There aren’t many industries more dynamic than multifamily. In fact, it often feels like the entire industry sits on market-driven tectonic plates – perpetually in motion. And as any leasing agent will tell you, that constant movement and evolution make it tough for a community to find its footing and truly drive occupancy.
But that’s why branding is so essential to multifamily success, helping you establish the recognition and awareness you need to keep your community top-of-mind to prospects. And as I’m about to explain, video content is just the branding tool you need to meet and beat your occupancy rate goals, no matter how crowded the market might get.
1. Use Video to Showcase Your Brand’s Personality
When a prospective resident is touring several multifamily communities, the ability to create and expand brand awareness suddenly becomes a massive competitive edge. Simply put, the more you can differentiate your community through branding, the better your chances are of winning the occupancy battle.
This is one of the most obvious places where video content plays a pivotal role in increasing your brand awareness. Just imagine being a renter looking for their new home. When a property management company or leasing agent communicates with you through personalized videos, you can’t help but find that commitment and authenticity endearing.
Suffice it to say, that’s the type of next-level multifamily marketing and sales that hits your target audience head-on. And when that occurs, vacancy rates drop and brand recognition swells as word-of-mouth spreads the good word on your community.
Start by Defining Your Brand’s Voice and
Ideal Channels
To start this brand strategy on the right foot, I recommend initially concentrating on developing your voice and choosing the right channels to communicate through. In other words, if your goal is to create a fun and exciting atmosphere in your community, then your property videos should also be fun and exciting.
Likewise, choose distribution channels that your target audience frequents. If your ideal demographic is the early professional fresh out of college, then using videos on LinkedIn is probably the best way to hit your mark.
Whoever your audience is, find the combination of social media, email marketing, and embedded website videos that maximizes impact and reinforces your branding best.
2. Create Engaging Video Content
Why do experts predict video content will account for 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2022? Because your audience prefers video to text, infographics, pictures, and any other form of content marketing.
In other words, video is the most engaging type of content, a dynamic that will only continue to grow in the future. And assuming you want to form fast, enduring bonds with your prospects, video content should be a central pillar in your overall messaging strategy.
Granted, that might seem a bit intimidating if you haven’t spent any time in front of a camera. However, the trick to maximizing engagement and brand awareness is pretty simple – just be yourself when you’re on camera and your audience will stick with you.
Believe it or not, a prospect isn’t looking for perfection. Instead, it’s your sense of humanity that is the most powerful draw, including little flubs you might make when filming a video. As long as you let your personality and passion shine through, the viewer will remain engaged and, thus, improve your brand awareness.
3. Use Social Media Algorithms to Your Advantage
Social media platforms don’t exist on a pro bono basis. Just like any company in any industry, revenue keeps the social media wheels turning, making ad revenue the literal end-all be-all for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and any other platform that might arise.
And how can these social media companies maximize their ad revenue? By keeping users engaged as long as possible. That’s why video content is so essential to social media – it keeps viewers glued to their screens. Therefore, the algorithms these companies use to identify and promote platform content have a definite soft spot for video.
Naturally, this dynamic bodes well for your video content and ability to dramatically expand brand awareness at exactly no cost.
Think about it this way – LinkedIn users are 20 times more likely to share content when it’s video-based. Combined with the algorithm’s preference for video, social media marketing and personalized video content is a dynamic duo you can’t afford to miss.
4. Appeal to a Redefined Buyer’s Journey
Between the pandemic, the massive millennial generation establishing long-term roots, the aging baby boomer population, and the constant march of technology, the multifamily marketplace – and real estate in general – has seen significant changes in just the last few years.
Collectively, all these changes have permanently redefined the buyer’s journey and what prospects expect of you and your community. Unfortunately, failing to quickly adapt to these new expectations puts you at risk of falling behind the competition.
So how do you protect your community from these forces? As you probably guessed, video plays a significant role in helping you cater to this modern, technology-driven buyer’s journey. No matter what stage of the sales funnel a prospect might be in, you can create high-quality video content to meet those specific needs.
Turn the Buyer’s Journey Into a
Competitive Edge
For example, for a prospective resident researching different apartment communities in a new neighborhood, you can create informative video content that educates the prospect on neighborhood highlights and what to expect when living in the area.
As that prospect gets closer to making a decision, your video marketing content becomes more targeted, addressing specific questions about your community like floor plans, vacancies, and amenities.
With this approach, you're essentially curating the entire span of the sales funnel and buyer’s journey with precisely designed video content. Combined with emphatic calls to action every step of the way, video can help you transform this redefined buyer’s journey into a powerful competitive edge.
5. Make Your Video Marketing Strategy Stand Out With Convey
So how does Convey by OneDay fit into all of this? By giving you a simple but potent solution to streamline your video content creation and distribution. In other words, Convey makes it easy to leverage all of the best practices I've discussed today.
As a leasing agent, imagine how beneficial it will be to have a custom app specifically designed for your multifamily property, completely branded to your community. Further, you’ll have access to a wide range of templates you can use to record videos for prospect introductions, virtual tours, post-video tour recaps, and follow-ups to stay in touch throughout the entire sales process.
Just as importantly, Convey also lets you keep track of your videos through a centralized dashboard. Therefore, you'll receive an automated notification every time someone opens an email, plays a video, or comments on one, letting you quickly connect with prospects in real-time.
That's a real difference maker in the fast-moving multifamily industry, and the type of advantage Convey brings to our OneDay partners. So reach out to our team and find out what Convey can do for your community's occupancy rates and your own performance goals.