Apartment Marketing Minute

Another Craigslist Test for MultiFamily Housing

beyondwineandcheese — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 21:21:23 +0000

With all Beyond Wine & Cheese Marketing ideas, we do a little experiment to make sure it’s successful, effective and worth your consideration in our library. So it is only natural that we created an HTML help-wanted ad to post on Craigslist when searching for a bookkeeper to join our team. Take a look at our test ad:

We’ve seen the possibilities when apartment managers post HTML ads for vacant units but we wondered about the job search category on Craigslist and how you might find a new leasing agent, maintenance director or landscaping crew. A quick cruise through job listings shows a lack of creativity and confirms our suspicions. Most folks haven’t considered using marketing themes to attract a new employee. Shouldn’t you put your best foot forward to snag the cream of the crop? Sure, but most ads today focus on what the candidate has to bring to the table and don’t do much to sell the job.

Beyond Wine & Cheese Marketing offers flexible scheduling, free parking, unlimited espresso drinks and a jeans-friendly atmosphere. That became our hook at the top of our ad. Who knew bookkeepers are a bunch that would respond to coffee and casual? More than 125 responses in three days says something good about our ad for a little part-time position.

Now it’s your turn to give it a shot and use your HTML ads with a focus on courting your next employee. Most Beyond Wine & Cheese members have crazy, fun amenities that most traditional workplaces can’t offer. Who wouldn’t want to work in a place with swimming pools, basketball courts, fireplaces and media rooms? Sell yourself and see who wants to work for you.

By the way, we found a great bookkeeper with years of property management experience. We’ll introduce you soon.

Your Next Apartment Resident Works Here

beyondwineandcheese — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:05:37 +0000

Remember that Generation Y renter you’re trying to attract to your apartment community? You know, the ones that are suppose to pull the multifamily industry out of a down market. We’re getting to know them.

Beyond Wine & Cheese Marketing has surrounded itself with young folks through our marketing internship program. If we’re being honest, this really is a fortunate byproduct of Jay’s (our CEO) passion for mentoring college students. But this program has given us a window into the world of Gen Y. And since there’s a lot of speculation in the apartment industry about this demographic and what we need to do to turn them into good renters, we’ve begun to look at our business protégés in a different light.

Let’s first get this clear: These people are sharp. Be ready for residents who have initiative and think fast on their feet. They have experience traveling abroad, winning national competitions and organizing charity events. If all you know about this age group is video games and texting, you might be in trouble. Let’s just say it’s time to get on your toes and make sure your leasing staff measures up to the challenge of this resourceful group.

By the way, if you’ve ever wondered who writes our blog, No More Homemade Flyers, it’s one of our savvy marketing interns. Thanks Cate.

In the Trenches with Guerilla Apartment Marketing

beyondwineandcheese — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:25:29 +0000

Chestnut Hill Village Apartments, an AIMCO multifamily community just outside of Philadelphia, found a smart way to get residents working together on a project to make a charity donation. Events Coordinator Christine Gaddie told us about one of her successes with the food drive she called FILL A CART FOR A NEIGHBOR IN NEED. For in-your-face visual impact, the marketing team at Chestnut Hill Village used an actual grocery cart donated by a local supermarket to build a display in the clubhouse.
Christine says the marketing campaign was chosen from the library at Beyond Wine & Cheese Marketing, posters for the leasing office and door hangers for each apartment, featuring a photograph of a shopping cart and the FILL A CART headline.
“We promoted the event to our residents and prospects with collateral and had a huge result. Our residents responded enthusiastically to fill the cart with nonperishable food items which were donated to the local food bank.”
Setting the promotion time line to last 30 days gave both residents and prospects a chance to donate and watch the grocery cart begin to overflow with food. And, the promotion came at a time when food banks were in the news headlines due to a shortage of supplies. Tapping into this current event allowed Chestnut Hill Village to benefit from the positive public relations that comes from being a good neighbor in a time of need.
The team at Illumina on Lake Union, an Epic Asset Management multifamily community, filled a different need by hosting a School Supply Drive. Manager Amber Dunlop distributed posters inviting residents to add pencils, paper and crayons to the cardboard collection bins for the neighborhood schools. Amber says the main goal was to help students in need but the leasing staff at Illumina Apartments found a hidden benefit: a valuable new outreach relationship with the school district, one of the largest employers in their zip code.
Have you noticed the common denominator in the Illumina on Lake Union and Chestnut Hill Village apartment promotions? Both are examples of guerilla marketing at it’s finest, the kind that doesn’t use up a line item in the budget. By using a donated cart display and cardboard collection bins, this apartment marketing opportunity was free.

Start Collecting Words For Your Apartment Collage

beyondwineandcheese — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:15:31 +0000

We are collectors of words.

Remember when you were in elementary school and you made a collage out of magazine clippings? Most likely you were given a pair of scissors and a glue stick with instructions to find interesting pictures, words or phrases that describe you. This simple process still works in today’s marketing projects.

Yesterday we collected three words: Vibe, Zone and Attitude. Chances are you’ll see one of these words show up soon in a catchy new slogan on a campaign in your Beyond Wine & Cheese Marketing library.

We’ll keep collecting words (Chill, Simplified and Prime) to get you started with snazzy headlines and subheads on your advertising campaigns. But we need you to do your part by grabbing a notepad and pencil while surrounding yourself with interesting books, magazines, blogs, articles and conversations. Your interactive text fields will begin to sing when you collect descriptive words that speak to your demographic.

Ignore the temptation to write fa-la-la romance text you’ve seen before in the apartment industry. Collect only smart, savvy words that are worthy of your collage.

You Said You’re a Pet Friendly Apartment Community

beyondwineandcheese — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:13:58 +0000

Here’s a quick case study on what it means to be a pet-friendly business.

Hooverville, a local Seattle bar, is best known for the mounds of fresh peanut shells strewn across the floor. Another cool thing that adds to it’s excellent vibe is the unusual, and welcoming pet policy. Rather than simply allowing dogs though, Hooverville actually demonstrates a real affection for four-legged customers. When the bartender serves your bowl of peanuts, Fido gets his own bowl of doggie snacks. And when your cocktail is served, your pooch is treated to a bowl of fresh water.

So, we ask this question: Is your community really pet friendly? Or, do you simply allow pets? We polled BWAC member apartment communities and found a few great examples of honest-to-goodness four-legged friendly apartments:

-pet treats in new resident welcome packages

-dog walking services

-mobile, on site grooming days

-pet pictures on Facebook fan page

-pet socials and gatherings

-supply discounts at local stores

-rooftop bark park

Make some new marketing today that demonstrates why you are truly a pet-friendly community. Start with the words Pets Make Purrr…fect Neighbors and fill in the blanks.

In Multifamily Management, It’s Got To Be SaaS

beyondwineandcheese — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 23:38:56 +0000

You may think of Beyond Wine & Cheese Marketing as a website that hosts a virtual library of apartment campaigns, but technically we are a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company. You should know a few things about this technology and why it’s essential for managing your multifamily community in today’s environment:

A fully managed SaaS platform requires no new hardware or software on your part.

It supports anytime, anywhere access through the web.

You no longer need to spend thousands of dollars and too many hours on internal IT management.

The host maintains a large-scale, secure infrastructure.

Product updates are automatic.

As a small business, Beyond Wine & Cheese Marketing operates many of our own processes through other SaaS companies:

emma.com: the service BWAC uses to manage email marketing campaigns and send customers the Mid-Week Marketing Minute every Wednesday

salesforce.com: the customer relationship management website our team relies on to track leads, prospects and sales data

rapidfax: email fax service without a clunky machine. Our fax number: (866.531.0720)

zuora: automated recurring billing for subscription payments and the source for the BWAC Marketing cheerful invoices

Marketing through a web-based platform allows multifamily companies to manage multiple sites from one marketing source while reacting to market conditions on any given day. The Beyond Wine & Cheese Marketing SaaS business model lets us quickly offer new technology (such as HTML output for Craigslist postings) and stream new weekly additions to the campaign library. We think business is moving too fast to wait for anything less than instant.

The Most Well-Read Apartment Newsletter Ever

beyondwineandcheese — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:55:34 +0000

With an abundance of information at our fingertips, most people are selective of the news sources that win their time and attention. So we asked the question, “Are apartment newsletters making it to the top of the list?”.

The short answer: Readership depends on the newsworthiness of the content.

We propose that most residents get their life tips, parenting advice and recipes from other experts. What is the expertise of community managers? We think it’s selling the value of amenities and benefits of living in the community and your monthly newsletter is the vehicle to sell the renewal. It’s one more way to continually remind residents they made the right choice when they leased with you.

That means apartment newsletters need to keep customer service, great staff and property amenities in the spotlight. Amenities and features only have value if the customer remembers them and perceives them as a good thing. Go ahead, we give you permission to use your newsletter to toot your own horn.

Toot this: Statistics show people trust words from their peers, or people most like them. Do you have testimonials to share? Collect positive comments and publish them often.

Toot that: Highlight industry awards or education designations your staff achieves. What seminars, training and business events lend to your professional management style? What interesting things are employees doing? Creating a sense of community means residents need to know who is running the place. With a multimillion dollar asset on the line, it’s always important to release information that says, “We are professionally managed with a team of experts behind us.”

In addition to resident retention, an apartment newsletter can relieve some of your management headaches. If you think your residents haven’t read their lease since signing day (and they haven’t, we guarantee it) take a proactive approach to policies and rules. You already know the most common offenses, questions and seasonal problems that are bound to happen, so nip them in the bud early and save yourself some grief later.

Is your calendar grid blank? If it only lists the rent due date and pest control appointments then you can answer yes to this question. Columns or paragraph formats may work better to talk about news residents need to know: community events and neighborhood happenings, changes in office hours, inclement weather notices, landscape changes, upcoming inspections, seasonal reminders, city and state regulations. Consider tapping into a local newspaper, television station, or chamber of commerce website for a wealth of newsworthy happenings.

Well, there you have it, the long answer. Simply make sure your property management newsletter is filled with thoughtful, relevant content to your community and it’s sure to make it to the top of the list.

We Saw What You Did on Facebook

beyondwineandcheese — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:00:16 +0000

We’ve made a lot of new friends this month. And, it was worth every invitation so we could study 700+ apartment community Facebook pages from all across the country! There’s ample evidence that you can advertise your apartment community on Facebook, however it must be a very personal look at social aspects, lifestyle and neighborhood.

Remember, this isn’t Craigslist. Closing techniques are not needed here, instead this an outlet for resident retention and to let prospects get a feel for your sense of community.

Residents already know about your sparkling pool. Create a resource for community news and personal stories they may not know.

Residents should be reflected. Neighborhood should be reflected. Professional Management should be reflected.

Post what your residents want to know. Share information, such as apartment events and lifestyle photos, they will “Like”.

Engage with your fans. Create contests and “first to know” announcements that involve the community. Use Facebook clues for a scavenger hunt.

Promote Your Fan Page. Publicize the URL with community campaigns to residents, in the signature lines of emails and a link from your website.

Your apartment community is not a person. Fan pages are meant for businesses.

You know how to give a physical tour and walk prospects down the path to the model unit. It’s time to figure out how to do the same thing via the internet with a focus on resident life.

Designer Julie has created a Facebook Invitation to help apartment communities gather fans. When we load it online, BWAC Facebook fans will be the first to know. Are you in the loop?

Facebook is your Apartment Community’s Social Tour

beyondwineandcheese — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:49:36 +0000

Today, we have a guest blogger. Please enjoy this post from Chad Miller, National Sales Director Beyond Wine & Cheese Marketing:

First off do you have a personal Facebook account? Think about the reason you use it. The perfect example of why I like Facebook can be found in my friend Toni Blake. Toni and I have talked at trade shows, conferences, on the phone, and traded emails. In those professional interactions I learned a lot about Toni and began to like her as a person. But the deal was sealed when we befriended each other on Facebook. I learned a bit about her husband and was instantly attracted to the two of them and their climbing adventures. I love to climb mountains and now have a great personal connection to Toni. I can’t wait to run into her again!

So what can Facebook do for your apartment community? When a prospect comes to visit your multifamily community for a tour you establish your professional relationship. Give them a professional brochure, community info, leasing terms, pricing, etc. But if you give them your Facebook address and ask that they connect when they get home-this is your shot to get that personal connection!

Ensure your apartment community Facebook fan page has a history of your great resident events with pictures, event flyers both past and in the future, and connections to residents & other great local business. Use your Facebook page to tell who you are as a community. Make it fun and full of info. Connect to all your residents so you can deliver their newsletter via the internet, inform them of outreach deals, of upcoming parties, and of things going on in your greater neighborhood. If you do it right that prospect will envision a fun life living with you.

Yes, There is a Solution to Traditional Pull-Tab Fliers!

beyondwineandcheese — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:13:42 +0000

Eureka, she did it! A couple weeks ago we challenged one of our graphic designers to come up with a new, improved version of the pull-tab flyer.

You know the ones we’re talking about, fliers you see on bulletin boards with tabs of telephone numbers across the bottom. Members ask us for these all the time. However, it’s just not the style of Beyond Wine & Cheese Marketing to see ragged, torn off remnants on one of our creations.

Designer Jenny took on the task and quickly broke the code. Here it is … the savvy, updated version of pull tab fliers!

Avery #73720 Self-Adhesive Business Card Holders – 10 pack

Grab a pack of these 3.5″ x 2″ plastic sleeves and load your community business cards into the slot at the top. Then, use the adhesive strip on the back of the sleeve to adhere it to any of our Poster formats. Voila, instant bulletin board marketing deserving of your multi-million dollar asset.

Thanks, Jenny, you rock!