Your multifamily marketing team needs to work hard for you
Keeping apartments filled and residents happy is more than a full-time job, right? You have enough to worry about without adding marketing stress to your plate. You need a multifamily marketing team that will do most of that heavy lifting for you.
Whether you hire internal staff members or outsource your marketing, or both, you should look for these four factors in the team you choose:
Experience
General marketing and social media experience is a great start, but the best multifamily marketers understand the renter’s journey. They will understand how to connect with potential renters and existing residents in a way that meets people’s deeper needs for:
- Safety and security
- Community and connection
- Comfort and ease of living
- Recreation, entertainment and fun
- Identity, purpose and lifestyle
- Support around work, child care, pet care and more
Marketing to someone searching for a new home requires a delicate touch and a deep understanding of what motivates people. The prettiest brochure won’t work if it doesn’t share the right message.
This property management company expands on the importance of an emotional connection with renters:
“The role emotions play while we’re making decisions is often misunderstood. On one hand, we are taught that logic and reason should trump emotion, while on the other, our emotions tell us otherwise. Studies have proven that humans have an emotional connection with a person or place and as a landlord, it is your job to create a positive connection with your tenants. Understanding their emotions will give you space and leeway while communicating with them.”
In addition to approaching the work with an eye toward lifestyle marketing, your team should also have strong design and copywriting skills. They need to create complete packages that tell visual and verbal stories that resonate. So, look for both technical skills and soft, people skills when hiring the right marketing person or team.
Fresh Ideas
Next, you need people who can generate new ideas that won’t get stale. Relying on the same old messages or tactics and expecting new results won’t help your property meet its goals.
That said, your marketing team needs enough industry knowledge and savvy to know what works. New and different ideas are only effective if they have the right strategy behind them.
Plus, any new idea needs to align with an overall brand identity and strategy. Your team should be able to create that bigger branding strategy before creating new messaging or diving into a new marketing trend.
Nimble Thinking
The best multifamily marketing teams also know when to flex. That doesn’t mean chasing all the shiny objects, but awareness of what’s new and hot will help. Maybe you don’t need to be on all the latest social media sites (trust us, you don’t), but you might need to join the conversation on one site.
Your team should also have the ability to meet people where they are. While many of your potential renters might be surfing Instagram or TikTok, even more will be using search engines to find you initially. Your marketing strategy should ensure that you have clean, clear placement in all the places where people might search for apartments.
Finally, your marketing team needs to tend to your existing residents. Creative approaches to community hubs, email and text communication, and on-site events and interactions can go a long way toward retaining residents and encouraging referrals.
Collaborative Approach
As property manager, your experience and skill will become invaluable assets to your marketing team. Any good marketing team will work in collaboration with property managers, leasing staff and others on the team who can share key insights and perspectives about what resonates within your community.
This LinkedIn writer sums up the mix of hard and soft skills that every marketing team must have:
“Modern marketers combine operational and data skills while applying business strategy. Today’s marketer must be tech-savvy, data proficient, customer-centric, collaborative, and strategic. The ‘soft skills’ remain as the base. But these ‘hard skills’ in CRM and general technology, plus modern marketing strategies, are the foundation for any career in marketing now.”
You should look for people who know how to generate conversation and draw out the best thinking from the rest of the team. With that knowledge in hand, your marketing team can then run with the creative design, branding and marketing tactics that they do so well.
Looking for a collaborative and fresh approach to your multifamily marketing? Reach out to us for an introductory call. Our team represents years of multifamily-specific experience and we provide design, branding and marketing to meet all your needs.