by threshold | Sep 29, 2016 | All, Culture
Name: John Wilkinson
Title: Chief Strategy Officer, CAS
John develops student housing marketing ideas like it’s his job. Oh wait it is. His extensive experience in apartment marketing helps Threshold tackle the tough projects every day.
Get to know John below!
What are 3 words you would use to describe Threshold?
Experienced. Innovative. Communicative.
If you had an office nickname, what would it be?
Yoda – cuz I’ve been around WAY TOO LONG.
What is your favorite line from a movie?
If you can’t say anything nice about anybody, come sit by me.
If you were stuck on an island, what three things would you bring?
Bug spray. Suntan Lotion. And every issue of Architectural Digest.
What is the title of your autobiography?
Against The Odds.
What is/would be your motto or slogan?
Easily Amused.
If you had a superpower, what would it be?
switching topics so fast it would blow someone’s mind.
What is your hidden talent?
Juggling. So hidden, I haven’t found it.
If you were famous, what would it be for?
Singer in a boy band.
Favorite Austin eats?
Piranha Killer Sushi
by threshold | Sep 13, 2016 | All, Marketing
Digital multifamily marketing and student housing marketing are dynamic industries, and we at Threshold pride ourselves on consistently working on the cutting edge. Today we’re talking about an update to Google Adwords that will affect many of our current and future clients.
Google is doubling its ad text limit, meaning the 25-character limit on headlines will be scrapped in favor of two 30-character headlines. More text will be allowed the description too, as Adwords switches from two 35-character lines to one 80-character description line.
According to Google, “Starting October 26th, 2016, AdWords will no longer support the creation or editing of standard text ads,” meaning all ads running after that date will be in the expanded text format. There’s no reason not to take Google up on their offer to include more text, since competitors surely will be saying more in their ads as well.
Google decided to make the change after considering what an Adwords ad would look like if it was invented today, in a mobile-first world. Screen space is the big factor here. The new expanded ads have a more succinct URL display, allowing more room for relevant text and a larger presence on the mobile screen.
URL’s will only show the initial domain name, so instead of showing:
http://thresholdagncy.wpengine.com/our-solutions/branding/
The ad will only show:
http://thresholdagncy.wpengine.com
..but still take users to the specific page on the site.
So what’s the takeaway? Extended text ads will only add to the importance of strong messages and concise copy. When every advertiser can say more, what each advertiser says becomes the differentiator. Consumers will get more information about the link that they’re being asked to click, and advertisers will be able to push more relevant information to the user to entice them to click on the ad.
A larger ad with more information should mean higher click-through-rates, but monitoring CTRs is still going to be key. All the Adwords tools associated with standard text ads will be compatible with expanded ads, so the Threshold digital team will continue monitoring the variables in different campaigns to see which words and phrases are proving most effective for our clients.
Innovative apartment marketing ideas are the most successful when they’re brought to life with the right tools. As Google makes changes to their product to fit a mobile-first world, they will also be eliminating the mobile pop-up ad. Websites that use pop-up ads will soon be devalued in search results. Since Google SEO has become the guideline when creating websites, you can say goodbye to pop-up ads as Google phases them out. Threshold’s team of digital marketers has already begun implementing extended text ads with success, and will continue to stay ahead of mobile pop-up changes to create effective, measurable campaigns for our clients.
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.
by threshold | Jul 28, 2015 | All, Marketing
Mama Mia you don’t have to live in Chicago, read The Book of Mormon or be An American in Paris to deliver Wicked marketing while increasing Rent.
If you work in the residential housing business, you know its lights, camera and ACTION all day, everyday. So if this were New York’s theatre district we would focus on lighting, set design, the script and the actors. Each of these elements is an opportunity to sign a lease or a renewal. Our business offers the same opportunity everyday to roll camera, shoot and get it right. So grab the clapboard!
Lighting-What is your focus? You have to have a strong message, intent or story. If you are a new community in lease-up mode…ask what makes you different: the architecture, the location or some great new concierge-type of service?
Set Design-How is your community staged online? What does your website look like? Have you looked at your Google Analytics to access your bounce rate and time spent on each page? Does your photography draw people in? What colors are you using, does the mood reflect the lifestyle and demographic of your clientele? It’s about getting their attention, keeping their attention and getting their feet in the front door.
Script-Are your employees trained on the art of conversation and the sale. What are your best closing tools? Do you ‘role play’ proactive scenarios to get the conversation focused and meaningful? How do you answer the phone, respond to emails, and greet people as they walk in the door?
The Actors– Whether you are in student living, senior living or multi-family, you know your greatest asset is your actors (your staff) and their art of conversation and communication style. In the residential business, communication is key to success. You need ability to communicate that only comes from experience. In this business, experience is the best teacher. Whether you start as a Community Assistant at a student housing community, a General Manager on a multi-million dollar conventional high-rise, or a corporate marketing director or trainer…..the experience and language you learn in this industry is priceless. That experience is the WOW factor.
So stage your asset right, get your props set and your people the tools to blow your audience away with charm, information and a welcoming attitude. And then sit back and enjoy the positive reviews (and leases!)
-End Scene-
by threshold | Jul 23, 2015 | All, Design
At Threshold Agency we have the ability to combine important, relevant information and great innovative design. The melding of the 2 worlds is what makes us marketing experts in the multifamily industry. But how do we achieve that design? Where do our designers look for inspiration and fresh ideas? What are the trends in residential marketing design? Is your marketing design trending?
Trends in the design world are always evolving. They can be similar to any trend in the sense that they can be difficult to follow unless you keep up with it. When you are a designer, following the trends in this industry can keep you from falling into a creative rut. During my research I found a lot of information, and I mean a lot! I’m only going to go into detail about my absolute favorite trends, and the ones that are mentioned over and over again or this blog would get out of hand rather quickly.
I’ll start with the similarities in both print and web design; the most prominent being the size of the media we design for on a regular basis. In print design, you have many different projects and an immeasurable amount of document sizes per project. If they can print it, you can design on it! Web design is not as temperamental, but since responsive websites are the industry standard, you have to think about the different media your end user will be experiencing. Users can view the web on many different sizes of screens (TV, laptop, tablet, phone, etc.) and some of those screens flip from horizontal to vertical depending on how you’re holding them. That seems like a lot of different ways to think about how one website is viewed! Other similarities between print and web are the trends of using large images, large blocks of text and going back to the classics/modern/simplistic/clean design.
Sticking with the web design trends, the most commonly talked about trends I’ve come across are large background images, video background images, parallax scrolling, flat designs, mobile first websites and one/single page web layouts. My favorite is the single page website layout. With a single page website layout all the user has to do is scroll down the page, or click on the navigation bar and the website will scroll down to the part of the page you want to see. It’s easy to navigate through, looks great on all devices and is faster because you only have one page to deal with.
One of my favorite trends in my research are being made in Typography. Handwritten fonts, letterpress printing, delicate scripts, and fonts with imperfections are so much fun. I got married in May of this year and searching for invitations was my favorite part of wedding planning. I really wanted to design my own, but it was easy to choose one since there were so many beautiful ones out there (and let’s be honest, it was less time consuming than doing my own.) Handwritten typefaces seem to be more personal to me and I enjoy utilizing them for logos when I can. I think that style of personalization is a huge part of building a brand. Find it in your budget to invest in letterpress printing, trust me, it’s worth the cost. This finished quality makes your printed piece look very polished. Another trend in typography are icon fonts. Icon fonts are basically a series of symbols set to letters and numbers, so when you type (A, B, C could be a Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram icon). These are more prevalent in the web world. They are clean vector graphics that help your users interact with your site in a new and simple way. They can be used in a countless ways especially as social media icons. Everyone knows if you click on the Facebook icon on a website it will take you straight to their Facebook page. This is a simple, efficient way to use icon fonts.
Logo trends are always fun to follow. A website I love to browse is logolounge.com. They posted a lengthy analysis of current logo trends of 2015 and my favorite is the contoured logos. This type of logo can be parked right in-between a logo with only one color and a highly detailed logo. If you are familiar with gradients, they are used inside of simple shapes to make up a logo that reads well in a small format and is slightly more detailed when viewed on a larger scale. Although these kinds of logos are more difficult to turn into a black and white format; I think they are visually interesting without being too over the top. Another trend in logo design is to create a singular brand and use that brand for the rest of your business, assuming your business has multiple branches. Threshold did the below logo for the Lennar Multifamily Communities called Crest.
You don’t need to be the trendy design expert or follow current designs to have something amazing—you just call me! If you’re in the creative business like us at Threshold Agency, it’s good to keep up with the trends and keep your mind fresh with new visuals. We love to thrill and exceed our clients expectations. That’s why…we’re trending! #GoThresholdorGoHome
