Apartment Marketing
Have Fun
I am sometimes asked how an apartment community can create word of mouth?
I answer it with two words – have fun!
Word of mouth is predicated on that little space between stimulus and response known as choice.
And, people are emotional beings. Even the most logical among us.
Move people’s emotions and you move their willingness to choose to share.
Make it easy for them to share and you have the beginnings of word of mouth.
Your – choosing to have fun and share – multifamily maniac,
M
pic props – digiktech
Website is Key
Not…
Ran across a quote the other day that sent me thinking – in a contentious sort of way…
In today’s information age of marketing and web 2.0, a company’s website is the key to their entire business. – Marcus Sheridan
I rarely drop four letter words – as a personal choice – but this gave me cause. It was more like an eight letter but four letter affect word but passionate nonetheless. Maybe I missed the context of the remark but it just seems shortsighted.
Heart of a Company
I shared a story from Leo Buscaglia just a couple of days ago and it purely relates to my reproach. To me, it is much deeper than a website. Hate the soft side of business as much you want, think of it as the gnat that you can’t get rid of or the back burner – get to it some day sort of thing but that, my friends, is the key to business. In apartment marketing or management, your website is not key. You are.
I suppose I could agree that if information were the end all be all to business then your website is key. But information, be it about your apartments, management company or otherwise, is not what drives your business – people do. People are key. People make relationships and people compel others to respond and take next steps.
You can have the best website in your space but if the people at the end of that avenue are unkept, obnoxious and otherwise disinterested – you will struggle.
Information Age or Mindful Age
As we move away from share for the sake of sharing or sharing for the sake of garnishing good favor and thus a business transaction, I think being mindful of relationship on every level will be the key to business. Even when it comes to your website [your digital archive of information] you must be mindful of the people who are interested in the information. They are there because of their interests at that moment in time. But, most important, they are there to seek relationship first and information second.
So I borderline beg you – please argue that people seek out information first and relationship second so I can carry this conversation on….
Your – looking for some feedback – multifamily manic,
M
Authentic Apartment Marketing
Think of apartment seekers as consumers and your communication with them will be perceived as not authentic – think of them as people and you have a shot at creating conversation that speaks to fundamental human need(s), want(s) and desire(s). Think food, water and shelter. And, how do you become authentic as it relates to apartment marketing? You get an understanding.
Understand People and Their Behavior
Why would you want to understand people and their behaviors? The only way you change how people feel, think and behave is to understand them in a very authentic way? Only then will they respond to the power of your creative apartment marketing. Or, conversation and content marketing.
What can you do to understand people and their behaviors? First, you create an authentic and ceaseless urge to know more. You make it your daily quest to always know more about people. Always take notes. Take pictures. Record thoughts. Write a blog post or two or three to flesh out your thoughts. Make it your mission to understand what they think. What they prefer. What they dream. What they desire. And, what they need.
One item on note on understanding – what makes people people is always changing. And, if you are not leading that change in an authentic way then someone else will.
Your, highly interested in anthropology, multifamily maniac,
M
Craigslist with a Twist
Can you make it more social?
What if you took Craigslist and made it just a little more social? What if you extended your leasing team by four fold overnight? What if you took the current tired resident referral model and tossed in a tool to assist those who would actually assist us in producing leads and leases?
Get the community involved
I have thought for a very long bit of time and even experimented with the idea of partnering with the people who live in our apartment communities to churn out marketing on our behalf. Our experiments have not been backed by a ton of passion and or adopted with cheery fanfare by the people that we invited to play along and nonetheless I think there might be an opportunity. I intend to continue to experiment.
How do you make Craigslist a little more social?
The loose thought, in brief, is to organize four to six template Craigslist Apartment Marketing Packages. Photos, ad copy, headlines, pricing and the such would be included. A detailed white paper to include step-by-step instructions for posting and responding to would be residents. It would also include an introduction training provided by the Mills Marketing Team. The training would be supplemented by four to six ongoing training sessions over time.
WIIFM
What’s in it for me? Or, for them? The carrot – a monetary incentive for every lease we secured, aka – the resident referral fee.
What do you think?
Your -thinking Craigslist can be more social – multifamily maniac,
M
What Apartment Marketing is Not
Apartment marketing is not thinking about every person as a renter or a renewal –
Apartment marketing is not about viewing people in the context of residing in your apartment communities –
Apartment marketing is not about getting people to celebrate you through a; Like, G+, Tweet, RT or the such –
Apartment marketing is not about broadcasting the right message at precisely the right to the right influencers –
What you’re saying in all of this is that people mean nothing to you. And, when they don’t respond you just don’t understand why….
Your thinking people-centric multifamily manic,
M
