4.5 Takeaways Your Executives Heard at NMHC, and What You Can Do About Them as a Marketer
One of the biggest events of the year just wrapped up in the Southwest.
No, I don’t mean the Super Bowl (sorry, Eagles fans) … I’m talking about the?NMHC?Annual Meeting.
If you spend any amount of time here on?LinkedIn?or industry blogs, you’ve probably seen a few folks share their insights and takeaways from this year’s conference.
Some common threads came out of the event, and many of them directly impact your marketing team.
Or maybe a better way to look at it: There are common themes where marketers have direct opportunities to add even more value to the business.
Today, we’ll dig into these takeaways and examine how they matter to you and your marketing team.
Let’s break them down:
1) Companies are focused on controlling expenses
Your properties are feeling it from every direction — costs are way up for utilities, payroll, contractors, insurance, taxes, materials, municipal fees, just about everything.
Guess what’s usually the first expense to get cut? Yep, marketing.
Be ready for the conversation. Or better, take it to your management team first.
But don’t just cut 30% across the board.
Have your game plan ready to show what you can safely cut vs. those line items that should be kept.
Your execs will be focused on efficiency, so show them where you will create a more efficient marketing machine.
Leasing professionals need to nail the basics, so training should be untouchable.
Anything that helps you?a) increase conversions?(tour schedulers, chatbots, website conversion and personalization tools) and?b) nurture every lead?(CRM, AI scheduling assistants, nurturing email/SMS programs) should be off limits.
These parts of your marketing stack actively help you reduce your reliance on top-of-the-funnel ad spend like PPC and ILSs.
Beyond that, take a good look at what’s working well vs. what is mediocre or not adding value.
Anything that isn’t working well you should be ready to cut — you can always add it back later if you find you really need it.
Or look outside the industry … you can often find better deals on marketing tools with better features.
But know you’ll likely need to give on?something.
Keep investing in anything that really helps you answer,?“What is it like to live here?”?… especially when those answers come from the perspective of current residents.
2) Execs recognize their on-site and regional teams are overwhelmed
The overwhelm is real, and execs are looking for ways to protect their talent.
This is a great place for us marketers to show where we can add value. Some things marketing can take off the plates of the on-site teams:
Sure, all of those tasks?could?be done by on-site teams. But they also take away opportunities to deliver service to the residents and prospects right in front of them at the community.
If the goal is to deliver amazing customer service, marketing can get really clear about the role they play to support that effort.
For the marketing tasks that?must?be done at the property, give your teams as many examples and templates as possible to help them easily envision what they’re trying to capture/create.
Use an internal message board to share and celebrate your best examples from creators at other properties across your portfolio to accelerate the learning curve for everyone.
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2a) Attracting and retaining talent requires effort
The labor market is tight. Your execs know they need to focus on employee retention, while also filling the hiring pipeline with the best available talent.
As marketers, look for ways to help articulate your company’s brand, your values, and all the reasons why people would make the choice to work (or continue working) for you.
Make these unique. Values like “honesty” and “integrity” are expected from every company — those don’t make you special.
Find better ways to stand out.
Talk to your people to see what they like and how they describe the best parts of their job in their own words.?That’s?the language you use in your recruitment marketing.
3) Centralization is on everyone’s mind
Centralization is the hot buzzword, but there’s no standard approach yet (and there may never be one). But however you approach it, centralization should enable #1 and #2.
In broad terms,?centralization should enable efficiency and specialization.
When you have specialists in place to focus on specific areas of the business, they can take work off the plates of the operations teams, produce work at a higher level, and?do it all more efficiently. And you can typically afford to pay for better talent when you can spread those costs across multiple properties.
Centralization also enables you to?better align with how customers shop for apartments.
Typically, it takes shoppers a while to narrow down their search to the individual properties that they think are their best fit — they start with an area, a budget, and a few key “must-haves” in mind, then seek to discover their best options that match their criteria.
When we market each property individually, that creates a "brand awareness gap" at the beginning of their search. This leaves plenty of room for ILSs, locators, and other third parties to step in to better serve the prospect during their search for a new place.
But when you apply a centralized approach to your marketing and your brand, you’ll unlock HUGE benefits, including:
Want some specific examples of ways you can do this??I got you, boo.
4) There’s a lot to be concerned about, but also a lot of confidence about the future
That confidence is especially awakened by all the room we still have to improve on the resident experience.
The operators that will come out ahead are the ones who are taking the resident experience (and the resident data that drives that) into their own hands. (This is a big opportunity for fee managers to set themselves apart, too.)
If you want to deliver a more bespoke, more personalized resident experience, there are ultimately two things you need to focus on:
Innovating the resident experience is also your moment to show how marketing can become a profit center for the company – through programs that not only improve the experience but also drive ancillary revenue for the business.
A recent interaction showed me?a real-life example of what the resident experience could look like soon. If you’re up for making something like this a reality at your properties,?let’s talk.
Yes, there are lots of reasons why rents need to grow.
But you can also be the operator that adds value that people are eager to pay for.
Here are over 30 ways to generate more revenue for your properties?that don’t involve added fees.
Those are a few of the topics being broadly discussed by the industry hive mind.
But what about you specifically? What are the themes your leadership team is focused on? How is that impacting your ability to drive your top marketing initiatives forward?
I’d love to hear from you. Drop a note in the comments, or?DM me. I read every message you send.
Thanks as always for being here. Let’s go make it happen.
Be well,