Marketing Projects
By National Speaker and Author Toni Blake

Redefine your Competition - Pen Map
If we are going to demonstrate ourselves as the "Best Choice", we need to identify the competing areas. Each community needs to create a marketing strategy with visual selling tools for demonstrating the culture, style, convenience and variety of social activities in their area. By redefining the other areas, it will be easier to create each area's unique identity.

• Identify the employment centers of the current traffic
• Identify how many MFZ (Competing Communities) are within a 30-minute drive from the Major employment centers
• How many properties are within each (MFZ)?

Purchase a full size city map including surrounding area.

Mount the map on cardboard or purchase a map with a backing for press pens.

By using a cross reference of the apartment magazines, highlight the streets that have apartments on them. You need to be able to look at the map and SEE all the areas in the city where there are apartments developed. Every area within a 30- 45-minute commute from your community is a competing area. Purchase two colors of press pens. Use one to indicate the location of employment of your traffic - the other to indicate other communities and areas they have visited.

The Golden Path for Leasing
Retailers work very hard to increase revenue with product displays, signage, photographs and merchandizing especially in the main path of the customer. This high revenue path generates billions of dollars in retail sales for some of the world's largest manufacturers and is referred to as "the golden path". Millions have been spent on research designed to discover the right color, style, words and image to influence the customer's decision process. For the first time ever Toni Blake has created a "Golden Path" for your leasing team. At every step, your leasing team will be supported by visual displays; added merchandizing and success tools that will help them weave their magic into Gold. Each critical area on Toni Blake's The "Golden Path" is visually impacted with totally new leasing tools & procedures designed to influence the customer's decision: The telephone, office display area, guest card, the apartment demonstration and the follow up / closing cards.

This seminar enforces one of the most assertive and dynamic marketing efforts ever developed for property management. In serious time, we need serious business builders and this program will take every leasing team to new heights of success. In today's economic times, we need to maximize every phone call, every Internet lead, and every piece of traffic that enters our office. Let Toni Blake ensure your success in 2002 with the new "Golden Path" Leasing Program.

Testimonial Tree - Reasons to Live --- HERE!!
Have you seen those cute metal stands for photos? The base has metal arms extending out like limbs from a tree with rings on the end that hold photos. They look kind of like a photo tree! Well, what if you used your Polaroid camera to take the photo of each customer at lease time and asked him or her to write a testimonial with reasons why they decided to rent. Instead of just photos - your tree would display a photo card with testimonial messages to the future residents - therefore making it a TESTIMONIAL TREE!!!!!!!

New Resident Packet - Be Prepared!
I noticed that some of your brochures are formatted on paper smaller than 8 ½ x 11. This may give it a unique look with unusual paper sizes, but when placed in a file with your competition your literature loses the edge - you do not have one. Your marketing piece when placed in between other material gets lost because it does not extend to the top edge of the file. I want to recommend you build a special packet of information in 8 ½ x 11" two-pocket folders. The New Resident Packet is your instant leasing kit and a special take home gift for lease time! In one side of the New Resident packet would be all of your property collateral material along with a guest card, application and pen. This organizes all of the lease forms into one easy pick up packet and makes your leasing people instantly prepared. With all the paperwork in hand, they can stop and lease anywhere - the pool on a pretty day, in the beauty and quiet of the model, or in the new resident's actual apartment. In addition, it would contain a welcome packet on the area: including area parks and recreation information, schools, mover's guide from the post office, banking information, local storage, village marketing, utility numbers, along with other important and helpful moving information. These packets should be defined in the orientation training and included in the training procedures for the Success Leasing Program. Leasing people should be required to create individual New Resident Packets for their desk to include their business card and personal touches. You might have a contest for the best New Resident Packet and do a show and tell at your next team meeting.

Village Marketing Book - A decision maker's guide to your area!
I believe the first level of decision today is "Which Area?" The customer's search for an apartment will take them in a variety of directions and different parts of the city and they are trying to identify "which area is right for me?" We want to help the customer answer that question by creating a powerful visual tour through the area with pictures. Purchase a high quality disposable camera and take pictures of the storefront of every business within 3 minutes of your property, 5 minutes etc. Include the front door with signage from the auto repair, dentist, Chinese restaurant, dry cleaner, jeweler, shoe repair, pet hospital, hair & nail salon, etc! If you have a park or playground, even within the housing community, take a picture of the city sign with information about the park. Look for trails, health clubs, golf courses, movie theatres, and other social areas in your village! You want to show them that everything they need for the perfect life is right here in your zone! Each of your offices has digital cameras. Perhaps they could be assigned to take the pictures and send them to marketing to be printed and organized.

Turn your Priority Wait list into A Future Resident Club
67% of the traffic looking today is more than 45 days away from their move in date. We know that some properties are not accommodating them when they don't have notices for their time frame and they are often treated as unqualified. We want there to be a "red carpet" attitude about greeting this important customer. Not only do they make up a large % of our traffic, research indicates that in 2 years 58% will still be with us. The retention on these "early birds" is over 200% above the average shopper who needs the apartment "now" and is leasing your availability. Due to the high cost of turnover and the possible benefit of converting your profile over to this quality of resident, many management organizations have created a new commission structure and leasing strategy for this very valuable customer.

Here is Mine - You're Gonna Love This!!!!
I want to recommend you create a Future Resident Club -
There will be two stamps designed by marketing and integrated into policy training to be used for the Future Resident Club. The first stamp simply says "Future Resident Club". This stamp can be used immediately upon confirmation that the customer is looking in advance of your availability to stamp their guest card and pronounce, "You are eligible for our special Future Resident Club with special services designed for the careful shopper who looks in advance".
Here is an explanation of the membership benefits. These should be created in a brochure with a marketing piece to be used to follow along with as this service is explained by leasing. The following copy can be used by marketing to create a single page, two sided, 8 ½ x 11 three fold.

Peace of Mind
In the single-family industry, a customer shops first for their mortgage so they can shop for their home with the qualifying process over. This gives peace of mind. We should sell this same comfort to the apartment leaser to allow them to shop with "peace of mind".

Better Options
The Time Code System allows for the smart customer who shops early to have an advantage on all the last minute shoppers. Each application is approved and instantly time coded to record the exact order in which that customer can choose from the availability. Move to the head of the line with Better Options and the Future Resident Club time code system.

Sense of Community
In order to take total advantage of amenity package - why not let your qualified future residents enjoy the full use of the property? They are after all residents - simply without an assigned apartment. Once they are approved, they could sign a recreational waver and receive a Future Resident Club card. You could include them in a mailout each month of the newsletter and they could use the facilities during office hours - or Future Resident Club hours. These important people become your database of approved ready to rent customers to place in apartments who give notices. The locators have out maneuvered us for years by carefully building and working their database - now it's our turn.

Toni Blake is a nationally recognized expert in customer service, sales and marketing. She travels to over 60 cities annually speaking to over 30,000 management professionals each year. Toni is known for her innovative concepts and is an industry trendsetter. She has been involved with Multifamily Housing since 1979 and currently resides in Greeley, Colorado. For more information contact her office toll free 866-889-6600 or 1-970-378-6784. www.HappyFaceLady.com

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