Can Resident Portals be the new best marketing tool?
Posted on Tue, Jul 06, 2010
Resident Portal is a very loosely used term. Many properties use it to describe a narrow selection of complicated and hard to use online services for residents, with the emphasis on collecting rent and service requests. If your Resident Portal is primarily "a place for residents to pay their rent and submit Service Requests" it’s no wonder why a large percentage of onsite managers report little to no activity on them.
At ActiveBuilding we believe that your resident portal should engaging your residents DAILY and add value to their experience at your community. If you only want them on the portal for your own business needs, the resident will view the portal as an extension of “The Dread Landlord” and only use the services on an “as need” basis . If there is very little value to the resident to make your portal a daily online destination, then you’re missing a huge marketing opportunity…
Why is that?
Because there is huge value to Residents being exposed to your property’s brand; to the services your community offers; to relevant content about your community; and to easy to use tools that enhance their online experience. It is also valuable for Residents to be exposed to neighborhood information, local discounts and their neighbors. But most of all, it can be a very powerful marketing tool targeted at prospects.
By offering your Residents tools to create events, organize meetings, collaborate and share with their neighbors, you let them create a real community. A true community, they create, they feel a part of and they take ownership of. Furthermore, you can also provide them with tools to invite non-neighbors/non-Residents to community events and gatherings. When this happens, a different kind of marketing takes place: resident to prospect; unbiased, intimate, reliable and referral based. There's nothing like having your happy residents bear the task of marketing your property to prospects. Now that's a Resident Portal done right.