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Reading Room Articles
One of the best things about the growth of the Internet is that our companies and communities can now be present and accessible to our residents and future residents 24-hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year, via sites on the world wide web. Compared to the time that it takes most companies and communities to develop a productive market presence, many have been able to use the Internet and its variety of resources to create sophisticated, alluring, and profitable web sites in a relatively short period of time. Beyond advertising, management companies and apartment communities are now experiencing success online in a variety of pursuits, including: • Performing public relations management (as witnessed by REITS) • Placing rental and corporate information at Residents' and Future Residents' fingertips • Demonstrating corporate capabilities • Offering Resident and Investor services • Enabling direct leasing • Providing Resident entertainment Online Advertising? Can we compare online advertising to a radio commercial or an ad in an apartment publication? Should an advertisement be compared to a direct mail piece or a roadside billboard? These are difficult questions to answer, because the Internet does not fit neatly into the mold of any traditional advertising vehicle. And while the Web is by far the most talked-about aspect of the Internet, online usage encompasses more than just people searching for a new home. Today, advertising is occurring in all Internet applications, including online services and e-mail; and is certain to be a part of Internet-based innovations yet to come. Online advertising, like all advertising, attempts to disseminate information in order to affect a buyer-seller transaction; but web advertising differs from other mediums by enabling consumers to directly interact with the advertisement. A consumer can click with his or her mouse on the ad for more information, or take the next step and purchase the product in the same online session. Web advertising also gives advertisers the opportunity to precisely target an audience, enabling them to deliver advertisements that are customized to each user's particular interests and tastes. Looking at online advertising in terms of traditional advertising will reveal the depth of this medium as an advertising vehicle. In the next few paragraphs we'll take a quick look at billboards, apartment publications, and direct mail marketing. Before we begin, please don't misunderstand me. All of the traditional advertising vehicles we're about to discuss have undeniable merit, especially when used to their best advantage. My intent is not to diminish them, but to show the relative benefits of online advertising as compared to each. Outdoor Advertising / Billboards: Web banner ads are often likened to roadside billboards, and on the surface, the comparison is certainly understandable. Like a billboard, which can refer passersby to an apartment community, a banner serves to point Internet users to a web site. Billboards are stationary, offering only a limited amount of pertinent information, and no reliable or convenient means of measuring response. Web banners, by contrast, allow users to more fully interact by clicking on the ad with their mouse, and accessing even more information - perhaps beginning with your corporate site where the visitor will find a list of your company's communities, each of which in turn can be accessed individually for even more specific information, and so on. Banner ads also offer the benefit of allowing you as an advertiser to accurately measure responses to your ads. Many companies, like www.doubleclick.com, offer advertisers the option of paying "by the click" (or number of times that someone actually accesses your web site via the banner ad), which is an especially cost-effective means of building online presence for large, national companies. Print Advertising: Web sites correspond to print advertising in that both are largely visual and composed of text supported by graphic illustration. In a newspaper or an apartment publication, advertisements of any size (whether you're confined to a quarter-page, or have the luxury of a two-page spread) are self-contained. Short of a phone call or visit, the reader has immediate access to only the information provided in the ad; with only the added benefit of browsing by location, since the ads are generally arranged or published geographically. In contrast, every element of a web site can be made interactive, lending literally a whole new dimension to your advertising, and leading the future resident to additional and more detailed information that sells your company and its communities. In effect, the web allows you to turn every element of a traditional ad into an additional ad, for a lot less money in the long run than any form of print media can offer. Direct Marketing: In a traditional direct marketing scenario, we can accurately track the number of people who respond to a specific direct mail promotion and use this number to determine the profitability of each campaign. The ability to perform the same kind of detailed evaluation of web advertising is easily accomplished with the use of measurement software created expressly for this purpose. As an added measure, and with the help of CallSource, I also track web traffic by means of unique 800 numbers assigned to each of my web-based advertisements. The Web Advertising Advantage Though online advertising spending is a mere fraction of what is spent on apartment publications, newspaper, radio and direct mail, its revenue is increasing significantly for a medium still in its infancy. Once we have spent the money to develop a good web site, the cost of maintaining it is very small when compared to the reoccurring costs of other forms of advertising. Please understand that I'm not implying that traditional advertising is or should be obsolete. I am, however, suggesting from experience that a web site is a sound advertising investment. I've had extensive web sites designed for both of my apartment communities. Each was developed and posted for $3,500 or less. Each site has paid for its development and maintenance many times over. Targetability When we advertise on the Web we have an entirely new and expanded range of targeting capabilities. We can focus on reaching Internet users from specific companies, SIC codes, geographical regions, and nations - and we can even advertise to them at the times of day that they are most likely to see our ads, at the places online they are most likely to be, with messages that best correspond to their wants, needs, and interests. Tracking As marketers we can track how users interact with our web sites and learn what is of interest to our current and future residents. For example, we can track how a resident user progresses through our site to determine whether they are interested in the general community information, or perhaps are showing a specific interest in the "custom upgrade options" available for them to purchase. Deliverability and Flexibility Online, advertisements and information are delivered in real time 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Furthermore, floor plan availability can be placed, updated, or canceled immediately. Resource: The Internet Advertising Bureau If you'd like to find out more about online advertising online, the Internet Advertising Bureau (www.iab.net) was formed "to promote the use and effectiveness of online advertising" by educating the market; establishing guidelines, promoting innovation, and providing a unified voice. 
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. |
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