Chris Arnold, Co-Founder of Authentic, and Natalie Linan, Director of Marketing for Black Field Management, join me this week to share apartment marketing trends in 2023 that you need to know. This is part two of our Marketing Masters Series.

We’re winding down 2019 (like, what?? How did this happen so quickly?) and as we always say at Sprout, this is not the time of year to take your foot off the gas, but rather keep going and finish the year strong.

We know that the end of the year can feel even more busy than usual but we don’t want you to neglect planning for this last month of the year. In fact, this is a great time to celebrate creative holidays with your residents while they’re already in the mood to celebrate. This season is also a great time to get out there and do some outreach marketing around your community. 

If you want to make your marketing efforts as easy as possible, while still being effective, then these done-for-you bundles in our Sprout Shop is the way to go. Couple those bundles with a FREE download of our Creative Holiday Calendar and you’re GOLDEN for the rest of the year.

Black Friday is right around the corner and who says that stores are the only ones that get to take advantage of this huge marketing monster? We have an entire Black Friday collection that will no doubt be able to catch the attention of all the right people. Why would you want to jump on the Black Friday bandwagon? Well… think about it. When Black Friday rolls around it’s like a switch flips and people are in the mood to spend shop and spend money. Since people are more willing and open to spending money, they are more receptive to marketing for it. They are looking for the sales promotions. Whoa, did you miss that? They are LOOKING for the sales. That means for once your prospects are actively looking for marketing that is letting them know about sales and are more inclined to take action. If that doesn’t make you want to jump up and happy dance, I don’t know what will!!

It’s no surprise that attention spans today aren’t what they used to be. Studies say that in 1920 the average attention span was 20-minutes. Today? Eight seconds...the same as a goldfish. As a property manager trying to market your apartment community, this fact should stop you in your tracks. Breaking through the noise of day to day life is a real challenge. Twenty years ago, we were just trying to stand out from the competition with nice curb appeal and a good photo in our For Rent ad. But today’s online world has created a new set of complicated problems for apartment marketers. Your community is no longer just competing with other communities. You are competing with EVERYTHING for your customer’s attention.

Most managers would agree that a proactive marketing approach is ideal, still the large majority default to a reactive approach. Why? Often, managers start with the best of intentions to have a well-crafted marketing plan but then things happen onsite that take away our focus. Mid-month they can find themselves with dipping occupancy, unaccounted for skips, or a lower renewal rate than anticipated. In the shock and misunderstanding a hail mary is thrown in hopes it will correct all the missed goals. But let’s be honest, does the hail mary ever work?

Being a property manager is a rewarding career, but it can have it's rough days. Especially when that day consists of dealing with resident complaints. How you handle complaints can either build that resident loyalty that you want, or it can break their trust. Read our sneak peak of our webinar with Rommel Anacan where he'll teach you a step-by-step method for positively dealing with complaints.

Ever have a really big idea and then realize… oops…. You don’t actually have time to make it happen? Maybe you had the best marketing initiative planned but then that to-do list got the best of the day and you just weren’t able to make it happen. We feel you. Time-starved property managers are spread thin and often times it feels like there’s no help in sight which can have such add to the already overwhelming feeling you have on the daily, am I right? We’ve heard this same scenario from property managers all over the US and decided that Sprout can do more to help. So we did! We now have done-for-you bundles in our Sprout Shop that you can purchase and then have the pre-made bundles shipped directly to your door.

Truth time: A lot of on-site apartment marketing is done for the sake of doing something (anything) or to simply appease a corporate requirement. When we approach marketing like this, it tends to lack clarity when it comes to defining the marketing objectives. The result? A big belly flop. 👎

A lot of time, energy and money are spent on apartment marketing. Most of it (sigh) doesn’t work. 

After working with thousands of multifamily professionals, we’ve seen some patterns emerge. So today we are breaking it down and identifying the top FOUR flaws in apartment marketing…and the way to fix them.

When resident events are a hit, boy they are a HIT and it makes your property manager heart beam with pride, right? It’s when resident events are…less than stellar, that we get discouraged and start to wonder what we can do differently to ramp up the attendance. We’re here to tell you some tips on how to do just that!

If you haven’t heard already, this month is better breakfast month! This is a fun monthly theme that you can use to create unique resident events and outreach initiatives, but it’s also the perfect month to push your community’s health and wellness facilities. If you’re a community that is in an area of town where fitness is the new fad, or if you have an on-site workout space that would make Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson drool, now is the perfect time to show it off! 

As a property manager, leasing agent, or really any role we have in life there always seems to be an over abundance of to-do lists that need to be finished, items to be bought, and projects that need to be finished. With all that going on at once it can be hard to keep everything straight. Sprout has tons of resources to make your life easier. (One of our favs is the Daily Dose ideas our members rave about.) BUT, did you know that we also have other printable resources you can use to help keep your life organized?!