When the Apartment All Stars were in Seattle last week, the amazing Toni Blake mentioned in her great presentation how people LOVE coupons.
She's right. People do love coupons. I remember when I was younger I used to love the Sunday paper just because you could cut the coupons out of it. It was like this frugal and fun art project. There's something about holding a piece of paper in our hands that gets us a better deal than the person behind us that is just...well it makes us feel special, smart and important. Recently I found a site with some tips on frugality in this market and one of their tips was to buy an "Entertainment 09" book for the area that you live in. It was $15 dollars to get the book and I've already found over $700 in savings on stuff we would buy any way. I wish my stock investments had that kind of pay off right now!
People are coupon crazy in our economy right now. They want a great deal and you can up your occupancy just by knowing this.
Why not run a craigslist ad with a coupon attached that they can print out and bring in to your property? Put your current special on it, and make it only valid for this weekend or next week, etc. If they have to clip it, and print it... they'll want to see what you've got! I have bought things I didn't even need JUST BECAUSE I had a coupon for it. (Oh come on Honey, we NEED 80 rolls of Charmin! It's a good price!) If you need help designing your coupon, it can be done really easily with a program like Adobe Photoshop or even Microsoft word. And make sure to have a couple of extra coupons in your leasing desk for people who forget to bring the clipped one. If they know about it, it's good enough for me!
Please let me know how it goes for you! And if you need some help with your Coupon design, I'd be more than happy to lend a hand and there are plenty of images out there to study from right now. Give it a shot...all you have to lose is more weekend traffic!
_____________________________________________________
Heather is a staffing facilitator, recruiter and trainer in the Seattle area with Career Strategies Inc. Check out more of her property management ideas at www.behindtheleasingdesk.com .