Archive by Author

Show Your Team the Love in Q1!

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Glassdoor, an online career site, found that more than 80% of employees report they are motivated to work harder when their boss gives them appreciation for their work (2013). Alternatively, only 40% of those surveyed said that they’re more motivated when they feel that their job is in question or that their boss is demanding. Given the data collected by this and countless other surveys over the last few years, it seems quite clear that showing your employees the love is the best way to ensure top level performance from them.

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Challenge Idea: Resident Interactions

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This quarter’s Message Mission was all about ideas that center on resident interactions, either during the sale or during the residency. Here are a few great ideas that we’ve seen to bring these vintage ideas back to vogue.

Cards, Post-its, Magnets in the model unit highlighting the best features
■ We love the vinyl clings that can be found everywhere from Amazon to Etsy. They’re great for drawing attention to the best your floor plan has to offer.
■ Chalk surface coated clings are also fantastic for giving a nice, handwritten, organic feel to your highlights.
■ Rotating slideshow digital picture frames in each large area can be a fun way to showcase your property’s best assets. Even better – they’ve dropped dramatically in price over the last few years and you can even buy them second hand for a larger savings.

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It’s All Been Done Before! Vintage to Vogue Marketing Ideas

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“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.” – Mark Twain

Have you ever had a flash of genius? The kind where you, out of nowhere, get the greatest leasing or marketing idea EVER?  You mull it over,  develop it out a bit, and then eagerly tell your manager… only to hear, “Yeah…that’s been done before.”

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Marketing is Storytelling

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When was the last time you heard a really good story? I’m talking about one that absolutely captivated you, one that evoked genuine emotion, or one that made you really think or question something. Storytelling is an extricable part of almost every culture in the world, and, in most societies, verbal artistry is revered because entertainment is a high value experience, despite the intangible nature of it.

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All Cowbell, No Guitar

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There is a fantastic old Saturday Night Live skit that centers around the need for more cowbell in the Blue Oyster Cult song, Don’t Fear the Reaper. “Fellas,” says a brilliant Christopher Walken, “I’m tellin’ you, you’re gonna’ want that cowbell.”

It’s true folks. You’re gonna’ want that cowbell. Those little things that you do that make your community stand apart – chilled towels in the fitness center, package delivery, truly great resident events, an active and interactive Facebook page – they’re as signature to you as the overindulgent cowbell beat is to Don’t Fear the Reaper.

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Pop Goes the Culture

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Pop culture is a powerful ally in marketing, but all too often we try to tug on the most common cultural thread that we can grasp, only to find that our carefully woven marketing plans unravel when wrapped around the lowest common denominator of resident. While this type of broad shotgun approach has been shown to work, it is hardly what could be considered a targeted approach. Tightening in our marketing sights will help us achieve a higher rate of success – this isn’t a case of a good idea versus a bad idea, but rather a good idea versus a better idea!

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Balloon Banter – Is it Time to Let ‘Em Go?

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In case you couldn’t already tell by the increasing bills from your provider, our world is facing a shortage of a very common gas: Helium. Even though it’s the second most abundant element in the universe, it’s getting harder and hard to find here on Earth, and, according to Popular Mechanics*, by the year 2020, the federal reserve of helium that has crucial industrial applications for things like MRIs (it’s the only element we have that can keep the magnets cool enough at the right stability for the medical imaging technology to work) will be all but depleted.

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