How to Make Great Subject Lines in Apartment Marketing Emails

/0 Comments/by

Running a dedicated email marketing program is essential for success in the apartment industry, as it’s one of the best ways to keep prospects in your sales funnel and increase the likelihood of a signed lease. But an apartment email program is only going to work as intended if those emails get opened.

Emails are only as good as their subject line. Here’s what you need to pay attention to in order to create email subject lines that will boost your open rates.

Make The Email Subject Line Personally Relevant

There’s no such thing as a clean email inbox. Your prospects and residents are already getting several emails a day from several sources, so they’re going to pick and choose which ones are worth their time to even open. The way to make your emails stand out is to make them personal. So how do you do that?

Use The Personal Information You Have

Chances are you’re building your email list through your Property Management System or existing CRM – and if you’re not already, we can help. That said, you should already have a wealth of information about every member of your list, and you should be using that to personalize your subject lines. Use your email service to insert conditional content to address your contacts by name, so they feel less like spammy form letters.

Personalize it even further by pulling in information about their living situation. If they’re a single tenant, a family, or someone with a roommate, use that information to further personalize it, like so:

“Brett, have you found the right apartment yet?”

“Kelly, have you and your family found the right apartment yet?”

“Deshaun, have you and your roommate found the right apartment yet?”

Be Timely In The Subject Line

In email marketing, deliverability hinges on the what and when, as in what you’re saying and offering, and when you do it. Making the subject line timely helps bridge the gap between those two. In a regular newsletter to prospects or current residents, use timely language to make the email relevant now, such as “today,” “this week,” or the current month.

For automated emails that might be sent out after certain triggers, try to use timely language as well, even though they’re already time-based. Here are a few examples for prospects or current residents:

“How was your tour at The Lodge yesterday?”

“Hi Diane, are you ready to sign a lease this September?”

“Any questions about your move-in date next week, Jared?”

Including timely language makes your emails more actionable and helps increase open rates across your list.

Act Like A Human

It’s a fact that people prefer to interact with other people instead of machines. Even though your emails aren’t being written out in real time, approach them like they are. Instead of thinking “What’s the right subject line for the automated tour follow-up email?” ask “How would our leasing specialist follow up in email to someone they just gave a tour to?”

Be conversational, less business-like, and more approachable in your subject line.

Offer Something Specific To Their Needs

Most headlines work on a “pain or gain” premise, meaning you’re trying to help your prospects gain something, or avoid pain. That offer should be front and center in your email subject lines. The obvious “gain” you’re offering your prospects is a great living space in the long run, but a more specific one to their situation might be an easy way of navigating the process of finding an apartment. So what may be the more pertinent gain in an email subject line for someone thinking about signing a lease is a friendly voice that’s willing to answer any questions and concerns that they have.

Fortunately, not every subject line you write in all of your email communications has to satisfy all of these rules laid out above in order to be effective. However, keeping all of these in mind will help you write better email subject lines that improve your open rates and can help translate into more leads converting into long term residents.

To learn more about creating email automations to manage communications with current leads and residents, schedule a short demo with Resident Spark.

 

Demo Resident Spark

 

Automated Email That Increases NOI Of New Residents

, , /0 Comments/by

Most apartment manager’s focus on email marketing automation is on ensuring prospects turn into leases and that they maintain a healthy balance of lease renewals. This is a great way to help boost NOI (Net Operating Income) for any property.

But there is another way to boost NOI with the right email automation. That is through the promotion of ancillary services or resident utilities such as phone, internet, cable, security systems, electricity, etc. With rents softening across the country it is more important than ever that we maximize the NOI of our properties, and ancillary service offerings coupled with email automation can help do that.

Ancillary services have been a common way to boost NOI for a while, whether you have contracts in place with the Comcast, Verizon, Time-Warner, AT&T, and other ancillary service providers of the world. However, if you don’t advertise those services to your residents, you’re missing out on potential revenue.

We know many property management companies that already have agreements in place that don’t advertise or tell residents about “preferred” service providers. The resident might find out about it through their welcome packet, but that might not be enough for the new resident to take action.

Part of the problem with those welcome packets is that they are paper. The average millennial today is digitally-native and usually hates paper. And the generation after isn’t much different in their regards for paper. Instead of looking through the welcome packet to find a cable provider’s contact info to set up the installation, they’re probably going to search it online and click a button. And who they choose might not be a provider you have a revenue-sharing agreement with. A better way to deliver all the info needed would be through email. And don’t think that putting the info in a PDF inside the email is sufficient. That’s almost as bad as a paper welcome packet since it requires the same amount of digging through a document.

Remember, that when you move into a new apartment, you often already have a lot of physical paperwork (lease agreements, change of address forms, insurance docs, etc.). And any additional paper would just get lost or ignored.

Sending The Ancillary Services Welcome Email

So how do you write/build this email and how do you email this to customers? There are a handful of steps that you need to take.

  • Identify who is moving in and when as well as who is going to renew
  • Identify the services you want to highlight
  • Write the email as a welcome to help them get set up with their necessary services
  • Automate the send date to target the resident’s move-in date
  • Warn prospective residents the email is coming
  • Track performance and adjust as needed

Identify Who Is Moving In:

If you can’t easily tell who is moving in and when through your property management software, then sending emails about your ancillary services won’t work. So you need to have this data available to be integrated into your email program of choice. Luckily, we can help you set up those integrations.

But, don’t forget about the lease renewals. Many customers switch providers after a year to get new deals or they might be looking to add a service as well. So make sure you have an email with custom text.

Identify The Services:

Do you already have ancillary service contracts with phone, cable, internet, utilities, etc? How do they work? Do they need to sign up through a phone number or website? Do you get money from everyone who chooses that service no matter what? Are there other service providers they can sign up with that you don’t have an agreement with?

Once you know what you can and can’t offer, and if they need a special phone number or landing page or not, you need to identify what are the services someone is going to want ready on move-in day. Limit your email to only those types of services so you have the most relevant info. It will make them hold onto the email longer and make it shorter and more relevant.

If you don’t have ancillary service contracts or there are gaps in your coverage we have partners that close sales for phone, internet, security, cable, satellite, wireless and more at a better rate than most telcos and can give you a bigger payout. Just reach out and we will run your properties to figure which services you can fill the gaps on and what average payouts might look like.

Write The Email:

A few critical things to think about when you are writing that email:

  • Make sure the subject line lets them know this is important and will save them time in signing up for services.
  • Keep the email short to the critical utility services.
  • Make all the services available in the email. They simply want to be able to click a phone number or link to connect with the service provider. Make the shortest path possible to contact the provider.
  • Let them know of special offers from providers in the email.
  • If you have multiple contracts or ability to make back money from the same service give them a choice.
  • Disclose your relationship to the providers in the email

Remember they will refer back to this email if it is relevant as they go one by one set up their services. They’ll love having an easily accessible resource with every essential service listed out that is available at your property because they won’t have to research who is and isn’t available.

Automate The Email:

This is what really makes you money. You make this automated and then your team doesn’t ever have to send it again. To automate this your property management software has to already be connected to your email provider and that email provider must be able to send automated emails based on triggers.

In this case, the main email triggers will be based on the prospect’s move-in date. A good target would be to shoot for 30 days prior to a move-in date, but you can change that based on your residents’ particular needs.

Warn New Move-ins The Email Is Coming:

You have to warn new residents the email is coming. Even let them know to add you to their contacts list so it won’t get sorted into a Promotions Tab or other niche inbox. This lets them know that you have them covered and increases the likelihood they open the email. The more likely they open the email the better your open rates and the better your email deliverability will be, meaning fewer emails going in spam or the promotions tab.

Track Performance and Adjust:

Ensure you track not only open rates but who is clicking your links and calling your numbers if at all possible. This should help you better estimate revenue from the email and know how to adjust it to see if you should be making edits to improve performance. Some ways to improve performance include writing a better headline or reorganizing the email to promote the most profitable services first. Your imagination is the limit here.

So if you are looking to improve NOI, this is just one more way to get more out of those ancillary services. Also, if you combine this email with other important email automation, which is easy to do with the right system, then you have a great way to improve NOI for more than just ancillary services. So give us a call at 317-934-2242 to help you put together the right email automation program.

5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Ignore Email Marketing for Your Apartment

, /0 Comments/by

With all the talk about traffic, social media, and PPC, it’s hard to know how to prioritize your marketing efforts. One channel that falls through the cracks is email marketing. Email marketing may seem basic and even old-school, but this channel is one of the most powerful ways to convert your leads in less time without wasting ad spend. But that’s not all. Learn the top five reasons why you shouldn’t ignore email marketing.

#1 The inbox is one of the most personal places to reach out to a lead or resident

If you were selling new curtains to someone looking to furnish their home, would you want to sell your curtains at a convention booth with lots of other competitors? Or would prefer to go to your prospect’s home and show them how the curtains would look on their windows? You’d rather show them in their own, quiet home with their undivided attention, wouldn’t you?

Email works in a similar way. You have your prospect’s permission to contact them in their own digital “home” without the distraction of other competitors. They want to hear from you personally and if you give them what they’re looking for, you can you return to their inbox again and again.

That’s a huge advantage compared to other marketing methods.

#2 Every email you send is another touchpoint for your leads

According to SalesForce, creating a viable lead can take 6 to 8 times of being exposed to that company or brand. Each ad your prospect sees, each email you send, increases their exposure and familiarity with your brand and property. Plus, email tends to have a higher engagement rate than either social media or remarketing.

#3 Email lists are owned media

Have you ever invested a lot of time into your Facebook organic posts only to see Facebook change its algorithm and see your pageviews drop?

Third party marketing platforms like Facebook, Google, and ILSs are a staple to your marketing mix. However, they can be risky. You can invest all of this time and money into them only to see their algorithms change and your hard work disappear.

Email lists are different. They’re owned media which you control, unlike social media which isn’t owned media. This makes them a lucrative asset to help you reach your prospects that ILSs or third-party platforms can’t take away from you.

#4 Emails can be delivered right when they’re needed

When is a prospect most likely to open your email and eventually sign a lease? A few weeks after touring your property or within 24 hours of touring your property?

You can send emails when they’re most relevant to your prospects or residents using triggers like tour dates, filed applications, upcoming lease renewals, and more. That way you don’t have to guess. You can make contact at the exact right time to move them along in your sales funnel.

#5 Emails ensure no leads fall through the cracks while saving you time

Teams with the best of intentions still get busy and let calls go unanswered or forget to reply to emails. This means that you’re letting some of your leads fall through the cracks.

By automating your follow-ups for tours, maintenance requests, and referrals, you’re servicing your customer without any extra effort on your part. They feel taken care of. You feel less overwhelmed. Once those redundant tasks are taken care of, you have more time and energy to focus on strategic marketing and making sure you’re targeting the right customers.

Add Automated Emails to Your Marketing Mix

If you haven’t started automating emails yet, now’s the best time to start. Choose one email (such as a tour follow-up) to start with and slowly add in more emails and automations.

If you’re stuck on which email to start with or how to set them up then don’t be alarmed. You can download our free guide “5 Email Automations Every Multifamily Company Should Use” that details everything you need to know to get started with automated email marketing.