Remember in the ’90s and early ’00s when it was fashionable for women to have pencil-thin, overplucked eyebrows?
What were we thinking? (I’m still paying for that one, by the way.)
Trends come and go. Sometimes it’s because things go out of style, sometimes it’s because we learn new information (or look in the mirror). Same goes with marketing trends. Some things we saw as a necessity to market apartments decades, years or even months ago are now out of fashion—or even harmful to our business.
It’s always fun to look back and laugh—so we don’t have to cry. Here are some multifamily marketing fads that are thankfully no longer necessary.
- Naming your business “A1” or something similar so that it would appear first in the phonebook. (Remember phonebooks?)
- Speaking of the phonebook, picking out a phone number that spelled something memorable so that people would remember it. Now, with smart phones, does anyone know any phone number offhand?
- Getting expensive business cards that were oddly shaped, thick, or had embossed lettering in an attempt to stand out. (Totally giving Patrick Bateman in American Psycho vibes.)
- Giving out branded mousepads with community or property management company names.
- Making up joke hashtags for posts that didn’t help with search. #thiswassoannoying #itneverworked #whydidwedothis
- Using a “Mad Libs” approach to SEO in posts by sticking keywords everywhere just to get the article to rank—which made every post sound like it was written in the style of the Smurfs.
- Making guesses about what would attract residents, rather than relying on data.
- Relying on organic posts on Facebook to reach your audience instead of targeted ads.
- Only using print media for marketing, because, after all, that social media thing is just a passing fad.
So what do we do now that we’ll be shaking our heads about in the future? My guess is that we’ll all be laughing about how we were first afraid to use AI for our campaigns or copy. But, as long as my eyebrows get to stay intact, I’m fine with that.
What are some other marketing tactics that are no longer in use? And what are some things we do now that you think we’ll be laughing about down the line? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Send a tweet to @MHNOnline or @jfiur, send a Threads message to @jfiur, or send me a message on LinkedIn.
