Attracting Diverse Resident Personalities and Profiles
As Google continues to release more ranking algorithm updates, designers and marketing companies continue to churn out websites at an incredible speed. When building your website, it’s important to consider the resident journey and to optimize that journey for every resident persona and avatar.
If you do a quick internet search for “Customer Personas” you’ll see a search engine results page full of articles that explain how to develop a customer persona. In all honesty, they couldn’t be more wrong. Without further ado, let’s dive into the differences between resident personas and resident avatars.
What is a Resident Persona?
Internet marketing bases every strategy on the four main types of personas. These personas are specific characteristics that indicate how each type of persona consumes, processes, and makes a decision based on online information.
These personas are a guide to help you develop the content on your website. You will understand the importance of providing not only paragraphs of content but also bulleted lists and imagery. All are equally important and play a critical role in your web design. Let’s take a look at each persona and how you can use the characteristics in your web design.
Competitive Persona
The competitive persona bases choices on logic. While their choice or decision is based on logic, they make decisions very quickly. The most effective approach in marketing to this persona is outlined here:
- Take a Stand. Make it clear and concise.
- Provide an immediate benefit of your choice over the competition.
- Quickly explain how your apartment community will improve their prestige.
Shaping the marketing approach to accommodate the competitive persona will need to stand out as the best option, with the best qualifications.
Spontaneous Persona
The spontaneous persona bases decisions on an emotional pull and reacts quickly to messaging and information. This persona processes information quickly and often makes last-minute- or spur-of-the-moment decisions. The most effective approach in marketing to this persona is outlined here:
- They also need to feel confident you can handle their last-minute requests.
- They will need you to let them know appointments are always available
- That you are capable of accommodating them, and
- That you are the best choice for them.
Methodical Persona
The methodical persona relies heavily on logic, and is slow to make decisions. The methodical persona needs to meticulously find answers to their questions in a single location and looks for documented proof in the brand claims. The most effective approach in marketing to this persona is outlined here:
- Provide detailed messaging,
- A frequently asked questions (FAQ) page,
- Downloadable brochures and information they can read later and use as reference material.
Humanistic Persona
The humanistic persona bases decisions on emotion, and are slow to make decisions. They need to associate with your brand on a relationship basis. They need to know if they can trust you and want to know how that relationship will be defined. They will read your mission, vision, and value statement, and seek the answers to all their many questions. The most effective approach in marketing to this persona is outlined here:
- Be straightforward and honest approach
- Raise their level of intrigue enough to check out your brand.
What is a Resident Avatar?
A resident avatar is a set of specific demographic and psychographic information about your ideal resident. These characteristics can be as specific or generic as you need them to be. You can include some of the following items in your avatar:
- Demographic Information
- Age
- Gender
- Occupation
- Yearly/Monthly Income Range
- Marital Status
- Family size
- Psychographic Information
- Personality
- Interests, and
- Behavior
- Media Influences
- Motivations
- Frustrations
Your multifamily property may have more than one avatar depending on the number and types of floorplans your apartment community has available. However, there will only ever be four resident personas.
While this is not a blanket generalization, it is important to remember that most web designers are not marketers, and most marketers are not web designers. When designing your new website, it’s best to have a marketing agency work hand-in-hand with your web designer to determine your site architecture, resident journey, and most importantly to ensure you’re meeting the marketing desires of your resident avatars and personas. If you’re ready to start a new website project or if you need a bit of work to get your site “up to snuff” give Apeiros Marketing a call. Our team is waiting to help!
