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 1, 2016 | All
Marketing to millennials is all about positioning your property as a notch above the competition. If you have a luxury apartment complex, you’re in luck. There are housing communities with luxury amenities, and there’s everyone else. Nothing is going to convince a prospect to pick your luxury property over the budget apartment down the street quite like mind-blowing amenities. However, amenities won’t attract anyone unless they’re marketed correctly. When every luxury apartment in the neighborhood has a pool, naming and describing the benefits of your pool becomes a whole lot more important than simply announcing that it exists.
If the competition offers a pool, you should be offering an “Expansive pool, tanning space and outdoor cabana.” If the competition offers a study room, your property should be offering a “Smart Study Lounge with blazing fast Wi-Fi.” With so much competition in the housing industry, multifamily marketing is more important now than ever before.
So you know you need to do some marketing, and you have amenities you want to show off. The next step is making sure your marketing efforts are seen in the right places to effectively reach prospects and residents.
The days of putting up a website, handing out brochures and calling it a day are long gone. Marketing student apartments is a year-round job. Well maintained Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds are just as important as a cutting edge website. The first step to creating effective month-to-month social media content is actually having things on the calendar to promote. Luckily, luxury apartments are easy to market through social media.
Its easier than ever to post high quality videos on Facebook and Instagram thanks to advancements in smart phone camera technology. It takes 2 seconds to snap a video showing off your pool or fitness facility and post it on Instagram. Facebook’s cool new 360 Image feature is also an ideal way to post mini-tours available units or just a quick shot of your hardworking leasing agents.
Clubhouses and fitness centers are also great spaces to host quick and easy events like Taco Tuesdays or Waffle Bar Wednesdays. Post a couple times on Facebook to promote the event and watch residents and their friends line up outside your door. Sometimes you need to post on social media just for the sake of keeping your page up to date, but its a lot more effective when your property actually has some events to talk about. Hopefully your event calendar reaches the point where you’re able to create event pages on Facebook and let residents invite their friends. Say hello to more prospects and more referrals.
In this post, we’ve established that events are an important tool for marketing on social media. But creating a diverse calendar of events is no easy task. As the marketing agency Austin apartment experts flock to, Threshold has a ton of experience filling out property’s monthly event calendars. We’ve been doing this long enough to know which events work and which are total busts. One event that always attracts a crowd is a partnership up with a local non-profit. Not only does philanthropy attract well-meaning attendees, it also acts as a boost to your public relations image around the community.
There are more new multifamily marketing ideas where that came from, so feel free to contact our team of experts next time your event calendar is looking a little thin.
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.
by threshold | Oct 20, 2016 | All, Tech/Web
Apartment marketing for mobile devices is as much about usability as it is about getting noticed. In software engineering, usability is the degree to which a software can be used by specified consumers to achieve objectives with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. Over the past 10 years, Google’s search algorithm updates have focused mainly on the “satisfaction” part of this definition. The updates that Google makes to its algorithm are usually intended to improve the experience users have browsing the web.
Quick, think of the most annoying thing that you encounter when browsing the web on a mobile device. Many of you probably thought of mobile pop-up ads, which cause slow web page loading times and delay how quickly we can access content. Google hears you, and the tech giant has updated its search algorithm to lower search rankings for websites that feature mobile pop-up ads.
This change to Google’s algorithm will have major implications for many property websites that run promotions through mobile pop-up ads. Threshold has been creating and implementing pop-up ads on desktop and mobile for quite some time, so it’s part of our job to stay on top of any changing trends in the industry. That’s why we’re going to explain how the latest Google update will affect your property’s website.
In 2014, Google made a push to make the web more mobile-friendly. Pages that were mobile-optimized—that is, they featured readable text and had well-spaced links that were easy to tap with a finger—were ranked higher in search results. That update had the intended effect, and in 2016 Google announced that 85% of mobile search results are optimized as Google intended. This prompted Google to introduce new mobile-specific ranking criteria meant to further improve the mobile browsing experience.
Enter Google’s latest update, which will now favor websites that lack “interstitials.” Interstitials are ads that force exposure to the advertisement before visitors can continue on their content path. Think mobile pop-ups, full-page ads and between-the-page ads.
The algorithmic changes will go into effect on January 10th, 2017, and Google’s official stance on the issue is as follows:
“Pages that show intrusive interstitials provide a poorer experience to users than other pages where content is immediately accessible,” Google’s official announcement states. “This can be problematic on mobile devices where screens are often smaller.”
Although Google’s new update may seem daunting because of the way it will affect your property’s website, it’s actually a good thing for the overall mobile web user experience. The easier it is for people to use the web on their mobile devices, they more often they will be able to search for your property and access your site. Instead of forcing users to view mobile-pop up ads, marketers and apartment managers must come up with new apartment marketing ideas that consider users wants and needs in creative ways. Google’s update won’t crush anyone’s business, it will just force us all to create a better user experience on mobile websites.
Staying on the first page in Google’s search results is more important that any mobile-pop up ad. Thus, the first step to conforming to Google’s algorithmic changes is to remove mobile pop-up ads and other interstitials. The second step is to create worthwhile content that draws users in without disrupting their mobile web experience. Blogs and other similar content will become more valuable than ever, as websites search for marketing ideas for apartments that get information to users without using pop-up ads. As usual, content is king.
Threshold performs blog writing services for many of our clients. If you aren’t using blogs to update your web content and boost SEO rankings, now is a great time to start. We are also already making changes to our clients’ websites to prepare for the algorithmic changes. If you’re unsure about the viability of your mobile site, contact Threshold today for an assessment.
