Out to Put a Dent in the Multifamily Universe

Website is Key

April 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Not…

Ran across a quote the other day that sent me thinking – in a contentious sort of way…

In today’s information age of marketing and web 2.0, a company’s website is the key to their entire business. – Marcus Sheridan

I rarely drop four letter words – as a personal choice – but this gave me cause. It was more like an eight letter but four letter affect word but passionate nonetheless. Maybe I missed the context of the remark but it just seems shortsighted.

Heart of a Company

I shared a story from Leo Buscaglia just a couple of days ago and it purely relates to my reproach. To me, it is much deeper than a website. Hate the soft side of business as much you want, think of it as the gnat that you can’t get rid of or the back burner – get to it some day sort of thing but that, my friends, is the key to business. In apartment marketing or management, your website is not key. You are.

I suppose I could agree that if information were the end all be all to business then your website is key. But information, be it about your apartments, management company or otherwise, is not what drives your business – people do. People are key. People make relationships and people compel others to respond and take next steps.

You can have the best website in your space but if the people at the end of that avenue are unkept, obnoxious and otherwise disinterested – you will struggle.

Information Age or Mindful Age

As we move away from share for the sake of sharing or sharing for the sake of garnishing good favor and thus a business transaction, I think being mindful of relationship on every level will be the key to business. Even when it comes to your website [your digital archive of information] you must be mindful of the people who are interested in the information. They are there because of their interests at that moment in time. But, most important, they are there to seek relationship first and information second.

So I borderline beg you – please argue that people seek out information first and relationship second so I can carry this conversation on….

Your – looking for some feedback – multifamily manic,

M

 

 

 

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Filed Under: #apartmentmarketing, Apartment Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Authentic Apartment Marketing

April 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Apartment Marketing

Apartment MarketingThink of apartment seekers as consumers and your communication with them will be perceived as not authentic – think of them as people and you have a shot at creating conversation that speaks to fundamental human need(s), want(s) and desire(s). Think food, water and shelter. And, how do you become authentic as it relates to apartment marketing? You get an understanding.

Understand People and Their Behavior

Why would you want to understand people and their behaviors? The only way you change how people feel, think and behave is to understand them in a very authentic way? Only then will they respond to the power of your creative apartment marketing. Or, conversation and content marketing.

What can you do to understand people and their behaviors? First, you create an authentic and ceaseless urge to know more. You make it your daily quest to always know more about people. Always take notes. Take pictures. Record thoughts. Write a blog post or two or three to flesh out your thoughts. Make it your mission to understand what they think. What they prefer. What they dream. What they desire. And, what they need.

One item on note on understanding – what makes people people is always changing. And, if you are not leading that change in an authentic way then someone else will.

Your, highly interested in anthropology, multifamily maniac,

M

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Filed Under: #apartmentmarketing, Apartment Marketing, Leadership Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Craigslist with a Twist

March 23, 2012 By 6 Comments
Marketing Apartments

Marketing Apartments Can you make it more social? 

What if you took Craigslist and made it just a little more social? What if you extended your leasing team by four fold overnight? What if you took the current tired resident referral model and tossed in a tool to assist those who would actually assist us in producing leads and leases?

Get the community involved

I have thought for a very long bit of time and even experimented with the idea of partnering with the people who live in our apartment communities to churn out marketing on our behalf. Our experiments have not been backed by a ton of passion and or adopted with cheery fanfare by the people that we invited to play along and nonetheless I think there might be an opportunity. I intend to continue to experiment.

How do you make Craigslist a little more social? 

The loose thought, in brief, is to organize four to six template Craigslist Apartment Marketing Packages. Photos, ad copy, headlines, pricing and the such would be included. A detailed white paper to include step-by-step instructions for posting and responding to would be residents. It would also include an introduction training provided by the Mills Marketing Team. The training would be supplemented by four to six ongoing training sessions over time.

WIIFM  

What’s in it for me? Or, for them? The carrot – a monetary incentive for every lease we secured, aka – the resident referral fee.

What do you think? 

Your -thinking Craigslist can be more social – multifamily maniac,

M

Filed Under: #apartmentmarketing, Apartment Buzz Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Apartment Marketing: Real or Just Great Storytelling?

March 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

In all fairness, I have not taken the time to view an episode of the show Ghost Adventures . In face I just learned about it this past Thursday when Mary Korte of Mills Neighborhood Blog fame wrote it. It immediately got me thinking about the topic of storytelling, the following quote being the real catalyst;

Zak, Nick, and Aaron go to some of the scariest places to try and get answers and information about the people who used to inhabit the spaces.  These guys aren’t your average investigators.  They are not afraid to go places where other paranormal investigators refuse to tread.  From apparitions to demons, these guys find it all!

Real or Just Great Storytelling

First, let’s give Zak, Nick and Aaron props for profitting on one of the most fundamental emotions that makes the world go around – fear. It’s well know that we are motivated by the pursuit of pleasure or the quest to avoid pain and fear plays a major roll in that. Can we profit off the back of fear like these three and all associated with their show have so brilliantly done?

Let’s face it, we humans have been scarying the hell out of each other from the beginning of time. You read about it in every kind of fiction and non-fiction. You hear the folktales and hear the creepy stories while sitting around the campfires we stoke up with every single passing summer. It’s just plain fun. Persoanlly speaking, I get a real charge out of scaring my kids into a frenzy through stories and outright hide and seek styled shockfests. And, they love it too. Ok, after they get over the initial reactions. But, do they belive it? Na – they just think I am a fun dad. And, good chance they will carry on the tradition with their kids.

Lesson for Apartment Marketing? 

Is there a chance we could sell more apartments by scaring the wits out of the people that walk in our front doors? Not likely, but we may be able to calm the fears they have of renting a new home. Espcically, those that have been burned in the past by bad service, bad attitudes and bad storytelling.

Everything is marketing and storytelling is the vehicle that moves people to action.

What is our lesson? Glean what you can from Zak, Nick and Aaron in the way of storytelling. Make their tactics and strategies your own. Add a dose of personality. Entertain the people that choose to live in your apartment communities. Consider your office the theater, your desk, tour route and display apartment the stage and you are the main character. Act accordingly and tell some mind blowing stories.

Game on -

Your – beliving not in ghosts but rather the power of storytelling – multifamily maniac,

M

Filed Under: #apartmentmarketing, Apartment Marketing, Apartment Marketing Ideas, Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

More Outlets Does Not Equal a Better Story…

March 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Apartment Marketing Interest Graphs

…People do.

This is a simple unscientific case for passionate apartment marketing (professional or otherwise) content producers [Read: conduits]…

I picked the following quote off of a blog some time ago and pasted it into a file for future posting. Now, after a few search engine attempts, I can’t find the author of it so if it’s yours – please claim it and I will give you the due credit.

There seems to be a curious thing happening - the more outlets for stories we get… the less and less we’re hiring writers, content strategists, editors, designers. It’s like the second spawning of “reality programming”- no need for writers … it’s real life.

It’s a very interesting dilemma that we find ourselves facing in the apartment marketing space; do we go it alone in an amateur more reality based way or do we go pro? It’s not a simple answer but a necessary question to consider. And, the reasons run concurrent with trends in the way we influence, are influenced, how we consume and how we distribute information as a society.

The Niche is Coming Into its Own

With the absolute proliferation of platforms that host and syndicate blog content along with the opportunities to narrow our focus by creating lists and circles on the likes of LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and the king of the them all Facebook, we all have a niche to serve in some way.

Niches are not a new concept but they themselves are new to the likes of being served information in a passionate and pointed way. And, in mass from marketers, friends and acquaintances. And, thus the need for a professional or an amateur but passionate writer…

The Simple Case For 

Apartment MarketingI am very much a visual person so I took the time to draw this out on a piece of paper. While visual, I am clearly not artistic so feel free to toss fruit from the front row…

Be it you advocate professional content producer/managers or the Sunday driver version; I think you would agree that you need a guru…[term used very loosely - in fact I hate that word - let's go with...] someone who knows what they are doing.

I have been reading the book: Grouped by Paul Adams the Global Brand Experience Manager at Facebook. You might recognize my pic as an adaptation from the book. He makes a much deeper case for what I am trying to loosely convey in this post so buy his book – it’s a goodie. (The link is not tied to an affiliate account).

As we further fragment based on interests and or outright fatigue, the ability to connect via influencers (seemingly more a myth than realistic) is waning and or presenting itself as more of a fallacy. Small groups connected by someone who cares and someone who knows what they are doing will be the way to continue on with the conversation. Continue down the current path or seek the alternative and we’re just creating noise for ourselves. And, as the number of outlets increase, we have to ask ourselves are we just being noisy in more places? Instead, be a conduit and bring together the small groups that will move business in the future.

See that person in the middle of my pic – for the theory to work, that person must know (intimately) someone in each of the four outcroppings. The way this works is that this person is the conduit of/for information (influence) to flow between the outcroppings or small niche groups. Without the conduit, the potential potency of this group is never realized. They will never have the chance to know one another because they will have no real reason to do so.

The job of that someone who knows what they are doing and cares enough to do it is to bring the groups together in a way that is appealing to the individual members. He/she gives them a reason to believe. A reason to be merry. And, a reason to be intimate with one another. Intimate in a way that moves business forward.

Experiment

As I flesh this concept out in real life experiments – I’ll be sure to post updates.

Your – interested in interest graphs – multifamily maniac,

M

 

 

Filed Under: Apartment Blogging, Interest Graph Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

What Apartment Marketing is Not

March 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
What Multifamily Marketing is Not

Apartment marketing is not thinking about every person as a renter or a renewal -

Apartment marketing is not about viewing people in the context of residing in your apartment communities -

Apartment marketing is not about getting people to celebrate you through a; Like, G+, Tweet, RT or the such -

Apartment marketing is not about broadcasting the right message at precisely the right to the right influencers -

What you’re saying in all of this is that people mean nothing to you. And, when they don’t respond you just don’t understand why….

Your thinking people-centric multifamily manic,

M

 

Filed Under: #apartmentmarketing, Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Apartment Marketing Minute: Experiment

February 29, 2012 By 2 Comments
Apartment Marketing

Apartment Marketing“Don’t be afraid to get creative and experiment with your marketing” – Mike Volpe

Easier said than done, right? Who has the time to set back and be creative anymore? A day in the life of a property management professional would demonstrate that it is near impossible to give time to brainstorming new ideas. Heck, it’s hard enough to execute the things that matter most like; customer service, curb appeal, leasing, retention and accounting. But, being creative is not really all that hard.

Experiment in Creativity

I think the key is to think in smaller chunks. Experimenting could be as simple as leading your Craigslist ad with the words Compelling Lifestyle as opposed to Free Rent. It could be as simple as shifting the photos on your website to lead with interior pics as opposed to exterior pics. Maybe do night pics of the exterior in lieu of day pics. It could be that you change your telephone greeting to include, “I can help you,” in lieu of “How can I help you?” No matter the topic, the key is to think smaller chunks.

The Point

Don’t think of creativity in apartment marketing as a big daunting task reserved for the select few who were gifted with the talent of pumping out cool ideas. I would posit that every one of them, at one time or another, experimented with the little things. And, at some point over a long bit of time, their portfolios of coolness grew more and more pronounced.

So do some experimenting today and don’t be afraid to start small.

Your always experimenting in creativity multifamily maniac,

M

 

Filed Under: #apartmentmarketing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Apartment Interest Graph Marketing

February 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Interest Graph

To preface, this post is likely several years off in terms of being really germane to apartment marketing.

I have been reading a ton about Interest Graphs as of late. An interest graph is akin to a digital map that captures and demonstrates everything you like or frankly don’t like. Be it coffee, tea or me – it takes everything you like about your personal adventure through this world and packages it up into one nice comprehensive picture of you. Think Pinterest – the red-hot picture pinning site. In my estimation IG’s are a marketers wildest dream come true.

Apartment Marketing a Few Years Hence

Imagine with me for a moment – if you will. Tomorrow morning you walk into your office, pop open your email and you read:

Hi all,

Today we are embarking on a new marketing initiative. As such, we are completely revamping the information you commingle to make up your demographic set. But, unlike many of our other initiatives, for this one you don’t need to do a thing.  In fact, this thing is so brilliant you are going to have a tough time keeping up with the new-found demand we intend to create.

You see, we have crafted a quasi-quant algorithm that constructs your apartment communities Interest Graph. That is to suggest that your community has a personality (and, a friend making ability) and we have found a way to define it based on the premise of how moving it is. Then – get this – once we have defined that personality, we are going to align it with people with like kind personalities or Interest Graphs.

Confused? That’s okay, it will all make sense at some point -

Stay tuned,

Your Marketing Team

Fish Where the Fish Are 2.0 

As the internet becomes more and more fragmented with special interest groups (not to be mistaken with those who lobby politically), the more specific we can get with where we have our conversations. And, we can be more precise about what we say and don’t say. Today, we know we have to have a website, a blog and we have to get connected on Facebook. Tomorrow, we will still need those things but now we will be able to find and converse with exactly who we are looking for in the exact place where they don’t mind sharing and talking. Because the conversation will center around the very things they love and cherish as represented by their interests. So long as we are patient and exercise all the simple lessons Dale Carnegie taught us – we will open the flood gates. That is don’t be a stalker.

I see a day when we know exactly who it is that we want to rent our apartments, who will actually rent them, when they will actually rent, and how much rent they are willing to pay. All by simply defining and promoting our communities Interest Graph and coupling them up with people who have like kind interests. In my head, it’s akin to creating personas of the people who you want your marketing messages to speak to but much more amplified and much deeper, richer and more compelling. Much more intimate. It will bring together a like hearted and like-minded apartment community that will attract like kind people. And, that my friends will likely be the lead into the beginning of singularity.

Your Apartment Interest Graph Marketing Junkie (at least this week),

M

Pic Credit: Robert Scoble
Filed Under: #apartmentmarketing, Semantic Web, Using Social Media to Market Apartments Tagged With: , , , , ,

Fill Your Marketing Balloons With More Than Air

January 23, 2012 By 14 Comments

marketingI was recently given the privelege to co-moderate a brainstorming session on the topic of marketing. The session was held for members of the apartment management industry at various stages in their careers, from leasing agents who have been in the industry for 2 months to  property managers with 10 years of experience. My topic was old school marketing. Old school referring to anything not social media. More specifically, tools such as resident retention, outreach marketing, Craigslist, etc. The idea was to get creative juices flowing, discuss what’s working, what’s not working and maybe learn a few things to take back to the rest of the team.

I was surprised by the lack of marketing knowledge…and for that matter, the lack of creativity. I heard the same 3 “best practices” from a majority of the groups: Generic signs and balloons for drive by traffic, generic Craiglist ads and monetary resident referral incentives. I heard questions like: ”What do you say when you’re marketing to a business?” and “It’s ok to send thank you cards and gift baskets to businesses who refer someone to you?” Leasing agents and PMs who had no knowledge of free additional ILS marketing template tools like VFlyer and Postlets, who had never thought past posting a flyer with a resident referral rent credit in terms of using residents as a marketing tool, and those are just building blocks. It’s as if they were told that marketing is something only a rocket scientist can figure out.

First let me say I’m not exactly saying the 3 best practice items listed above are crap, I’m simply saying that they shouldn’t be IT.  Also, I’m in love with social media and believe it’s an insanely valuable tool, however 1. It was not my topic to discuss and 2. I also think that personal touch and those face to face human interactions through outreach marketing and resident appreciation events are valuable, and combining the 2 forms is fabulous! (Read Urbane Media’s QR Codes blog). But I’m not sure I believe you can be effective with social media if you don’t even know the basics of effective old school marketing tools. And if no one is teaching or motivating their team on the basics of marketing, then I doubt that there is any social media marketing in place anyway.

So I guess what I’d like to learn from this eye opening experience is: Am I way off base in believing that some old school marketing techniques are still a valuable tool in the industry? Is someone teaching your staff about marketing? Do you believe that one can effectively use social media tools without ever having learned/practiced old school marketing strategies?

Title courtesy of Melissa DeCicco

Photo credit bloggingoutloud

Filed Under: #apartmentmarketing, Apartment: Experience Marketing, Marketing, Mills Apartments Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Sales, or something like it

September 16, 2011 By 10 Comments
Sales

I have never been in a position where I get more cold calls than now.  I guess that is what happens in marketing.  I have to admit, I have been super busy and my patience level is incredibly short.  Probably the reason I have been furious lately when my phone rings.

However, some sales calls I get super excited about.  Here is my advice to sales people – not only in multifamily.  Some of them happen to apply to our leasing associates as well!

11 Sales No No’s.

(FYI, all of these things have happened to me in the last week or so)

  1. It’s about a relationship, stupid.  Please don’t be fake.
  2. Do not cold call me with no knowledge of my company or what we do.  At minimum, please use Google.
  3. I do not respond well to threats or super pushy marketing tactics like name dropping or insulting our current efforts.
  4. If we, or I, determine your product isn’t right for us (now or even in the future), don’t bully me to change my mind – that really ends the possibility of a future relationship.
  5. Don’t send pushy emails copying my superior, especially when I still don’t know why I should care about your product.
  6. Don’t request me on LinkedIn before we have had a positive conversation/interaction or any at all.
  7. Please be prepared.  I don’t want to wait on the phone for 2 minutes while you look for your earring back or listen to your uncomfortable pauses and sighs when you aren’t sure what to do next.
  8. NEVER ask me what we pay your competition for their services.   If you don’t know what your product is worth, I do – $0.
  9. Call a million times a day without saying why I should want to call you back, you will likely not get a call back if I have no clue why I am calling you.  Its super weird for me to call you and say “Hi this is Melissa, I have no idea why I am calling you but please, pretty please, sell me something.”
  10. By the way, NOT COOL, when I finally begin to try to have a conversation with you (warranted or not), that you berate me for taking so long to call you.  Give me a reason first and I will respond more quickly!
  11. This one is too hard to explain, so here is the actual email. Don’t do this, ever, and at least spell my name correctly!!!!!!!   I have never interacted with her (I think she left me some empty voicemails)…

“Haven’t given up Melisssa…

Certainly don’t want to be a  ”thorn in your side,” so I’ll try & make this as painless as possible.

Eager to know your level of interest in our training offerings. Please check an option, promise no hard feelings : )

___ YES, send me a FREE DVD  preview of  your latest & greatest training programs,  __customer  service __leadership

___ I prefer to preview online, set me up with a FREE demo with your web-based platform.

___ Training doesn’t fall under my umbrella, try contacting ___________________________.

___ My plate is more than full, better timing would be  ___later this year,  ___ early 2012,  ____ never darken my
doors again.”

 

The Best do these things.  Short and SIMPLE and it doesn’t waste my time or yours.

  1. Interact with our company on our social media platforms in a meaningful way (not name dropping your company), we like that and builds trust.
  2. Start conversations, not sales pitches.
  3. Be an expert in your field and help us when possible – without our business at first.
  4. Go the extra mile.
  5. Help our company and teams increase efficiency.
  6. Use email at first then move to the more personal phone call.  Refer to number 10 above.

Final Thought:

Above all else, do us all a favor, and LOVE what you do and what you are selling.  If you don’t, why should I?

 

Thank you for listening to my rant.  I really want to like sales people (I will always love ours though :) ), but for some reason only a limited few really get it.  Does your team?

I would love to hear that these things happen to other people, so please tell!

 

Filed Under: Property Management Tagged With: , , ,