by threshold | Aug 18, 2026 | Digital Marketing
Every student housing operator knows the feeling. It is early July, the fall semester is weeks away, and the preleasing number is not where it should be. The spring rush is over, the students who planned have already signed, and the leasing calendar says the busy season is behind you.
Most properties respond by bracing for a soft opening. A few decide July is worth fighting for, and those are the ones that surprise everybody.
why july feels like a dead end.
Student housing runs on an annual cycle that front-loads almost everything. Renewals and early signings dominate the fall and winter, the spring brings the last big wave of decision-making, and by summer most operators have accepted whatever number they are holding.
That assumption is where properties lose ground. There are still students looking in July. Plans fall through, roommate groups break up, transfers arrive, and students who spent the spring undecided finally start searching. The pool is smaller, but it is real, and it is competitive precisely because so few properties are still actively bidding for it.
the instinct that makes it worse.
When leasing slows, budgets tighten. Marketing spend gets pulled back to protect the bottom line, campaigns go quiet, and the property stops appearing in exactly the searches those late shoppers are running.
The property has now made its own forecast come true. Nobody sees the community, so nobody tours it, so the leases do not materialize, which confirms that July was a lost cause.
what actually moves the number.
Late-season leasing rewards precision. A student searching for housing three weeks before move-in has high intent and a short decision window. Reaching that person takes a few things working together:
- Search capture at the moment of intent. Someone typing “student apartments near campus” is ready to act. Paid search puts the community in front of them immediately, without waiting on organic rankings to catch up.
- Social prospecting to create demand. Search finds people already looking. Meta campaigns reach students and parents who have not started yet, which matters when the searching pool is thin.
- Geofencing around the places that matter. Campus, competitor properties, and the corridors students actually travel.
- Daily visibility into what is working. A monthly report cannot help a property in July. Knowing which source produced which lead, while there is still time to act on it, is what separates a recovered season from a missed one.
That last point is the one operators underestimate. Lead volume alone does not fill a building. Knowing which leads convert, which communities need attention, and where the next dollar should go is what turns activity into signed agreements. We have watched this play out on a property that started from zero, and the client credited the analytics layer the most.
a property that proved it.
Treehaus Townhomes & Flats, a new community serving Clemson University, came to Threshold as an underperforming property in one of the most competitive student housing markets in the Southeast. It had no digital marketing program running and a full building to fill before its fall 2026 opening.
Threshold launched a full-funnel program across Google, Meta, and geofencing, paired with leasing analytics the on-site team could act on daily. By mid-July 2026, the property had reached 74.39% pre-leased for the 2026–2027 academic year, and it posted its strongest leasing month of the season during the period when leasing usually goes quiet.
“It’s been a battle in an extremely competitive market, but we are 1000% convinced Threshold’s analytics have given us a competitive advantage in the market.” – Roger Phillips, Texla Housing Partners, Inc.
Read the full Treehaus case study for the complete breakdown, including the lease totals, the daily numbers behind the turnaround, and how the strategy came together.
the takeaway.
A slow season is not a verdict. It is usually a signal that the property is invisible to the people still shopping. The properties that recover are the ones that keep showing up in the searches happening right now, and that can see clearly enough to move budget toward whatever is working this week.
If your property is behind and the calendar is working against you, let’s talk about what a real leasing analytics engine can do for your community.
by threshold | Apr 6, 2017 | All, Marketing
Reasons to Rebrand
We get a lot of requests for rebrand projects from new property owners, especially those who’ve bought older properties. If you’re an owner taking over a property, you might want that property’s branding to fall more in line with the other communities you own. A rebrand makes a statement to the surrounding community that your property is serious about its image.
Recent renovations also cause property owners to come to Threshold for marketing ideas for apartments in the midst of a rebrand. The big payoff for big renovations is the ability to promote them. When you make renovations, and do a rebrand, you can promote your property in a whole new way to a whole new audience.
Finally, poor reputations can also cause owners to consider rebranding. Past a certain point, your property’s reputation cannot be saved, no matter how much time you dedicate to reputation management. If that’s the case, a rebrand can give your property a fresh start.
Obstacles to Overcome
Losing a name associated with negative reviews is great, but you’ll also lose plenty of equity in the community from people who’ve knew about your property’s old name. Online, you’ll have to take certain steps to combat the loss of domain and page authority that your website has built up over the years. At Threshold, we combat this by mapping your old URLs to similar pages on your new website.
There are a million moving parts to take care of when your property gets a new name, especially in today’s age of multiple online social media pages and apartment finder websites. It’s a complicated process to update every little detail, but it’s worth it—and entirely necessary— when launching a new brand into the market.
Your new site will have to build up trust with Google over time, no matter how much work your advertising agency does to combat the loss of SEO mojo from your old brand. However, property managers can drive traffic to their site right away by launching Google AdWords campaigns.
With AdWords, you can show up in search results right away because you’ve paid to be there. That will immediately drive traffic to your new site and speed up the trust-building process with Google.
Take Good Care of Your New Brand
As property managers know, renters care deeply about the lifestyle their chosen community projects. Sometimes, that projected lifestyle is even more important than the amenities or the square footage. Doing a rebrand can help your property show off an entirely different lifestyle than the old brand was putting out there. You can do all this without making major renovations.
We talked about changing the property’s social media pages to suit the new brand, but the voice and tone on social media should change as well. When we create new brands at Threshold, we don’t create them to be permanent. Instead, we develop brands that have the chance to grow and evolve as time goes on. We want our clients to be able to take ownership of their brand and wield it how they see fit. Social media is a perfect place to start trying out your new brand—your new voice.
A rebrand can involve anything from naming and a logo to a full-blown collateral update, including digital apartment marketing materials such as your website. We’re here with game-changing apartment marketing ideas when your property is ready for a rebrand. Whether you’ve just purchased a new property that needs to present a new face to the market, or you’re just sick of looking at a stagnant logo, Threshold can help.
by threshold | Mar 22, 2017 | All, Marketing
Why Combining Content Marketing and PR Strategies Is a Good Idea
To achieve business success in today’s digital environment, it’s always best to have content marketing and public relations help on staff.
Until very recently, both teams had similar agendas, yet worked separately from one another.
Things are very different now and content marketing and PR teams now seem to be working together more and more. Especially since most are remote workers, it’s easy for them to work together on modern approaches.
This makes sense since they both work in a similar fashion to achieve additional exposure online.
Each one of these teams can deliver the goods as far as online exposure is concerned. But when they work together, their efforts are magnified and together they achieve much greater heights.
Are you thinking about integrating your PR and content marketing teams?
We feel this is a no-brainer, but maybe you haven’t come to the same conclusion.
To help you better understand why these team should always work together from now on, we will share a few different reasons to help you finally see the light.
Putting Everyone’s Head Together Makes Idea Generation a Snap
Whether you’re trying to gain media attention for a hot new restaurant, an app, or a website focused on tech solutions, it’s never easy to come up with story placement ideas that meet the latest trends.
Separately, both of these teams had to find out precisely what bloggers and journalists wanted to publish online. And they also had to discover precisely what their target audience wanted to know more about.
Working together, both teams have the ability to stay far ahead of the curve. They can brainstorm ideas together, research together, and ultimately get better publication placements by working together as a group.
As each team figures out what to expect with placements, the content marketing side will achieve better results because they will target their audience correctly and share relevant content that everyone wants to read.
PR teams will also improve by working with content marketers because they can use all resources to find better placements, better story ideas, and keep the brand message consistent at all times.
Working Together Helps Amplify the Reach of Your Content
Content marketing is specifically focused on creating blog posts, webinars, articles, and other brand identification materials.
On the other hand, public relations work well because they have personal connections with the biggest influencers in your market.
By utilizing these connections, they can get better story placements and additional exposure during product launches and other times when they need an extra boost.
The combination of both of these teams creates an influential and powerful way to touch base with your target market. With every successful product launch they will be able to repeat the successes in a new mission.
But there is one other amazing benefit that you get when you combine PR and content marketing.
Sure, you’ll definitely find your target audience a lot faster. And that’s a great thing that everyone should strive for.
Guess what?
Combining PR and content marketing also makes it possible to reach a new, broader, hungrier audience as well.
Most companies are already investing in PR and content marketing.
By combining both of these avenues of outreach, you’ll have a better chance at increasing your ROI since both teams are already working toward the same objective.
Achieving Brand Message Consistency
Finally, having your PR and content marketing team working together means your brand message is always going to be on the same page.
Why is that?
Well, both teams always know what the other is doing.
By having access to this information, they can share similar stories and focus their content in a similar way so that their message is clear at all times.
Conclusion
As you can see, having content marketing and PR teams working together is definitely a great idea. If you haven’t tried it yet, you should give it a shot and see the amazing results for yourself.
Author Bio
Wendy Dessler
Title: Super-Connector at OutreachMama
Wendy is a super-connector with OutreachMama and Towering SEO who helps businesses find their audience online through outreach, partnerships, and networking. She frequently writes about the latest advancements in digital marketing and focuses her efforts on developing customized blogger outreach plans depending on the industry and competition.
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 | 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.
