Pet lovers are a breed all their own! We treat our pets as if they are children, definitely a part of our family. When we search for a new home, we naturally want to be sure our pets are happy and healthy.

If your community is a pet-loving community but you aren’t marketing to pet lovers, you may be missing a HUGE opportunity to share the benefits of your community.

Where are you advertising?

If your community is a pet-loving community, consider where you are advertising. Did you know that Dogster.com reaches more than 7 million monthly pet owners with over 200 million ad views? Advertising on Dogster and Catster is an excellent opportunity to spread the word about your community.

What kind of pet promo’s are you using?

Here are a few ideas for pet-lover promo items – contact your printer for details and imprinting costs:

1. Dog Bag Holder – attach to leash or belt loop; refillable container (approximately $1.65 each)
2. Collapsible Water Bowl – collapses flat to stow or transport; attaches to backpack or belt buckle (approximately $2.65 each)
3. Doggie Pawdometer – attach to pet collar to track pet exercise (approximately $2.85 each)

Is your apartment community pet-friendly but you don’t have a pet walk?

Fresh Patch is an interesting concept for your community. Each patch is 16″ x 24″ of living grass and accommodates a dog up to 25 lbs. for one week. Because the grass is alive, it naturally absorbs urine and helps minimize odors. The scent of living grass will attract dogs and puppies.

Here are 3 ideas for your community:

1. Contact Fresh Patch and check for resell opportunities.
2. Create an indoor pet walk using Fresh Patch.
3. Give a patch to a new resident to help their pets adjust to the move.

Even if your community has a pet walk, this is a great idea for new puppies, elderly dogs or even owners that may be late getting home from work. If it is raining or late at night, this will provide a convenient solution.

Another solution for accidents is, you guessed it, the Pee Keeper! This is an alternative to doggie diapers that leak or won’t stay on; an escape-proof solution! From 5-35 lbs. the Pee Keeper will stop those puppy messes and marking issues. In fact, I’ll be ordering one of these for my Odie! So, if you have a resident with an issue, you now have some very helpful advice to share.

The best part is that these solutions will help reduce accidents on your communities carpets and floors!

Is your community safe for pets in the winter?

When the ice gets thick at your community, are you using salt and chloride based melters? When furry residents get the salt on their paws, which can irritate them. The salt and chloride solutions are also tracked back into their homes to upset pet tummies or damage flooring.

Show your furry residents you care about their health and use a completely safe solution, Morton’s Safe-T-Pet. It is also more safe for people, plants and paved surfaces.

What if a pet dies at your community?

When a member of the family dies, it is tragic and heart breaking. When a pet dies, there is some confusion as to how to honor the remains of their loved one. What I recently learned is that pet (and human) remains are not good for the environment due to their sodium content.

Let Your Love Grow  is a biodegradable and recyclable solution that allows the pet owner to create a living memorial of their loved one. From a flower to a tree, when remains are combined with the Let Your Love Grow memorial, the cremated remains convert the inactive minerals, phosphorous and calcium into active plant nutrients.

When someone at your community loses a pet, let them know that their loved one can live on in their home.

Other Pet Lover Ideas

Have you ever heard of the *LeashLocket?  It is an innovative creation designed to make sure your pet always has a leash handy. The light-weight, compact, retractable leash attaches to the dog collar and unsnaps to extend 6 feet. I tried this out on my own dog and it worked well!

Here’s why I liked it: The leash snapped on to Luna’s collar so that when she wanted to run all I had to do was snap it to her. Then, when I was ready to take her home, all I had to do was unsnap the LeashLocket and pull it away from her, towards me. Everything fits nicely in the palm of my hand, so I don’t have this big clunky bar against my knuckles and have the freedom to move around in any direction. This would make a great resident gift!

Has a resident ever lost a pet at your community? Would you like to try a unique pet resident gift? Try Pet QR tags. Each tag has it’s own web address and matching QR code engraved into the tag. There is no monthly subscription fee, anyone can scan the tag in the event your furry resident is lost. When I spoke to a representative, they mentioned bulk discounts.

Congratulations to our Winner of the Pet Gift Box!

CBrewton writes, “I love my dog and South Beach Apartments LOVES ALL DOGS!  WE have no breed or weight restrictions so we focus on joining “bully breed” groups and spreading the word on how we accept all dogs, big or small!”

Congratulations CBrewton! Thank you for participating!

- Charity 

Would you like to WIN?

If you’re reading this blog post, you have an opportunity to win a pet gift box! To be entered into the random drawing, all you have to do is 2 simple things:

A. “Like” our new Facebook page (This is a new page, click to confirm you’ve “liked” it)
B. Comment below or on the Socially Engaged Marketing Facebook page and tell us which of these products or ideas you like the best (or) share another product or idea AND include the words “I love my dog!”

On October 31st we will go through all of the entries and place all of the names in the random drawing. Winner will be announced on this blog on October 31st and shared on Facebook and Twitter. Note: If you do not want your name shared on Facebook or Twitter, please do not enter the contest.

Here are a 14 things included in the pet gift box:

1. Pink LeashLocket (used once for the review on this blog) for dogs up to 90 lbs.
2. Black Eukanuba portable/collapsable water dish
3. Pink & White Eukanuba Bandanna
4. Fall 2011 Issue of Modern Dog Magazine
5. Pet Drink Squeeze water bottle
6. Green and Blue pet waste bag dispenser with travel clamp (Barkworld logo imprinted)
7. Nylabone treats (corn and wheat free)
8. Nylabone chew (or keychain)
9. Natural Balance dog food sample and dish
10. Evo dog food sample
11. NutriDent Extra Fresh dog chew
12. Free PetHub SmartLink tag and 20% off subscription coupon
13. $5 off Eukanuba dry dog food coupons (4)
14. $10 off BestFriends Pet Care Service

*Disclaimer: I received a free LeashLocket for trial and review and am donating it to the gift box for the random drawing. 

Marketing Your Community to Pet Lovers originally appeared on Socially Engaged Marketing on October 16, 2011.

During the Brainstorming presentation: All-Time Greatest Strategies, Tools, Resources and Results we shared 122 new or unique ideas. My Brainstorming Ideas series is almost over! Of 10 ideas, today I am sharing number nine.

Mobile application advertising is gaining momentum. eMarketer explains that mobile ads are 6x’s as effective as standard banners!  And according to Mashable, in-app ads perform 11.4 times better than banner ads, making them almost as effective as search ads!

Have you considered making your ad fun?

Make iPhone and Android Apps FUN!

The Westin created this game-like ad to run inside the Weather Channel iPhone application. If the location searched was experiencing cold weather, the ad would appear to the user. The user would play the game of wiping the frost away to reveal 8 Westin locations in warm climates!

Mobile app ad rates depend on the application. Creating a game-like app is a little more expensive due to hiring an application developer, making these options are more practical for large property management groups.

Here are a few ideas for apps apartment communities could research advertising within:

1. Fandango
2. Urban Spoon
3. Yelp

Brainstorming Idea #9: Mobile App Advertising originally appeared on Socially Engaged Marketing on October 9, 2011.

Presenting: Social Marketing Strategies that Work during MultifamilyPro’s
Brainstorming Sessions 2010 in Dallas, TX.

The turnout was awesome! Everyone came to learn what social strategies are working for apartment communities nationwide. Below are a few key take-aways:

• Cute pet and refer-a-fan Facebook contests are very successful.
• Often, you don’t have to afford your prizes. Ask your local community to make donations for your next Facebook contest.
• Make it a habit to place ALL of your resident events on Facebook and ask for RSVP’s.
• Consider adding a lead generation tool to your Facebook fan page to drive more leads to your community!
• Don’t forget, if you’re posting a coupon on Facebook to accept that coupon on a mobile device. Printing is so “old school!”
• Respond as soon as possible to comments made on Facebook and Twitter, treat social sites like you would the telephone.

Feel free to browse through or download the presentation below. I was honored to have this presentation highlighted on SlideShare‘s home page for about a week. To-date it has been viewed by over 3,000 people  and downloaded over 400 times world-wide! If you have any questions, feel free to comment below or connect with me on my Facebook page.

Social Media Marketing Strategies that Work 2010 (for the Multifamily/Apartment Industry)

Congratulations to Valerie Fertitta, Regional Property Manager with Greystar and Gerry Hunt! Valerie won the Flip camera and Gerry won the $50 AMEX card in the random drawing. (Prizes awarded were provided by ApartmentFinder.)

Thank you note from Valerie, Flip Winner

If you haven’t attended MultifamilyPro’s Brainstorming Sessions, you’re really MISSING OUT! We’d love to see you next year!

Social Marketing Strategies That Work originally appeared on Socially Engaged Marketing on October 5, 2010.

I attended the 2010 Brainstorming presentation (in Dallas, Texas) by the co-founder of  the classified listings site, Oodle. Craig Donato presented on Friday, September 17th in a small room filled with apartment industry professionals including property managers, leasing agents, and “supplier partners” like RentWiki, Apartment Finder, Ellipse, and 4Walls.

The seminar was expected to be focused on “how to establish a relevant and successful presence for your brand on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter; how to make your brand and listings optimally ‘refer-able’ on the social web; how to get people talking about your listings and engaging with your brand online, and how and when to participate in the conversation most effectively.” But the real message of the presentation is this: Oodle is making efforts to market their Facebook Marketplace as permission-based social marketing through Facebook for the multifamily industry.

The best parts of this presentation were the videos: a preview of the new Zuckerberg movie and a cute “Facebook Marketplace in Plain English” video that is similar to the Common Craft YouTube videos.

While I applaud their initiative to jump right in to internet marketing for our industry, there are a few things that need to be fixed before the service can be considered an alternative to ILS ads, Craigslist, or other classified ad sites.

1. You know how notification settings work on your Facebook profile page? Emails when people comment on your wall or like your photo’s annoy us all! Well, these settings are not an option for Facebook business pages. Until admins are notified when comments are made to their page, property management companies will need a human to monitor Facebook after hours or risk forfeiting the benefit of timely responses.

2. Facebook does not currently offer exporting or downloading of analytics for pages. Measuring success is difficult for property management companies that have multiple properties on site. Currently, we receive weekly emailed analytics. Before moving all of your marketing dollars to Facebook, first understand how you can generate reports and measure success.

3. Facebook remains unresponsive to companies that request assistance when former employees own “official” community Facebook pages. Support systems should be in place prior to investing in advertising with Marketplace. There seems to be a disconnect between Facebook and Oodle, as the companies have two different objectives. Can Marketplace assist their customers when there are Facebook issues?

4. Craig mentioned that in Q4 they anticipate Marketplace rolling out of listings that are only visible to fans. This is definitely on the list of must haves!

5. Facebook needs to streamline the process of claiming Facebook Places. It is tedious for property management companies that have multiple communities. I believe that Places will become a more popular tool than Foursquare, and integrating Pages, Ads, Marketplace Classifieds and Places will be critical.

6. Oodle’s listings are syndicated to over 100 classified listing sites, this applies to Marketplace ads. If ads are set to expire, they may remain online longer than they should. An option to update/remove all ads from all sites within hours should be available.

7. No method for payment online currently exists. While this doesn’t impact apartment communities ability to lease, this limitation will reduce the number of users shopping on Marketplace.

8. Due to Open Graph, Facebook’s search feature is currently displaying any site with Open Graph (including ILS ads) as pages. This is very confusing to communities that have both Facebook pages and ILS ads. They are often competing with themselves for attention from Facebook users.

Facebook business pages should have a separate category, this will help users find the actual Facebook pages they are seeking within search. Community pages are also confusing as they are placed within the search results of Facebook and should have a separate tab for results. All of these additional search results (websites, ads and community pages) equals more competition for your community within the search feed.

9. You can only use Facebook Marketplace to direct prospects to a Facebook Page, not a website. Streamlining marketing efforts becomes more difficult. Be sure to connect all of your sites together: Facebook, blog, Twitter and website for maximum SEO.

10. When you place an ad you must do so through a Facebook profile account. Most businesses understand that it is against Facebook’s terms and conditions to have a profile page for a business. Should your community be posting ads under personal profiles? What about turnover at your community? What happens to those ads when former employees have placed those ads? How can you remove them when the employee is gone? In response to this challenge, most communities take the risk of creating a profile page to better manage their ads, pages, and listings.

Craig mentioned that Facebook will “probably”  release it’s own search engine in competition with sites like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Unfortunately Facebook search is still too complicated and confusing for the average user.

I have years of professional experience placing classified listings online to market apartment communities, including Marketplace. Each site has it’s challenges. Before committing marketing dollars, be sure to investigate the pro’s and con’s of each site. All-in-all, Facebook Marketplace is a good idea but it is not quite ready for our industry.

10 Improvements Necessary for Facebook Marketplace Success originally appeared on Socially Engaged Marketing on September 26, 2010.

Would you rather hang a ‘Now Leasing’ banner like everyone else…

When aren't you leasing, anyway?

Or have unique patios?

Now this makes a statement!

Although the image above is an Ikea ad, it doesn’t have to be. Why not do something different than your neighbors? I’m thinking images of patio furniture, planters, and desks. How can the community be represented in a unique way that captures attention?

Upgraded Appliances?

What if your community has all new appliances? (See image above.) How can you use your building for your own ad?

Thanks to Penn Olson for the unique images.
Now Leasing banner image courtesy of Peachtree Business Products for Apartment Marketing.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Being Different. originally appeared on Socially Engaged Marketing on January 3, 2010.

Be Unique, Make Your Ads Stand Out!

How do you appeal to renters without using rent concessions?

How are you writing your apartment community craigslist ad titles? Are you using rent concessions to drive traffic to your property? What if you don’t have any promotions? What content are you posting to your Facebook and Twitter pages? Are you just posting your rental rates and promotions? Did you know that more than half of American adults are attempting to save money?

A new Harris Poll shows interesting statistics regarding ways adults are trying to save money:

• 36% have switched to tap water and refillable bottles instead of bottled water.
• 21% have cancelled or cut back on their cable TV service.
• 20% have stopped buying coffee in the morning.
• 14% have been carpooling or using mass transit.

Let’s face it, not every community can compete with ever-increasing rent promotions and concessions. Sometimes, the rent cannot get ANY lower. How do you differentiate your ads and your content from competitors when the properties are so similar? Try this: if your community offers something of value, highlight that feature in your ads, in your Facebook Page content, and occasionally in your Twitter feed. Please understand: I don’t mean use a long list of amenities. Frankly, that’s boring and exactly what everyone else is doing. Use the statistics above to create ad titles/headlines that are unique for your community.

Below are a few examples of ways you can turn your apartment community features into a call-to-action.

Your community offers-

Free water and trash services.
“Save $50 a month with our FREE water and garbage service!”

Free cable.
“Thinking of canceling cable to save money? If you lived at “XXX Apartments” Cable would be FREE!”

Excellent location.
“There’s no need to carpool to work when you live a block away!”

Free morning coffee to residents.
“Why buy expensive coffee? Get yours free every morning before you head to work, just bring your own cup!”

Free theater room.
“Date nights are expensive! Book our FREE theater room for a cozy night out, just bring your own goodies!”

Fitness center.
“Cancel your expensive gym membership and workout for FREE in our community fitness center!”

Community room (magazines, movies, games, coffee)
“Magazine subscriptions are expensive! Save money and read your favorite magazines for free in our community center!”

Don’t forget to rotate your new headlines, I’m sure there are many other ideas just waiting for you to discover.

How have you used your community features to appeal to potential renters? Please share some of your examples with us!

Appealing to Renters Without Using Rent Concessions. originally appeared on Socially Engaged Marketing on November 5, 2009.

During last Friday’s Apartment Chat (#AptChat) on Twitter, we discussed “Using Photos and Videos for Marketing.” A conversation came up between myself and Carrie at Roscoe about inexpensive options for decorating prior to creating a walk-thru video.  Carrie uses music and/or commentary on some of her videos, and we chatted about how she could improve the videos with few resources.

These are a few ideas for decorating vacant model units on a tight budget:

• Use a few unique and well placed items to fill the void of an empty unit.
• If a unit has been painted nicely, video the unit before repainting.
• Video multiple units in the same day, save the videos even after the unit has leased.
• Visit thrift stores or yard sales for portable pieces of furniture you can store easily.
• Download diverse photographs to frame and place on walls, tables or counters.
• Visit ApartmentMarketingStore.com and order inexpensive but unique amenity clings.

If you have $0 budget, why not create a checklist for everyone to bring a few items from home:

• Colored shower curtain and a couple of bath towels.
• Coffee maker and supplies.
• Dog or cat food dishes.
• Door mat and a set of curtains or sheers.
• Framed (diverse) photographs or paintings.
• Floor lamps.

If the idea is to inspire prospects to consider your available unit, why not spice up the videos? It doesn’t necessarily have to look ‘lived in’, but it should have personality. Please share your thoughts and ideas on inexpensive or free opportunities for decorating model units.

Do Your Model Units Have Personality? originally appeared on Socially Engaged Marketing on November 2, 2009.