THE DIGIBLE DUDE

Today we’re back with another Digible Snack episode. Adam Walters, the Director of Paid Media at Digible, and Megan Haase, a Digital Strategy Lead at Digible, join us today to talk about the findings of a case study they conducted on the messaging of retargeting ads.

We kick off the conversation by briefly revisiting what retargeting is, how it works, and how a retargeting ad should be different from a regular ad. In this case study, Megan & Adam monitored numerous parameters related to retargeting performance. We dive into how the retargeting ads increased website visits, improved CTR and positively affected other performance metrics.

In the next section, we talk about the role of the ad copy in a retargeting campaign and why it’s crucial to choose the right words for an ad copy to adapt to the thought process of a potential customer. Wrapping up the episode, Megan and Adam explain the final learnings of the study and how they’ll be applying what they learnt into their marketing strategies at Digible.

[01:08] Retargeting –  What retargeting is and the changes between the creative designs used for retargeting versus regular ads.

[03:34] Performing Metrics – Megan dives into the performance differences they saw throughout the experiment in terms of website visits, engagement, CTR, and more.

[05:39] Ad Copy – How the right words in the ad copy can make a huge improvement in your retargeting ads and the psychological background of it.

[08:06] New Strategies – Megan talks about what they learnt throughout this case study and how they’ll be updating their marketing strategies based on the case study.

Hello and welcome to the Digible Dudes podcast. In today’s episode, David and Reid have two guest speakers, Victor Dozal, who is a Director Of Engineering at Digible, and Ricardo Roman, a Senior Software Engineer at Digible, Inc. Throughout today’s episode, Victor and Ricardo share their valuable thoughts about the philosophy we follow at Digible to brainstorm ideas that drive our innovative solutions. Here, the two guest speakers will share their experience and knowledge on ‘The Walt Disney Method.’

[13.09] Introduction on ‘How Digible Engineers Brainstorm.’- There is no right or wrong in brainstorming. We kick off the discussion by talking about the purpose of brainstorming and how to familiarize yourself with the target user base?

[20.23] A quick introduction on The Walt Disney Method.’ – The Walt Disney Method is a philosophy we have been following at Digible for quite some time. They mainly talk about what it is and how to implement the concept.

[23.08] Why is The Walt Disney Method critical? - Software Engineers try Walt Disney’s method to create ideas for animated films.

[24.52] How does Digible use it? – How the Digible team has built their unique flavor of the Wale Disney Method.

[28.07] An Explanation on The Digible Brainstorming Steps -  creative brainstorming to help turn dreams into applicable projects.

[33. 35] Step 0: Preparation- The Walt Disney Method is built on the interplay of three roles; the dreamer (visionary, idea supplier), the realist (maker), plus the critic (quality manager). We talk about the contribution from each role for the concept.

[40.37] Step 1: Introduction – We talk about concretizing goals and visions, and the way we elaborate concepts and ideas.

[44.20] Step 2: We are all dreamers – We talk about the visionary. The concept of out-of-the-box thinking and looking at the whole picture, and how a dreamer is not hindered by strait-jacketing but is creative and imaginative and sees limitless opportunities.

[27.01] Step 3: Organize the chaos – In this step, we classify the ideas into groups. Participants pool all the sticky notes to one corner of the board. Then, each participant takes turns pulling a sticky and place the idea in a “bucket” or group by asking a simple question:

Does this sticky note fit into an existing group, or do we create a new one?

[01.03.30] Step 4: We are all realists - The realist looks at the practical possibilities to find out whether an idea is really feasible. We talk about how this happens and the way a realist looks at aspects such as the available amount of means and time.

[01.06.59] Step 5 - We are all Critics – We talk about the concept of a logician who looks for contradictions and how it helps the brainstorming process.

[01.11.12] Post-brainstorming - After the session, when all are ready to begin our work, it is important to note what happens to all the work we did for the brainstorming session, including our discarded ideas. After each step of the brainstorm, we create a copy of the board and save it as another sheet in Google Jamboard. This helps them keep a history of each step in case they need to revisit past ideas.

[01.19.39] Final Thoughts - Software Engineering may seem like it has nothing in common with making animated films. But it does: it requires enormous amounts of creativity. This method of brainstorming helps keep those creative juices flowing and create ideas. These ideas started Digible, made it grow, and will continue to power it for a long time.

We’re back with another episode of the Digible Dudes podcast. This week on the podcast, we have Scott Hill, executive chairman and co-founder of PEQ, an engagement technology company that provides solutions that connect consumers to brands. Throughout the episode, we talk about how PERQ came into life, what they offer in their solutions for the multifamily industry, how AIs are integrated into the sales process, how the new technologies in the future may change where the industry is headed, and many more.

Scott started his career journey in an entirely different industry. Diving into the conversation, Scott shares stories about his early years in the newspaper industry, how he got into the automotive industry, and the way he got into creating solutions for multifamily marketing by realizing that the automotive and real estate industries have some common aspects. At PERQ, Scott and his team take a different approach to lead generation and conversions. He shares with us what they offer and how they approach integrating automated solutions for lead generation without overworking employees.

In this episode, we talk a lot about artificial intelligence based marketing solutions and how they can improve our marketing efforts. Diving into the AI arena, Scott shares how natural language processing is used to improve the capabilities of the solutions they offer at PERQ.  Scott also talks about how these technologies may evolve in the future, the possibility of integrating AI-based tools to assist more roles related to real estate marketing, and ways to accelerate the learning & training process of AI-based tools.

In the next section, Scott shares his take on setting reasonable expectations around using automated tools, KPIs that can be used to measure the performance of the tools. Wrapping up the conversation, David & Scott discuss some of the basic things marketers have to think about when building effective websites apart from integrating fancy new tools and how to make websites that convert better with AI integrations.

[14:50] Scott’s Story – Scott talks about the early years of his career in the newspaper industry, his business journey, and how he got into his current line of work.

[19:50] Digital vs. Print – Scott shares his thoughts on the tracking capabilities and tactics of digital marketing compared to printed material.

[25:00] From Automotive to Real Estate – How Scott’s focus shifted from one industry to another, how the offerings have changed over the last three years and what Scott has learned from the experience.

[30:10] The Customer Journey – The process of getting started with PERQ’s automated leasing assistant and how it improves your marketing efforts.

[40:12] Lead Generation & Conversion – Scott talks about the philosophy they follow at PERQ for lead generation and conversions and how to integrate automated processes for lead generation without overwhelming your team.

[45:00] AI vs. Guided Conversations – Scott shares his take on how AIs can help with the sales process, how PERQ’s AIs use natural language processing to improve their features.

[50:05] Future Developments – What Scott foresees for the industry in the next decade and what marketers can do to be a step ahead of their competitors.

[57:04] AI in Other Roles – Scott talks about the possibility of AI being integrated into more roles related to real estate marketing.

[1:06:19] Data Attribution – How data analysis and attribution can improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and how the technologies in the future may affect the industry in this aspect.

[1:13:34] Accelerating NLP – Scott shares some tactics that can be used to accelerate the process of training AI assistants.

[1:20:25] Expectations & KPIs – How to set reasonable expectations around integrating automated assistants and the KPIs to measure the performance.

Hello and welcome to the Digible Dudes podcast. In today's episode, David and Reid have Robert Turnbull, Founder, President & COO of BetterBot, as the guest speaker. Robert is the founder of BetterBot. Throughout the episode, Robert shares many valuable thoughts about the Property Management Chatbot, Multifamily Chatbot of Choice, and Benefits of BetterBot's Multifamily Chatbot.

BetterBot’s omnichannel chatbot delivers 24/7 availability on all marketing channels, including website, email, SMS, social, and Advertising channels. Diving into the conversation, Robert explains how to turn prospects into renters with BetterBot’s Omnichannel Chatbot. Robert shares that this apartment chatbot software is able to hand off conversations to leasing agents in a way that make sense to them. He also weighs in on the user experience of the Real Estate Chatbot. He also shares that partnering with best-of-breed companies in multifamily adds remarkable value to our customers. He says that BetterBot is the core technology powering bots for some of the most innovative companies in the space.

In the next section, he shares his ideas about Multifamily Chatbot of Choice. He declares that 97% of all properties that utilize BetterBot keep using BetterBot. They currently work with over 100 property management companies, allowing their agents to handle higher-level tasks not suited for bots. Robert  also says that with Conversational Leasing, everyone wins!

In the next part of this episode, Reid, Robert, and David share their thoughts about High-Value Conversations that are far more valuable than leads, which is the philosophy of BetterBot. Further down in the episode, Robert shares that all top 5 property management companies use BetterBot to turn conversations into signed leases. Next, Robert shares his thoughts about BetterBot being not another CRM company, a lead generation widget, or a marketing agency. He says that they are a team of dedicated builders, designers, and support enthusiasts focused 100% on building the best conversational leasing bot in the real estate rental market. Robert finally shares that better bots can only come from a better team who are passionate about the industry and love helping property managers turn more prospects into renters.

[13.09] BetterBot’s Omnichannel Chatbot – Robert shares the story of how the company started and what they’ve accomplished so far.

[20.23] Robert Turnbull's story – He shares his journey at BetterBot and what he has learned through his experience.

[23.08] Customer Success – Robert talks about how his team looks at customer success and what they do to understand the customers' problems and fix them.

[24.52] The Multifamily Chatbot of Choice – What BetterBot offers and how they stand apart from the rest of the market.

[28.07 Benefits of BetterBot's Multifamily Chatbot – Robert talks about how BetterBot started, its past, present, and what are the benefits of BetterBot's Multifamily Chatbot.

[33. 35] Best Features - Robert explains the best features of BetterBot along with its core technology.

[40.37] Finding Success – Robert shares his wisdom on creating strategies that stand out in the market and the way they differ from other existing companies.

[44.20] Lead Attribution – How to improve the quality of leads by utilizing the latest tools.

[27.01] User Experience – Robert talks about high-value conversations that are far more valuable than leads.

[01.03.30] Major Talking Points with Customers – He says that they are a team of dedicated builders, designers, and support enthusiasts focused 100% on building the best conversational leasing bot in the real estate rental market.

[01.06.59] Customer Loyalty – Tips & tricks Hannah uses at their firm to maintain customer loyalty.

[01.19.39] Matchmaking – Robert shares why better bots can only come from a better team.

Today we have a very special episode on the Digible Dudes. So far, we’ve always been talking about all things related to marketing and business, but today we’re doing something a little bit different. Today we’re talking about things we love. And as opposed to having one guest, we have five guests joining us on the podcast to talk about things they love. Our guests today are Grace Harrison, Greta Wolking, Steve, Kayde Pierce, and Noah Leach. They’re all members of the Digible team, and throughout the episode, they talk about stuff they love and some awesome stories around.

Our first guest is Grace Harrison, an account coordinator at Digible. One of the things Grace absolutely loves is the goats owned by Grace’s family. She talks about how they came to own them, stories about how they named them, stuff about what’s involved in taking care of them, perks of having them, and more.

Greta Wolking, a paid media strategist at Digible, is our next guest. Greta has a number of things she’s passionate about, one of them being circus arts. In today’s episode, Greta shares her story of learning circus arts. Trapeze is one of the things Greta has mastered. Greta shares several fascinating stories about the art of performing trapeze.

Next up is Steve Osbourne, an SEO strategist at Digible. One of the interesting things about Steve is that he owns an escape room. An escape room is a game where players have to team up, find clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish numerous tasks to escape from the room. Steve owns an escape room as a business, and today Steve talks about what it is like to run such a business and recent developments around the industry.

Kayde Pierce, an account manager at Digible, joins our conversation to talk about one of the things she’s a big fan of; Harry Potter. Kayde talks about falling in love with the world of witchcraft and wizardry, how she came to enjoy the books and movies alike, what makes Harry Potter unique among other creations in the fantasy genre. Our final guest is Noah Leach, a paid media strategist at Digible. Noah is an enthusiast of coffee. Noah talks about the process of roasting coffee, why he enjoys doing it and the benefits of roasting your own coffee.

[06:38] Grace’s Love for Goats – It turns out Grace’s family has goats. Grace shared how they came to own goats and what’s great about having them.

[11:58] Goat Names – Grace shares the awesome story of how they named their goats.

[18:23] ROI of Goats – Although we said we’re off-topic today, David somehow found a way to get Grace to talk about the ROI of having goats.

[26:28] Circus Arts with Greta - Greta shares how she fell in love with circus arts and how she learned the art.

[30:25] Trapeze – Greta shares what it takes to practice and perform trapeze and why she enjoys doing it.

[37:39] Profession of Trapeze Arts – How the professional trapeze artists do their work and the struggles the circus industry has been facing lately.

[44:57] Escape Rooms – Steve Osbourne talks about what escape rooms are and how the escape room industry popped out of nowhere a few years back and became popular in a very short time.

[50:08] New Innovations – Steve talks about what’s involved in designing and building an escape room and trends and innovations that happen around escape rooms.

[1:01:49] Witchcraft & Wizardry with Kayde – Kayde shares her love for the Harry Potter universe and what Kayde loves about them.

[1:15:44] Coffee with Noah – Noah shares how he fell in love with coffee.

[1:20:32] Roasting Coffee – The process of roasting coffee, different types of coffee, and how coffee from different countries have a wide range of flavors.

[1:33:23] ROI of Coffee – Noah talks about what he gets from investing time in getting shipped his own coffee beans and roasting at home.

Welcome to the Digible Dudes podcast. We’re back again with another Digible Snack episode with two special guests, Megan & Adam. Megan is the digital strategy lead for the paid media department, and Adam is the director of paid media at Digible. Over the last few months, our guests have been doing several case studies on numerous aspects of paid advertising, and in today’s episode, we talk about what dynamic ads are, how they work, what’s so unique about them, and more.

[01:38] Dynamic Ads – What dynamic ads are and how to utilize them in paid search campaigns.

[02:27] Standard Vs. Dynamic – Megan shares her observations about the performance improvement dynamic ads have over standard ad campaigns in terms.

[03:36] Cost Per Conversion – How the cost per conversion of dynamic ads behaves compared to regular ads.

[05:26] Keywords – Megan shares her thoughts on how keywords come into play for dynamic search ads.

[06:22] What’s Unique in Dynamic Ads? – Adam talks about the unique features and behaviors of dynamic ads that make dynamic ads stand out from the rest.

[08:17] SEO & Dynamic Ads – How the SEO setup of a website affects the performance of dynamic ads.

We’re back with another Digible Snack episode where we have David,  Megan, and Adam talking about how effective would it be to use neighborhood-related keywords in your paid search campaigns. Megan is the digital strategy lead for the paid media department and Adam is the director of paid media at Digible. Throughout this short episode, our guests share their wisdom on numerous things marketers need to know about using neighborhood-related keywords in their paid search campaigns.

[01:08] Case Studies – Reid and Nicole talk about the case studies they conducted and why they chose these topics.

[02:09] Keywords and Neighborhoods – Nicole shares some statistics that reflect the behavior of keywords related to certain areas and what marketers should keep in mind about it.

[03:50] Client Data – How the data from clients about how they research neighborhoods for relocating relates to marketers.

[05:41] Micro Improvements – Why even small improvements in the performance of search campaigns significantly matter.

[07:01] Big Market – Why you should pay attention to sub-market keywords when you’re focusing on a big city and how it might improve the performance of your marketing efforts.

[07:36] Neighboring Neighborhoods – What you should consider when you’re thinking about targeting nearby areas to your main territory of interest.

Welcome back to the Digible Dudes podcast. Today we have a short episode where we dive into what you should know about when to launch a new product. In today’s episode, David and Reid pay their attention to a book, New York Times bestseller, “Zero To One’’ written by an American entrepreneur and investor, Peter Theil. In this book, the author dives into several concepts around products that we use in this episode to talk about launching a new product.

Stating the conversation, David shares details about the book, its author, and the key concepts that the author mentioned in his book. Then, David and Reid share their thoughts on the concept of MVP, minimum viable product, how the author Peter mentioned that concept in his book, and some other couple of examples about this MVP being used to build successful companies.

Further down in the episode, Reid talks about another book, Lost and Founder, written by Rand Fishkin, and how the concepts in that book compare to the ones mentioned in Zero to One along with some examples of well-known entrepreneurs who have expressed different views about the MVP concept.

Talking about long-term strategic planning for a startup, Reid shares his thoughts on the vision a startup founder must have in order to kick off their business. Reid further elaborated on the MVP mindset, its pros and cons, and what you should keep in mind about following the MVP concept on a product.

Products are different from features, and it’s crucial for a business to get clear about products and features. In the next part of the episode, Reid shares his thoughts on differences and similarities between products and features, and how it relates to the concept of MVP. Wrapping up the conversation, David and Reid pay their attention to how startups built on the MVP mindset grow into bigger and better companies and what it takes for a startup to make it to that level of success.

[02.40] The book “Zero to One” - The book, author, and the key concepts the author discusses in the book.

[03.43] Minimum Viable Product- What is MVP, how it can be used to develop and deploy a new product, and a deep conversation about great entrepreneurs who had different views about the concept of MVP.

[08.27] MVP Mindset – Reid elaborates on the MVP mindset, its pros and cons, and how it applies to startups.

[12.49] Strategic Long-term Planning – David shares his thoughts on the kind of long term vision you need to kick off a successful startup.

[17.08] Product Vs. Features – Reid talks about how a product differentiates itself from a feature and how the MVP concept comes into play.

[20.15] Growing and Expansion – What it takes for products that start with the MVP concept to successfully grow into bigger scale products with time.

We’re back with another exciting episode of the Digible Dudes podcast. In today’s episode, David and Reid are talking about their thoughts on the recent news around RentPath and what it would look like if Digible built an Internet Listing Service.

Starting the conversation, Reid shares his thoughts on how newly started administration may work on anti-trust policies and how they might be looking at the business practices of large tech companies. Moving on to the next topic, David and Reid share their thoughts on the deal for the acquisition of CoStar Group by RentPath and how the deal was canceled after the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the sale. Diving deep into the situation with RentPath, David reviews some of the statistics of the stock prices and performance of the two companies and their platforms.

The next area we focus on in this episode is Internet Listing services.  Getting into that conversation, David and Reid share their attitudes on how each of them would work on building an ILS for the way that they want it to be in terms of strategies, features, and means of marketing.

In the next section, Reid talks about the idea of joining forces of locators with ILS platforms and how it may be able to provide better features and use experience for the users. Moving on to the newest of the technologies, Reid and David share their thoughts on cross-platform integrations of ILS systems with artificial intelligence-based recommendation systems such as the Alexa. Reid further talks about the benefits of using AI-based recommendation systems and the role these AI tools may play in the future business world.

Wrapping up the conversation, Reid & David share their thoughts on several aspects of strategizing, designing, and developing an ISL platform, including appearance, features, user experience, user interfaces, and many more.

[06.14] The Momentum of the new Administration – David & Reid discuss the attitude of the newly appointed administration towards big-tech, anti-trust laws and how tech companies are taking heavy measures on services and organizations for policy violations.

[12.29] RentPath – Rentpath, the owner of quite a few major property listing websites, recently canceled a major acquisition after the FTC sued to block the sale. We discuss how this affects RentPath and how the future of large tech companies is going to be affected by anti-trust policies.

[19.36] Costar Stock – How the stock price of the CoStar Group behaved through the whole ordeal of acquisition by RentPath and what the future might look like.

[22.58] RentPath & CoStar - How RentPath and CoStar performed over the recent months

[29:49] Reid’s Approach to ILS – Reid shares his thoughts on how he might approach building an ILS and what he wants it to be like.

[35.14] David’s Approach to ILS – David shares his take on the key aspects of a good ILS.

[39.17] Locators & ILS Platforms – Reid shares an interesting idea about merging Locators and ILS platforms to enhance the user experience.

[48.08] AI & Interconnected Technologies – Ideas about cross-platform integrations with platforms such as Alexa.

[52.36] User experience in ILS – Reid, and David share their thoughts on several aspects of ILS systems that could be improved to enhance the user experience.

Welcome back to the Digible Dudes podcast. Today we have a bonus episode, where we review the key events of the former year 2020 and what we can learn from the experience of going through one of the most challenging years in the last few decades.

Starting the conversation, Reid reviews the key events that happened in the past year along with what the past year was like for Digible in terms of growth, performance, and expansion. Then David & Reid talks about the experience of going through 2020 and some of the memorable events of the year and how those events affected the country in general as well as the industry.

Wrapping up the conversation, Reid talks about how Digible was able to survive the misfortunes, including COVID 19, and how they stood up strong as always.

[01.58] Recap of 2020 - The key events that happened in the last year, including social, economic, and political events.

[03:12] 2020 for Digible – How Digible grew in the year 2020, what they did to expand the brand, and how they adapted to the new conditions in the markets.