YMF Austin

5 Marketing Takeaways

By Geneva Ives on May 2, 2017 in Marketing

Are you familiar with the Yardi Marketing Forum? This biannual event brings multifamily marketers from across the country together for three days of fun, education and inspiration. We just wrapped up our first forum of the year in beautiful Austin, Texas. If you couldn’t attend, here are the top five marketing takeaways that were shared by our guest presenters.

1. Stop Hunting, Start Cultivating

Anders Bergstrom, marketing director for Sanuk, opened the Yardi Marketing Forum with his keynote address on “Surfing the Waves of Consumer Change.” He stressed the need in every industry to build a lifelong fan base, instead of targeting consumers with marketing that kills the relationship after the sale. “When it comes to your audience, cultivate. Think of yourselves as farmers,” shared Bergstrom. “Become aware. Become curious. Become advocates for your clients.”

Watch the recording of Anders’ presentation on Facebook.

2. Dial in Prospect & Resident Communications

Do you feel like your marketing messages are getting lost in today’s increasingly crowded digital space? For our session on “Getting Heard in a Noisy World,” we were joined by Nikki Crosby from Buckingham Companies, Mallory Monsma from NALS and Yardi’s Nima Farkhak to talk about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to interacting with residents and prospects.

The panel consistently reinforced the need to be present everywhere your customers are. Crosby noted that Buckingham properties that use social media remarketing far outperform properties that don’t. Monsma shared email tips that have resulted in a phenomenal 50% open rate for NALS, including keeping subjects snappy, limiting frequency and scheduling the month’s emails in advance through RentCafe. And Farkhak talked about the importance of live chat, citing a case study that netted a RentCafe Connect user an $80 return for every $1 spent. “The best thing you can do is be there to answer leads however they choose to contact you,” he concluded.

3. Embrace New Revenue Streams

With multifamily rents predicted to stabilize this year after a long period of growth, finding new revenue streams is key for property managers. Fortunately, for Yardi clients this can be easy. Daryl Smith from Pinnacle highlighted a new partnership with CORT that includes optional furniture rentals as part of the RentCafe application process. The property gets a small percent of every rental that adds up over time. “It’s time to think about which conveniences you can provide that your residents are willing to pay money for,” he advised.

Two other ancillary revenue streams can come from renters insurance and rentable items. Erica Brennan of Internacional Realty discussed the benefits of enforcing liability coverage for a low but consistent monthly charge. And Jennifer Stephens of Monarch Investment and Management shared her team’s success with marketing rentable items like garages and package management options.

4. Hire for Nice

Yardi’s Paul Yount hosted his own talk show with guests Kelley Shannon from Bozzuto and Dennis Dietz from Apartment Services. The topic of this session was how to provide better customer service in the digital era – using lessons from the hospitality industry to add high touch personal interactions to an increasingly electronic rental experience.

Dietz and Shannon talked about the value of adding customer experience and/or retention manager positions to your corporate office to make sure resident care isn’t lost in the transition to automated systems. They both stressed the positive effect a smile and personal greeting can have on every guest. “As Tom Bozzuto says, we hire for nice. You can train everything else,” Shannon asserted.

5. Put Employees First

“Our first success metric is our employees. If they’re happy, they make our guests happy,” said Connor Smith, senior director of brand for Kimpton who took the stage for the Marketing Master Class on Friday. He shared how Kimpton hotels are focused on delivering not comfy rooms but “ridiculously personal experiences” and emphasized ways property managers could do the same thing to win brand loyalty. But it starts with employee buy-in. If your team understands and aligns with your goals, they will deliver authentic care to your customers. “At the end of the day, it’s important that the service culture is consistent at every property.”

Here at Yardi, taking care of our employees and clients isn’t just a concept, it’s part of our corporate motto. Our team had an amazing time interacting with clients during this small, marketing-focused event. See the photo album or check out our Twitter Moment to see what people were talking about.

Our next Yardi Marketing Forum will be in Baltimore from Nov. 13-15, 2017. Registration isn’t open just yet, but if you’re interested in attending, you can always send us an email!