Lease Up Experts, I need some advice!!?

Hi Guys.

We at Show My Property Tv are re-working our Lease Up Package and I really wanted to hear from you on what you would love to see included or excluded. What are you main pain points around Lease Ups/New properties?

We offer a Photo-shoots, Social Media, Video and Virtual Reality. Our clients love having just one vendor for all of this.

How would you use this package? What else would you like to see? What would you rather not have?

Phase One options:

Social Media 1 to 2 months before opening to build excitement.
Virtual Reality - if a new build w/budget/Residents can immerse themselves in the apartment before anything is built.
Photoshoot 1 - as soon as there are enough amenities/parts of model to shoot.
Video 1. - Excitement building video, with partial built building, using actors for story telling. Short cuts for Social.

Building Finished.

Photo-shoot two. Final photos once everything is finished.
Continue to distribute content and updates on Social Media.
Video 2. Final lifestyle video for website and Social Media.

End package. Photos/Lifestyle Video/ Social Media audience and possible VR Tour.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!

From my perspective you have one big thing missing: email marketing. During that phase 1 process, I want to be building up a list of interested people so that I can reach them when the time is right. Yeah, connecting with them on social media is nice and all, but with that, I don't really own that relationship - I'm dependant on Facebook or whatever to communicate with them. But if I can get them into my list, I can establish that relationship and get them ready when we are.

I agree with the email marketing and we've actually seen this positively contribute to the lease up process for the very reasons you list. The numbers we're seeing show that this is one of the best marketing tools for ROI out there, especially for lease ups. Y

1. Lease ups can be a long process. Communities are good about getting website splash pages or landing pages up early on, but often times they either don't have a way to collect leads (or they do collect the leads, but struggle with what to do with them, and when). Email marketing is perfect for that. Most of the time the property management software systems aren't even in place early on when they're just starting to break ground on the development (so there's nowhere to "put" a guest card or to store the electronic guest card) and an email marketing system can be a great substitute for that until you're further along with the project and have some of those other tools in place. Email can help tell the story, not just of the progress going on with the development, but it can help create urgency, be used to reward early adopters and you can connect it to so many other things (like retargeting ads with social media).

2. Messaging! It's so important to keep your messaging (which obviously evolves with time as the project progresses) in front of your customers. Social is great for this, but with email you can automate it (because again, you usually either don't have formal staffing in place early on or it's a skeleton crew) and you can even segment your lists and customize your messaging, based on engagement, audience (prospect or neighborhood/business partner of the community), move timeframe, etc.

What I wouldn't recommend is just a blanket "email blast" that goes out to everyone on your list at the same time. Take some time to get the automation set up, the messaging and content perfected and those emails can absolutely help convert those early lookers into great residents when the time comes. They can also help weed out unqualified traffic early on, so your on-site team is only spending time with the people most likely to convert to a rental.

Email marketing is a lot of fun - happy to help with additional ideas or if want to brainstorm further, you're always welcome to reach out. I spent 15 years overseeing marketing efforts for numerous lease ups in markets across the county, including urban high rises, renovation/repositioned projects and suburban assets, for a variety of owners/investors and all with varying budgets and demographics. Best of luck!

I completely agree with using email marketing. I've found that using an email drip campaign is the best way to create an email marketing campaign. Hy.ly offers an awesome product that lets you set up targeted email campaigns that run autonomously. You can avoid the blanket email blast Kristi referred to but doesn't take up all of your employees' time. Here's the link if you are interested. hy.ly/multifamily-lifecycle-marketing/