Marketing for a coworking space should accurately reflect your space, your community, and your values.
We know it can be tempting to skimp on the details when it comes to marketing, especially when you’re just starting out. Whether your space is new or has been around for a long time, communicating consistently will help you bring the right people into your coworking space and ensure you’re meeting your members’ expectations from the get-go.
We are probably all aware that advertising and marketing have a bad reputation. As a marketing enthusiast myself, I am aware of this! Community managers sometimes make inaccurate or misleading statements, in order to get an extra sale. To avoid this mistake, you need to have a team of professionals or a strong Brand behind you that helps the community manager to offer correct and effective communication.
The following are some indications that we tend to confuse when it comes to marketing for coworking. I also offer some insights that will keep your marketing accurate and likely make potential members of your Brand fall in love with it.
“We have super fast Wi-Fi”
If you have it, that's great! However, it's more effective to tell people what is your internet speed actually? .
Let potential clients know about your download and upload speeds. This will be a differentiator for all the potential members who keep reading about “super fast wifi” on other workspaces in the area.
Alternatively, if your wifi speed isn't that great, maybe you could look into making service level agreements more in line with your members' needs! Of course, if internet speed isn't important to your coworkers because you're more of an art space, maybe not mentioning it is even better.
But one thing is for sure, if you advertise “super fast wifi” and you only have a 25 Mbps connection for 30 people, those potential members will most likely not sign up. And if they do, their expectations will not be met, which is not a great start and the contract is unlikely to become long-term.
“We have well-known partners”
Having a well-known partner, such as your municipality or region, a startup accelerator, an investment firm, or a big brand is an excellent added value for potential members. It can be the key to helping you get larger companies to choose your coworking.
The only problem is when that isn't the case. These claims tend to fall into the category of exaggerations, not outright fake news.
For example, some spaces claim that Google is a partner because they have signed up for an affiliate program that allows members to get free advertising credits or other perks. The problem with these types of claims is that it makes it sound like Google is actually involved in your space, which it most likely isn’t (unless it is, which is great!).
Another example is saying that your municipality is a partner in the space because they used the meeting room for a single event. Unfortunately, that is not entirely true. The partnership was only for that event, not forever.
The best way is to get real partners involved. They don't have to be big. It could be the bakery around the corner that caters the members' lunches. true partners talk about you to other people, which further expands your advertising reach.
If you're looking to develop partnerships within your workspace, check out Mike LaRosa's talk here . Christoph Fahle of Betahaus best illustrated how to create a partnership program. Here you are the slides he uses to present the Betahaus approach.
“You will be more productive”
There is no hard data yet regarding the impact of coworking on productivity. In my experience, productivity in coworking spaces varies greatly. It can depend on the space, the community, the atmosphere, or an individual's tolerance for distractions. Some days I am very productive in my coworking space. coworking. Other days they are not.
But one thing is certain at 100%. Visual and auditory distractions are very present in most coworking spaces, especially open-plan spaces. And all distractions affect productivity.
The best approach is: “We don't know if you'll be productive here. It's up to you. But we believe you'll feel more responsible working in our community and responsibility is always good for productivity.”
“You will be more creative”
The point about creativity is not unlike the previous point about productivity. Distracting environments can also be terrible for creativity. Creatives tend to require periods of silence without visual distractions. Obviously not always, but at least occasionally. This means that if your space doesn’t have semi-private flex spaces, your proposal for increased creativity is unlikely to live up to your members’ expectations.
In this case, the most accurate approach would be to say “get inspired by other creatives who share this coworking experience.” Assuming you have a creative community, this is a huge plus. Connect with other creatives is a great source of creativity!
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Giorgio Cappelli