My how things have changed over the past twenty years related to marketing. We have gone from a day when newspaper and magazine publications were the primary mediums to an age of technology and electronic marketing taking center stage. Today we update postings on Craigslist several times a day, rely on outside sources to insure we get clicks on internet sites, and have more choices as to where to spend our marketing dollars than ever before. Now magazine publication web sites and Internet locations specifically directed at getting our communities in the eye of our prospects are our primary source. We are also faced with sites where residents can have what they "feel" is a bad experience at the management office at 9:00 AM, and by 9:15 have something negative posted for millions of people to see. Our industry has gone from research by a site team about market conditions being the primary determining factor on rents and leasing, to computer programs that can change rents several times a day based on leasing trends and market data from external sources.
Talk about hitting a moving target, and you talk about what is happening in our business today and how fast technology is changing how we manage and lead our teams. This raises questions related to how much staffing do we need to balance the marketing and leasing tasks, how do we use and obtain market analysis data, where do we place our limited advertising dollars, how do we manage our time with keeping Internet information updated, and are we depending so much on technology we forget we deal with people both in our office and those that come through the door? So many questions and so many answers we can be faced with.
Since we have already identified everything is changing at a rapid pace, one of the first areas we need to address is flexibility. Do our team members have the ability to multi-task in addition to being able to absorb and use the technology that is out there? A great example of this is with Craigslist, and how it has evolved. Then we have the use of YouTube, Google, apartment rating site monitoring, and of course Facebook and Twitter. Several recent discussions on Multifamily Insiders opened up these formats and how to use them. This next brings us to sites like this which now should be monitored as information and training platforms related to effective and efficient electronic medium use. Keeping up with these trends and new information can mean the difference between staying ahead or with the curve or being re-active and behind the curve. Here we should have someone from the site or training department within a company monitoring this information and passing it on and helping our site teams understand the efficacy as well as changes to help them exceed and excel. Are site teams using resources to help them manage their time such as calendar reminders and sharing data between management company sites both in and outside of a market? My research is showing we are not using these tools or sharing technology information and tools effectively or efficiently to maximize Net Operating Income and occupancy.
This past week I was asked to evaluate two communities as part of a job interview process. I did the phone shop, site visit, and property evaluation with some results that showed not everyone is using the tools available to us. This included providing a copy of a copy of a leasing brochure versus a PDF copy being printed that had been cleaned up for professionalism. I am guessing they maybe just ran out of original professional color brochures, which is a whole other topic raising many other questions. I received follow-up from only one site leasing person on the phone. The other leasing person I never heard from, even though they had both my phone number and email address. Did I get lost in the shuffle? Were they not organized or using easily accessible tools so follow-up was less of a burden? Was there no leadership checking on visitor follow-up because they were too busy doing other things? Another interview took me to reviewing a company and their marketing. When going to their site pages on Apartments.com, there was a "management" section where your the link to your company web site can provide valuable information for someone reviewing who they are choosing to live with for their next home. If you clicked on this link it said, "Object has moved here," with the "here" being in blue showing it was available to take you to another link. Unfortunately this link came back with an error message, and I am sure from a prospect situation would cause frustration. Remember, we expect everything in the "techno world" to be right and easily accessible. How long had this link not been working, and who was responsible for checking it? Now don't get me wrong in assuming I haven't missed things like this in my career because I have. Guess what I am saying is the complex environment is ever changing and we constantly have to be evaluating and checking our marketing. Some of you may have heard the following quote:
This is a story about four people named EVERYBODY, SOMEBODY, ANYBODY and NOBODY. There was an important job to be done and EVERYBODY was sure that SOMEBODY would do it. ANYBODY could have done it, but NOBODY did it. SOMEBODY got angry about that because it was EVERYBODY'S job. EVERYBODY thought that ANYBODY could do it but NOBODY realized that EVERYBODY wouldn't do it. It ended up that EVERYBODY blamed SOMEBODY when NOBODY did what ANYBODY could have done!
These and other questions all relate to the marketing and leasing aspects of how "complex" our business has become. I will say this again and again, this is not rocket science and it all boils down to one area...leadership. This is why we as leaders must insure we understand this new age of marketing, and how we must develop others we work with to be the best at what we can be. Hold on tight, as we already have identified the ride has probably just begun!
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