Posts tagged Apartment Marketing
Social Media Success for Apartment Communities?
Jun 30th
I have a few thoughts to share on the topic of social media today, and I should tell you up front that I intend this post to provoke conversation, and I hope you’ll participate!
You all know how passionate I am about the need to begin using social media now, because I truly do believe that it will play a major role in not only our relationship/retention efforts, but also our marketing strategies. I also happen to believe that its value on both of those fronts is already beginning to take hold.
I don’t need to tell you that idea isn’t universally held. We’ve all seen our share of debate on the merits of social media right here online; and even among the detractors, there are varying degrees of buy-in… some will concede that while social media has a place in resident retention, it’s not a valuable or proven marketing tool; and if not now, *maybe* one day in the far-flung future. I disagree that it isn’t yet a viable as a marketing tool based on my own experience— I believe it’s possible for any business, apartment communities absolutely included in that count.
Success is, admittedly, still a very subjective term when it comes to new media. We’ve all experienced its benefits when it comes to connecting with others; and we know as marketers that connection breeds commitment—a key ingredient to the success of your brand. It stands to reason that anything that facilitates a better connection with your customers is going to benefit your relationship/retention efforts. But just as we’ve always had to work a little harder to gain a customer in the first place than we’ve had to work to keep one who’s already experienced the value of our product; it also stands to reason that marketing via social media is going to take more work than just being there. Now, don’t read me wrong here … I am absolutely not implying that anybody who isn’t seeing the sales benefits of social media just isn’t working hard enough. I am saying, however, that we’re all still learning the ropes; and perhaps if you’re not seeing the benefits yet, you just haven’t hit upon the right combination of tools or strategy for your brand. Social media isn’t, after all, any one thing. It’s a diverse and growing set of opportunities. Imagine trying to crack a safe when there are a few more numbers on the dial each time you turn it, and you’ll get a good idea of what it can be like. That’s just one reason why I’m so committed to educating our industry on what’s out there, what’s coming next, and the potential all those opportunities represent.
When I hear the arguments now that social media is important to keep an eye on, but isn’t yet a proven marketing tool and therefore not yet worth implementing or even getting educated on, I frequently laugh; and I’ve been asked more than once how I can be so amused at something I’m so passionate about. Mostly, I’m remembering when—way back in 1994—we started writing about how important it was for property management companies and apartment communities to have internet access, get to know the “lay of the land,” and begin to build an online presence; because if their customers weren’t on the internet yet, they soon would be. I can’t tell you how many times we heard “why should I do that when the internet isn’t even proven as a marketing tool?” Then we watched as the early-adopters began to reap the immediate benefits of great online positioning while other companies and apartment communities struggled to catch up—and heard time and time again that “it’s taking us more time, effort, and expense to adapt than it would have taken us to prepare.”
Yes, great marketing is a science. It’s important to carefully measure the hard reality of what you put into it against what you get out. But it’s also an art, requiring at least equal attention to softer ingredients that include creativity, intuition, the ability to spot a trend, and the occasional leap of faith … but I’m not going to ask you to set the science aside. So here’s what I want to know: is social media working for you as a marketing tool? Is it worth the time it takes? Are you getting rentals that you can track back to your social media efforts?
Let me know your thoughts.
Tami
Apartment Marketing & Management: Recap
Jun 25th
Reduce Vacancy Loss: Step Up Your Move-In Dates
“You have 24 Notice to vacates for the month ending. How do you rent the apartments quickly and get the new resident to move in as soon as possible? I was faced with this situation several years ago when I had just begun as the new Manager of a community and knew that something must be done to get occupancy back up to the level that the community had enjoyed in the past.” Read More
Keep It Real, Keep The Faith, Keep The Resident
“Ours is a business of cycles; and believe it or not, the time is going to come again to raise the rent. In case you’ve forgotten what that’s like, let me remind you that just like every great relationship, the one between you and your residents requires a carefully maintained balance of give and take. When they signed the lease…” Read More
Growing Tomatoes Increases Traffic
“Grow your own tomatoes! We used this as a tag line on all our ads, then showed prospects the two community gardens we had prepared for our residents to grow their own tomatoes. It was a big hit! People called to have a look at the community and several said: any landlord that would care enough to have a garden for their residents would care enough about me as a resident.” Read More
Going Mobile
“Let’s face it, the world runs on lattes and 5-hour energy these days. People constantly en route from one destination to another, and during these transits they are going … mobile. What once was a sedentary task, web browsing has evolved: users are accessing the internet via phones and mobile devices from the convenience of wherever they happen to be.” Read More
Green Is Lean
“Global warming, oil spills and other environment disasters seem to be on everyone’s mind. Business magazines write about “green” businesses. Movie stars drive hybrid cars to look “green”. But most companies overlook the single biggest opportunity they have to go green by simplifying, streamlining and optimizing their internal operations.” Read More
Go For The Dogs
“This simple idea becomes a habit when you have a pet friendly community. Take a small Ziploc bag full of treats in your pocket when you make community inspections. I keep a large container with dog biscuits in my office. I walk around the grounds and stop to visit with the residents and their dog(s) get a treat!” Read More
Six Truths About Marketing With Social Media
“Yeah, I know you’ve heard it all … that Social Media Marketing slices and dices, is the answer to world peace, and will make your teeth up to three shades whiter with only one use. But from the sea of hype that we’ve been sailing-filled with assertions about what social media is and isn’t and what it can and can’t do-are beginning to arise some proven truths.” Read More
Brainstorming Keynote: People Are the Killer App with Geno Church
Even with all the new focus on social media tools, many organizations struggle with how to incorporate these tactics into a results-driven strategy that truly connects a community of brand ambassadors. Don’t miss this dynamic storytelling session centered around the theme of stories as the ultimate connector between company and customer. Register for Brainstorming Now!
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Six Truths About Marketing With Social Media
Jun 24th
Yeah, I know you’ve heard it all … that Social Media Marketing slices and dices, is the answer to world peace, and will make your teeth up to three shades whiter with only one use. But from the sea of hype that we’ve been sailing—filled with assertions about what social media is and isn’t and what it can and can’t do—are beginning to arise some proven truths. Having had the opportunity to put many, many new media opportunities through their paces, we’ve zeroed in on six truths we’ve discovered from personal experience—not in any specific order, but intended serve as food for thought as you decide how to apply social media in your marketing strategies, and prepare for what comes next!
1. Social Media Isn’t Singular
We really have heard it all … “Show me the ROI.” “Facebook isn’t a marketing channel.” “Social media is for conversation, not conversion.” Fact is, social media isn’t any one thing, and therefore doesn’t fit neatly into any one box.
Follow me here… back when the Internet was new, it took us a while in the multifamily industry to grasp what email and websites could do; but eventually we came to realize that it was more than a fancy replacement for paper … that it supported a number of functions including customer service, communications, community, entertainment, advertising, engagement, marketing, PR, and more—and all to varying degrees depending on a company’s brand, marketing approach, culture, and (most importantly) how our customers prefer to engage with our brand.
Very much like email, social media is becoming the “Swiss Army Knife” not just of marketing, but also of customer service and retention, product development, internal communications, innovation and idea development, and so much more. And yet, so many people still insist on trying to fit “it” into their existing marketing structure as though it is and does only one thing.
It’s not a one-trick pony, so don’t treat it like one.
2. Customer Service Is the New Marketing
This isn’t new news to any of us in the apartment business; but in a world gone social and with increasing consumer demand for transparency, serving your customers remarkably well has become more important than ever before.
Communicating with speed and honesty to issues—and that goes for the flipside, too: enabling your customers and community to communicate to you—has become Priority One in your ability to acquire new customers. People “talk” … they always have, and now that social media has enabled them to do it pretty much 24/7 and to whole groups of friends at once, they do it more effectively than ever before. We also know that it’s human nature for them to share bad experiences more readily than good ones. Ten years ago, a resident told a friend, and maybe that friend told somebody, and perhaps even that friend told somebody else. Today a resident clicks a few keys on Facebook and tells a hundred people at once; and if that’s as far as it goes, you can thank your lucky stars. And I’m not even going to go into depth about how long a bad rating can hang around to haunt your reputation once it’s been posted to a community ratings site.
In this new social paradigm, your front line and marketing departments need to learn to work hand in hand to avoid bad customer experiences and make it easier and more likely for customers to share great ones! In the old paradigm, onsite and marketing might have been separated by any number of tortuous lines and boxes on the old org chart; but in the new world, they must be aligned to facilitate the flow of communication between them, and create great experiences for customers as a result.
3. Your Marketing Department Just Got a Whole Lot Bigger
Because it now includes your customers. Way back in 1964, Marshall McLuhan told us that the medium is the message, and that’s still true today in that our various social media platforms lend undeniable character to what we convey there. But what’s different now is that the messages have become vastly more personalized. A great print ad is a powerful thing, but it will never possess the ability to persuade another human being the way that another human being can. And your social community is entirely made up of them.
Now that said, it’s important to realize that marketing is still marketing; and the game has maybe not changed as drastically for us in that our business has always been about creating and ensuring a great customer experience. What has changed, though is that instead of working with mostly headlines and taglines and deadlines and other linear processes, you’re now working in the totally three-dimensional, round-the-clock online world where many people communicate to many people all at the same time. Instead of identifying and managing great creative, your job description now includes identifying, enabling, and encouraging (due diligence) influential fans of your business (channel selection) to convince people that you’re their best possible choice (execution). The job is still the same, but the medium has changed the game.
4. It’s ALL Mobile Marketing
We’re all on the go, and most of us are consuming large quantities of our information via a mobile device of some kind or other; and the more that becomes a commonality, the less specialized that communications channel becomes. It’s on the fast track to become the dominant way that we interact with other individuals and with brands and pretty much the whole world at large. More customers are going to be interacting with you on the small screen, so if you’re not already focusing some of your marketing efforts on optimizing that experience, it’s time to. Try to think of “mobile marketing” as less about being a channel and more about reaching people when and where they are (and are willing) to interact with your brand. That’s more and more likely to be via the small screen in their hand.
Oh, one more thing… while you might be tempted to dismiss the iPad as just another slick new tech toy, think again. There’s a big gap to be filled between laptops and handhelds, and the iPad is just one of many devices rushing to fill that void. With more “tablet” sized devices on the horizon, you can expect more costumers to be found there, as well.
5. Enter The Chief Marketing Nerd
As more companies come to terms with the fact that technology and marketing have merged, they’ll begin to see the justified need to hire senior level management (Chief Marketing Technology Officers or Social Media Marketing Officers, or some other titular combination that’s equal parts Creative and Geek) to oversee the tech-related facets of the marketing process and help marketing and IT work together as a seamless team. The few and foresightful professionals out there who have reinforced their marketing expertise with technical know-how will be—should already be—in hot demand. As even more new channels emerge and the pace of change gains even more momentum, companies that don’t invest in tech-savvy marketing expertise are going to be quickly outmaneuvered by the competition.
6. Email is Still a Killer App
And finally, social media and mobile delivery may be hogging the spotlight, but don’t forget about your old faithful marketing steady: email. Maybe it isn’t as hot as it used to be, but it continues to be a tremendously reliable way to deliver a message, engage people with your brand, convey value, and save you time and money … but there’s one important thing you do need to know. A slight shift is happening as consumers begin using email less often for their personal communications than Tweeting, posting, messaging, or texting—the key word there being personal. Permission-based email is still today’s consumer’s preferred channel for interacting with companies and brands; but now that more consumers are receiving it on the go, it’s more important than ever to deliver the right message at the right time.
If you’d like to really put your finger on the pulse of today’s marketing, we’d like to recommend three great Reality Check sessions at Brainstorming 2010. If you’re new to social media, join the inimitable Toni Blake for The Amazing Race to Social Media: Create and Manage a Successful Online Presence and hear Toni’s multifamily plan for “Beginner’s Success” in social media. You can join Chairty Hisle when she presents Social Media Strategies That Work, and to learn even more about the new marketing, join Chantelle Flannery of Firebelly Marketing for America’s Next Top Multifamily Marketer and learn four key elements that will make your marketing plan a Super Model of success including: defining and expressing your unique selling proposition; perfect pricing; choosing your vehicles wisely; delivery that doesn’t leave a doubt; and much more!
If you have added the Social Media Optimization Summits to your Brainstoming registration you might like to consider attending our full blown, two and four hour workshops.
Keep It Real, Keep The Faith, Keep The Resident
Jun 15th
Ours is a business of cycles; and believe it or not, the time is going to come again to raise the rent. In case you’ve forgotten what that’s like, let me remind you that just like every great relationship, the one between you and your residents requires a carefully maintained balance of give and take. When they signed the lease, you agreed with them that you’d take a specific amount of money in return for giving them a specific range of features and benefits. Imagine those elements on each side of a scale. It’s important to remember that the rental rate your residents are paying to live in your community is not an insignificant part of your relationship with them … for many, price is the hottest button of all. If you’re going to ask them to put more on their side of the scale, you’d better be prepared to define what you’re putting on your side, too, to keep the balance in place.
Now, we all know that every resident is a valuable one. Not only have you already invested a great deal of time and money and good will—all of which makes that relationship well worth keeping—but losing the relationship will almost certainly cost you more than just the status quo thanks to turnover and marketing. We never want to reduce the value of our residents to a dollar figure alone; nonetheless, they represent more to you IN that apartment than out of it. So, how do you propose something as significant as a rent increase without throwing off the balance you’ve worked so hard to create? There are many proven strategies for raising rents without losing renters, but in our experience, there are a few elements common to all the most successful ones, and they are:
Keep It Real
Remember when you were a kid and you asked your mother why she was making you do (or stop doing) something, and she said “Because I said so!” You hated that, didn’t you? Nobody really ever outgrows that. Add to that the trend of consumers desiring increased transparency, and you might as well just plan to deliver the “why” along with the “what” if you expect them to accept your call for higher rent, and it had better be good. Be up front about the fact that raising rent is a business decision, the cost of operating your community is continually increasing, and rental rates have to keep up in order for your community to stay successful. It’s important to couch that in the fact that the key measurement of your success is maintaining a relationship with them. Your success means being able to continue delivering the features, benefits, and level of service they have come to expect, and absolutely deserve; and that’s where this next part comes in.
Keep The Faith
“Business is business” is only going to get you so far; and frankly, that’s not far enough in a realm where emotions play a leading role. Your resident didn’t choose your community just because it made great business sense … they were also relying on their other senses. They liked what they saw, enjoyed what they felt, and believed what they heard when you promised your community’s features, benefits, and services would keep them satisfied better than any other community they might choose. In the best case, they might have had the word or experience of a trusted friend or colleague to reinforce that decision; but they had no personal proof at that point that you’d live up to those promises until they made their choice and moved in. If you haven’t been delivering, then good luck with that (there’s a reason we called this part “keeping” the faith … if you’ve lost it, then you need another article entirely). Of course, if you’ve been delivering at least what you promised, then you’ve demonstrated that their faith was well-placed, and there’s powerfully persuasive value in that. Build upon that base of faith by reminding them of all the things upon which their original decision was based and that they receive as a resident (a sense of community; clean/comfortable and attractive environment; convenience; amenities; maintenance and other services that keep their life carefree; a professional management staff on a mission and at their service; and the specific things your community offers that the competition can’t claim. Now, if you’ve been overachieving and exceeding their expectations, you’ve got a powerful ace up your sleeve. There could be no better time to spotlight the things you’ve been doing that go over and above what you originally agreed to provide. Added new services? Upgraded amenities? Renovated lately? Those are all valuable items to add to your side of the scale.
So at this point, you’ve explained that you need to raise the rent and why, you’ve reminded them of why they chose your community in the first place, and you’ve maybe even had a thing or two to add to your side of the scale. It’s time to close the deal, asking them to renew at the higher rate. You’d never dream of presenting a leasing demonstration without being able to proactively address those concerns, so enter this discussion armed with the same set of skills. Here it’s important to realize the difference between many of the objections you might have encountered in the original lease process where the resident may have been looking to buy more time or a better deal… strategically, those are offensive moves meant to gain higher ground. Asking someone to pay more for something they’ve been getting all along is going to place them on the defense, geared to protect something they perceive to be slipping from their grasp. (“Why pay you more when there’s lower rent down the street; and what’s to stop me from packing up and going there?”)
Of course, you know the answers to those questions, so keep them at the ready. For starters, the cost of moving is high—almost always more than estimated, not to mention the emotional toll of making such a huge change. Those other communities may be luring residents in with lower rent but will eventually have to make the same rent-increasing business decisions that you’re making. Their level of commitment to meeting and exceeding their residents’ expectations is an unknown value while yours is a proven one. You have an established relationship with them that you value and intend to uphold to a degree that’s at least in keeping with the increased rate of rent, and with a goal of exceeding it every chance you get.
Keep The Resident
To sum it all up, the most powerful tools you have in raising rent without losing residents are to be clear about what you’re asking and why; and pull out all the stops when it comes to defending your value—all in the spirit of continuing the valuable relationship to which you’ve both contributed up to this point. If you’ll make those things part of every strategy to increase rents, you’ll keep more residents as a result.
And finally, there’s so much more to be said about successfully raising rents than we could ever fit into one article, so if you want to know more, plan to attend “Million Dollar Listing: Proven Strategies for Raising Rents Without Losing Renters” at Brainstorming 2010 where you’ll learn: how to effectively demonstrate the value of your community (including features and benefits that are often overlooked); the latest services and amenities that residents want and are willing to pay—or pay more—for; how to outshine the competition and position your community as the best possible choice; leveraging the full value of your brand; the dollar power of outstanding customer service; why a strong sense of community matters; and much, much more! We’ll see you there!
