by threshold | Apr 8, 2016 | All, Culture
About Threshold
Threshold Agency is among the top residential full-service marketing and interactive agencies in the country. We help our clients navigate the rapidly changing world of residential marketing and brand building by providing clear strategies that work, brands that resonate with their markets, and the expertise and experience to implement these strategies across all marketing channels.At Threshold, we take pride in partnering with our clients to ensure seamless delivery of superb messaging. We’re not building cookie-cutter approaches to some of life’s biggest decisions.
About This Position
We are looking for someone with a go getter attitude to help with our digital marketing initiatives. This person should have experience in adwords and social media management. Please see below for what kinds of skills this person should have to carry out their day to day activities in this growing
position.
- Reporting — assist with various reporting tasks each month.
- Social Media Management – create and post unique content for engagement.
- PPC Management – perform daily account management and of pay per click accounts on Google AdWords, and other search platforms for a variety of clients.
- Provide creative copy suggestions and graphical ad templates.
- Communication in a team setting on project development, timelines, and results.
- Work closely with the other team members to meet client goals
Professional Competencies
- Passion for Search and internet marketing.
- Google AdWords certified preferred.
- Outstanding ability to think creatively, and identify and resolve problems.
- Attention to detail and the ability to effectively multi-task in a deadline driven atmosphere.
- Ability to clearly and effectively articulate thoughts and points.
- Ability to learn new industries and new business types quickly and can apply this knowledge to internet marketing initiatives and achieving client goals.
- Excellent analytical, organizational, project management and time management skills.Professional Skills & Qualifications
- Opportunity to advance your career in the digital marketing industry
Please email you resume, qualification details, and compensation desired to jobs@thresholdagency.com
by threshold | Feb 18, 2016 | All, Culture
CREATIVE OPERATIONS MANAGER
About Threshold
Threshold Agency is among the top residential full-service marketing and interactive agencies in the country. We help our clients navigate the rapidly changing world of residential marketing and brand building by providing clear strategies that work, brands that resonate with their markets, and the expertise and experience to implement these strategies across all marketing channels.
At Threshold, we take pride in partnering with our clients to ensure seamless delivery of superb messaging. We’re not building cookie-cutter approaches to some of life’s biggest decisions.
About This Job
You are a multi-tasking, organizing king or queen with a strong attention to detail. You’re the type of person who has to stay organized to survive. You have checklists for checklists. You understand all aspects of the creative, design, digital and printing process. You never present a problem, rather find a solution. You get things done and always strive to improve current processes and systems.
You have experience in an agency setting, a print shop or for an in-house creative/marketing team.
On a daily basis, this position will manage and prioritize the workflow of our designers; ensuring deadlines are met and clients are happy. Under the direction of our account team, you may also work directly with our clients to provide printing/project estimates, collecting assets, communicating deadlines and managing client expectations.
Threshold offers a flexible work environment with competitive pay commensurate with experience. We provide and pay for your health benefits, love happy hours, and having fun while working to finish deliverables. Mimosas are not foreign to our team meetings.
You already live in or want to live in the creative capital of Texas – Austin.
Core Duties/Responsibilities
Production/Traffic
• Serve as a liaison between the account management team and our digital and design teams
• Prioritize our designer’s workflow (everything from print ads to digital ads to large format signs) and ensure all assets are received to complete a project
• “Own” and manage our project management system on a daily basis
• Receive project requests from our account management team or directly from clients; own the project from the concept to completion
• Proof and edit all deliverables prior to sending to client
• Ensure all team members prescribe to file management organization and maintain image resource files
• Provide recommendations and develop tools to improve internal and external (client-facing) processes and systems with regards to receiving new projects, processing and proofing of deliverables
• Ensure all team members prescribe to file management organization and maintain image resource files
• Potential to assist in sending files to print and serve as point of contact for our printers and other vendors; ensure client deadlines and expectations are met
Collaboration
Works enthusiastically, respectfully and collaboratively with other project team members, has a clear understanding of how a project team operates, their responsibilities throughout a project and what is expected in critiques and team meetings.
Project Execution
• Consults with supervisor or project’s creative lead to evaluate individual project needs and proactively raise issues that may impact quality or timing of deliverables and offer solutions.
• Actively participates in team meetings to discuss assignment parameters
• Ensures that internal deadlines, timetables and approval procedures are adhered to for assigned project phases
• Manages and prioritizes work effectively, and proactively escalates conflicts with workloads
Required Skills/Knowledge/Experience
• Excellent eye for detail, well organized, good-natured, dedicated, flexible and passionate, you bring a deep understanding of what it takes to successfully market and lease apartments with a focus on digital tactics to do so. A Bachelor’s degree is preferred, but not required.
• Strong organizational skills
• 2-3 years experience in the multifamily, student housing or senior living industries preferred
• Excellent communication skills
• Experience with project management systems (we use Wrike)
• Ability to work independently with limited supervision on projects
• Understanding of digital (pay-per-click, retargeting, SEO) and social media strategies preferred
• Experience in WordPress a plus
• Has managed multiple assignments at the same time (including organizing and prioritizing workload and working efficiently under pressure in a deadline-driven environment)
• Basic understanding of graphic design and printing environments preferred
• Excellent interpersonal skills, a positive attitude, a sense of humor and the ability to thrive in a collaborative agency environment
Sound like a good fit? Please send your cover letter, resume and salary requirements to jobs@thresholdagency.com
by threshold | Nov 25, 2015 | All, Marketing
We were recently lucky enough to have our 1st Annual Threshold Agency Strategy Day. It was a nice break from the fast pace of our growing company. Why, you ask? Not to get out of a work day, but to step out of the daily thought process and look at the bigger picture. How do we provide more, how do we share our culture, how do we remain innovative and push ourselves to be smarter? We know 2016 is going to be an amazing year and we are ready!
We are so passionate about the Multifamily Industry, from Conventional and Student to Senior Living. We are passionate about our clients. We are also equally passionate about our team of artists, collaborators, creators, and strategists and well, the word family even came up. We work as a cohesive team looking at all points of business to provide the most innovative and client-focused results we can. We push ourselves daily to exceed expectations and we’re always looking for Threshideas. (Yes we have created our own language!)
We strive to set ourselves apart by being strong operators in the Residential industry. We bring 20+ years of service to our agency on the management side of the business. Mix that knowledge base and expertise with an agency leader in the industry for over 10 years (Mr. John Kerrigan Wilkinson) and you arrive at the perfect mix of insight and artistry!
For all this, We Give Thanks! We thank an industry that has some of the brightest and most inspiring teams. We thank clients that provide us with challenges to keep us innovative. We thank our team members who show up daily ready to conquer the world of residential marketing and leasing, through great websites, digital strategy, print collateral and signage. We wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving from our Threshfamily to yours.
by threshold | Oct 14, 2015 | All, Marketing
Halloween comes and goes each year during one of the most celebrated seasons of the year, Fall! The leaves, temperatures and décor all change, so why not change up a few things around your community? It’s not too early to search for amazing Halloween decorations and start thinking about what kind of experience you’d like your residents to have this ‘early renewal’ season. After all, we are the anti-vacancy agency and we know empty apartments are VERY scary!
There are many creative ways to get residents involved (and tweeting about it) and excited about Halloween and their community, so we will stick with five ideas to connect your community this year.
Dressing up on Halloween is so much fun, why not get the most out of your costume and dress up twice? Hosting a Halloween costume contest for residents is a great event for your community. Offer gift certificates and door prizes for your residents on Instagram and twitter for the most likes and shares (create a hashtag for the event!). Create cataGORIES (get it!?!) for scariest, goriest or funniest characters. Students love the art of the perfect selfie—use it to your advantage! Serve Halloween inspired snacks and drinks, there are a lot of amazing ideas on Pinterest that are affordable and fun! Include residents in a pre-party Pinterest challenge to get a menu vote going!
If you want to take Halloween to another level, host a haunted clubhouse to show off all your amenities. Who doesn’t love a Zombie Yoga class? Or Zombie crawl through the property. Decorate from floor to ceiling with haunted house inspired decorations or create a haunted maze for residents to go through with scary roadblocks to really get the blood flowing! You can even create a poll on Facebook to engage residents to help decorate or create themes for each space. Student also love contests—so make the prize a free pizza a month til the end of the year.
A less elaborate, but still extremely festive way to get your residents into the spirit is a door-decorating contest. Each resident can fill out their name and apartment number if they want to compete. Have a first, second and third place winner, depending on how many residents participate. This way the exterior of the building comes to life and it’s extremely affordable for the property management and the residents. Post all the pictures leading up to ‘Judgement Day’ to get people excited.
Halloween isn’t Halloween without a pumpkin carving/painting contest! Start off with decorating the community with your company logo and fun designs. Then invite residents to share in the fun! Prizes and snacks can be provided but the pumpkin is BYOP. Add a pet costume contest to the mix and you have a great evening! Barktober Fest never looked so good!
Last but definitely not least is a community trick or treating event. Encourage residents to dress up and meet each other. You can have it all around the community including the clubhouse. Not all residents will want to participate by dressing up but it’s always fun getting free candy!
Now that you have some Halloween tricks to treat your community in the spirit of the season, be proactive! If you are planning on hosting an event, call Threshold to spook up your event flyers or check out Shop Threshold for glow-in-the-dark promos. Start doing the easy things like setting out free candy at the office and putting up a few decorations around the clubhouse. Halloween is a spooktacular holiday and a great way to start capturing those early renewals. No cobwebs on this leasing crew! Let Threshold Agency help make your Halloween event supernatural!!!!
by threshold | Sep 11, 2015 | All, Marketing
Renewal season starts the day students move in to their new apartments. Property owners must be prepared, because the minute new residents walk through the front door of your clubhouse they want to grab their keys and get settled into their new digs! So, how do you increase resident renewal rates to keep your property full?
There are several residential marketing tactics that will help property managers generate more renewals from current residents. Remember, it’s more cost efficient to have a current resident renew their lease, than to have a new resident move in because of turn expenses. So, planning for and executing a great renewal season can save you time and make your property more money in the long-run.
Use Custom Communication Templates
Your residents receive hundreds of messages each day (emails, texts, push notifications, social updates, etc.), so it is important to make your marketing message stand out. Instead of sending an email blast littered with images, broken HTML and potentially “spammy” words, hire a marketing agency that specializes in residential marketing to create a beautiful HTML email template that will engage your current residents.
It’s especially important to utilize mobile-friendly HTML emails (because the majority of your residents read email on a smartphone) and HTML emails render differently on a phone than they do on a desktop or tablet.
Host a Renewal Signing Party
Hosting a renewal signing party at your clubhouse is a great way to boost your residential renewals, because what college student is going to say no to free food?!
Pull together a few of your leasing agents, and plan a fun, lease signing party in the clubhouse. Invite residents to perform (there’s a high chance someone in your property is a musician or DJ) and that’s a great way to build a rapport with your residents (and get the word out about the party).
Then, pick up a few pizzas, showcase your property’s great amenities, and even consider contacting some vendors who are willing to sponsor your event with free giveaways! Local radio stations love to party!
Distribute High-quality Print Brochures and Flyers
Print marketing is a tried and true form of marketing and is sometimes overlooked, but it can have a very strong impact because it’s puts your message in a physical format your current residents can keep on-hand. Plus, print is not limited by battery life or screen size – it looks great to everyone!
One way to remind your residents to re-sign their lease is to print the front page of each resident’s renewal lease and put it in their mailboxes – making sure you highlight the savings! This way, your residents get a physical and visual reminder of how much rent would be if they decided to renew in the same space. You can also create flyers to post around your property (mailboxes, the clubhouse, and other common areas) reminding your residents of the renewal deadline date.
Offer Renewal Incentives
Everyone loves the idea of winning a prize for accomplishing a task. Give residents a specific deadline to renew their lease and if they do, enter them to win a prize! Not sure what kind of an incentive to give away? Sometimes the people with the best ideas are your part time employees that are students.
Tech gear your residents like is usually a great giveaway, headphones, mini fridges, and anything that makes your resident’s home more enjoyable.
You can also get property specific and give away bikes, camping gear, river floating essentials, and beach necessities.
As renewal season approaches, think about these and other ways you can boost residential renewal rates at your property.
If you have questions, or want to discuss an idea with Threshold Agency, simply contact us and let us know! We’d love to help you fill your property!
by threshold | Aug 17, 2015 | All, Tech/Web
At Threshold, the Anti-Vacancy Agency, we know that great photography is the basis of good advertising to attract your future residents. As the saying goes, “People buy with their eyes.” Even though they may not be making a decision to purchase, they will be drawn to high quality imagery of your property in their search for their next sanctuary. Great photography = fewer vacancies.
How attractive is your property “profile” photo?
If you are perusing profiles on an online dating site, besides reading clever bios, you’ll more likely be attracted to those with a lovely, current photo aren’t you? Appearances may not be everything, but it’s a good basis to begin, isn’t it? The same philosophy applies to your property “presence” on and offline. We must always have beautiful, up-to-date images to present to our potential renters. As branding and marketing experts, Threshold is ready to get you all the attention your property deserves.
How current are your photos?
When was the last time your student housing community multi-family apartment complex, senior living facility or single family home development was photographed? The last time you completed a renovation? That’s not often enough. If a client arrives on site, having seen seedling trees on your web site, yet you have mature shading oaks, you have short-changed your public image. If you’ve got it, flaunt it! Plan to photograph your community every time you have a change of season. People love coziness from the winter cold, enjoy strolls through the trees during fall color, gazing at fresh flower gardens in the spring, and will visualize themselves beating the heat in your turquoise pool in summer. Help them channel their future lifestyle!
If you do have regularly scheduled photos taken, have you positively portrayed all of the amenities you offer? …that Olympic-size pool, gleaming high-rise tower, well-appointed apartment, state-of-the-art game room, and lavish landscaping…
Why not?
Okay. So where do you begin if you are photography-challenged? Ask yourself these questions:
What is your properties’ strongest selling point? Facilities? Amenities? Location? Lifestyle? The strategy to promote each of these is very different AND each requires a different STYLE of photography. See examples below:
So, you have your strategy in place, are you ready for a photographer? Not yet.
First, make a comprehensive list of property features you wish to promote and photograph:
- Amenities (swimming pool, fitness center, cardio/yoga spaces)
- Model room interiors (flat screen TVs, kitchens, bedrooms, living areas, balconies, baths)
- Public room interiors (club houses, venues, dog parks)
- Prominent landscapes (vistas, luxurious gardens, lakes, trees)
- Notable architecture, monuments, nearby universities
- Do you want to include models in the shoot? What is your plan to recruit models (professional models or residents and/or staff members)?
Once your list is complete, we will plan a photo shoot that maximizes the best time of day to capture all on your list so that you have a gorgeous library of images at your fingertips for every marketing and advertising occasion.
What’s the secret of gorgeous images of building exteriors, interiors, landscaping and portraiture? The time of day the photos were taken.
Best times of day for great photos? Low light.
Low light is between 7am and 10am, and again from 4pm to 7pm. This is the best natural light to showcase your property. Long graceful shadows drape across architectural details, golden sunlight trace the edges of your beautiful landscaping and people will glow with warm sunlight on their shoulders. Otherwise, between 11am and 3pm, the sun beats down, creating harsh shadows on faces, bleached-looking gardens and creates a near black-and-white color spectrum. Even interior shots can be a challenge because the light through the windows is too strong. See examples below:
A word about resolution.
Even though cell phone cameras are making amazing advances, in order to use your photos for print and web, the resolution must be at least 12 megapixels. Even then, phone cameras have limited crispness. It is best to hire a professional photographer with high-resolution and light adjustment capabilities to insure your property always looks its best! And technology is only part of capturing quality images – the composition is key to capturing the best pictures. A high-resolution picture is all for not, if the composition of the picture is off.
Take a step in the direction towards a vacancy-free community, and schedule your photo shoot today with Threshold.
