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Reading Room Articles The Advertising Plan By Tami Siewruk As a dear friend of mine (Jennifer Nevitt) is fond of reminding her audiences and clients, "You've got to plan your work, then work your plan!" This is especially true of advertising, where factors like schedules, market analysis, budgets, and goals, just to name a few, can make for a pretty tangled mess of information if that information isn't managed carefully. That's where the Advertising Plan comes in to save the day! The elements that come together to create an effective advertising plan include: The elements of the marketing communications mix - i.e. the advertising and leasing promotion tools available to use in your program; The wants, needs, and desires of your target market, as relevant to the mix of apartments you are currently leasing; The objectives of your advertising campaign, or simply what you want it to accomplish; and The budget, or amount of money you can spend (or need to spend) in order to reach your objective. Having confronted these issues (and I do mean confronted) and identified the needed information, you now are faced with the job of putting it all down in a written advertising plan. The questions you may be asking yourself at this point include: Do I even need a written advertising plan? If I agree that we do need to write a plan, how do I go about it? Is there an especially effective format to follow? Do You Need A Written Advertising Plan? Wisdom dictates that anyone writing an article on advertising and marketing would answer this question with, "Of course!"; but experience has taught me that many others in our industry would answer "maybe." Whether to create a written advertising plan depends, in part, on how you manage the advertising function (formally or informally?). Do you tend to operate from written plans, or by the seat of your pants? Are you planning-oriented, or do you react on a day-by-day basis to challenges and problems as they arise? If your management style is reactive rather than proactive, a written plan may do nothing more than gather dust on a shelf and waste a lot of your valuable time. If your management style is more structured, a written plan may be a well-appreciated tool that is used both to conduct marketing activities as well as to evaluate the results. It's been my experience that a written plan helps keep all involved focused and proves direction to the people responsible for implementation. If you are responsible for more than one community, the first plan is always the most difficult to write. The good news is that once the first plan is written, you're then equipped with a "boilerplate" for each plan that you'll write in the future, reducing the process by at least 50% of your initial time investment. In a random, nationwide survey of more than 430 marketing managers and senior executives nationwide, Business Marketing magazine found that 80 percent of companies whose marketing and advertising programs were successful and exceeded expectations had a plan. In the weeks prior to the creation of the annual advertising budget, the marketing managers at each of these firms were sitting down with senior executives and arriving at agreed-upon objectives for their company's marketing and advertising program, and creating a plan to accomplish these objectives. Among the senior executives surveyed, 91 percent who had a marketing advertising plan incorporated this plan into their company's strategic business plan. Of the executives who did not have a advertising plan, 79 percent wanted to have an advertising plan in the future; and 52 percent of planning-oriented executives expected a new marketing advertising program to produce results in three months or less. What does this mean to you? If you're involved in the marketing of an apartment community (or a whole portfolio, for that matter), success depends upon your dedication to regularly communicating your plan, progress, and results to everyone who's involved with the management of your community or communities. Additionally, marketing directors with successful advertising and promotion programs tend to make full use of the broad range of marketing tools available to them. As our careers progress and our skill sets evolve, we absorb a tremendous wealth of information. If we don't take take advantage of valuable opportunities to "put it in writing", we leave ourselves vulnerable to repeating mistakes, or worse, forgetting those all-important factors that lead directly to our best successes! Even worse yet is the assumption that everyone else knows the things that we do, and failing to value our best ideas to the point that they simply fall through the cracks! The Planning Process Advertising planning is not a complex or specialized procedure. Mostly, it's common sense. It consists of sitting down and thinking about what your unique marketing challenges or objectives, deciding how they might best be solved, and developing these thoughts more fully on paper. The best advertising plan is simply a discussion on paper, in narrative form, of the problems facing the community, the objectives that must be met, and your proposed solutions (the advertising). The Marketing & Advertising Action Plan Clearly state your Objectives for your plan. Projected total leasing revenue - short- and long-erm? Projected leases per day, week, and month? What is the target cost per traffic? What is the target cost per lease? What is the target cost per telephone call? What is your geographic leasing pattern? Is there a seasonal pattern that should be addressed? Are there any marketing restrictions, legal or otherwise? What is the history of other communities in the market, or the history of the community that this plan is for? What is the previous leasing trend or direction? Is it the same today as in the past? What is the advertising/marketing history? Did it meet the community objectives, fall short, or surpass expectations? Define a Timetable to accomplish specific objectives. By day, week and month, what objectives do you wish to reach? What is your advertising schedule? How does the budget /calendar year effect your scheduling? Establish a Budget to meet your objectives within a timeframe. What is your budget history? Where have you invested your advertising/marketing dollars in the recent past? Where do you see the major emphasis being placed for the next year's budget? What are your prime competitors' expenses compared to yours? How much do they invest to maintain their occupany? How do they spend it? What is your total advertising budget? How is the budget allocated? Is the budget available on an accelerated schedule, if necessary, to meet seasonal or other leasing opportunities? Clearly identify your target market audience. What is the size of the market? How can it be capitalized upon? Is your community marketed to a particular segment (or segments) of the community? Can you clearly identify those segments? Does research define the measurable characteristics of the prospective resident? Who are your current residents? Do they share any common characteristics? What does the current resident buy? For how long do they live in community on an average? Where did they come from? What additional products and services can they be sold? Does the profile of your current resident meet the profile of your potential resident? If not, what is the ideal profile of your prospect? Create and define your unique selling proposition (USP). Who is your competition and what are they offering? What are your unique selling propositions? What are the unique selling propositions of your competitors? What are your weaknesses, and your competitors' weaknesses? How does your rental rate compare with the competition - is it competitive, incentives, or concessions? Is an incentive or concession needed to capture leases? How does the resident benefit from choosing your community above the competition? What benefits do you offer prospects? What does market research say about the position of your community? Can this position be improved or redirected? How can you communicate this new position to your potential residents? Set direction for your Creative Image - the copy and art. What is the best way to articulate your community's position, features, and benefits? How do they differ from the competition? Are leasing incentives or concessions desired or needed? What incentives or concessions should be used? When? How? In what vehicle should your message be communicated? Ads? Brochures? Telephone? Broadcast fax? Direct mail? Billboards? Radio? Internet? Apartment Publications? Marketing Calls? Locators? Relocation Magazines? Signage? How does demographic and psychographic data on the market affect the creative approach? Select the media which are best suited for communicating your benefits. Which media will best reach your targeted resident profile? In print media, how much space is needed to present the community? In broadcast media, how much time is required to present the community and maximize response? What media mix will produce the desired leasing results, within the budget parameters, the desired time-frame, and your overall marketing criteria? What is the relative cost efficiency and response potential of each medium? Within a particular medium, which vehicles will reach your target audience most effectively and efficiently? What response must be generated to achieve the target cost per traffic and cost per lease? Where, when, and how is the competition advertising? Is there a duplication of audience between the various media selected? If so, can one medium (or several) be safely eliminated with no decline in leases results? Does the overall schedule achieve the desired level of frequency? What percentage of promotional effort is being devoted to your current residents? Analyze the results. In establishing a good evaluation program, you'll want to know: What worked What did not work Why? What are you going to do about it, now that you know what worked and what did not? How much did it cost? Here are some specific things to look for when analyzing specific ads, promotions, or media: Response level Cost per traffic Cost per lease Cost per telephone inquiry Leases generated per dollar spent on advertising How valuable is the "new" resident? Does he/she buy additional products and services? How long does he/she remain a resident? Which media produce the greatest number of new residents? Can you eliminate or reduce any incentives or concessions you had to offer? Can you increase rents? Additional Tips for Creating An Effective Advertising Plan If you have a calendar-year plan that begins with January of the coming year, the best time to begin planning is September of this year. Try to get the budget approved by October or November, but certainly no later than December. The tendency when making cost estimates is to under-estimate so that the budget can be stretched to cover more items; however, it's better to allocate your budget based on an honest estimate of costs so you can more realistically see what you can and cannot afford. If you have to "sell" the ideas, concepts, and items in the plan to senior management, put into the plan as much narrative text for explanation in support of your ideas as is required. Think of the plan not just as a budget or a schedule but as a sales document. If it doesn't sell management on your ideas, the budget isn't likely to be approved. Build in flexibility. It's useful to include a statement to the effect that "this is a preliminary plan only, not a rigid schedule 'etched in stone'. We recognize that one of the keys to our success will be the flexibility to react and respond to changing market conditions and sales opportunities." This says to senior management, in effect, "Just because we have a written plan doesn't mean we have to follow it to the letter or can't make changes in midstream if a new strategy is called for." Be flexible. You will have to determine your basic marketing, advertising, and leasing objectives yourself or by working with the others involved in the community's success: marketing directors, training directors, and regional managers for your community. And finally, in closing, let me offer a brief reminder to track your results! The most effective advertising plan is one that yields proven results, valuable lessons learned, and contributes to your long-term success! As Chief Imagination Officer of The Sales & Marketing Magic Companies, Tami Siewruk shares more than 20 years of experience in multifamily housing, encompassing leasing, marketing, management, training, authoring, consulting, developing, and Brainstorming! For more information on Tami's newsletter, Sales & Marketing Magic for Apartment Managers; the latest Tools & Forms Catalogue; The Annual Multifamily Housing Brainstorming Sessions™; or to receive Tami's top ideas, FREE, via e-mail, please call 727-784-9469 or visit www.SMMOnline.com.