(#483) MAJORS - AN EPIC MARKETING PIECE
STUDENT HOUSING TIP
MAJORS: AN EPIC MARKETING PIECE
M A J O R S: an epic marketing piece that’s resourceful and speaks to both students and parents!
Imagine an oversized board in a highly visible spot somewhere along your tour route such as a game room, in a long hallway, or maybe framed in the model.
And this board captures all of your participating resident populations majors.
BONUS POINTS: You could even add a section on the board with graduate stats per major if you want to go the extra mile.
This board will visually showcase a variety of academic majors, and its marketing potential has a variety of uses to be both impressive and helpful to the students and parental guarantors. By showcasing this type of information it shows the students that there are other students living onsite with the same major, etc. It’s impressive to the parents and it also provides them both with some relief too.
It becomes a talking point amongst your tour path where the community assistant can point out and ask the prospect what their major is and so on and take a moment to show them the number of students that live on community with the same major the same major of interest. For example:
Students pursuing majors:
Business Majors: 125
Engineer Majors: 200
Electrical: 100
Civil: 100
PreMed Majors: 50
Total number of Graduates over the last 3 years:
Business Majors: 500
Engineer Majors 600
Electrical: 200
Civil: 200
PreMed Majors: 60
It’s important to note, I’d refrain from showcasing any privacy information such as age, name, etc; Just show the majors in numeric values.
It’s also a wonderful icebreaker and connects prospect to the community beyond just the simplicity of do I like this apartment complex and they have a cool pool. They leave remembering the board and now have a familiarity, an association, with their major to the property.
All of your competing properties can do this easily but the reality is not many are doing this. Don’t be alarmed, your competitors will probably start to copy you but hey what’s that saying imitation is the best form of flattery, lol. Don’t you worry, I’ll have something new for you to do so they can copy you again and again and again, lol.
In addition to the board along your tour route, I recommend having a digital version of this board made that can be added to your website, social media platforms, and email marketing, etc. Utilize and showcase this information and think of it and use it as a marketing piece.
Start by adding some IG stories - Sprout has plenty of blank templates for you to write those majors in. Check out a few below:
Search: IG STORY for more options.
EXTRA CREDIT: You can also host meet up study groups onsite for students of the same major to meet one another and study together. They can discuss professors, tips, etc. If the group takes off you may look to adding a tutor program to help out other students that need additional support.
The more academic focused programs you can bring into your community the better. These types of academic value adds are super simple to do and will only help make your community stand out in ways that are really memorable for the students college experience and widely appreciated by the parents.
If you’re not already collecting this data (major and anticipated graduation year), add it to your fall 2020 application or your guest card so you already have the information for future years to come.
Here are some suggestions to get your resident base to participate and or gather this data if you don’t already have it:
Flyers on the doors with a chance to win a small gift card or donated/co-vended prize
Email blast with survey to receive a donated/co-vended prize
At your next resident/community event, have them submit this information when they come to the party
Add it to your online rent payment portal
Add it to your WiFi login
*NOTE: You don’t have to offer prizes or a chance to win a prize to gather this information, however I find that when gathering this type of info, you will usually get a better response when prizes are offered! If the budget it tight, lean on local stores in your area to give you gift cards, coupons, discount cards, and freebies for your residents.
Check out some Sprout resources below that you can use to do the above:
