Multifamily Marketing
Tell Them How Much You are Moved by the Neighborhood
Don’t tell prospects and residents how much your apartments are – tell them how much you are moved by the neighborhood.
Tell them about waking up on a crisp fall morning and taking a run in Forest Park just one block over from your apartment. Tell them about stopping back by Velocity Coffee Shop to have a cup of coffee – served by a friendly Barista named Tracy who rarely smiles but wants to. Tell them about the free copies of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the St. Louis Dispatch. Tell them about the free wifi. And, oh – it’s a bike shop too with cool bike motif everywhere. The bathroom even has a cool chalkboard where you once drew a giant dragon that looked as if it were eating the giant flower someone else drew.
Tell them about Papa John’s pizza and Subway at the end of the block where Tony and Charles remember your name and serve you with a smile. Tell them about Atlas Restaurant located in the heart of the neighborhood and the amazing food and desserts that they serve. Tell them about The Loop and The Central West End [very cool Saint Louis neighborhood hangouts] being just one mile away and don’t forget to mention the friendly cab driver resident who will drive you over while entertaining you with great conversation. Tell them about all the fun nights you had in those neighborhoods.
Tell them about Mr. and Mrs. Wang who own the dry cleaners right next door to Papa John’s and how they wash and fold clothes for $0.75 a pound. Tell them how much you love the fact that each Christmas they give your children big canisters of candy as a thank you for your business.
Tell them about the dog park even if you are not a pet lover – not even in the least.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, this is the neighborhood that I fell in love with in Saint Louis. Oh yeah, and I lived in a great apartment that overlooked a tree lined street that looks amazing in the fall.
Tell them with conviction how much you love the neighborhood the rest will fall right into place.
Apartment Reviews – Reimagined
Looking back
Back in October of 2007 we wrote about participating in the conversation via rating sites and even suggested incorporating a mechanism into your property management website to make it easier. Here is a bit of a revised excerpt from that post;
“If you are still of the mind that dismisses the value of sites like apartmentratings.com, listen up. The feedback outlined in the brief above [Deloitte] should move you to action as soon as possible. I truly think we should all open up our company websites to include a consumer and resident feedback mechanism. Instead of internal score keeping, make it completely transparent. My only suggesting is that you have an editor just for the sake of carving out names and character attacks as we know they will come despite our best efforts. Even with that in mind you have to be courageous enough to leave the meat and more importantly act on it.”
Two years later
Here we are nearly two years later in the midst of the conversation marketing buzz and while a good many of us are participating there is still a hesitancy to move that conversation to our websites. Even those that have don’t really have a great deal of participation in terms of consumers reviewing them.
Two years from now
Not only is the writing on the wall but the ink is dry and the conversation is going on with or without you. And, the benefits are immense when you bring the conversation to you;
- You have the ability to increase your credibility
- You have the ability to participate
- You have the ability to influence
- You have the ability to increase your Google Juice
- You have the ability to innovate with your consumer
- You have the ability to create evangelist
- You have the ability to generate further participation
- You have the ability to create loyalty
- You have the ability to create an environment where people feel they are part of something larger than themselves
- You have that ability to respond in lieu of react [there is a big difference]
The more important point here is: how do we increase participation to an Amazonish or iTuneish type level? Do we ask former potential, existing or former residents to review their experience relative to their specific unit such that every unit takes on its very own unique rating? Would that allow us to price higher rated homes differently than lower rated homes. I see it as a great mechanism to allow us the opportunity to really maximize our rents. Maybe the lease rent optimizers out there employee a unit rating lever into their pricing algorithms. The ideas are endless – acting is the key.
Less is More
I ran across the following quote today and thought about the implications it has on our industry. While I know this is not new material, it does remind me that we need to be mindful of the ways we can decrease our carbon footprints.
Wal-Mart is pushing to become “packaging neutral” by 2025. No small feat. The impact of this decision has had profound ramifications in the entire consumer product industry.
Are you still printing 4 color high-gloss brochures, floor plans and portfolio binders for each and every prospect? You may be turning potential residents off unknowingly – if you are.
I bought a new car recently and was handed this giant beautiful product booklet and I thought – “what a waste” – I handed back to them and told them: 1. I would never read it. 2. I thought is was a waste of good paper. I have to believe a percentage of our consumers think the same way. While it did not dissuade me from buying the car – it did make me think about lower priced product offerings to include apartment homes.
Something to think about.
What is in Your Lifestyle?
I really like what LIFESTYLE Communities is up to. I received the following via email today:
Mike ,
Would you like tickets to one of these concerts at The LC Pavilion?
Click here to enter the Last Minute Ticket Giveaway from Lifestyle Communities for Zappa Plays Zappa (TONIGHT!) July 8th. Enter by 2:00pm EST on 7/8/09.
Click here to enter the Last Minute Ticket Giveaway from Lifestyle Communities for First Strike Combat / NAAFS Cage Vengeance 5 this Friday, July 10th. Enter by 2:00pm EST on 7/9/09.
Click here to enter the Last Minute Ticket Giveaway from Lifestyle Communities for Collective Soul and Gavin DeGraw on Saturday, July 11th. Enter by 11:00pm EST on 7/8/09.
One or more winners will be randomly selected for each event. Each winner will receive two (2) tickets to the event. For information about the Last Minute Ticket Giveaways from Lifestyle Communities, reply to this email. For more information about events at The LC Pavilion, visit the PromoWest Productions website.
Check out The Annex at River South condos and apartments in Downtown Columbus.
Thanks,
Chip Ashby
Lifestyle Communities
cashby@lifestylecommunities
Top five things I like about it:
1. It was permission based
2. The offer was relevant
3. The sense of urgency was not invasive but rather -“hey, by the way…” or “hey, just in case…”
4. Great call to action
5. Subtle product insertion at the bottom – not as the lead
Great stuff –
Do Signs Matter When Renting an Apartment?
Thought
I ran across a blog this morning that suggested that dollar signs or the lack thereof mattered when it came to significantly increasing a restaurant patrons spend. Just for sake of discussion I visited a couple of ILS’s; Apartment Finder, For Rent and Apartment Guide and found that all of them use $ when demonstrating price.
Restaurants use it successfully
The Food Section: Restaurant Menus, Dollar Signs, and Spending
A new study by the Center for Hospitality Research at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration reveals that the way in which prices are displayed on restaurant menus has an impact on the amount of spending by diners.It’s Not Normal – Does that make it remarkable?In the spirit of being remarkable or memorable – would it make a difference? Would it give cause for a prospect to inquire about the higher priced apartments and or would it allow us to push rates with no real consequence to our leasing efforts? Is it worth testing to see if it works in our space?
