Do you know what fire prevention is? Yes, that’s right… It’s rental housing marketing.
What if we said you can cut down the number of property management fires you deal with on a daily basis by doing a little proactive resident marketing? Think about educating apartment residents with preventative housing reminders, tips and education before the crisis happens.
Often multifamily forums are filled with questions from apartment professionals seeking advice on how to reduce dog waste at their rental community. If you’re asking, then it has already happened. The key to successfully reducing pet problems in housing communities is a proactive marketing plan that starts on resident move-in day. Think of renter problems that arise as the weather warms up for summer and more residents are hanging out in property common areas or spending time at the community pool. In the Fall season you can focus on apartment community speed-limit violations around bus stops and how to change batteries in smoke detectors.
For instance, every pet friendly multifamily community has problems reducing dog waste and figuring out how to change the behavior of pet owners. Here’s a universal issue where property managers can use proactive education, at the time a lease pet addendum is signed, as well as constant community reminders to stay top of mind with dog policies. Property managers will need multiple formats like resident flyers, digital social media ads for Facebook and Instagram, door hangers for community buildings and leave-behind cards for maintenance work orders or package deliveries. Launch a multi-pronged campaign with your pet rental policy restated in ways the resident can absorb it, whether that’s through a printed flyer in your community green space or digital messages they see online.
Show you are serious about pet policies with consistent education and regular reminders about reducing dog waste. Your messages set the standard for behavior and give all residents reassurance you’re working to prevent or improve a problem. You’ll know you’ve succeeded when your apartment community is the industry expert quoted in forums as, “They’re serious about pet poop!”
Just as you use apartment advertising slogans for leasing campaigns, put your snappy phrases to use in your resident management notices and take advantage of every communication opportunity to spread your public relations message. Can you see how proactive apartment rental marketing might reduce the crisis mode that has you scrambling to put out property management fires? Start a series titled “Did You Know __.” Now fill in the blank with any multi housing community policy that often gets forgotten after apartment residents have signed their lease. You’ll clean up your community in no time!