It’s true. You rarely see television ads or sports sponsorships from apartment communities. So, you might be wondering how much marketing apartments do at all. But with fewer and fewer people watching live television, cutting-edge marketing today is found in the digital world.
Apartment marketers are no exception. Campaigns are almost exclusively digital. Most of our residents are looking for their apartments online and communicating with neighbors on social media. We have to be right there with them to capture prospects with engaging campaigns and deepen residents' connections with their communities.
Not only are creative skills critical to success in multifamily marketing, but so are analytical ones. These aren't your old-school marketing gigs. We’re innovative, creative and want to make the same meaningful, genuine connections with others that you do.
Click on the links below to learn about the specializations within multifamily marketing and the kinds of jobs available within those specializations:
CORPORATE BRANDING
This is big-picture marketing for the heavy-hitters of multifamily. A corporate branding marketer will develop a brand identity for an entire portfolio of communities and create highly visible campaigns that tie all of a company's individual apartment communities to the corporate brand. Professionals in this field are also responsible for organizing and promoting special events.
Positions:
- Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
A chief marketing officer in multifamily oversees the execution of creative content and communications. The best multifamily CMOs study website analytics and understand the residents they reach. They identify the types of prospects they want to attract to communities and know exactly which digital platforms they use. CMOs are the brains of the operation when it comes to attracting residents online and keeping them long-term.
PROPERTY MARKETING
Property marketing professionals are responsible for promoting individual apartment communities and attracting residents. Whereas corporate branding focuses on the company-wide brand, property marketers have a little bit more leeway in their campaigns. After all, each community will have its own personality, and a custom marketing approach should always be taken to cater to that personality.
Positions:
- Marketing Specialist
A multifamily marketing specialist understands residents and prospects and how they interact and communicate. The best multifamily marketing campaigns speak to people in a way that attract prospects to a community. Like a CMO, marketing specialists also work heavily with web analytics to truly understand the audience and where prospects are shopping for apartments. It’s a social, yet data-driven job.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media marketing jobs in multifamily have tons of room for creativity. Each apartment community has its own distinctive personality, so no two social media marketing jobs are the same. This position is all about engaging residents and deepening that sense of community.
To excel in this role, it’s important to understand the audience and know who exactly the residents are at each community. It’s also about the nitty-gritty aspects of apartment living. Managing and responding to online reviews are crucial aspects of today’s multifamily business and being able to communicate effectively and professionally with residents who are fuming with anger or overflowing with gratitude will set you apart in your social media career.
Positions:
- Social Media Specialist
It’s safe to say most apartment residents have at least one social media account. That’s where people are these days, so a social media specialist plays an extremely important role in modern-day multifamily. Social media specialists engage residents and promote community specials, discounts, activities and events, and they bring residents together in digital spaces to deepen a sense of community.
- Reputation Manager
With the growth of online shopping came the emergence of online customer reviews. Just like Amazon products, apartments get their own fair share of reviews from both residents, former residents, neighbors and prospects alike. People are eager to share their experiences – whether good or bad.
A reputation manager must effectively communicate with online reviewers and craft their responses to truly address the individual review. It’s a very tight rope between defending the community and empathizing with the reviewer, and reputation managers must walk it every day. Online reviews cannot make or break the reputation of an entire community, but how communities respond to those reviews certainly can.