St. Patrick’s Day Marketing Ideas for Your Apartment Community
Today is your Lucky day! Multifamilypro is sending you some St. Patrick’s Day ideas to save you some time.
Send your residents on a Shamrock Hunt. I start this the week of St Patrick’s Day. There are so many fun things to do that I need to space out the FUN!!! You can find great supplies and inexpensive giveaways at Fun Express. After you find your favorite Shamrocks number them hide them. Place one Shamrock per day somewhere in the community. I use all the amenity areas and then provide clues for each place on our Facebook pages. Once all of the Shamrocks are found we hold a party and the residents can trade for different numbers (but they won’t know what they are trading for). Then it’s time to see who gets LUCKY!! They get to choose prizes from numbered bags that match the numbered Shamrocks. If you want something more engaging you can create your own Leprechaun hunt for prospects and clients by leaving a trail of clues they can follow on Facebook, Twitter, your blog or in a series of emails. Use engagement responses and posts as entries into a special drawing or feature a grand prize for the first to complete your contest and prizes for any runners up. To build excitement you might create your own game of this kind which ends in a special event at your community. You could also do this as a fund raising event for a local cause and invite the press.
Set a Leprechaun Trap by the front door. Here is a link to a really cute one. I think this is one of my favorite traditions.
Help Residents Avoid the “Pinch”
Create a sign with “Don’t get in a Pinch” and give your residents a green pin, necklace, beads or a hat on their way to work. They have to wear Green that day or risk being pinched! Again I use Fun Express which is the wholesale area of Oriental Trading.
Offer a Green Discount
The beauty of the Internet is you can post news quickly and take it down just as easily. If you advertise a discount on your community’s website today and then promote it immediately via social networking such as Twitter or Facebook you still have time to catch people’s attention. Come up with something that will attract search engines, since “St. Patrick’s Day” is always popular this time of year. One idea is to offer a “green” discount “- let your residents know that you’ll take five hundred dollars off their rent for each person they refer to the community and leases wearing green during the week of St. Patrick’s Day.
Play Up Your Greenness
The color green symbolizes St. Patrick’s Day as well as the environment. Combine those two for one promotion that casts attention on your community in a positive light. On your social pages mention your eco-conscious efforts. Perhaps you’ve swapped out light bulbs or chosen an environmentally friendly printer. Let your residents know they can be comfortable spending their hard-earned green with your community!
Know the Reason for the Season!
Hold a Lucky Trivia contest. Do a little research on the history of St. Patrick’s Day and then pass it on to your residents via your social media channels. Create a daily post with St. Patrick’s Day facts such as the origin of the shamrock and the pot of gold then you can have a contest with trivia questions to win various tickets or gift certificates.
Download free clip art. Four leaf clovers and “Shamrocks” symbolize luck. Shamrocks are not four leaf clovers. A Shamrock is a 3-leafed old white clover recognized as a symbol of Ireland. For free royalty Free St. Patrick’s Day Clipart to use click here.
Change your logo, social media avatars. Use imagery to reflect upcoming holidays; in this case, St. Patrick’s Day by changing colors to green or adding shamrocks or other St. Patrick’s Day imagery.
Share links to St. Patrick’s Day recipes and traditions. Suggest unusual, unique St. Patrick’s Day gifts. Make your own line of St. Patrick’s Day cards to be used in conjunction with your gift certificates.
List reasons why you feel “lucky”. Four leaf clovers are considered lucky. Use the clovers to tell residents why you feel lucky to have them and ask them to share why they feel lucky.
Hold lucky drawings. Create custom messages with quotes about luck and the occasional ‘instant winner’ for scratch off cards or fortune cookies. Reward random “lucky” residents (such as the 10th or 100th day of residency, etc.) with a gift card, branded mug, t-shirt or another branded item.
Leprechauns (those little guys that guard pots of gold which can be found at the end of the rainbow). A leprechaun is actually a type of fairy in Irish folklore that usually looks like an old man and who – in contrast to the happy helping way we usually view fairies – enjoys mischief, misdeeds and trickery. Despite that if you catch one you receive 3 wishes and if you follow one you might just be led to his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Playing off this idea simply, you might decorate your community in shamrocks, leprechauns, four leaf clovers and green then, place a pot of gold (chocolate coins) in the office as a thank you treat for residents.
Use Irish blessings on your social media posts and emails.
The Wearin’ of the Green
Fill a fishbowl with shamrock-shaped cards that contain “luck”-oriented quotes, Irish blessings, special referral offers from your community and special offers from local businesses with which you cooperatively market, etc. When residents or prospects arrive and are wearing green during March have them pick a shamrock-shaped card out of a bowl. You can also publicize this on your social channels.
Pot of Gold
Fill a large glass container with inexpensive gold chocolate coins and hold a resident guessing “how many coins are in the bowl” contest during March. The winner should receive the container with the coins as well as a gift. It’s simple, just take a photo of the container and post it on your social channels and at the mail center. Fill small pots with gold coins and send one home with each prospect during their appointment.
Shamrock-Lucky Offers
Create shamrock-shaped cards with special offers and deliver them on your marketing calls for employees of local companies, employees of city offices, police, fire, employees of your local school district or local public and private schools, employees of local hospital, etc.
Shamrock-Shaped Coasters
Order Shamrock-shaped coasters featuring your community contact information and a special offer for use as bag stuffers and for placement at local bars, restaurants, wine shops and coffee shops.
I hope these ideas get you started planning some good, Green, St. Patrick’s Day fun for your community!