How to Improve Your Community Engagement Plan as a Property Manager
You’re aware it’s important to retain current renters. Yet, it can be difficult to engage them in the right way. To ensure they feel at home at your community, leasing teams need to communicate and engage with renters—but it’s hard when they don’t see them in the hallways. Start by having leasing agents introduce themselves through video over email since they can’t see everyone at once all the time.
Continue reading below to learn more about improving your community engagement plan and why you should add video communication into the mix. If you found this information helpful, subscribe to The Reel to learn more!
Community Engagement Plan
If you operate a multifamily community, it is important for you to stay engaged with your residents. With a lot of people looking for more affordable housing options, it is critical for property managers to focus on retaining their residents just as much as they focus on acquiring new ones. If you can develop a strong relationship with your current residents by engaging with them, you will have an easier time keeping your occupancy rate high.
At the same time, you have a lot to do on a daily basis. Honestly, on-site teams may not have time to go around and shake the hands of each of your individual residents every day. Therefore, it is important to explore community engagement ideas that you can use to build strong relationships not just between yourself and the residents but also between the residents themselves. If people feel like they have a strong sense of community where they live, they will be less likely to leave. Then, when you ask residents to renew their leases, you will have an easier time convincing them to do so. Because you need to be efficient with your time, what are a few of the top community engagement ideas you should consider?
It is important to not only develop a strong community engagement plan but also to think about how you can quantify its success. How do you know if your community engagement plan is working? You must have metrics that you can follow to figure out what is working, what is not, and what you can improve on. If you have a strong plan in place, you will have an easier time engaging the members of your community.
Creative Community Engagement Ideas
If you are looking for creative community engagement ideas, there are plenty of options from which to choose. If your multifamily community has a pool, you may want to make that one of the main centerpieces. Particularly if it gets hot outside during the summer, using the pool is a great way to encourage people to interact with one another. You might even want to purchase extra pool equipment you can use to foster a few games. This could include volleyball and a volleyball net, pool basketball, or even a routine cannonball contest.
Of course, not every community engagement event would be complete without free food. If you want people to show up to your community engagement event, you need to provide them with free food. For example, if you have an area of your multifamily community that has a lot of grills, you may want to consider using the grill to encourage people to mingle. If people have food allergies, you have plenty of options for food you can grill. You may want to consider grilling up some hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, and bratwurst. If you want to save money, consider asking your residents to bring their own food to throw on the grill.
Even though these are creative community engagement events, how can you develop a strong relationship with your residents continuously? One of the best ways to do so is to take advantage of videos. For example, you may want to take advantage of Realync, which gives you the ability to produce professional videos with nothing but your iPhone and a mobile app. Using the camera on your mobile device, you can create awesome videos that you can distribute to the members of your community. This is an easy way for you to develop strong relationships with the families who live in your building.
How To Write a Community Engagement Plan
If you want to put together a strong community engagement plan, there are a few important elements you need to include. First, you need to think about the different approaches you want to take. For example, you may want to use a digital marketing approach that includes multimedia graphics, social media, and email. Then, you probably also want to use some brick-and-mortar strategies including direct mail marketing, flyers, and even in-person events. If you take a diverse approach, you will have an easier time engaging everyone who lives in the community.
Then, you will need to figure out what metrics are going to dictate the success of your community engagement plan. How will you know if it is working? For example, if you have a digital marketing plan, you may want to track the number of clicks you get on your different images and videos. Or, you may want to track the number of responses you get to your emails. If you have a physical event, you may want to trap the number of people who show up to the event. This will make it easier for you to figure out which methods are working the best.
Finally, you must figure out how you can collect feedback from your residents as well. Your community engagement plan will be most successful if you get input from your residents. You need them to talk to you about what they want to see happen in the local community. Even though you do not necessarily have to do everything they say, you need to make your residents feel like they have a voice. If they feel like they are actively participating in the community, they will be more likely to renew their lease when their lease is up.
Community Engagement Toolkit
As you put together your community engagement checklist, you need to think about what elements of your plan are most important. For example, you need to make sure you have a calendar that will dictate when you distribute videos to your residents. Remember that video can be a great way to soften the blow if you are sending a message that they may not like, such as information about broken exercise equipment or rental prices increasing.
Then, you must make sure you have a strong computer with an internet connection. Digital marketing is going to play an important role in your ability to develop strong relationships with the members of your community. You must make sure you have a computer with a strong internet connection. You must make sure you have a computer with a strong internet connection.
Finally, you need to have a feedback portal as well. That way, your residents can provide feedback on the different events you hold. If you recently held an event at the pool, collect information from your residents about what they liked. If you recently posted maintenance videos about the HVAC unit, collect feedback from your residents about whether they had an easy time understanding the video. Feedback has to be an important part of your checklist because it will help you get the families who live in your building more involved. This will get them more invested in the community, and you will have an easier time retaining them.
Community Engagement Checklist
You may have also heard about a 3D virtual tour. You might be looking for virtual tour business names. During your real estate virtual tour pricing search, you may have noticed that 3D virtual tour software from professional virtual tour companies can be expensive. Fortunately, there are ways you can make this process easier. Even though there are free 3D virtual tour options, you might be able to use this with other types of virtual tour solutions as well.
A 3D virtual tour sounds fancy. It does a great job sitting on your website, getting people to call your property manager or leasing agent to learn more. After someone has already seen a 3D virtual tour, they will probably be interested in seeing a live tour as well. That is where an engaging, real, and transparent virtual tour can be helpful. If you really want to maximize your occupancy rate, then you need to take advantage of live virtual tours. This will delight prospective residents and help them decide if they’ve found the right place.
If you are using 360 virtual tour software for the first time, you may be unsure of how to get the most out of this platform. It is true that 360 virtual tour software can be challenging to use. That is why there are lots of demo options available as well. Before you invest in virtual tour services, make sure you take advantage of the trial. That way, you can get familiar with the mechanics of the program. You can figure out what works well for you, what doesn’t, and how you can put your 360 virtual tour software to work for you.
After you have gotten familiar with the 360 virtual tour software, you may want to produce a few videos. That way, you can see how the program looks on the other side. Once you have put up a few videos on your website, check to see if they are getting any traction. The right virtual tour software will give you those insights and reports. That way, you can get the most out of your 360 virtual tour software videos. Finally, do not forget to take advantage of live virtual tours as well. With this, you can efficiently move people down the sales funnel, delighting them to sign on the dotted line.
Nonprofit Community Engagement Plan
If you have a community that involves Section 8 housing or other nonprofit organizations, you might want to have an engagement plan that has been tailored specifically to the needs of your residents. For example, you might want to put together a helpful video that talks about resources in the local community that can help them find affordable health care or a reliable job. Or, you may want to release a regular video that discusses deals and discounts that are available at the grocery store. You must customize your plan to meet your population.
Keep in mind that you can still hold events in the community regularly. For example, if there is a board meeting from time to time, you may want to put together a video that recaps the important topics that were discussed. Or, you may want to put together a video that talks about the pool party that recently happened. You need to do everything you can to let your residents know just how much you care about them. Then, you can get them to care more about each other, which is a great way to get the entire community engaged. This can make a significant difference in your occupancy rate.
Ready to Get Real?
Accelerate Leasing
![icon]()
Speed Up Lease Up
by providing construction updates and showcase your space without having to do hard hat tours.
![icon]()
PRE-LEASE OCCUPIED UNITS
by ‘showing’ them without having to physically tour the space by sending pre-recorded videos.
![icon]()
CONVERT A HIGHER PERCENTAGE OF YOUR LEADS INTO LEASES
when you receive notifications when prospects are viewing videos to cater your follow up.
![icon]()
SPEND LESS TIME TO CLOSE EACH LEASE
by removing roadblocks and barriers in the leasing process.
![icon]()
INCREASE SIGHT-UNSEEN LEASING
by making it a breeze for out-of-market leads to choose your community.
Improve Community Engagement
![icon]()
PROMOTE YOUR PROGRAMS BETTER
via pre-recorded videos by linking via social media or internal apps.
![icon]()
DECREASE MAINTENANCE REQUESTS
by creating maintenance videos.
![icon]()
REINFORCE COMMUNITY RULES
by receiving notifications when residents are viewing videos to know who has seen a message and who hasn’t.
![icon]()
REDUCE REPETITIVE QUESTIONS
because consumers retain 10% of a message when reading it via text, but 90% of a message when viewed in a video.
More Than Software
![icon]()
Virtual Training
is available for every property utilizing Realync.
![icon]()
Make your video efforts consistent
with one set, standardized process and platform.
![icon]()
TRACK ENGAGEMENT And Usage
across your entire portfolio.
![icon]()
Partner with the Realync Team
to create a personalized training program to be rolled out across all properties.
![icon]()
Are you Ready to Get Real?
Talk with us today to see how Realync’s platform can 4X your lead-to-lease conversion!
Request a Demo
