How a company goes about generating commerce is commerce marketing—making the connection between the product (apartment units) and sales (leases signed).

How can you achieve this with multifamily communities?

Online, activate the brand using the community website. Align it fully with your brand's visual and verbal identity, and make sure that it's consistent across channels so your prospects recognize and trust you.

In person, activate the brand in the physical spaces of your community with branded signage, interior design/art, and printed collateral. Your move-in guides, welcome packets, and clubhouse lobby should all feel cohesive. (This is where your prospects are deciding whether to sign the lease.) And if you're under construction, fence banners, leasing trailer banners, and "Coming Soon" signs near intersections are all part of it!

The best way to be top of mind for your prospects is through proving your usefulness. Engage your prospective residents with content that they want to have. This could look like tips on moving, furnishing small spaces, how to keep up with a young professional lifestyle, and plenty of neighborhood "hit lists".

Brands that feel more relevant to their target audience have likely created useful content. This can be accomplished through timely blog posts, creative social media, and email newsletters. If you want your brand to be sought-after, make yourself useful.

(Likewise, if you want your brand to be recognizable, be consistent across your channels with brand voice and tone.)

"And how did that make you feel?" is no longer just a line reserved for therapists addressing their clients. It could now appear in a post-marketing experience survey.

Create events that prompt residents and prospects to take action. When residents can interact with the brand through an in-person community event, your brand has the opportunity to make a lasting impression.

By hosting neighborhood pop-up events (like a volunteer sign-up fair for local nonprofits!) you can show off the community's friendly, neighborly spirit. Other ideas, like fitness classes or food truck gatherings can bring your community together and create a stronger feeling of connectedness. If community is part of your brand, plan to prioritize these types of events.

P.S. Bonus points if it's "instagram-worthy" with decor or giveaways—that could get you more traction with the next brand activation tactic.

While this idea of "influencers" is a bit polarizing, it's still a way to connect on an emotional level with your prospects and residents—because it's deeply human.

Real residents can be your brand advocates. By using their testimonials to make content, you can step to the side and let their experience speak volumes. Choose your most loyal, satisfied residents to help you with this.

Pro-tip: Try partnering with Rentgrata. They enable residents to share their experiences directly with prospects. Creating transparency and access is a huge step toward trust and loyalty (and future brand ambassadors).

Everyone loves a deal. Costco gives out samples. Grocery stores mail coupons. B2C companies create sweepstakes: "Win a $15,000 home makeover!"

But how can multifamily brands better activate using promotions? Time it right. Create incentives and special offers that promote your community before you think you need to. Use promotions to activate earlier and with more frequency. For example, for pre-leasing, drive urgency: "If you're the first to reserve a new unit, you get a $150 gift card!"

Again: everyone loves to get more for less—so if you create a promotion, try it through multiple channels and see what sticks. This could be time-based (lease by the end of October and get one month free rent!) or referral based: "Tell a friend, and get a $200 gift card when they sign a 12-month lease."

Run the promotions through direct mail, social media ads, email campaigns (or newsletters) and through digital display ads.

Generally, once your promotion has run its course, your prospect should feel happy enough with the value they received that they will want to stay. The promotion is the way to get them (or their friend) in the door.

The human element of marketing cannot be underestimated. Your leasing agents are the bread and butter of your brand—the original brand ambassadors.

Each interaction, each phone call, each tour—they all add up into a total brand experience. Every positive interaction with a prospect is an opportunity to build up your brand on a human connection (sometimes in person) and solidify in actuality the culture you've built in theory.

This looks like: training leasing staff to understand your mission, vision and values—particularly as it relates to customer service, and personal touches during tours, follow-ups, and resident events.

What does multifamily brand activation look like in the real world? It's likely less complicated than you think.

An excellent brand + marketing strategy = brand activation

For example, an urban luxury community could create a pre-leasing landing page and set up a targeted influencer campaign at the same time. Create a brand, then create buzz.

Or, a community in the suburbs might focus on experiential marketing through hosting monthly resident events. By showing off their resident events on their website and social channels, it helps residents feel connected through the events and develops excitement for prospects.

Brand activation should be continuous. Just as you wouldn't (or shouldn't) take too long a pause from updating your social media feeds, you shouldn't assume that your brand will remain top of mind without consistent marketing. Continue to engage prospects and residents so your brand maintains its status and keeps your leasing pipeline running smoothly.