all the sweet features that Zoom has to offer. Download Zoom now.

3. HouseParty App

It’s more like, well, a house party. More casual and candid. Check out Five Things You Should Know Before Using House Party, you’ll see instantly how different House Party actually is from Zoom. For starters, Boris Johnson doesn’t use it. Honestly, we recommend HouseParty as a fun substitute to WhatsApp. Although you can have multiple people join a video chat, if people aren’t muting their screens, it can get a bit too noisy. Perhaps this app is best for viewings with one prospect at a time, or if there will be multiple residents living together they could all join the video call on separate screens.

Download HouseParty now.

4. FaceTime/Skype

These apps should be considered throwbacks because they’re so old. And we mean this in a good way. Most likely, everyone is already familiar with these apps and already have them on their device. Both are great for a more intimate one-on-one tour and allows you to give your prospects the undivided attention they deserve.

When you talk with prospects who have inquired online, offer to schedule a FaceTime or Skype call with them for a private virtual tour.

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5. Pre-recorded videos

I know. Sounds lame after hyping up all the cool stuff you can do with going live. But it’s not. And remember, you should try to offer both. Not everyone wants to be forced to hear your bubblegum machine commentary (I’m so sorry, of course they do. You have the best bubblegum machine commentary!). Biggest advantage of pre-recorded videos- you have the luxury of editing and prospects can watch it at their convenience. Virtual tours are the new way to lease during quarantine and the forseeable future, so here’s some advice:

Amenities

You got a pool with some cabanas and grills; flaunt it! Your fitness center is state of the art; get on that elliptical and show us how it’s done! Your showers have the water pressure of Niagara Falls; Prove it! (Keep it PG, people).

Music

You can really change the vibe and invoke feelings by simply adding the right music.

Props

Get your employees involved by having them decorate areas like the lobby. Be sure to have every flavor of latte out and displayed in an appealing way. If you have a Game Room, try and round people up to be in the middle of a pool game when you enter the room to give off that community vibe.

Edits

Offer a full length video of your entire property. You want prospects to see everything from the keyed entry at the gates, to the cookies and latte machine in the leasing office, to the pool, fitness center, community lounge, dog park and even inside of the apartment itself. Then you can also offer an option to view a small clip of each area and amenity.

Example of smartphone video tour of a unit by Belforest Villas above.

Tips To Consider When Shooting Videos

Remember to put the toilet seat down before filming. Rookie move.
Make sure they can’t see you in the reflection of the mirror, especially if it’s pajama day at work.
No one wants to see Hairy Back Larry from apartment #7 laying out at the pool in his speedos. Pick a different time to shoot! (Sorry, Hairy Back Larry from apartment #7)
If you’re giving a tour of an empty property, throw out some ideas to the prospect as you’re giving the walk-through about what piece of furniture would look good here or there. You can say super witty things like, “And this is where your partner can put that hideous gumball machine…” as you open the door to your spacious closets. Let your viewer know that the bedrooms at your property can comfortably fit a king sized bed!
If you have a spare model home just lying around, go wild! Be interactive with all the wonderful aspects of your property. Maybe have some cookies ACTUALLY baking in the oven and go and check on them so when they’re finished your prospects can see how great the oven works. Maybe have an employee tucked all snug into the bed watching Netflix and eating popcorn so when you open the door to the large master bedroom, it looks like they just got caught. Then, smooth it over by saying how your properties are so cozy, it’s hard to resist. (The [corny] possibilities are limitless).
On a more photo technical note- try to use a tripod if possible and open the blinds and let in that natural light!

Tips to Consider For Marketing Your Virtual Tours

Use ALL your various social platforms and websites to let people know that you offer these virtual touring options. There’s no point in offering them, if your prospects don’t even know they exist! How do you let prospects know you’re the coolest kid on the block with “this many ways” to virtually view your property? Blast it front right and center on every platform you have.

1. Use Your Homepage

Of course you need to take all the usual digital marketing steps to get people to your website first and when they get there…WHAPOW! Now’s not the time to be shy. Let it be the prettiest thing to look at on your homepage. “Extra, extra! Read all about it. We’re going live on FaceBook and we’re gonna shout it!” Maybe don’t put that exactly. C’mon, you’re beddah than that (Boston accent). If it’s a fresh new website design you’re looking for, look no further and give us a holler!

2. Social Content

Now that you have pre-recorded videos on your website and you’ve hosted a few live events, reuse the content that you have! Share little video snippets of your amenities on your social media. You can design an entire social media campaign around posting these videos. Start a YouTube channel to host them all in one place so prospects can binge watch your videos and really get to know your property without ever stepping foot inside!

3. The Dangle Affect

Dangle incentives in front of your current residents to encourage them to get their friends to move in. It’s really in their best interest to live close to friends in case of a pandemic lockdown…right?!

You could offer them a percentage off of their first month’s rent after renewing their lease if they get at least 2 people to join the Facebook Live event. You see what I did there. Not only do you get at least 2 new prospects looking at your property, but you also just locked down a current resident for another term. SCORE!

If a resident refers a friend and they lease, you could offer a referral fee incentive or something like $200 worth of gift cards to shops in the surrounding community. You could even get the entire complex involved if you have multiple buildings at your property and turn it into a contest: whichever building get’s the most leases signed by a certain date (renewals or new leases) wins a pizza party paid for by you!

The list goes on. Get creative. If referrals are completely a new concept to you, check out Six Ways To Reward Residence For Referrals. If you’re looking for a better understanding of how to build your referral program, check out 7 Tips For Building A Strong Resident Referral Program

4. Advertising

Don’t underestimate the power of a good ol’ fashion email. Or even a print flyer you can slip into the mailbox of current residents. You can mention your virtual tours with links to all your platforms and also mention the referral program you offer. The resident will be more inclined to share with their friends if at the same time they can easily see there is something in it for them. Have a big sign close to the street that reads, “Now Hosting Virtual Tours!”. It just so happens that these are all things we can help you with and customize to your branding.

Submit a creative service request

Just so we’re clear, we really recommend you offer a combination, if not all, of these virtual touring options. This is the way forward. This isn’t just advice on procedures to follow for apartment viewing during Covid-19; this is the future. Virtual tours are the new way to lease! Happy touring!