THE DIGIBLE DUDE

Every generation has its own unique perspectives and behaviors that define how they interact with society. Since these unique traits also affect their purchase decisions, it’s crucial for businesses to keep in touch with new generations and consumer behavior. Generation Z has been entering the workforce in recent years and we’re already seeing trends in the market that reflect the unique traits of this generation. So we dedicated today’s episode of the Digible Dudes to diving deep into the preferences of Gen-Zers. Joining us today is Arden Murphy, an Account Coordinator at Digible, and Rose Finnigan, Paid Media Strategist at Digible. Throughout the episode, Rose and Arden share with us some fascinating research and data along with Gen-Zers interests and how marketers can improve their efforts to appeal to the new generation.

Starting the conversation, we talk about what defines Generation Z and some of the unique behaviors that set them apart from previous generations. One of the first key things we dive into is the Gen-Z approach to interpreting online reviews. We talk about their attitude towards the trustworthiness of reviews, how they find information about the reputation of a property, and the way they approach giving reviews to businesses.

Smart features are more important to Gen-Zers compared to previous generations. We discuss the reasons behind this tendency and how property owners and operators cab improve features to attract Gen-Z renters. Gen-Zers are also more responsive to social issues and tend to choose brands that align with their values. We dive into how brands can change their ways to align more with the values of their customers.

We discuss what amenities Gen-Zers are commonly looking for when choosing a place to live and some of the dealbreakers that could lead Gen-Zers away from properties. Wrapping up the discussion, we talk about how the culture and community affect the decision-making of Gen-Zers, what online resources they use to look for properties, and how marketers can give a better web experience for Gen-Z visitors.

[09:10] Getting to Know Rose and Arden – We start the conversation with how our two guests started their careers at Digible and the work they’re doing.

[11:40] Gen-Z – Who are Gen-Z, how they’re different from previous generations, and why that’s important to marketers.

[14:40] Online Reviews – The attitude of the Gen-Z towards the trustworthiness of online reviews and their approach to leaving reviews.

[19:00] Non-Agent Tours – Rose and Arden share their thoughts on why the majority of Gen-Zers prefer non-agent tours over in-person tours.

[23:30] Smart Features – Why the availability of smart features such as smart thermostats and appliances that are connected to mobile apps are more important to Gen-Zers than other generations.

[27:00] Social and Cultural Differences – The differences that Gen-Zers are introducing to the society in terms of being conscious about social issues, diversity, and inclusion, and some hot takes from Rose and Arden about modern advertising.

[34:20] Trust in Content – The attitude of Gen-Z towards the quality of news they see on media, the content they see on social media, and adverts they’re being exposed to.

[37:40] Amenities – The importance of amenities for Gen-Zers and how property managers could improve their properties in a way that appeals to Gen-Zers.

[40:06] Deal-breakers – We asked Rose and Arden what are the things in an apartment that make them instantly reject a property.

[57:15] Websites – What measures marketers can take to make websites more informative and appealing to Gen-Z visitors.

Welcome back to the Digible Dudes. In today’s episode, we’re joined with Samantha Skrobot, Managing Partner - Real Estate Technology at GW Advisement. GW Advisement is a management consulting firm based in Chicago that focuses on offering services that solve for both employee happiness and company revenue. At GW Advisement, Samantha works directly with business owners and leaders to improve strategy and processes, related to growth strategy, product planning, and business development. Throughout the episode, Sam shares her wisdom on new developments in the real estate landscape, disruptive technologies, marketing & consumer experience strategies, and more.

Sam’s career in real estate spans over a decade. Her experience is based on different roles that cover numerous aspects of the real estate business. We talk about her career journey and her current role. Getting into today’s topic, Sam shares some observations from the property technology space. We also dive into some of the gaps that exist in the PropTech market and the possibility of new players that offer solutions to fill these gaps.

Like all other industries, automation has been showing steady growth in the real estate space as well. Sam shares her thoughts on what type of new technologies we might see in real estate in terms of automation. She also talks about the limitations of automation and how to make the best of automation technologies and trends she sees in the single-family rentals space and ILS platforms.

Tech giants such as Google and Amazon have a history of getting into new industries, offering new and disruptive technology solutions, raising concerns about anti-trust practices. We dive into the possibility of one of these tech giants getting into the real estate industry and some of the factors that may prove to be challenging for tech giants. Wrapping up the episode, Sam shares her hot takes on the limitations of automation and advice for data-driven approaches to real estate marketing.

[13:30] Sam’s Background – We start the conversation with a brief look at Sam’s real estate career of 12 years, learnings from different roles she was involved in, and her current area of focus.

[18:15] PropTech Trends – Sam shares with us some new developments in the industry that she’s excited about.

[25:40] New Players – Sam shares her take on the work some of the PropTech companies are doing and the possibility of seeing new players in the property management space.

[30:00] Automation for On-site Management – We asked Sam about what new innovations we can expect in the industry in terms of heavy automation technologies for property management.

[36:00] Developments in ILS Space – Sam’s take on what the recent RentPath acquisition means for the industry and consumers, and some other interesting developments related to ILS platforms.

[44:33] Single Family Rentals – The single-family rentals market has been growing over the last few years. We asked Sam about her predictions related to innovations in the SFR space.

[51:19] Real Estate Supply – Sam shares her take on whether the industry will be able to keep up with the demand for housing units in the near future.

[56:30] Waves of Disruption –  We asked Sam whether she sees any massively disruptive technologies coming into the industry in the next five years.

[1:00:23] Tech Giants – We talk about the possibility of tech giants such as Google and Amazon getting into the real estate space and how they might enter the industry.

[1:05:13] Hot Takes – Sam shares her contrarian opinions about the usage of automation, how it affects consumer experience and its limitations in the real estate markets.

[1:16:07] Data-Driven Marketing – Sam shares several pieces of advice related to taking advantage of data for real estate marketing.

Fiona Forward is an employee community volunteer and engagement initiative led by Digible. From its inception in 2018 and throughout its tenure, the program has contributed to improving the greater Denver community in numerous ways. In today’s episode, we’re having a conversation with Abby Glaessner, Senior Paid Media Strategist at Digible, who spearheads the Fiona Forward initiative. Throughout the episode, we dive into the idea, inspiration, and impact of Fiona Forward, and the future vision of Fiona Forward.

Abby shares her thoughts on the vision of Fiona Forward, the impact in the Denver community, and why it’s a valuable part of the Digible culture. Reid weighs in with his memories of the inception of the program and the story behind the name. We give a little sneak peek of Fiona Forward throughout the year and what's in store for 2022.

2021 was a year of great success for Fiona Forward. Abby dives deep into some of the volunteer work that was carried out under the initiative. Last year, Fiona Forward had the opportunity to partner with Food for Thought Denver, an organization that focuses on eliminating weekend hunger for children in the Denver Metro Area. Abby gets into the details of how that partnership went and the impact it made on the local community.

Initiatives like this are mutually beneficial to the local communities as well as the businesses themselves. On the one hand, these programs contribute to improving the quality of life in the local communities. On the other hand, these programs help businesses build a better culture, improve their reputation and connect better with the greater community.

[03:08] Getting to Know Fiona Forward – What Fiona Forward is why it’s important to Digible, the impact on the local community, and the story behind the name of the program.

[06:30] Inspiration – Reid reflects on the inspiration for the idea behind Fiona Forward.

[10:36] 2022 Plans – Abby shares 2022 plans for Fiona Forward and what the priorities and goals will be in this year.

[15:41] Volunteering – Abby gets into the details of some of the volunteer work they’ve been doing under the Fiona Forward initiative.

[19:18] Food for Thought – We dive into the work the Digible team has been doing with the volunteer organization, Food for Thought Denver.

[24:00] Future Vision – Reid shares his thoughts on the future vision for Fiona Forward as well as some of the new areas Fiona Forward could expand into.

[30:00] Helping Crisis Situations – We dive into how the contributions of volunteers and donations could immensely help communities recovers from crises, such as natural disasters.

[34:45] Benefits for Companies – Reid shares his take on potential benefits that businesses could get from creating a volunteer initiative.

[40:58] New Generations – We dive into how new generations are becoming increasingly more interested in volunteer work and how businesses can develop a better culture that appeals to newer generations with volunteer initiatives.

The market for ultra-luxury real estate has been growing at an accelerated pace. This market has a relatively smaller niche audience that needs to be approached differently from the traditional Class A property. We dedicated this episode of the Digible Dudes to exploring a complete marketing strategy for the ultra-luxury real estate market with an expert from Digible who has done extensive research on the ultra-luxury real estate market in the last few months. RayAnn Ortiz, Senior Account Manager at Digible, joins us to share her wisdom.

The first step in creating a strategy for a new market is properly identifying and defining the market. We start the conversation with what defines an ultra-luxury property, how the ultra-luxury properties are different from Class A properties, and the attributes of ultra-luxury properties that stood out in RayAnn’s experience. Ultra-luxury properties are a unique market, and with that come unique challenges as well. RayAnn shares her wisdom on what measures marketers can take to overcome these challenges.

Budgeting is an extremely important part of any marketing strategy, and the ultra-luxury real estate market is no different. We dive deep into some of the considerations that help us create an effective budgeting strategy for ultra-luxury properties. We also dive into the role PR plays in marketing for ultra-luxury properties and native campaigns, a cost-effective PR strategy that could be utilized for this market.

Amongst other aspects, SEO strategy also needs some adjustments to match the conditions of the ultra-luxury real estate market. We explore some of the tactics marketers can use to maximize their visibility via search, the possibility of using influencer marketing and events for this type of property, and tactics for targeting the right audience on various marketing channels.

[06:49] Defining Ultra-luxury – We start the conversation with RayAnn highlighting the research she has been doing over the last few months and the attributes of properties that were identified in the research that defines an ultra-luxury property.

[10:50] Challenges – The unique challenges that come up with ultra-luxury properties in terms of competition and marketing.

[14:06] Budgeting – Things to consider when creating budgeting strategies for ultra-luxury properties and some uncommon ways to maximize the return on the marketing investment.

[20:48] Native Campaigns – Native campaigns are a cost-effective PR approach for properties. RayAnn dives into how this can be utilized for ultra-luxury properties.

[25:06] Search Engine Optimization – How the SEO approach for ultra-luxury properties should differ from traditional properties and some SEO best practices.

[33:49] Influencer Marketing – RayAnn shares her take on the feasibility of using influencer marketing to target the right audience for ultra-luxury properties.

[38:54] Events – The possibility of using events as a method of marketing for ultra-luxury properties and challenges associated with it.

[45:32] Retention – RayAnn shares with us some of the patterns she has seen in ultra-luxury properties in terms of customer retention.

[52:24] Targeting – Tips & tricks for targeting a niche audience for ultra-luxury properties on different channels and platforms.

New innovations in software technologies have been entering the real estate market at a rapid pace in the last few years. And these new technologies are constantly redefining the way consumers interact with the industry. In today’s episode, we explore another unique product that helps the real estate industry by using artificial intelligence. Mat Nieves, Head of Growth & Partnerships at MeetElise joins us today to dive into the amazing features the platform offers.

We start the conversation with a quick look at Mat’s career. He started his career with the real estate marketplace, Zillow and then went on to join MeetElise to work on its AI solutions. MeetElise has been showing amazing growth over a relatively short period. We dive into the strategies and traits of their technologies that contributed to this rapid growth. We also touch on the market segment MeetElise is trying to cater to and some of their competitors as well.

MeetElise is quite different from its competitors in terms of the technology and how it’s integrated. It introduces a whole new level of features for nurturing leads, automating lots of work that is typically carried out manually. Mat talks about how MeetElise better integrates into the client’s systems compared to its competitors.

Another area we touch on is the unique onboarding process of MeetElise that has contributed to its popularity. We dive deep into the process of implementing, testing, and making the process smooth. We also talked about some of the challenges the team had faced and what they did to overcome them. Wrapping up the episode, Mat shares his take on how the future of real estate may evolve with the increased usage of automation technologies.

[11:48] Mat’s Background – How Mat started in the real estate industry and his journey to his current role at MeetElise

[13:30] Rapid Growth – Mat shares his take on what contributed to the quick growth of MeetElise in the last few years.

[16:04] Product and Market – Mat talks about what the target market segment of MeetElise is and how MeetElise differs from traditional chat-bots.

[21:02] Nurturing Leads – Mat compares existing technologies used in the real estate market in terms of the effectiveness of nurturing leads against what they offer at MeetElise.

[30:22] Partnerships – Mat talks about the possibility of creating partnerships with other players in the industry over the next few years.

[33:24] Challenges – Some of the challenges the MeetElise team had to face in the market and the measures they took to resolve the challenges.

[37:05] Onboarding – We dive into the onboarding process of MeetElise, and some of the things they pay a lot of attention to when integrating with their clients’ systems.

[40:21] Transparency – Why transparency matters in real estate, new automation technologies have been implementing increasingly more transparent options for consumers and how this tendency may evolve soon.

[47:51] Hot Take & Predictions – Mat shares his hot take on how the traditional leasing staffing model is going to be changed in the next few years and some other predictions based on the data they’ve seen at MeetElise

MeetElise: www.meetelise.com

2021 was a year of tremendous growth and transformation for Digible. With the arrival of 2022, we dedicated this episode to talking about exciting things that happened in 2021, as well as what to expect from Digible in the year ahead. Joining the podcast today are the three founding members of Digible, David, Nicole, and Reid.

We start the conversation by reflecting on how we came back to the office in June 2021. Due to the pandemic, Digible transitioned to remote work in 2020 and since then has been implementing numerous processes to make the remote work as smooth as possible and to create a better remort work environment for the team. We talked about how it felt to be at the office again, the pros and cons of being in the office compared to remote work, and reminisced on the year-end celebrations.

Another part of returning to the normal routine was travel. Nicole shares her experience of traveling to different places to meet stakeholders and how the in-person meetings helped improve professional relationships. Nicole also touches on the measures Digible took to improve internal communications and some of the onboarding and training processes that enabled a fast-growing environment.

Diving into Digible's future plans, we talk about what customers can expect from Digible in terms of products and features. We also touch on potential partnerships of 2022 and Digible's goals for 2022.

[00:53] Coming Back to the Office – Nicole reflects on the process of coming back to the office after a long time of remote work.

[07:01] Year-end Celebrations – Reid and David share some fun memories related to the year-end celebration and some of the achievements of Digible in the year 2021.

[12:08] Travelling – Nicole shares how it felt to travel to meet clients and foster relationships.

[16:38] Products – The Digible team product development initiatives in 2021.

[21:00] Communication – Nicole shares her thoughts on how the team overcame challenges associated with maintaining internal communication in a fast-moving environment.

[24:00] Onboarding and Training – Reid reflects on the process Digible implemented in 2021 for onboarding new staff members and training them that enabled Digible to grow at a fast pace.

[28:34] Future Plans – Nicole dives into what new features of Fiona that customers can expect to be rolled out in the year 2022.

[32:18] New Products – Reid talks about some of the upcoming Digible products he's excited about.

[37:57] Partnerships – The potential Digible has for building new partnerships and strengthening existing partnerships in 2022.

[40:00] Goals – Nicole shares her thoughts on goals for 2022, emphasizing her expectations for implementing new procedures for recruiting talent and some predictions for the year ahead.

2021 has been a year of tremendous growth for Digible and we’re getting ready for more in the coming year. In this episode of the Digible Dudes podcast, David & Reid talk about their predictions for the next year. Throughout the episode, we explore how the industry evolved compared to predictions for 2020, predictions for new technologies, the possibility of companies in the real estate industry going public, and some of the industry trends expected to continue gaining popularity.

We start the discussion with a comparison of predictions. David & Reid share what they predicted for the year 2020 and the predictions that they did and didn’t get right. One of the interesting parts of that was the behavior of the commercial real estate market and the event that influenced the market, including the pandemic and its ripple effects.

Moving on to technology, we dive deep into the usage of paid search and SEO in the real estate market. David & Reid share their thoughts on why paid search and SEO will gain more traction in the next year. We also talk about co-op email campaigns, which enable brands with similar goals to team up in their marketing efforts.

One of the major buzzwords we’ve been hearing over the last couple of years is artificial intelligence. And like many other industries, AI is making its way into the real estate market, empowering new tools and technologies based on AIs. Reid and David share their thoughts on how AIs will power some of the emerging new technologies and what gives them the potential to be a big thing in the coming year. Wrapping up the episode, we talk about some of the companies that grew rapidly in the real estate space and the possibilities of them becoming publicly traded companies.

[02:00] Last Year Predictions – We start the discussion by comparing 2021 predictions and what actually happened.

[05:09] Commercial Real Estate – How the pricing of commercial real estate behaved pre and post pandemic compares to the predictions we had for 2021.

[07:15] Search & SEO – Reid shares his thoughts on how paid search and SEO has been a trending topic in the industry in the last year and why that trend is going to continue.

[10:00] Artificial Intelligence – How AI is going to be powering more parts of the industry in the next year and what businesses need to consider when utilizing AI-based tools.

[12:45] Co-op Email Campaigns – Why teaming up with brands with similar goals is going to be a smart idea for the next year.

[17:30] NLG & NLP – How Natural Language Generation and Natural Language Processing can be used to make marketing more efficient.

[21:21] Single Family Rentals – Reid shares his thoughts on how the single-family rentals market grew rapidly in 2021 and why it’s going to keep growing.

[25:00] Self-guided Tours – Reid explains the reasons behind his prediction that self-guided tours will grow in popularity in the next year.

[28:00] Future of ILS – David shares his take on how internet listing services may evolve in the next year.

[32:00] Going Public – Why the next year is a good time for some of the big companies in the real estate market to go public.

[38:06] Entrata – David shares his thoughts on the performance of Entrata this year and how they will grow during the next year.

Today on the podcast, we have the Digible Dudettes. Nicole Staley, Co-Founder & VP of Client Services at Digible, and Isobel Parish, Client Services Manager at Digible are here to share the key takeaways from a session on opportunities and risks in a single-family rental market they attended at OpTech. Throughout the episode, Nicole and Isobel cover the latest insights about single-family rentals, including new trends in the single-family space, challenging aspects of operating single-family rentals, and marketing strategies for adapting to new developments in the single-family rentals space.

[01:17] New Terms & Definitions – Nicole and Isobel share their thoughts on the new terms and definitions from the session that is unique to the single-family rentals market.

[03:47] Single-family vs. Apartments – Key aspects that set the single-family market apart from apartments.

[04:49] Smart Tech – How smart technologies are coming into the single-family market, and the pros and cons of having smart tech in single-family properties.

[06:44] Maintenance – How the maintenance aspect of single-family is different than apartments and some ways of making maintenance more efficient.

[09:25] Challenges – Challenges that single-family operators have to face and possible solutions for them.

[12:29] Strategies – Important concept for creating marketing strategies for the single-family space.

[16:24] New Generations – What Millenials and Gen-Z apartment seekers are looking for in their new home and what marketers need to keep in mind about reaching the new generations.

In this final episode of the AIM short series, David & Reid have an insightful conversation with Tom Lisak, SVP of Sales at LCP360, a company that specializes in virtual tours, 3D renderings, and many other innovative solutions that allow the real estate industry to modernize their digital strategies. Throughout the episode, we explore the solutions LCP360 offers to the industry, the integrations they have with multiple platforms, and Tom’s take on future industry trends.

[06:47] Industry Recognition – Starting with the level of reputation and recognition LCP360 has built in the last ten years.

[08:23] VR Technology - Tom shares his thoughts on how virtual reality solutions have evolved since their early days and their implications in the real estate industry.

[10:35] Virtual Tours – How virtual tours can be utilized for property marketing, the pros and cons of virtual tours, and strategies for measuring success and ROI.

[13:20] LCP360 Solutions – Tom shares with us some of the features they offer and some exclusive features they provide by partnering with Google.

[17:00] Asset Management – We explore the features LCP360 provides for managing multiple assets.

[18:20] Business Model – The business model of LCP360 and possibilities of recurring revenue from their solutions.

[21:47] Analytics – Tom dives into the analytics feature they have built and how these features can be used to improve the marketing efforts.

[24:00] Predictions - Tom shares his take on what’s going to change in the next few years in the industry.

Welcome back to the Digible Dudes podcast. In this series of short podcasts, we bring you insights from industry experts that attended the AIM 2021 Conference. In this episode have Trevor Park, Head of Marketing, and Tiffany De Alva, Director of Content Marketing at BetterBot. Throughout the episode, we explore the possibilities of using bots for real estate marketing.

Artificial Intelligence and Bots have been showing up in our daily lives now more than ever. We discuss the experiences with bots we have in our lives and the growth of these types of technologies in the last few years. Answering the plethora of questions that customers have has always been a challenge for chatbots. We talk about Betterbot’s plans to expand the range of questions the bots can answer up to 80%.

As the technologies advance, we’ll be able to integrate bots for many elements in the sales funnel. We talk about the possibilities of integrating bots into the sales process for lead nurturing and engaging with customers over social media. Wrapping up the episode, Trevor and Tiffany share their take on the future of bots and related technologies.

[03:14] Getting to Know Betterbot – We start the conversation talking about what Betterbot is and the value proposition it provides to the industry.

[07:50] Answering More Questions – Trevor talks about their goals for bots to be able to answer 80% of the questions they receive and the innovative strategies they’re utilizing to achieve that goal.

[10:32] Property Specific Questions – How Betterbot plans to give bots the ability to answer very specific questions that are unique to an individual apartment community.

[12:41] Lead Nurturing – How bots can be involved in the process of lead nurturing and how it saves time for marketers.

[15:02] Bots for Engagement – Tiffany talks about the possibility of having bots involved in engaging with people on social media and the pros and cons of it.

[18:44] Integrations with CRM – Some of the practical issues related to CRMS that arise with complex consumer behaviors and address these issues. 

[23:04] Future of Bots – We talk about what Tiffany and Trevor thinks about what developments we might see in the industry related to bots and Betterbot’s future plans.