Are you ready to kick off an apartment marketing strategy that requires more of a caring team effort than a big budget ? The affordable housing community is in a very unique position in that it has a defined target audience and specific parameters it must stick to when it comes to its marketing scope .
At the outset , this might seem like a disadvantage — but in reality , it allows your affordable housing marketing to focus on getting personal with messaging and connecting with prospective renters .
Provide your prospective renters with an apartment brand they will remember by utilizing your social media and apartment website to tell your community ’ s story .
Here is how to market affordable housing and the main components to a great strategy that prioritizes gaining new leads through connection :
1 . Tell Your Brand Story
Provide your prospective renters with an apartment brand they will remember by utilizing your social media and apartment website to tell your community ’ s story . This story doesn ’ t need to have a beginning , middle , and end or be some huge revelation — it just needs to help your affordable housing community stand out from the rest .
Your story can simply be the vision for your community , the commitment to the happiness of your renters , or whatever message you want to convey to people who virtually visit your property .
Where should you weave your story ? Everywhere — social posts , apartment website ( homepage , about us page , contact page , etc .), blogs , and if you can , ads .
If you have room in your budget for paid advertising , don ’ t be afraid to weave your story into your ads . In fact , 92 percent of consumers want brands to make ads that feel like a story . By following this , you can maximize the use of your budget — rather than wasting it on standard ads that don ’ t convert . Here are a few tips for storytelling in your online content :
• The goals of your story should be to create an emotional impact and be relatable to your target audience .
• Include as many specific details in your story as possible ; while this might seem counterintuitive , it ’ s proven that more specifics will appeal to a larger group of people than broader ones .
• Use videos of real people for sharing your story rather than only text .
• Create blogs with the main goal of connecting with readers and answering questions they may have — the writing does not have to be perfect , all that matters is the messaging .
2 . Don ’ t Just Tell — Show
Whenever someone comes to your website or social media , your main goal is to grab their attention quickly . On average , users look at a page for 15 seconds or less — this is how long you have to grab their attention .
The best way to do this is through photos and videos . The rate at which the brain processes images is 60 times faster than words . This means you are more likely to hook renters faster with images on your website rather than a lot of text .
As well , photos engage your viewers , give them an authentic look at what their possible new home has to offer and help them remember your community . In fact , if an image is paired with text , a user will remember 65 percent of the message three days later compared to 10 percent without it . Additionally , Papilios Real Estate Photography found that listings with good photography generated an average of 139 percent increase in clicks .
If hiring a photographer is out of the question due to budget and time constraints , we luckly live in an age where your average smartphone is equipped with a high-tech camera that can capture beautiful images . Ho wever , we do suggest investing in a point-and-shoot camera that will provide higher-quality images than a phone but is more budget-friendly than a professional photographer .
With a little research on how to create good lighting , you can take some pretty compelling photos of your property that will engage prospective renters . Here are a few quick tips for taking great property photos :
• Use as much natural light as possible
• Take photos from multiple different angles and positions www . aamdhq . org MAY 2021 TRENDS | 31