Signage - An Under Utilized Opportunity

Lost among the hoopla of the growing importance of the  Internet as the best marketing for apartments is  signage.  The Small Business Administration notes signage as the most effective form of marketing.  As we drive down our local roads and highways the importance of signage must be important as they are everywhere and growing more high tech every day.  And yet, apartment communities often only have their specific property sign when so much more can be done by owners.

We have a recently purchased property that struggled along with a small obscure sign until we replaced it with a larger, better conceived bold sign.  Within 60 days, the project was fully rented up.

another community in our portfolio enjoys a sign on a major thoroughfare and has on  some days (without additional advertising) had as many as 25 visitors and even more calls.  In the slowest of times, the  community sees 3 to 5 visitors from the sign.

As owners and operators, we can do much more with signs.  And, the work needed to expand our signs is complimentary to the community information we should be gathering about local businesses, schools, government centers, etc.

Take the time to examine your community on a map.  Identify the highest immediate heavily trafficed routes.   Where do you feel you would most benefit from your community having a sign.  Next, drive the various routes to your community.  Is the neighborhood difficult to find?  Would the  address be easier to fine with some directional hints?  Do you lose prospects because they become lost?  Consider approaching local land owners or buying billboard space to address these opportunities or overcome these short comings.  Often the cost can be a small fraction of your advertising budget.

Next, who are you marketing too?  What demographics most closely identify your resident mix?  Can you identify venues where these folks are likely to spend time.  Placing signs in these locations can be a large plus as well.  For example, concert venues, shopping centers, sports fields, and school athletic facilities are often demographically rich for an apartment community and at the same time provide easily closed sign placement opportunities.

Further, signs are efficient use of marketing time for a number of reasons:

• Signs can often be placed only for as long as you need them and then stored until later (even semi permanent signs).
• Signs keep on producing long after you have placed them and require little recurring effort.
• Sign effectiveness is the  result of a single concentrated effort to work out how and where prospects find your community.
• Unlike the Internet, signs tend to stay current and don't require frequent updating.