Topic: Resident News Letters...Need Help

I need help on where I can fined some great things to put in a resident news letter that we create and print here on the property that is fifty five and older.

Thanks

Jolene
Assistant Manager
Finlay Management,LLC

Hi Jolene,

Try the Senior Journal at seniorjournal.com/. Good info there for Seniors.

Hope that helps!

Sincerely,
Pedro

Readers Digest has some good & fun things in it

Try Mental Floss -- www.mentalfloss.com -- your seniors will love it!

I love doing newsletters for my residents...I have a family property with some seniors sprinkled in, so it can be a challenge to make it work for everyone...I go to a website called Brownielocks that has holidays listed (I like the silly holidays and try to find one that I can make as the theme for the newsletter) Right now my newsletter is 4 pages and here are some of the things that I include:

I list a few of the silly holidays (like Oct 31st was National Knock Knock Joke Day), then I try to give some trivia questions (October was National Popcorn Poppin' Month, so I found some fun facts about Popcorn and turned them into trivia questions.), etc.

Area Happenings - things that are happening in my area/on the complex for the month...I usually go to some of the town websites in my area to see what they have and our local Parks & Recreation has a great site that list things for all ages

I do a short letter to the residents...this is usually just letting them know how things are going, what's happening at the office, etc.

Then I do section called "It Can Do What?" and I find different uses for household items...one month I gave them different uses for Peanut butter (like getting gum out hair, using it to shave, or using it to give pets their medicines, etc)

Then I have a money saving section, where I give them ideas on how to save money...

A safety first section - and I give tips on how to be safe in the winter, while driving, first day of school, Halloween, etc.

Then I have a living green section that gives them a simple tip on how to live green

Tricks of the trade is where I give them a helpful tip for their apartment...like if the toilet is overflowing how to turn the shut off valve off to stop the water from pouring out until the maintenance man can get there...

I have a quote of some kind...usually one that goes with the theme or time of the year

A consumer tip...like how to stop junk mail, tips on watching out for scams, etc.

Recipes...I usually try to give one main and one dessert and since I can't cook, these are some of the easiest recipes you will every find...grin...November is National Peanut Butter lover's month, so I will try to find a recipe that uses peanut butter...etc. Allrecipes.com is a good site for some easy recipes adn they have comments and ratings so you know if you are picking a good one or not...grin..

I do a word find in each newsletter using words that come out of the newsletter for that month

And I always give the answers to the trivia questions on the back page...

I always start with the holidays that I want to use and then go from there with recipes, etc. then I start typing in History of...or easy recipes using...etc. and I can usually fill the four pages with info for them...

Another hint I have is...have them subscribe to the newsletter...this way you know people who really want it will read it...I usually do up a letter letting them know that I am doing a newsletter again this coming year and anyone intersted in getting the newsletter just needs to fill out the bottom half of the paper and return it to the office, then I make a list of who those people are, so know how many to print out...I also make sure I include a newlsetter and subscription form in my new move-in packets...This has saved me a lot of time/money...

I also post one on a bullentin board outside my office door so when people come for an application they can see what we do for our residents...

Good luck with your newsletter, my residents love it and if I'm a day late getting it out they start asking about it...

I forgot to mention...

When I first started doing a newsletter, I sent out a notice to the resident and had a contest to name the newsletter...

I let residents submit their entries and then I sent out another letter that listed all the entries we had...I let the residents vote and that's how we named our newsletter...The winning entry won a gift certificate to a local restaurant...

Also, in the first notice I asked them to let me know what they wanted to see in the newsletter...that way I knew they would enjoy it...and I let them vote on those ideas also...

Just remember to make it fun and do NOT put anything in the newsletter about lease violations, etc...

Have fun!

Thank You so much. I looked at the one they were doing and had to laugh because it was four pages of nothing and yelling at the residents. So I followed an outline in the MS Office and made one. Then addressed it as To Our Happy Residents of Collins Cove...They loved the news letter this month and said how nice it was to get an actual news letter. I'm going to use all your tips because I was kined of freaking out on how to do a newsletter. My previouse company paid for ones done ( waste of money) and you just selected the articles or let the printing company do them.

Ill let you know how Decembers go.

Jolene Sopalski
Assistant Manager
Finlay Management,LLC

Oh one more questions actually two...

1) What about residents submitting a article or short story that they wrote? Is that okay in the industry?

2) Has anyone ever thought about trying to sale ad space in the newsletter to other bussiness? I was thinking this might generate some income for the property and cover the cost of printing the newsletters. Also hehehe thought it might be a good way to generate some goodole marketting with other bussiness if you know what I mean...Like the dry cleaners leaves my newsletters out on the counter for say a non-resident to read and say oh I like to live there.

Just playing with some ideas...

Jolene Sopalski
Finlay Management,LLC.

Jolene,

I love your thinking! It is definitely an option, it just depends on who is going to sell the ad, procure the ad, proof the ad, etc. Be warned there can be a lot of work involved, but you can, and should try it. Owners love ancillary revenue. They also love resident "programs" that pay for themselves.

BTW, one of my former clients was an online publisher of multifamily newsletters and several of their clients filled the empty spaces of their newsletter with ads. The one industry group that always seemed to be advertising no matter where the communities were based were dentists.

Good luck,
Leigh

Hi Jolene...

I don't do advertising in my newsletter, just because I want to keep it all about the residents and I figure they get enough ads on t.v. & in their local papers...grin...

I did ask residents for submissions if they wanted to, but I can tell you that became more of a headache than it was worth...people would submit things that were their point of view and I couldn't use the articles for fear of upsetting others. And there was the deadline for people to submit things that they hardly ever met...which meant that I was scrambling to fill those spaces...

I just find that if I do it all, it works better...but that's me...grin...

I do my newsletter in Publisher (MSWord)...it works great

Also, if you are interested in doing the word find in your newsletter here's the site I use... Free Online Puzzle Maker ...it's free and so easy...the crossword puzzle doesn't work as well for me, but it might for you...

Good luck...

Selling ads is brilliant! I would suggest that you do so as long as the merchant is offering something to your residents - like 20% off etc. That way it's not just selling...there is something in it for them!

Thank You guys! I like the idea of selling ad space to bussiness that are going to benefit my residents. My goal was to fined away to increase our revenue to make up from vacancy loss and reducing rental rates.

Jolene Sopalski
Assistant Manager
Finlay Management,LLC

I actually like to call sponsors or marketing directors of local events and attractions. i will conduct an interview with them to write my article. I always start out by letting them know I was writing an article for my newsletter that would reach approximately 1,500 people (I had to write the newsletter for all 4 of our properties from a blank publisher page. The first interview I did was for a company that did Shakespeare In The Park. At the end of the interview he offered me 10 tickets to one of the plays. That motivated me to do this more. The more interviews I did the more free tickets I got. I would then use these as prizes at the resident events we had. Gave the residents something more exciting to read and also exciting prizes. Increased the attendance to my events too! I think my favorite was I got 4 tickets to give away for Cyndi Lauper plus he gave me 2 free tickets for myself plus backstage passes. It's a win win for everyone. I am with a different company now and use Illustratus so I don't have to come up with all the content myself but I still do the interviews for the little space I have to fill.

Thank you so much for your great ideas! I love the positivity! I just volunteered to do a monthly newsletter for our Senior Housing Community. Am limited in that I cannot print in color, but would like to do a 4 page letter. Any ideas on good templates to use? Do you use a template?