In this episode I have a conversation with multifamily hall of fam-er Mark Hurley. Mark talks about the importance of other people’s influence on your core values and how you carry those with you throughout your personal and business life. He also talks about the importance of genuinely caring for people in our industry, as well as life in general. If you’ve felt bogged down and uninspired in where you are in your career, this is the episode you need to listen to.

Social media marketing is hard to tackle and can be overwhelming for property managers and real estate professionals to manage. Everyone knows they should be using it but how to use it is a different story. In this episode, Barbara discusses ways to simplify your social media efforts while still getting the results you want. We answer all the big questions like when to post, where to post, and other content creation tips and tricks for social media marketing.

Marketing your apartment community or your real estate business can be a real challenge. In today’s Marketing Home, Marketing You episode we uncover the top four marketing mistakes made in 2019 and we show simple ways to fix them in 2020. Fixing these four mistakes will lead to huge gains in time, energy and return on your investments. Tune in.

If you’re a part of the Sprout Community in any way then you know that we just released some BIG news and our new project has finally launched! Our new podcast called Marketing Home, Marketing You is now available for all you awesome peeps to dive into. Our CEO, Barbara Savona, being the lifelong learner that she is, launched this podcast out of a passion for creating content that is easy to consume while still being jammed packed with education and value for the listeners. This podcast was born out of a desire to create a space where all housing professionals can come and discuss all things marketing, business growth, and career development. Seriously, ALL housing professionals - multifamily, student housing, senior housing, affordable, brokerage, real estate. 

There’s something so exciting about January. Everyone seems a little extra inspired this time of year and encouraged to make steps towards their goals. There’s an optimism in the air that you just don’t get any other time of year. People setting New Year’s resolutions should inspire your team to see how you can meaningfully contribute to helping your residents and prospects achieve their goals. Seth Godin, Master Marketer and Author, speaks about how important it is for companies and brands to have a meaningful impact on people's transformation. That’s where real connections happen. 

In this episode of Marketing Home, Marketing You, you’ll get to know your host, Barbara Savona. Throughout this podcast she’ll help you navigate the ins and outs of marketing your apartment community, real estate property, and career development. Learn Barbara’s background in the industry, how she built Sprout Marketing with her BFF Lauren Emmot, and more fun facts! Be sure to tune in.

The new year is coming up and if you’re anything like me, it has you looking back at the year and reflecting on what went well and what went…not so well. When you’re in that state of reflection, don’t let it pass without taking the time to use that information to your advantage. At Sprout, we use the KISS method to reflect on things we’ve done to see how we can improve the next time around. What we love so much about this method is that it doesn’t take long to complete and once it’s implemented, you’re able to see real, positive changes. All you have to do is reflect on the event or situation and think about what you want to Keep, what you want to Improve on, what you want to Stop doing, and what you want to Start doing.

Do your residents know how much you appreciate them? It’s so important to show them that you are grateful they picked your community to make their home. It's easy to lose a little steam as the year is winding down. It's like our bodies and minds want to go into hibernation mode! But we can't let our marketing and retention go into hiding. Have you ever heard it said, "Summer bodies are made in the winter"? It's the same thing with our communities. The work we do in the winter months pays off all year round, so don't stop hustling!  

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.

Let’s face it, property managers are some of the busiest people on the planet. And while you’d love to think you can do it all (and sometimes you try), you simply don’t have time for overly complicated marketing and retention plans. Most marketing never even makes it out the door because it’s too time consuming to execute. 

Creating an environment in your office that makes you and your employees feel emotionally and mentally supported is more important than you might think. Our webinar with Amy Kosnikowski Dilisio is going to show you just how important it is, but also give you tips and tools on how to create the ideal environment for your office.

We always get so excited when a new month rolls around (even if they seem to be rolling around faster and faster). A new month means a new Sprout Marketing Calendar full of brand new ideas for you to get new residents and keep those awesome ones you already have! The October calendar and the Daily Dose ideas for this month have allllll the Fall vibes and we are loving it because, let’s be honest, we’re melting here in Texas and we can’t wait for cooler weather.

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!