by threshold | Jan 18, 2017 | All, Marketing, Tech/Web
If Threshold’s skilled residential marketing designers only cared about getting the most information to the customer, our websites would look a lot like this blog post. We’d see a whole lot of text and the sites would have very little visual appeal.
That approach works well for blog posts and articles, but websites are a sensory experience; a virtual market where people spend their time enlarging floor plans, scrolling down lists of amenities and clicking through gallery images.
Of course, many prospective residents don’t spend much time on websites at all. Marketing to Millennials is all about keeping their attention, but plenty of lost customers see the homepage and immediately click away after deciding the property isn’t for them. In today’s post, we’re going to take a look at the most important elements to keep residents interested in your property, and get them to click on those important action buttons.
Animation
Animation helps communicate messages with style, drawing the user’s eye towards moving images instead without them having to load a video or click a “play” button. Animation can be as simple as rotating sliders on a homepage or as complex as animated water in a resort-style pool. Even the most simple movement can be the difference between grabbing and losing a customer’s interest.
Material Design and Beyond
As anyone in the digital marketing industry knows, when Google makes changes, the rest of the web follows suit. Google was the first big company to take “Flat Design” and turn it into something with depth and layers. Material Design pairs geometric shapes with shadows, movement and overlays to create visually appealing websites and web apps. That’s not the say that Material Design is the only way to make websites, but it’s certainly a look that internet users are familiar with and understand intuitively, which is always a positive. Speaking of making sure users can understand your website…
Navigation
Most property sites need the same standard pages in the navigation bar: About Us, Floor Plans, Amenities, Gallery, and Apply Now. Obviously, there are some exceptions, but every property website needs to cover those basic pages before moving on to anything else. Navigation doesn’t have to only happen via Navigation Bar though. In fact, more and more websites are using the “long-scroll” look, where all pages are accessible when the user simply scrolls down from the top of the homepage.
The whole point of a website is to get the prospect to take action, so keeping the complex navigation to a minimum helps steer prospective residents toward the “Schedule a Tour” button or the “Apply Now” button without too much extra fluff. Most properties sell a lifestyle just as much as they sell an apartment, so it’s important to convey that lifestyle with big, bold images and impactful design. People will locate the amenities and floor plans if they are interested in learning more, but they won’t be interested in learning more without a simple, impactful message on the home page.
Customized Google Maps
Most of your website’s visitors will be familiar with the look, feel and functionality of a Google Maps plug-in, it’s very common in residential marketing. So much so, that they may just glaze right over it. Customizing your Google Map, however, offers prospective residents a totally new experience with a tool that they’re already familiar with. At Threshold, we often highlight certain locations around the property, such as restaurants, shopping centers, gyms and coffee shops. This gives residents an idea of what life will be like living in the neighborhood.
The best website designers know how to quickly — and beautifully—convey the lifestyle promised at every property. This is where animation, navigation tools, and customization come into play. Each element helps create a feeling within the website visitor that (hopefully) convinces them to explore the website and property further.
Is your property’s website up to date? Let Threshold’s designers come up with some creative marketing ideas for apartments in your portfolio. Our website development team will then create a responsive websites that drive traffic to your front door.
by threshold | Dec 8, 2016 | All, Culture
Name: Tyler Holmes
Title: Account Manager
Tyler has been working in student housing marketing since college, and now he’s absolutely brimming with apartment marketing ideas and multifamily marketing strategies. On top of that, he also owns the world’s cutest dog.
Get to know Tyler more below!
What are 3 words you would use to describe Threshold?
Innovative, Fun, and Full of Swagger
If you had an office nickname, what would it be?
The Tyl… Squirrel!
What is your favorite line from a movie?
Guys, if I don’t bleed to death pretty soon, I’m gonna die of boredom. – Suicide Kings
If you were stuck on an island, what three things would you bring?
Booze, Bacon, and more Booze
What is the title of your autobiography?
My Life with a Side of Bacon
What is/would be your motto or slogan?
It’s all good!
If you had a superpower, what would it be?
Telekinesis (bascially can do anything!)
What is your hidden talent?
I use to sing in showchoir… so yeah… there’s that…
If you were famous, what would it be for?
Dog Rescuing
Favorite Austin eats?
Rudy’s BBQ
by threshold | Nov 17, 2016 | All, Marketing
Keeping track of apartment marketing campaigns used to be like packing for a vacation in the 90s. Remember when you had to pack way too many different gadgets before boarding your plane? You had to keep track of your cell phone, your iPod, your digital camera, your laptop and your camcorder. Not to mention your boarding pass, some maps, and a bunch of batteries to keep everything running. It was a hassle.
These days, all those things live inside your smartphone. Life is easier when everything you need is in one place. At Threshold, we decided to apply the same principles to tracking and reporting on our digital marketing ideas for apartment communities.
Introducing ThreshBoard, our brand new real-time digital reporting dashboard. Lets break down what that means.
Brand New – We created the software in-house so its customized for the residential industry.
Real-Time – The data is constantly updated so you’re seeing up to the minute campaign results.
Digital Reporting Dashboard – A dashboard displays multiple channels of information in one place. Clients will have full access to the ThreshBoard where they can view all their analytics at once, instead of having to comb through different sets of data.
So why does ThreshBoard exist? At Threshold, we’re always trying to think of ways to provide better services and tools to our clients. We recently discovered that there isn’t one perfect solution out there that would allow us to manage seemingly disparate campaigns under one umbrella. We invested in this software so we could not only provide more accurate data for our clients, but also help us identify more ways we can give a boost to their digital marketing campaigns moving forward.
This software is part of our effort to continue providing our clients with cutting edge data tools so they can make quicker, more informed decisions. Currently, clients have to skim across several sets of data in order to understand how their digital marketing campaigns are performing. One client might be looking at an AdWords report, another a social media report and yet another combing over email campaign reports. Now, clients who use Threshold for their digital marketing will be able to track the success of their campaigns in one place using ThreshBoard’s reporting and analytics software. Cutting down the time it takes to manage digital marketing increases the time our clients have to focus on filling vacancies and taking care of current residents.
Not only will clients be able to view the results of their campaigns in an easily digestible way, they’ll also be able to compare those results to industry benchmarks. These industry benchmarks simply weren’t available before ThreshBoard. Clients will now see their campaign results in real-time and immediately know how they stack up against the competition.
The up-to-the-minute data and benchmarking makes Threshold much more valuable than reporting that simply measures engagement or costs per click. We will be able to see how one campaign affects the other campaigns using one tool, instead of having to review separate reports to get those answers. Plus, ThreshBoard was created by residential industry experts, for clients who need multifamily and student housing marketing. In short, ThreshBoard was made to fill vacancies.
by threshold | Nov 11, 2016 | All, Culture
Name: Billy Wilkinson
Title: Chief of Everything Else
Billy helps Threshold manage all the little details that go into apartment marketing. Whether’s he’s coming up with student housing marketing ideas or crunching financial numbers, Billy puts in the hard work every day.
Get to know Billy below!
What are 3 words you would use to describe Threshold?
Amazing, Proven, Real
If you had an office nickname, what would it be?
I…have….no…idea…Probably best to ask everyone else this question?
What is your favorite line from a movie?
Do I make you randy baby?
If you were stuck on an island, what three things would you bring?
Pinot Grigio, a lighter, and a boat!
What is the title of your autobiography?
Now you see him. Now you…still see him.
What is/would be your motto or slogan?
The only thing you are guaranteed when you are born is that you are going to die. Your life in between is only as good as you make it.
If you had a superpower, what would it be?
Telepathy.
What is your hidden talent?
Grilling some mean experimental burgers!
If you were famous, what would it be for?
Something business oriented.
Favorite Austin eats?
Whatever’s new. Austin is always opening amazing new eateries to try.
by threshold | Nov 3, 2016 | All
Apartment marketing should be dynamic. That’s why “stagnant” is the last word you want to be associated with your property’s website. Google rewards websites that are constantly refreshed with new content and relevant keywords, so “set it and forget it” is not a winning strategy for any websites used as multifamily marketing materials. In fact, websites should be treated much like a social media page. You’re probably aware that a Facebook page that hasn’t been updated in a long time is a bad look for any business. In the same way, websites that haven’t been updated with new content suffer in search rankings.
A blog is the easiest way to update your site with content that is both consistent and useful, which are two key aspects of SEO. Useful content is more likely to be shared on other sites, including residents’ social media pages. When someone links back to your blog, it creates a backlink. A backlink is an incoming hyperlink from someone else’s web page to your website, and they provide huge boosts to your site’s search ranking.
Is there anything on your website right now that residents would feel inclined to share with their friends? If the answer is no, a blog can change that right away. The key is to write content that solves people’s problems. Whether you’re marketing to millennials or senior citizens, people want to feel like your blog can add something to their lives.
Properties should post at least two new blogs each month to keep their page fresh and ranking high on Google. It’s important to be consistent, so if you upload your first blog on a Tuesday, you should always upload blogs on Tuesdays. Not only will this help with SEO ranking, but your residents will come to expect a new blog on the same day each week.
Blogs can really provide added value if they’re filled with shareable content. Here are some apartment marketing ideas that we love using in blogs.
Call Attention to Amenities
Do your properties have luxury amenities like a cabana or outdoor grill?
Write about BBQ recipes or burger grilling dos and don’ts.
Got a state-of-the-art workout facility?
Write about trendy new exercises or workout equipment.
This type of content can be found all over the web, but not every site has the advantage of being able to tie it back to on-site amenities for their audience. Not only do amenity-focused blogs boost SEO, they also help residents feel like they’re getting more out of their community. A well-written, topical monthly blog series can even act as an additional luxury amenity when done right.
Rank Bars and Restaurants
Restaurant rankings and reviews make for ideal blog content. If you’re going to write about local restaurants, be sure to include links to the restaurants’ websites. These links will boost your SEO since Google uses keywords from the restaurant websites in addition to your blog content to determine search ranking. When done well, a simple breakdown of new bars and restaurants near your property can do wonders for your website’s search ranking. This type of content is also incredibly useful, and highly shareable as a result.
Give Residents Something to Do
Just like restaurant rankings, posts about local events are the perfect opportunity to link to local venue and event pages. This is also some of the most shareable, relevant content your website can produce.
Think about it, wouldn’t you love to see a list of events in your area, then share it to a friend’s Facebook wall?
A blog about local events will frame your property as the go-to source for residents looking for something to do in the community. All it takes is one useful blog for residents to start checking back for new posts each week. More readers mean more shared posts and more backlinks.
Since every website needs a blog these days, we at Threshold provide blog writing services for properties all over the country. If you don’t have time to write 2 to 4 blogs every month, let Threshold give your website an SEO boost with useful, relevant blog content. Check back in a couple weeks for more marketing ideas for apartments from Threshold agency.
