by threshold | Jun 1, 2021 | Creative, Design, Marketing, Tech/Web, Thought Leadership
Written by Chelsea Friel, Graphic Designer
Designing with accessibility at the forefront has never been more important, but it can be daunting to determine whether or not your website is in compliance with regulations. In 2020 alone, over 3500 digital accessibility lawsuits were filed, including federal and state ADA lawsuits, and an estimated 56 million people in the U.S. are currently living with a disability. As we look to expand our services in the real estate and housing market, it’s paramount that we keep accessibility top of mind in our work. The goal is to improve our practices to make our designs as accessible as possible for the widest audience, and to make usability as high a priority as visual appeal.
What Does Web Accessibility Look Like?
To be frank, the word “compliance” doesn’t exactly bring to mind a font of creative flights of fancy. It usually summons images of black Arial text neatly organized on a white background, which is fine for doing your taxes but less than ideal for promoting your sparkling new multifamily property. In truth, adhering to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG, from here on out) is pretty easy to incorporate alongside our existing design practices. WCAG ratings are ranked from A to AAA, in a sort of “good, better, best” system. If A is the rank for a solidly usable website, then AAA is the gold standard of accessibility.
Similarly to how we build successful brands that thrive in the wild, the process of establishing an accessible web presence requires some collaboration between designers, copywriters, and developers. By keeping a few helpful guidelines in mind, each team’s work contributes to a fully accessible real estate website that anyone can (and will want to) use, regardless of their level of ability.
A Helpful Guide for Accessible Design
Contrast
When establishing a color palette, high contrast is critical for usability. When considering moderate to severe visual impairment, the ideal contrast ratio is between 1 to 3 and 1 to 4.5, depending on the size and the boldness of the text. The larger and thicker the characters, the lower the ratio can be while maintaining legibility to the eye, or to a screen reader. Any important copy should be designed with the highest contrast possible to ensure greater visibility for users.
Chrome extensions such as Spectrum can help you determine how user-friendly your website is by showing you alternate versions of your website based on various visual abilities.
Alternate Indicators
On the topic of visual acuity, consider using alternate methods of establishing a hierarchy of content apart from color changes. If a piece of text changes color when a user hovers, the addition of a line under the text serves as an additional cue that the copy can be clicked or is interactive in some way. Other visual indicators can be icons, boxes, or typeface changes (such as semibold to bold or black) to indicate to the user that they’re on the right track.
Charts and graphs can also present a challenge. Apart from using distinct colors to designate a data set, one solution is to incorporate texture or patterns into the design to further differentiate the information presented to the user. Trello has a plugin that can convert graphs using color blindness–friendly patterns to help aid legibility for all users, while maintaining the overall look and feel of the design.
Alt Text & ARIA Labels
Used to describe an image when it is unavailable to the user, alt text and ARIA labels should provide as much detail as possible. Describe what’s happening in the image instead of opting for the file name or a bland categorization of the subject like “man” or “house.” For folks who use screen readers to navigate websites, this attention to image descriptions provides a much clearer idea of what is in the design and what the website is trying to convey. This can be a key factor in whether or not they pursue your property further, depending on how well you describe the photo of the premises or the neighborhood using these tags and labels.
Content and Type Hierarchy
When writing copy for a website, simpler is better. Important messages should be short and to the point, while conveying all of the essential information a user needs to know right off the bat. WCAG recommends limiting a line of text to 80 characters or fewer, and to avoid writing overly complicated or lengthy sentences. Designers and copywriters should work in tandem to draft copy that looks beautiful in the design, excites the user with its content, and can be read by as many people as possible, regardless of the tools they use to view the website.
UI and Navigation
Users of varying abilities frequently use keyboard navigation to explore websites, and care should be taken to establish a logical flow of information. Good design is obvious, and a user shouldn’t have to spend time deciphering how to move through a website to find what they need. Clean focus states, clear and easy-to-remedy error states, and concise links makes a site more accessible to all, and provides a better user experience across the board.
Designing for Everyone
Accessibility should always be as high a priority as creating a beautiful design. A visually stunning website that can only be accessed by half of our users is ultimately a design failure, and our goal should be to be as inclusive as possible in our work. As we continue to go above and beyond for our clients and our audience, normalizing accessibility practices deepens our understanding of who we serve, and provides a more inclusive space where all are welcome.
by threshold | Apr 28, 2021 | Creative, Design, Digital Marketing, Marketing, Tech/Web, Thought Leadership
Written by Weylan Lee, Senior Graphic Designer at Threshold
User experience and user interface (UX/UI) design are both in high demand, especially for digital spaces like apartment websites and mobile apps. With this high demand comes many tools that cater towards UX/UI design. At Threshold, we use Adobe XD, which is a design tool that allows us to create and prototype interactive experiences like websites, digital products, and mobile apps. With this tool, our teams are able to design, animate, prototype, and collaborate more efficiently, experiencing our designs just like an end user (i.e. our clients’ residents and prospects) would. This has significant advantages both for us internally as well as for our clients and their end users.
How Adobe XD Improves the Real Estate Marketing Client Experience
First and foremost, Adobe XD allows us to present our compelling and amazing website designs more comprehensively and engagingly for our clients. With XD, instead of designing static pages and leaving it to the imagination how they will animate or link to one another, we are able to incorporate engaging user experiences and interactive functionality that enhance our client’s brand and optimize for conversions from the very beginning. Our clients are able to view and experience their website designs just like a viewer would on a live website. They can scroll down a web page, click on links and buttons, interact with CTAs, as well as interact with things like galleries, floor plans, location maps, and much more. Plus, with the ability to leave comments and replies right on website designs, using Adobe XD allows our clients to make more informed decisions and provide accurate feedback, streamlining our collaboration with our clients.
How Adobe XD Improves Collaboration for Creative Real Estate Marketers
For our internal teams, using Adobe XD has allowed us to design more immersive and impactful website experiences and made our internal collaboration more efficient – which also benefits our clients! Our designers are able to experience and interact with their website designs in real-time as they are designing. This allows us to create more impactful, engaging user experiences and ensure that a website not only looks amazing and functions properly, but also provides a great experience. Adobe XD also allows for the creation of brand-specific design libraries, which our designers use to ensure that a client’s branding (fonts, colors, buttons, and more) is applied consistently throughout each page of an entire website. Even better, the collaboration tools within Adobe XD allows our designers and developers to share website assets and details more efficiently, reducing project timelines and ensuring a smoother transition between design and development.
Why You Should Work With a Real Estate Marketing Agency That Uses Adobe XD
To sum it up, by using Adobe XD, our teams are able to create impactful user experiences that our clients (and their current and future residents) will enjoy. The improved and efficient collaboration between our internal teams and our clients and project teams means that we are able to reduce project timelines and ensure we are creating the highest quality websites for our clients. Our project teams are able to spend more time on creating amazing and impactful website designs with great experiences. At the end of the day, that all leads to increased conversions and customer loyalty among our clients’ prospects and current residents.
by threshold | Mar 16, 2021 | Digital Marketing, General, Marketing, Tech/Web
People around the world are becoming more aware that their data is being leveraged, and not everyone is comfortable with that. Although data aggregation has been part of the internet experience since the genesis of Web 2.0, it hasn’t always been clear to users what info is being gathered and why. As more users have become aware of the prevalence of data aggregation, some have pushed for increased oversight governing how a person’s data can be used. As we anticipate the possibility of federal legislation to address these concerns as well as the likelihood of further platform changes like the various ad targeting changes implemented by Facebook and Google in 2019-2021, we can expect those changes to impact apartment marketing in 2021 and beyond.
Any website that offers a personalized experience leverages your data in some way, whether that data is your current browsing behavior, demographic information, or credit history. When sites gather your data through cookies or 3rd party data exchanges, the ultimate goal is typically to gain a holistic representation of who you are so that the site can improve the user experience, show you content you’re more likely to engage with, and ultimately profit off your attention in some way (consider, for example, retargeting ads for items you recently viewed on an ecommerce website).
Let’s pause to briefly lay out some definitions: Cookies are small files saved to your computer that record what websites you’ve been on, what you’ve clicked or viewed, and sometimes what passwords you’ve saved. Cookies allow a website to see where else you visited before you arrived at your current digital destination. Third party data exchanges are when one platform obtains your data from another platform in order to combine multiple sets of data to get a fuller picture of who you are and how you behave online. For example, Equifax might sell your data to Google so that Google knows how much money you make in addition to the information they already have about your search history.
How Rising Concerns Around Data Misuse Have Changed the Advertising Landscape
Although data aggregation is often relatively innocuous, there are ways in which it’s vulnerable to misuse. The Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which Cambridge Analytica purchased the data of millions of Facebook users without the users’ consent and used it to inform political campaigns, was for many the catalyzing event that set off a surge of concerns over data aggregation. “Who has my data, how much do they have, and why?” Many users wondered. “Who is protecting my data from misuse? And who is held responsible when misuse occurs?”
In the wake of this expanding concern, legislators have been pressed to address this situation with clear legislation restricting how data aggregation tactics like cookies and 3rd party data exchanges can be used. The CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) was the first example of a state legislating around data use. If you’re constantly being prompted to accept the use of cookies by sites you visit, that’s because of the CCPA, which has spotlighted cookie tracking in particular. Not only does the CCPA affect specifically Californian websites, it also has the potential to affect any website getting traffic from users in California, so more and more websites have rushed to cover their bases by adding these opt-in prompts.
The CCPA isn’t the only legal follow-up to the rise in data privacy concerns. Facebook also came under fire in 2019 because it allowed advertisers to use Facebook’s data aggregation to target ads in ways that violated the Fair Housing Act, leading the platform to establish restrictions on ad targeting capabilities specifically for housing, loan, and finance ads. Google soon followed suit, introducing new housing, loan, and finance categories in Google Ads and restricting the targeting capabilities of those ads.
The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) was also implemented by the EU in May 2018 with the aim of giving individuals more control over their personal data. It applies to any enterprise that is processing the data of a person inside the EU.
Apple was the next major platform to launch changes to its data use policy, implementing new requirements for apps in the App Store on devices running iOS 14. Apps that engage in data tracking through tools like the Facebook pixel or cookies must now prompt users to opt in to this data tracking. Only after a user has opted in may that app collect their data.
Additionally, Google announced in March 2021 that it would be phasing out 3rd party data tracking entirely for users browsing the internet on Chrome. Their new strategy is called FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts), which adds users to various audience “cohorts” based on their browsing behaviors. Advertisers can then target their ads to cohorts, but cannot further refine their targeting on a user-by-user basis. We expect Google’s strategy to direct the rest of the industry, as many platforms will be taking their cues from this media giant. We can likely expect additional platforms to implement similar changes.
How Data Regulation Will Affect Apartment Marketing
Since the housing industry has already been the focus of certain early data use regulations, prompting the changes made by Facebook and Google in 2019 and 2020, apartment marketers are ahead of the curve somewhat when it comes to data regulation changes. However, more changes are likely coming, and it’s not entirely clear what they might be. Right now, it’s a waiting game to see how data regulations will be legislated and what further changes individual platforms like Facebook and Google may implement either in response to or independently of new regulations. It’s worth noting, however, that congressional committees have held hearings on data privacy, so a federal regulation of some kind is likely, we just don’t know what the specifics will be.
We also don’t yet know how 3rd party data or cookie tracking limitations will be reflected in advertising platforms if regulations are created to restrict them. It’s unknown whether these platforms will update their internal algorithms for ad targeting to reflect or counteract the new data restrictions, and if so, how they would do it. While Google and Facebook have already updated their policies around 3rd party data tracking, a federal regulation could require further updates from these platforms.
Still, there are preparations that can be made in anticipation of these potential outcomes. Many vendors are now planning ahead for the potential that cookie use will become restricted. Since cookies track your browsing behaviors across multiple websites, eliminating this element means the focus has to be on 1st party behavioral cues—what you’re doing right now on their website, including in-site searches. Vendors are also looking to rely more on 1st party data and less on 3rd party data.
Cookie removal would affect the platforms where many real estate marketing agencies conduct their advertising. Long-tail tracking will be more challenging, as will multi-session lead attribution. Single-session lead attribution, however, could still be tracked effectively.
Retargeting campaigns relying on 3rd party data tracking (e.g. targeting users who visited a property website) may become a thing of the past, depending on how data use is regulated in the future. Paid Search campaigns, however, will likely be unaffected, since they rely on current, 1st-party user search behavior, not on behaviors that have been tracked using a cookie.
Real estate marketers using advanced chatbots that use cookies to predict user needs (like what floor plans someone might be interested in, for example) should be aware that upcoming regulations may necessitate a downgrade to a less sophisticated chatbot. More immediately, you should ensure that your website prompts a user to accept the use of cookies, if you haven’t done so already. Otherwise you risk being sued by the state of California.
Rest assured that once we know more, we’ll cover it on ThreshNews. Check back for the latest in data regulation and how it’s impacting apartment marketing in 2021 and beyond.
by threshold | Oct 6, 2020 | Digital Marketing, Marketing
Wondering why you should work with a digital marketing agency instead of managing digital campaigns yourself? We get this question occasionally, and we understand why. Especially for brands with modest digital marketing budgets, managing your own digital campaigns may seem like a desirable option. After all, with enough diligence and marketing know-how, it’s possible to move the needle by relying solely on your own in-house marketers.
However, for most real estate brands, we recommend partnering with a dedicated real estate marketing agency for digital marketing campaigns, and there are a few key reasons why. Due to a variety of factors, most brands find they get a better value for their spend by relying on industry experts who have the resources and skills to launch impactful campaigns from day one, track their performance carefully with an eye toward the most relevant KPIs for your goals, and then continually optimize for best performance based on learnings, growth, and seasonality. The key is to find a digital marketing agency with no long-term contracts so that you retain control over your digital marketing costs and can pull the ripcord if things aren’t working out. That said, when you choose a partner with expertise specifically in the real estate market, the results will likely exceed what you’d accomplish in-house, resulting in positive ROI. If you’re wondering why, here are just a few of the reasons our clients see better results after partnering with us.
They’ve Mastered The Art of Digital Marketing for Real Estate
When you work with a dedicated real estate marketing agency, you’re paying for expertise, and that expertise pays you back. A real estate marketing agency has the advantage of immersing itself in the ins and outs of your real estate market, staying on top of industry trends, and understanding your target audience. Not only that, but they also have the aggregate learnings of hundreds if not thousands of digital campaigns and market surveys already informing their strategy. There’s just no substitute for the sheer volume of experience you’ll be leveraging when you partner with a digital real estate marketing agency.
And digital marketing for real estate truly is an art. With so many marketing tactics to choose from, platforms to familiarize yourself with, potential messaging and design strategies, user behaviors to understand, and so many other factors, there’s no single, simple way to determine the best strategy for you. It takes a lot of insight, tenacity, and attention to form a strong digital marketing strategy for your needs within your market, and many brands find they simply don’t have the bandwidth to devote to those demands.
See more reasons why an agency with the right experience is crucial to your real estate marketing plan.
They Have Access to Digital Marketing Tools & Resources You Don’t Have
Partnering with a real estate marketing agency also means getting cutting edge tools you wouldn’t normally have access to. For example, platforms like Facebook and Google have programs for preferred partners that may provide access to new features in beta (i.e. before those features go live for a wider audience) like Smart Campaigns, Google Lead Generation, and more. But not everyone can become a Google Premier Partner or a Facebook Certified Partner, so working on your own, you might miss out on campaign options that could be driving better results for your specific needs.
Not only that, but with a direct line to dedicated representatives for these major advertising platforms, campaigns run by preferred partners of Google and Facebook enjoy extra support to ensure they’re set up for success and able to take full advantage of the options available. And a little extra support can go a long way, since advertising policies and tools on these platforms are constantly changing. An expert digital marketing partner helps you stay up-to-date on all the algorithm, feature, and policy changes and ensure you’re not violating any policies that might result in paused campaigns or compromised results.
They Know How To Track Digital Marketing Campaigns & Optimize Performance
Launching a digital campaign is just half the journey when it comes to digital marketing. In order to make the most of your digital campaigns and get the results you need, it’s essential to know how to track and optimize against your most relevant KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). There’s a lot that can be tracked in Google Ads, Facebook, and other platforms, and each KPI tells you something different about user behavior and campaign success. Knowing how to interpret the data (and ensure it’s being collected accurately) is indispensable to successful digital marketing for apartments. Beyond that, any digital marketing partner worth its salt will have access to and experience using tools and resources that allow them to forecast, budget, and optimize campaigns so that you’re not just getting campaigns up and running, you’re seeing them pay off with the right results at the right times and for the right cost.
It Frees Up Your In-House Teams To Focus On Closing The Deal
Especially when it comes to property management, we’re constantly blown away by how much our clients take on day-to-day. Chances are, you’ve got plenty to worry about already, and could use some extra bandwidth to focus on where you can make the biggest impact. When you partner with a digital marketing agency for apartment marketing, it allows you to zero in on the decision phase of a renter’s journey without also worrying about how to build awareness, command attention, and generate leads. In other words, you can focus on nurturing the leads that come in, wowing prospects with great staff interactions, and ultimately closing the deal, all of which is essential to your overall marketing success. Freeing up your in-house teams to focus on these aspects more attentively enhances your marketing and reduces lead drop-off within your sales funnel.
Learn more about the renter’s Digital Buyer Journey.
by threshold | Aug 27, 2019 | Digital Marketing, General, Marketing, Thought Leadership
Updated June 22, 2021
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, after asset management companies rushed to implement quick digital marketing solutions, Property Management Software have become more ubiquitous than ever, but so has the demand for strong agency/client marketing partnerships. With this surge in demand for digital real estate marketing, knowing the recipe for a great agency partnership is more important than ever. As real estate marketing agencies work to prove their worth, knowing these strategies for excellent partnerships is essential. Likewise, as asset management teams seek out ways to stand out from the crowd of competitors using the same PMS marketing tools they are, an agency partnership that honors their unique needs and goals can be particularly rewarding. For a timely comparison between Property Management Software marketing solutions and the advantages of a strong marketing agency partnership, check out the Pros and Cons of Relying on Property Management Software for Real Estate Marketing.
If you’ve read our blog post on How a Strong Agency/Client Relationship Can Make or Break Your Real Estate Marketing Plan, then you know just how important a healthy agency/client relationship is. Not only is a bad relationship unpleasant to deal with, it also impacts your bottom line (for both clients and agencies). But it’s easier to identify a bad relationship once it exists than to build a good relationship from the word go. What strategies can clients and agencies use to develop relationships that work for them?
Whether you’re a client looking for cost-effective marketing results or an agency looking to wow clients and encourage loyalty, today’s blog post will help you craft relationships that are mutually beneficial. So let’s get into it, shall we?
Emphasize Mutual Success
Your relationship isn’t just about contracting services and exchanging deliverables; it’s about partnership. As you make plans, launch campaigns, and review performance together, bear in mind that each party is made stronger by the other, and each party’s success is intertwined with the other’s. When you emphasize mutual success, you foster an attitude of working together (rather than simply performing transactions) that not only creates a better experience for everyone, but also creates better marketing results.
Acknowledge Uniqueness
Each client and each agency is unique—they are made up of unique individuals, have unique needs and areas of expertise, and experience unique challenges. A partnership works best when each party understands the other fully, and neither has a one-size-fits-all attitude toward working together. Cookie cutter strategies not only underperform due to their imperfect fit, they also communicate a lack of investment in the partner you’re working with.
Set Clear Expectations
When you don’t set clear expectations, needs go unmet and frustrations are inevitable. In order for work to get done together smoothly, everyone needs to know what is and is not expected of them, and when. Be honest and upfront about the limitations of what you can provide, and ask for clarification on what others need from you. Don’t wait until things are going wrong to have these conversations.
With clear expectations set, your projects will suffer from less scope creep, fewer disappointments, and a consistent plan that helps work get done on time and on budget.
Respect (And Take Advantage Of) Expertise
Neither the client nor the agency knows everything they need to know to create excellent marketing results—and that’s okay. In fact, it’s crucial to recognize where skills and access to information differ so that everyone can come together to inform your big-picture real estate marketing plan. That said, it’s not enough to ask for the input you think you need, you have to also put some trust in the expertise of the other party. Neither the client nor the agency should be—or even can be—dictating every single detail of the work you create together. Take advantage of your partner’s expertise and trust them to inform the areas where that expertise is relevant.
Establish Regular Communication
You’ve heard before that good communication is crucial to a healthy relationship, and that’s true for agency/client relationships as well. Calls and emails should happen on a regular cadence, not just when questions or issues arise (though they should happen then too). This ensures that all teams stay on the same page, issues are caught early, and a healthy rapport is maintained. All this translates to the marketing results you achieve together by encouraging steady progress through all your projects together, with fewer missteps along the way.
With these tips under your belt, you should be able to cultivate strong agency/client relationships that create mutual success as well as mutual happiness. If you’d like to learn more about agency/client relationships, or you’d like to start building a relationship with our team at Threshold, contact a Threshold team member today! We’d love to chat with you.
