Have you heard the old joke about how to eat an elephant? If you know the answer ( one bite at a time ) then you already know the best strategy for tackling an annual multifamily marketing plan.
Most of us find it daunting to look ahead at 30 blank days on the retention calendar and try to decide what tasks we need to keep our rental residents satisfied. It’s even harder to flip through 52 weeks of an empty leasing planner when you’re out of fresh ideas and short on staff to get your apartments occupied. How will you fill 12 long months of calendar grids awaiting outreach, renewal and seasonal inspiration?
Achieving leasing and retention goals is much easier when delivered through daily calendar prompts, one bite at a time, to get you through 365 days of property management activities. To keep the plan manageable, know your destination but take the journey in small steps that lead to your ultimate marketing goal. Before you take the first step, make sure your apartment event calendar has these crucial features:
- There’s a rhyme and reason to the date of messages and the retention schedule is based on a recurring resident lifecycle.
- Every task is timed for consistent messaging throughout the month to make sure you never miss an opportunity to engage or a vital touchpoint for leasing, outreach and renewals.
- A comprehensive calendar will sprinkle in Federal Holidays, National Days Celebrations and Multifamily Best Practices for active communities with happy residents.
Let’s take a look at January to create an example of effective monthly calendar prompts for an active multifamily housing property. Reserve days within the first week for delivering a community newsletter, recognizing resident and staff birthdays, posting rent reminders and welcoming new community residents. Even in this busy week, always designate one day a week for updating your leasing digital ads — add a fun twist by highlighting apartment bathrooms on National Bubble Bath Day. Along with easy resident activities you can host around NFL and college football playoffs, the second week should focus on soliciting referrals for new residents and keeping in touch with local outreach partners — perhaps entice with a baker’s dozen on National Bagel Day? Fill the other days with pet-friendly reminders and property messages from your customer-service maintenance team. Announce amended office hours for the federal holiday in the third week and prepare renewal reminders while reaching out to new neighbors at their 30-day, 60-day and 90-day anniversary. Can you believe it — only one more week to squeeze in social media engagements, appreciating your team and then it’s time to begin planning for the upcoming month.
See this example in a month-at-a-glance guide by downloading your Free Annual Marketing Calendar.
Hello Resident supplements professionally-designed marketing materials with a coordinating annual calendar plan. Members click any day of the weekly electronic calendar to find lifecycle schedules paired with the best campaign templates for executing each apartment marketing task. It’s simple, foolproof and automated so onsite property management teams can follow an effective plan and access the marketing flyers, digital ads and print flyers to get the job done quickly.