by threshold | Apr 7, 2020 | Creative, Digital Marketing, Marketing, Thought Leadership
When you’re launching a new development, there’s a lot to worry about, and your real estate marketing plan is just part of the puzzle. But while financing, designing, and building might seem like your most pressing concerns, a great marketing plan starts early—often before you ever break ground. The most successful new developments are those that make marketing decisions early and use marketing insights to inform construction, design, and management every step of the way.
So what are your marketing to-dos as you launch your new property development? There’s a lot to cover, from market research to branding to social media and more. That’s why we’ve put together this extensive New Start Marketing Checklist covering all your basics and our tips for getting them checked off successfully.
If you’re interested in getting professional help checking all these items off your list, contact our team at Threshold—we’ve been around this block a time or two.
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[su_spoiler title=”1. Perform Market Surveys” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” class=””]
Your very first step is to do your research. This will inform everything that comes after, from branding to digital campaigns to community outreach. In particular, you need to understand a few things:
Competitor Research:
Take stock of your local competition, gathering all the information you can. In order to stand out from the crowd, you need to take stock of its composition. How are local properties branding themselves? What amenities are they offering? What audience are they targeting? What are their rental rates? What campaigns and specials are they running? Where are they located?
Keep your learnings together in a well-organized document or spreadsheet for later reference and update it periodically. This information will come in handy when developing your brand, launching awareness campaigns, and more.
Audience Research:
Understanding your audience is an indispensable step. Whenever you can, get out in the community to do market surveys. Ask what your target audience wants in an apartment community. Ask what amenities are important to them, what they think is missing from the market, and what makes a community a great place to live. This information is essential not only to building the sort of property that there’s actually demand for, but also to the messaging you use to market your property each step of the way.
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[su_spoiler title=”2. Develop Unique Branding” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” class=””]
You have probably heard that your brand is your biggest asset—and it’s true. Developing a unique, cohesive brand that tells a story, establishes a personality, and gives your development purpose brings everything to life. It drives interest, action, and loyalty from your audience. When executed well, it informs every design, every marketing asset, even every hiring decision you make.
As you develop your brand, you’ll need to establish the following elements, then codify them into brand guidelines that everyone who represents the brand can reference moving forward.
Names
First and foremost, your property name should be unique within the market and resonate with your target audience. Your name, along with your logo, will be your brand’s face to the world, informing your audience’s impressions of your community from the word go. Take special care to select a name that has staying power, that won’t cause you to be confused with another brand, and that aligns with the brand personality you want to build.
Beyond that, you also need a property name that allows you to select unique and easy-to-use domain names and account names so that your online presence is cohesive and accessible.
Domain Name
Your domain name is the URL—or web address—where your property website will live. Before committing to a property name, ensure there are domain names available incorporating that name.
Online Account Names
Again, before committing to a property name, consider the account names—or handles—you’ll use for social media sites like Instagram and Twitter. Your account names should clearly connect the account to your property and avoid too much similarity to existing account names.
Voice & Personality
As you build your brand, ask yourself: if this brand were a person, how would they act? What would they like? How would they speak? In fact, your brand will do a lot of acting and speaking, through messaging on your website, your ads, your social media accounts, even your transactional emails. The more distinct and identifiable your brand personality and voice are, the more loyalty you can inspire and the easier it will be to develop new creative and digital messaging further down the road.
The elements below can help you establish your brand voice and personality.
Tagline
A tagline is a motto or catchphrase connected to your brand—like McDonald’s “I’m lovin’ it” or Dunkin’ Donuts’ “America runs on Dunkin’.” Your tagline should be memorable while hinting at your brand voice and purpose. What’s the main takeaway your audience should associate with your brand? What short phrase hints at your brand’s core?
Manifesto
A brand manifesto is a mission statement for your brand written in the voice of the brand. Its purpose is to outline what key ideas define the brand as well as what sets it apart from the competition. You may not use the brand manifesto verbatim beyond the initial branding phase (though it may make a decent romance paragraph on a landing page) but it’s a very helpful tool to explore your brand voice and establish the “why” of your brand.
Logo & Logo Treatments
Your logo is perhaps the most visible feature of your brand. Along with the brand name, the logo is your brand’s face to the world, informing impressions of your brand before your audience knows anything else about it. Having a unique logo that aligns with your brand identity helps bridge the awareness gap as you reach new prospects further down the road.
Colors
Brand colors also communicate a lot about a brand, often in very subtle ways. For example, bright, saturated colors might communicate an energetic, playful personality while pastels or neutrals might communicate a more relaxed or professional feel. Select a few main brand colors that can be used throughout your branding, from business cards to websites to interior design so that your brand identity is consistent and obvious across all visual media.
Typefaces
Like brand colors, a typeface (or font) can subtly communicate a lot about your brand. Whether you want streamlined and professional, intricate and formal, playful and unique, or something else, the typeface(s) you use across your creative assets are part of building a consistent and clear brand identity.
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[su_spoiler title=”3. Establish Online Accounts” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” class=””]
Shortly after selecting a name, it’s time to claim your social media handles on Facebook and Instagram. You’ll also want to set up a few other online accounts you’ll need, like your Google My Business page, Apartments.com, and ApartmentRatings.com accounts. These accounts will help expand your reach, manage your online reputation, and engage with your audience.
Once accounts are set up, ensure that one or more staff members are frequently checking these accounts for comments, reviews, and questions. Engaging with your audience and responding to any reviews helps build a positive online reputation and generate qualified leads.
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[su_spoiler title=”4. Develop a Conversion-Optimized Landing Page” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” class=””]
As early as possible, you’ll want to build up a full online presence so you can start generating buzz and capturing leads. One of the central assets in those efforts is your property website. However, since building a full, multi-page website can take extra time and money, you might start with a single landing page containing just enough information to get your audience interested.
Consider including a simple form allowing interested parties to sign up for future updates as your property is further developed—you might call it a “VIP wait list” or similar. This is a great way to generate leads and set up future digital campaigns that will yield highly qualified traffic and high conversion rates.
Later down the road, make sure you develop a full website with great SEO and UX. While an early landing page is a great trick to jumpstart your digital marketing efforts, it won’t sustain you as your property grows and your marketing needs change. In order to drive organic traffic, continued conversions, and customer loyalty, a full website is essential.
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[su_spoiler title=”5. Set Up Analytics Tracking” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” class=””]
Once your website is launched, it’s important to set up analytics tracking through Google Analytics so you can assess how you’re performing throughout your marketing journey. Getting this set up as early as possible will ensure you’re equipped to diagnose any issues and make improvements that impact your digital traffic and conversions.
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[su_spoiler title=”6. Launch Digital Brand Awareness Campaigns” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” class=””]
Your first ad campaigns should be focused on building brand awareness. After all, you’ve spent a lot of time with your new brand, but your audience likely has no idea you exist yet. You can’t persuade prospects to sign leases until you’ve put yourself on the map, so it’s time to do the groundwork that will set you up for future success.
Social media platforms are great places to run ads targeting your local audience and directing them to your landing page. Gmail ads and other display ad tactics can help you make the most of compelling messaging and stunning property renderings. You might also use property renderings to create video ads which can be run on YouTube and social media platforms, often earning better results than static ads. Geofencing campaigns will also help you target a local audience and are an excellent tactic when focusing on awareness rather than conversions.
For more information on how to get your audience from the awareness phase to the purchase phase (and beyond), check out our Digital Buyer’s Journey resource.
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[su_spoiler title=”7. Design & Print Construction Signage” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” class=””]
As you build your property, you can drive awareness and leads with well-designed signage around your construction site, especially if your location receives a lot of foot traffic or drive-by traffic. Install signage at your property location that leverages short, compelling messaging and property renderings or lifestyle imagery to attract attention from passersby. Make sure you include the URL of your landing page so you can turn looks into leads.
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[su_spoiler title=”8. Design & Outfit a Temporary Lease Space” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” class=””]
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your property is likely to be in development for months or years before opening—and that includes your permanent lease space. While the property is being built, it’s important to give staff a place to engage with prospects in person and for prospects to learn more about the property. To this end, we recommend you design and outfit a temporary lease space where you can take advantage of foot traffic in the area and engage with your local community.
Your lease space design should align with your branding, leverage prominent outdoor signage, and be outfitted with all the information a prospect needs to convert. That means flyers, brochures, floor plan renderings, amenities lists, business cards, and other print media. If at all possible, building a model of the property and/or a model unit helps bridge the gap while you can’t offer tours.
Before officially opening your temporary lease space, make sure you have fully set up your preferred CRM software so leasing staff are ready to collect information, track visits, and follow up with prospects that come through the temporary leasing office.
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[su_spoiler title=”9. Partner With Your Local Community” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” class=””]
For most prospects, location is the top priority when deciding who to sign a lease with. The more you put down roots in your local neighborhood and utilize this community to your advantage, the more you’ll see qualified leads making it to your website and lease space.
In addition to participating in local housing fairs (if applicable), we highly recommend partnering with local groups and businesses relevant to your audience. For student living properties, sponsoring an event or hiring an ambassador within Greek life, clubs, or international student groups can help expand your reach. For multi-family properties, you might establish a preferred employer program, ask local shops to display your flyer, or sponsor an event in partnership with a local restaurant.
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[su_spoiler title=”10. Launch Digital Lead Nurturing Campaigns” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” class=””]
Once your landing page has done the work of generating leads, you can leverage that list of email addresses to launch lead nurturing campaigns. This is the power of establishing a “VIP wait list” or similar. This is your opportunity to reach out directly to prospects who have already expressed interest, staying top-of-mind with these warm leads and continuing to drive excitement for your property as you approach your open date.
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[su_spoiler title=”11. Capture Search Traffic With Paid Search Campaigns” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” class=””]
Search ads are a powerful marketing tactic, but should only be leveraged as you approach the peak leasing window prior to your official opening date. In the case of multi-family properties, prospects performing searches are mostly looking for quick—if not immediate—move-ins, so wait to launch search campaigns until you are six months or fewer away from your open date. Student properties, on the other hand, may launch search ads as much as one year in advance of their open date, since pre-leases are the standard for this industry.
Paid search ads will help you capture existing search traffic from prospects looking for housing in the area by ensuring you reach more of this audience than you normally would via organic results alone.
Once you’ve checked all these items off your list, you should be set up for success! Keep an eye on your analytics, connect with your audience, and put your brand at the center of everything you do—this way you’ll be poised to make continued improvements and get your audience to take the first step in their buyer journey with your property.
If you’re interested in getting professional help checking all these items off your list, contact our team at Threshold. Our marketing experts are here to help with tried-and-true strategies and high-performing creative assets that will ensure you’re making the most of every marketing effort.
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For a print-friendly version of this marketing checklist, download the pdf below!
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by threshold | Mar 25, 2020 | Digital Marketing
All eyes are on COVID-19 right now as our communities work to address the ramifications of a pandemic on people, businesses, and our world. The real estate industry is no exception; in addition to questions of investment, development, and the management of current residents and employees, marketers are working hard to understand how they can adapt during this time. They’re looking for apartment marketing ideas for COVID-19 that can withstand the instability of a pandemic and support financial health while properties maintain essential operations.
And that’s just what we’ll be discussing here. This blog will not, of course, replace your legal counsel or supersede the guidelines of government officials—we urge you to seek out the counsel of those professionals first and foremost. That said, this post will arm you with marketing best practices during this pandemic to help support your community and investments during this challenging time.
Establish Teleconferencing for On-Site Staff
You have likely begun making this shift already, but it’s essential that you provide clear and consistent guidelines for your on-site and leasing staff when it comes to operating remotely and maintaining essential operations. Ensure your staff members have the equipment and software they need to reliably conduct video calls with coworkers, residents, and prospects.
Offer Virtual Tours
One of the chief challenges of real estate marketing in the time of COVID-19 is that in-person tours are no longer viable due to social distancing practices. Offering an alternative can help get prospects the information they need to sign a lease with confidence.
If you don’t already have a virtual tour option, now is a great time to create one. One option is to offer on-call virtual tours where a member of the leasing staff walks the prospect through the show unit while on a teleconferencing call with them. Another virtual tour option is to simply record such a walkthrough and provide the video on your website, via email, and even on social media. This second option ensures additional protection for staff because they will not have to leave their homes to conduct multiple tours through a show unit that has been visited by many people.
Make Full Use of Existing Software
Software solutions exist for many of your daily operations needs—now is a good time to lean on them. Your CRM software is a great place to take excellent notes about leads coming in to ensure continuity between their interactions with various staff members, even when your team is working remote. Additionally, teleconferencing software options are abundant and many are free to use. Google Hangouts has even extended its functionality recently and other platforms are making similar adjustments.
Enhance Your Online Presence
It’s never been more important to have all the relevant info a prospect needs available online. Ensure a prospect can find your property and determine whether it’s right for them all within the convenient confines of their browser window.
Property Website
Your property website should have solid SEO, great UX, and clear Calls to Action so that it can drive conversions. Consider adding a “Virtual Tour” or “Contact Us” CTA button above the fold on your home page to encourage further action from site visitors.
If you don’t already feature 3-D floor plans, unit availability, and pricing info on your website, now is a great time to add this functionality. This way a prospect has the tools they need to determine that your property is right for them without the added difficulty of contacting staff and waiting for a response, which can cause prospects to pass you up for a property offering a more convenient buyer experience.
For current residents, ensure your website also provides a clear and working link to your resident portal where they can pay rent online and access any statements you have or will release about COVID-19.
For prospects, ensure there is a clear link for online applications that allows them to submit and sign an application digitally.
Google My Business
Although Google My Business has shut off reviews for the time being, this is still a helpful resource you can use to provide visibility to your property. Make sure to provide complete contact info on your Google My Business page so prospects can email or call easily if they want to know more. You can also feature property photos on your GMB page and feature available units in GMB posts so that a prospect knows you have what they’re looking for even before they choose whether or not to click the link to your website.
Review Existing Creative & Digital Assets
Across all your messaging, whether it’s website copy, a display ad, or paid search copy, ensure your messaging is consistent with current circumstances and availability. Do you have a CTA that reads “stop by for a tour!” You might need to update this to “take a virtual tour.” Do you have an ad that focuses on a community amenity that’s currently closed to residents? Consider replacing it with one that focuses on apartment amenities.
It may also be a good time to enhance your paid search ads with more robust extensions so that you provide your audience with more reasons to convert. Consider showing floor plan prices, call extensions, dynamic call-outs, and other extensions on your paid search ads through Google Ads.
Focus on Email Communications
Inspiring confidence in current residents and prospects is key right now, and email communications are the best way to reach your audience while offering a personal and professional touch. Be clear and communicative with residents and leads. Make sure they know what they need to do and how they can reach on-site staff.
Everyone has questions right now, and the ability to communicate is key. Take some time to ensure you have quality contact info for all of your residents so that you can make timely announcements and communicate reliably with everyone in your community.
Email marketing allows you to take a personalized approach to lead nurturing—prospects need to know leasing staff are accessible by email, phone, or video call to get the help they would normally get in person. It can also help them lease with confidence at a time when they can’t gain the reassurance of touring the entire community in person or speaking with a staff member on site.
We hope these tips help you adjust your real estate marketing plan in the face of COVID-19. For more insight into how you can respond to this pandemic, we invite you to check out this list of resources compiled by NAA. And don’t forget, Threshold’s digital, creative, and customer service teams are always here to help.
If you’re interested in expert assistance, reach out to a Threshold team member today.
by threshold | Mar 10, 2020 | Digital Marketing
Imagine you’re searching for an apartment. You’re served an ad with stunning imagery, a compelling headline, and a button inviting you to “Find Your Floor Plan.” With your interest piqued, you click on the ad, only to arrive at a webpage that baffles you. As you wait for it to load, you find messaging not about floor plans but about an amenity you don’t care about. A quick scroll doesn’t help, revealing only more slowly loading images and blocks of irrelevant text. You close the page, frustrated, and return to what you were doing.
As real estate marketers, we rejoice when an ad, email, or social post has a high click-through-rate. It indicates that we’re persuading our audience to take the next step on their buyer journey. But click-throughs are only half the challenge. It’s just as important that the web page a user lands on leaves a good impression and inspires further action. It’s surprisingly easy to build a landing page that utterly fails at this job.
So how do you build a good landing page? That is to say, what’s the recipe for a landing page that actually turns clicks into conversions? How do you provide an excellent user experience that inspires further action and results in more signed leases?
These seven tips are essential to building conversion-optimized landing pages that get the results you need.
Know The Goal
First thing’s first: what is your landing page actually supposed to do? Yes, you want it to drive conversions and contribute to increased lease rates, but what role does this landing page play in that larger goal? Be as specific as possible—your landing page can’t do everything, and it’s not meant to. The more focused a landing page is, the more likely it is to drive the conversions you’re seeking.
So, do you want to capture email addresses? Get people to schedule tours? Drive applications for specific floor plans? Whatever your goal, it should be focused and action-oriented. Not only does that translate to meaningful impact on your bottom line, but users appreciate knowing right away how they’re meant to interact with a page.
Use Consistent Messaging & Design
When you click on a button that says “Find Your Floor Plan,” you expect to be taken to a page that features floor plans. When you click on an ad that promises “Downtown Lofts With Active Living Amenities” you probably expect to find information about amenities. When a user is inspired to click, it’s because they want what they think you’re promising—and nothing is more disappointing than a promise that goes unfulfilled.
Think about where visitors to your landing page will be arriving from and what that source promises to them. Whether it’s an email, a PPC ad, or a social media post, its messaging should be consistent with what users find on your landing page and vice versa. It’s also a good idea to keep visual design consistent to provide additional cues to users that they’re getting content consistent with what they expected.
Provide Relevant Info Above The Fold
The average visitor to your landing page wants to get information without wasting any time—therefore, they may arrive with considerable skepticism that your site must overcome quickly. Users are used to having a wealth of information at their fingertips and can afford to bail on sites that don’t give them what they need immediately.
That’s why you need to provide the most relevant info for your users “above the fold”—that is, in the portion of your webpage they’ll see without having to scroll. This confirms that your page is worth their time and keeps a user around for long enough to take a conversion action.
What counts as “relevant information” depends on how you directed your user to this page, but it probably includes a prominent Call to Action (CTA) and might also include high-quality photographs, floor plan info, or amenities highlights.
Highlight the Value Proposition
Since your visitors are unlikely to stick around for long without a compelling reason, it’s your job to make these reasons obvious. In addition to providing relevant info above the fold, use header copy and CTA buttons to feature the key benefits of your property prominently. These strategies not only make your site easy for users to scan through and quickly find what they’re looking for, but also signals to Google that this is important information on your site, allowing your website to rank higher for related searches. In other words, it’s good UX and good SEO.
Minimize Loading Time
Nothing makes a user bounce faster than a page that just won’t load. High-quality images and video can make for engaging web pages that keep users exploring, but be thoughtful of file sizes and loading times. Compressing files typically results in loss of quality, but there may be a sweet spot that decreases loading time while still offering reasonably high quality. Alternatively, it may be worth reducing the number of elements loading on the page overall. An experienced web developer should be able to make more concrete recommendations based on your goals and needs.
Provide Clear Calls To Action
The whole point of a landing page should be to drive a specific conversion action. It should be clear to users what that action is and how to do it. The most common method is through a CTA button placed above the fold (and possibly duplicated further down the page), but header copy may also be effective.
Whether the desired action is calling the office, scheduling a tour, or starting an application, invite users to take this action through convenient links and clear copy; never assume they’ll do what you want without being asked.
Incorporate A Form
Forms are an excellent way to motivate users to provide information you can leverage further down the road. That’s true only because they offer something valuable in exchange for that information, whether it’s convenience, information, a special rate, or something else.
A form might, for example, provide a streamlined method for users to schedule a tour. Alternatively, it might extend a special offer in exchange for a user’s email address. Or it could offer a way to download your digital brochure, then ask nicely for their contact info so a staff member can be available to answer any questions not covered in the brochure. Whatever your form does, ensure it doesn’t take too long to fill out or ask too much of your user. Otherwise it’s not likely to drive conversions.
Get Expert Assistance
This little self-plug is just a bonus tip, but one we (obviously) highly recommend. A conversion-optimized landing page is a balancing act—it requires weighing high-quality visuals against load times and information-rich copy against easy scannability. While these tips can help you build a better landing page yourself, nothing beats having a real estate marketing expert on your team to help guide the way and execute with confidence. If you’re interested in expert assistance, reach out to a Threshold team member today.
by threshold | Feb 4, 2020 | Creative, Design, Marketing
You may have heard that print media is dead—that the rise of digital media has rendered print media irrelevant. It’s true that the digital landscape has changed the role of print media in real estate marketing, but print media is far from dead. In fact, when it comes to your real estate marketing plan, we highly recommend you invest in high-quality print media.
There are a few reasons we say that, and we’re getting into them all in today’s blog post. If you’d like to learn how print media can improve your brand awareness, brand reputation, and lease rates, then keep on reading!
Reason 1: Physical Objects for Physical Spaces
There’s no escaping the physical world when it comes to real estate marketing. You may do much of your advertising online, and your property may have a digital presence via its website and social media accounts, but at the end of the day, your product is all about physical spaces that people live and move around in. As opposed to a brand that operates mainly in a digital space (like a SaaS brand, for example), a real estate brand must always connect its digital presence back to a real, physical, brick-and-mortar property.
Because of this fact, physical forms of marketing like print media are that much more important for a real estate brand. Consider, for example, your property’s lease space. It’s essential, particularly in over-saturated markets, to have a lease space whose design is memorable, pleasant, and gives visitors a sense of how living in a unit at this property might feel. Your banners, posters, brochures, business cards, etc. all contribute to how a potential resident imagines conducting all the daily activities of their life within this physical space. Digital advertising alone can’t help persuade a customer at this particular stage of the buyer’s journey.
Reason 2: Cutting Through the Competition
We see digital ads all the time, and we’re usually in the middle of something else when we do. This means that digital media often goes ignored, or doesn’t command enough of a consumer’s attention to drive them to convert. It also means that competition is high for digital media—each digital ad is sharing digital space with a lot of other ads just like it. On top of all that, many consumers use ad-blocking programs when possible in order to avoid ads entirely.
Don’t get us wrong, digital ads are effective in their own right, but pairing them with print media campaigns as well helps generate particularly high-quality leads and drive even more conversions than digital marketing alone. When a potential resident reads a brochure, flyer, or poster, they’re devoting more focused attention to your property, and are automatically more likely to call the office, take a tour, or sign a lease than someone who simply glanced at a digital ad while scrolling through their Instagram feed.
Print media also doesn’t suffer from the same problem of competition (and ad-blocking) that digital media does. The ability to market to consumers in a physical space allows for opportunities to bypass the saturated and highly competitive digital landscape to get your brand in front of your audience.
Reason 3: Old-School Appeal
We expect different things from print media than we expect from digital media. For many, a message delivered in print bears more credibility, authenticity, and gravity than the same message delivered digitally. This impression is not always conscious, nor is it always strong, but it still has real impact on how a potential resident processes information about your property. Presented via print, information is perceived as more accurate, more official, and more worth paying attention to.
This effect is stronger for some demographics than for others, but it gets stronger the older your target audience is. For many adults, especially those over 50, the tangibility of print media is a benefit in itself. Some folks would vastly prefer making a decision based on a brochure they can hold in their hands and look back on later, rather than a webpage or digital ad they may only have seen briefly.
If you’re ready to incorporate stunning print media that drives conversions and raises lease rates into your real estate marketing plan, our team at Threshold would love to chat with you! Contact us today to talk about how we can design, print, and deliver fantastic brochures, posters, flyers, business cards, and more to help meet your brand’s real estate goals.
by threshold | Jan 10, 2020 | Digital Marketing, Marketing
Congratulations! Your hard work has paid off; you’re fully leased and ready for the next phase of your marketing journey. But what does the next phase look like? After all, the journey doesn’t end here, and you need ways to keep this success going strong. So what’s next? There are a few key steps we recommend to keep lease rates high and set your property up for continued success.
Incentivize Renewals
Now that you’re fully leased up, you can shift additional focus to keeping current residents around for years to come. It’s the surest way to ensure that you continue to see high lease rates and avoid stressful periods of high turnover.
In addition to investing in the resident experience (which we’ll talk about in a moment), there are a few ways you can incentivize renewals. Consider offering renewal specials that lock in lower rent rates for residents who renew early or offer a free upgrade or service (e.g. free carpet cleaning) to those who choose to renew.
Another clever way to incentivize renewals is with strategic email marketing. When a resident’s lease is ending soon, send an email with move-out tips that, while helpful, also remind them of all the hassles of moving to a new place. Then let them know that if they want to avoid these hassles, you’d love to get them started on a renewal document so they can stay home and relax instead.
Focus On Reputation Management
With all those heads in beds, this is a great time to focus on reputation management. Encouraging residents to share their positive experiences is a reliable way to improve a prospective resident’s likelihood of signing a lease at your property the next time a spot is available. After all, according to Podium, 93% of consumers say online reviews impact their purchasing decisions.
You can also turn negative or mixed reviews into a boon for your property. Listen to criticism, address concerns, and take the opportunity to showcase that you’re invested in improving poor experiences. Not only will you continuously improve your community this way and ensure it’s an attractive place to live, but you’ll also give prospects a reason to trust you. If a potential resident reads a polite, professional, and thoughtful response your team wrote on one of your negative reviews, you’ll inspire their trust that, even when issues arise, the property management will take genuine steps to address it, and that trust can make all the difference when prospects are making their final leasing decisions.
Invest in the Resident Experience
At its most effective, reputation management goes hand-in-hand with investing in the resident experience. Now is an excellent time to go the extra mile with your current residents to both inspire them to renew and encourage them to share positive experiences through word-of-mouth and online platforms.
There are lots of ways to invest in the resident experience, whether that’s through upgrades to the property, staff trainings, community events, or resident perks. Even the smallest gesture, like a timely email or a personal interaction can make a huge impact on a resident’s experience of your property. Whatever you do, your efforts (and financial investment, if applicable) will pay off in the form of higher renewal rates, better online reviews, and strong word-of-mouth marketing.
How To Get Started
A lot of these tips can be implemented immediately by on-site staff, but Threshold can help you make the most of them with digital marketing, reputation management, email creative, and other services along the way. Reach out to your CSM or contact us here to discuss how we can support your continued success!
