I was recently given the privelege to co-moderate a brainstorming session on the topic of marketing. The session was held for members of the apartment management industry at various stages in their careers, from leasing agents who have been in the industry for 2 months to property managers with 10 years of experience. My topic was old school marketing. Old school referring to anything not social media. More specifically, tools such as resident retention, outreach marketing, Craigslist, etc. The idea was to get creative juices flowing, discuss what’s working, what’s not working and maybe learn a few things to take back to the rest of the team.
I was surprised by the lack of marketing knowledge…and for that matter, the lack of creativity. I heard the same 3 “best practices” from a majority of the groups: Generic signs and balloons for drive by traffic, generic Craiglist ads and monetary resident referral incentives. I heard questions like: “What do you say when you’re marketing to a business?” and “It’s ok to send thank you cards and gift baskets to businesses who refer someone to you?” Leasing agents and PMs who had no knowledge of free additional ILS marketing template tools like VFlyer and Postlets, who had never thought past posting a flyer with a resident referral rent credit in terms of using residents as a marketing tool, and those are just building blocks. It’s as if they were told that marketing is something only a rocket scientist can figure out.
First let me say I’m not exactly saying the 3 best practice items listed above are crap, I’m simply saying that they shouldn’t be IT. Also, I’m in love with social media and believe it’s an insanely valuable tool, however 1. It was not my topic to discuss and 2. I also think that personal touch and those face to face human interactions through outreach marketing and resident appreciation events are valuable, and combining the 2 forms is fabulous! (Read Urbane Media’s QR Codes blog). But I’m not sure I believe you can be effective with social media if you don’t even know the basics of effective old school marketing tools. And if no one is teaching or motivating their team on the basics of marketing, then I doubt that there is any social media marketing in place anyway.
So I guess what I’d like to learn from this eye opening experience is: Am I way off base in believing that some old school marketing techniques are still a valuable tool in the industry? Is someone teaching your staff about marketing? Do you believe that one can effectively use social media tools without ever having learned/practiced old school marketing strategies?
Title courtesy of Melissa DeCicco
Photo credit bloggingoutloud
0 Responses
Old school marketing tools are still necessary, they just may need to be adapted and updated. The key is getting to people in their element. Has your target audience changed their habits?
You can have the nicest facilities or be trying to sell an apartment in the middle of a construction zone. It’s all about the people selling. I think having great social skills is the key for any marketing. If the people in charge of marketing for you don’t understand that, they are doomed to fail.
Yes, I would like to see how some of those companies/properties are doing being that their employees seemed to have zero concept of marketing beyond the 3 ideas mentioned. It was really quite a shock. And really you don’t have to be “taught”. Your own ideas and creativity should come into play as well, and that also seemed to be lacking.
It does seem to me that many managers and properties do not have any creative spark. I think at least one person on each team should be an “out of the box,” thinker. That must be hard to come by considering…
Agreed Teresa! Thanks for the comment. Yes it was sad to have been witness to the fact that it may be harder to come by than I realized. I told Nan I think many people would benefit from SLAA hosting a marketing class.
Jessica – thanks for the post. I teamed up with Julie from the Apartment Finder to co-moderate the social media discussion at that same meeting. My observations matched yours in a lot of ways.
The group either did not participate at all in using social media to market their apartments or if they did; it was with very limited effort. The latter camp suggested their respective companies either did not allow the use of and or did not really advocate the use of the various medias.
To speak to the point of using ‘old school’ and social media. I agree; it is really and integrated approach that works best. You have to get out and talk about your social presence as a way of building your community. It does not happen in a vacuum.
Thank you for taking the time to pen this one – it’s an interesting topic especially as it relates to Mills becomes more of a social business.
M
Good to know Mills isn’t behind the pack on this. Lots of exciting opportunities. Two other questions:
1) How can you get existing residents to market on social media for you?
2) How can you utilize the newer mediums like Pinterest?
I think Mills is already on the first one with Facebook page contests like Why I Love CityView and the Lovin the Lou video contest we created for the Laurel.
As for Pinterest, (and other new mediums), I certainly feel they can be effective marketing tools. I actually read a great article that was really inspiring and the wheels are turning in my head as we speak. http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2012/01/18/6-ways-brands-rock-pinterest/
Hey Jessica, Thank you for the nice comment, we appreciate that. As to the points you have raised, I just think that our industry is plagued with boring and mediocrity. That said, doing something different spurs fear in folks, because many of the things we try may not, or do not work the way we think. And what happens when we spend money, and the idea didn’t work.
I do believe that employees and associates are only as good, and only as creative as we have allowed them to be. Perhaps we should rethink our hiring, training and mentor
You’re very welcome. Looking forward to hearing more about it and the results as it plays out down the road.
And I completely agree with your second statement. It was an eye opening experience realizing training is needed for things which I thought were just common knowledge. It’s certainly something which needs to be acknowledged and gears need to be shifted to include basic marketing training and creativity at the very least.
Excellent post Mike. I think the question on site needs to begin with, “Do you understand marketing.” I realize not every on site leasing person is going to have a sales and marketing background, but they need to be taught the basics of marketing. They need to know simple ideas – including how to define your targets and how to craft a solid message before attempting to create tools to implement those basics. I think far too often people are putting the horse before the cart and that is why we see a lack of creativity and a failure in new, effective marketing on site.
Hey Sondrah –
Thank you for taking the time to stop by and pen a thought. I have to give the props to Jessica H. for the post; I have invited her aboard as a writer at MBG.
You make a really good point with regard to the horse before the cart – it is the proverbial hand the keys over with the swift instruction of ‘make it happen.’ No instruction. No training. Just, do it and only call me if something good happens.
Take care and have an amazing week.
M
My apologies to Jessica. My new glasses are literally on order.
No problem Sondrah! Thank you for taking the time to comment. 100% Agreed. One thing I heard that was especially disappointing was: “We can’t do marketing. They hired someone specifically for marketing but she doesn’t even do anything.” Clearly, the person in charge doesn’t understand marketing enough to be able to effectively carry it out and so the property/company as a whole will suffer. Thanks again for the comment.
I think most people take for granted that everyone knows what ‘marketing’ is…I am not sure there is a real definition that fully embraces all aspects. I agree with Eric, I think associates are often afraid to think outside the box especially if money is involved, or goodness forbid the idea fails. We really can’t learn anything from not trying. You have to hire creativity! I am really sick of hearing the same old ideas passed along in our industry – although I think this is getting better. Great post Jessica!!