THE DIGIBLE DUDE

2020 Apartment Events Were Cancelled, What's the Impact?

Welcome back to the Digible Dudes Podcast. In today's episode, David and Reid come together to talk about the Impact of COVID-19 in the industry. They start by talking about COVID-19's impact on events such as the cancellation of apartment events across the US.

They go on to chat about AI, data management, and the lawsuits that have recently come up with regard to data mismanagement and data privacy, and how it will affect the housing industry and their digital marketing strategies. They also discuss the fair housing lawsuits that have been filed after the HUD compliant on Facebook.

Afterward, they chat on analytics companies over the years and how data management has changed with the development of tools such as Google Cloud, which eventually resulted in many well-known data analytics firms going under.

Finally, they chat about additional revenue streams for apartment complexes. They discuss how to maximize the cost per square foot of an apartment from both long term and short term residents. Reid and David, in the end, dive into some ideas, such as retail referral programs as a method for raising additional revenue.

[2:47] Impact of COVID-19 - Cancellation of events in the US and across the world.

[7:14] Data Management - Data mismanagement, data privacy, and lawsuits.

[8:39] Regulations and restrictions - Impact of data privacy lawsuits on digital marketing in the housing industry.

[20:04] Data analytics over the years - The development of technology, Mergers, and acquisitions.

[16:34] Lawsuits and legislation - laws in fair housing and potential laws and regulations for data privacy within individual states.

[27:05] Apartment marketing - Additional revenue streams for apartment complexes.

[32:34] Final thoughts - A brief chat on upcoming episodes and guests on the show.

Apartment Marketers play a pivotal role in helping to acquire new properties from ownership groups and investors.  As with most industries, the competition is fierce and the stakes are high.  The Digible Dudes would like to pull the curtain back on what these presentations entail from start to finish, best practices, worst practices, and most memorable moments along the acquisition trail.

Today's episode is all about the past, present, and future in marketing with different ownership groups. To discuss this topic, we have a special guest, Joya Pavesi. Joya is the Vice President of marketing & strategy at Rivergate KW Residential, a startup company in the property marketing industry. She is also one of our clients here at Digible Inc.

We start the episode, chatting about the changes in business and marketing. We ask Joya how residential companies such as Rivergate get in contact with their potential client base and how long they work on projects with a client. We also talk about at what point during a project, it's best to reach out to a residential marketing company for consultation and help.

Joya shares with us what made clients stick with their company. She also talks on Budgeting and how they discuss with their clients to come up with an agreed-upon budget. Afterward, we chat about how the company, Rivergate RW Residential has changed its marketing strategy over the years and how they adapted their services due to COVID-19

We then go on to discuss how the development and influence of technology have changed the field of marketing in most areas from the construction to the finished product. We also chat about whether, compared to five years ago, clients are more informed and involved in project marketing and management.

At the end of this episode, we discuss how, at present, we dive into more and more digital marketing tools than local marketing to reach potential customers and its cost-effectiveness. Further, we also touch on fair housing and the change in the expectations of our clients.

[0:36] Joya's Background - A brief history of Rivergate KW Residential

[8:09] Finding Leads - How residential companies get in touch with potential clients.

[15:59] Residential Marketing - How we help our clients make their targeted advertising more effective.

[27:32] Industry Trends – The way that the development of technology improved the digital marketing industry.

[32:02] Adapting to the New Reality - How you can fine-tune your marketing strategies to perform better with the effects of COVID-19

[42:57] Budgeting – How to align your marketing strategies with the client's budget.

[48:09] Interacting with Clients – How to get your clients involved in the marketing process effectively.

[56:33] Fair Housing - Complaints, Lawsuits, and their responsibility as a property management company.

In today’s episode of The Digible Dudes, David is joined by Adam Walters and Magan Haase. Adam is the director of paid media at Digible, and Megan is a paid media strategist at Digible. In this episode, we talk about calling adverts and the different options available.

They start by discussing the quality and efficiency of using call extension ads vs. on-site ads. Megan talks about her blog and two case studies conducted where they saw that a lot more quality traffic was coming from those on-site calls versus Google ad extensions.

In the next section, they explain the types of online advertisements available for companies such as google ad extensions, call-only ads, and on-site adverts. Megan and Adam agree that calls on ads are better than ad extensions as call-only ads on web search look more similar to organic results than ad extensions, which cause more clients to click on these. Further, they discuss the cost efficiency of call-only ads.

At the end of the episode, they talk about the improvement in quality leads over time and the effect of COVID on lead quality. They state that COVID has led to the improvement of lead quality as more businesses work from home with their clients. They end the discussion by talking about whether a company should run call only or full adverts for their brand and testing adverts on a new set of audiences.

[2.38] Introduction - Are call ads worth it and which adverts should you run.

[3.28] Case Study - Google call extensions and case study discussions based on data found in Megan’s blog.

[6.22] Call-only Ads VS. Extension Call Ads  - Discussion on whether call-only ads are better than extension call ads

[8.22] Lead Quality – How to improve the quality of leads and how COVID affected lead generation.

[9.26] Which is Better for You? - Discussion on whether a business should do call extension ads, call only, or full ads.

[12.38] Testing Adverts – What you should keep in mind when you test adverts on new audiences.

In today's episode of Digible Dudes Podcast,  David and Reid are joined by special guest Michelle Smith, who is the director of digital strategies at Lincoln Property Company. She joined Lincoln Property Company about four months ago after working with Greystar Real Estate. Michelle has been working in the real estate/property industry for over ten years. In this episode, we discuss what it's like to be a property marketer in an ever-changing industry and how Michelle got into the industry.

In the first section of the episode, we talk about how we met Michelle and how she got into the property industry 11 years ago when she was in college. She was studying for a graphic design degree while working in Bath and Bodyworks when her brother, who was a student property manager, suggested that she give an apartment leasing a shot. So, she got started here. In her final year, she was lucky enough to be recruited by a real estate company for marketing. She went on to be recruited by Greystar and then Lincoln Property Company.

In the next section, We chat about what it's like to be a property marketer at the past, present, and future, especially with the heavy development of digital advertising in the field over the last few years. She talks about advertising in the industry 11 years ago, where we did not have CRMs or have a lead management system with tracking phone numbers or emails to populate. There were also no syndication tools or paid advertising plans. We talk about how it's very rare when you find a property or a client that doesn't have a syndication tool or a CRM to track their leads as a result of new advertising platforms that emerged in recent years.

We go to talk about how Michelle's clients are well informed in the field at present compared to a few years ago due to blogs and information you can now find on the web. We talk about how some major companies in the industry have begun to merge and whether this will cause a monopoly or be beneficial overall. Further, we discuss the transformation of the industry with geo-fencing and fair housing coming into play.

We finished off by discussing and sharing our thoughts on hot takes in the industry. The costs, benefits, and influence of Social media, paid and organic search, and marketing packages having to Google my business and SEOs and how it affects her clients and what they choose. We also discussed any other guests we should have on the show!

[7.17] Michelle's story - how she got into the industry while in college studying for a graphic design degree.

[9.15] Gaps in Knowledge - Whether there are gaps in knowledge in the industry and addressing them.

[16.13] Evolution of The Industry - The past, present, and future of the industry with the development of digital marketing.

[ 20.47] The Modern marketer - The role of a marketer in the industry and how it's changed over the years.

[30.08] Mergers, Acquisitions & Monopolies - The merging of marketing companies in the property industry and a discussion on the creation of monopolies.

[44.37] Opportunities - New opportunities in Michelle's new job and mistakes she's made in her career.

[1.03.47] Working with Vendors -  Michelle's Pet Peeves as a marketing manager and working with different vendors.

[1.06.35] New Concepts - What you should keep in mind about new data concepts such as geo-fencing and fair housing.

[1.24.08] Digital Marketing Influences- Social media influence, paid and organic search, and marketing packages with SEO and GMB.

[1.36.01] Budgeting - Budget constraints when advertising properties.

[1.43.00] Final Thoughts - Michelle's role models in the industry and any new guests on the show?

Welcome back to the Digible Dudes podcast. Today we have a special guest, Abby Glaessner, a paid media specialist at Digible. She joined Digible about eight months ago after working in the vacation rental industry for quite a while. There’s a lot of similarities between the vacation rental space and apartment marketing, along with some tiny little details that set them apart. So we decided to have Abby on the podcast talk about her transition from vacation rentals to apartment marketing and what she learned along the way.

Abby gets into the conversation by sharing the story of how her career path was shaped and how she reached where she is today. She first joined a vacation rental company as their only marketing person.  That was an excellent opportunity for her to get experience in a wide range of marketing channels related to the vacation rental industry.  Then she joined Digible to work on paid media strategies.

Getting into the details, Abby explains how the marketing operations were functioning in the vacation rental space. She talks about how they managed marketing campaigns for thousands of vacation rental properties, occupancy rates, marketing mix, budgeting, and many more.  She gets into details about some of the obstacles and restrictions related to targeting they had to deal with and what they did to work around those restrictions. She also shares some tactics that can be used for apartment marketing as well.

Further down the episode, Abby talks about the major differences she sees between the vacation rental space and the apartment marketing space. She explains the small details that set the two industries apart. In the next section, Abby shares her experience with the methods of marketing optimization used in the vacation rental space. She gives an in-depth explanation of the usage of CRMs, CMSs, SEO, and custom tools in vacation rentals. She also shares how the impact of social media worked differently in these two industries.

[05:45] Abby’s Story – How Abby started at a vacation rental company and her transition into digital marketing.

[09:47] Nuts & Bolts of Vacation Rental Marketing – How the marketing operations were carried out in the vacation rental industry.

[14:53] Media Mix – Abby talks about the mix of marketing channels that were used for marketing vacation rentals, some of the restrictions they had to face, and workarounds for them.

[20:36] Budgeting -  How the budgets varied in the vacation rental space from one quarter to the next.

[26:04] Differences – Abby talks about the major differences of markering between vacation rentals and apartment marketing and some of the things we can absorb into the apartment marketing space.

[31:24] Marketing Optimization – What sort of a priority did CRMs, CMSs, and SEO were given in the vacation rental industry.

[35:06] Impact of Social – Similarities and differences in the way social media impacted vacation rental space and the apartment marketing space.

[39:30] Technologies Specific to Vacation Rentals – Abby talks about the usage of custom tools in the vacation rental industry.

[45:12] Final Thoughts – Tips for building trust for your website for vacation rental as well as apartment marketing.

Welcome back to the Digible Dudes podcast. Today's episode is all about Spotify. We have a special guest today. Jenny Haacker, a paid media strategist at Digible, joins us to talk about using Spotify's paid advertising platform for apartment marketing.  Over the last few months, Jenny has been running more than a dozen successful Spotify campaigns, and she's here today to share her knowledge and experience about using programmatic audio for apartment marketing.

Programmatic audio is the art of using modern technology to automate the insertion of audio advertisements in digital audio content such as music streaming services, podcasts, audiobooks, etc. As of now, several big players in the audio content business have implemented programmatic audio ad features. Spotify launched its programmatic audio ads platform and has been continuously growing since then. In today's episode, Jenny shares what she has learned through her experiments with Spotify ads.

We start the episode with a fun story from Reid about a sourdough recipe from his wife, Miranda. Then Reid dives into the conversation explaining what programmatic audio adds are and the way it works. Jenny starts sharing her wisdom with a detailed explanation of features and targeting options available on Spotify audio ads.

In the next section, Reid reviews the differences and similarities between programmatic audio ads and conventional radio ads. David & Jenny continues the discussion, explaining what portion of Spotify users you can reach with programmatic audio ads, their effectiveness, and reporting features. They also talk about several metrics you can use to asses the performance of programmatic audio ads such as CTR, CPC, and CPM.

Toward the end of the episode, Jenny talks about the user experience, how the ads are shown in the Spotify app, and a couple features the platform is missing because it's a relatively new platform. To sum up the session, Reid and Jenny share some best practices on creating ad spots, call-to-actions, and scheduling ads on Spotify.

[07:29] What is Programmatic Audio – A brief introduction to audio ads.

[11:10] Features – Different targeting options available for Spotify ads.

[12:31] Spotify vs. Radio – Differences & similarities between programmatic audio ads and conventional radio ads.

[15:17] The Reach – What portion of Spotify users can you reach with audio ads.

[16:58] KPIs – Ways of measuring the performance of Spotify audio ad campaigns.

[18:23] User Experience – How the ads are shown to users and what it's missing.

[22:51] Creating Ad Spots – Things to keep in mind when you create an ad spot for Spotify.

[24:50] Call-to-actions – Best practices for adding call-to-actions in ad spots.

[26:17] Scheduling – How to schedule ads for better performance.

Today’s episode of the Digible Dudes podcast is based on the Digible webinar conducted by David, Reid, and Nicole this week. In the webinar, they cover several essential areas that could help you strengthen and fine-tune your apartment marketing strategy in this time of crisis.

The first section of today’s episode focuses on the impact the COVID-19 epidemic had on the industry over the last couple of months. David, Reid & Nicole review a blend of data from current campaigns to compare & contrast several metrics related to market trends before and after the coronavirus came into play. They discuss the behavior of numbers related to the available units, the absorption rate in different states & cities, and the behavior of a couple of outliers.

The next section of the webinar is focused on search trends. David, Reid & Nicole talk about some of the keywords that have been trending lately, such as unemployment as well as some real estate related keywords. They discuss how these keywords appeared in the searches throughout the last three months and what sort of behavior they had a year ago. They also discuss in detail how different traffic sources contributed to overall website traffic over the past few months. Continuing the discussion about web traffic, they review the behavior of the visitors with session duration statistics. Session duration statistics creates a vivid picture of how the time people spend on websites has changed since January. They also discuss how the low funnel page views changed since last December.

Another area of focus for this webinar is campaign performance. David, Reid & Nicole discuss trends in campaign performance with statistical data on cost per lead, click-to-lead ration, click through rates of different platforms and marketing call durations. Towards the end of the episode, they share their take on what to expect in the coming months and some valuable tips to optimize your marketing strategy.

[03:00] Impact on the Industry – An analysis of leasing trends before and after the coronavirus affected the industry.

[04:37] Absorption Rate –Behavior of absorption rate per week in different states.

[09:00] Search Volume – A comparison of related keywords.

[12:12] Campaign Performance – A year-over-year comparison of how the cost per click changed.

[14:50] Website Traffic by Source – How different traffic sources contributed to the overall website traffic.

[16:00] Duration & Engagement – An analysis of the time people spend on websites.

[18:00] Pageview Activity - Behavior of the page views for lower-funnel pages before and after COVID-19.

[21:14] Campaign Performance –  Trends in CPC, cost per lead, and click to lead ratio.

[24:40] Call Analytics – How the marketing call durations varied during the last three months.

[30:30] Marketing Strategy - CTR Analysis of different platforms.

[40:00] What’s next – What you can do to optimize your marketing strategy.

A few days ago, Digible celebrated its 3rd anniversary we dedicated today’s episode to share the story of Digible with you. David, Reid, and Nicole are here today to share what the journey was like and how the company grew over the years. Digible was started as a small startup idea where Reid & David used to meet at a coffee shop before getting a dedicated office space. So stay tuned to hear the incredible story of how Digible grew into a successful business.

Diving into the stories from the early days, David shares how they were trying out different video conferencing apps in the early days. Nicole recalls how she had never thought about starting a business when David & Reid approached Nicole with the idea and why she was excited about this new experience.  Reid shares what his focus was on the business idea.

In the next section, Reid shared what motivated him to start the company, the stress involved in it, and how his focus transitioned from being all about the survival of the company to focus on how great the company can be. David & Nicole also shared their take on how their focus has continuously been evolving as the company was becoming more and more stable and successful.

In the next part of the episode, the trio shares how the work with the company affected their lives. Nicole shares a funny story about how her mother describes Nicole’s job role. David & Reid talk about how their family members see the work they do and the way some life events related to the work they do.  They also talk about the experience of going through a lawsuit in the early days of the company.

Toward the end of the episode, David, Reid & Nicole talk about what advice they can give to entrepreneurs from their journey with Digible. They share several valuable lessons from their experience about business planning, leadership, committing to business goals, and many more. Wrapping up the conversation, they talk about what they would have done differently and their plans and predictions for the coming years.

[07:15] Early Days – David, Reid & Nicole share their memories from the early days of Digible.

[09:20] How it all started - How the idea was born and conceptualized.

[18:44] Planning – How they were brainstorming the idea.

[20:27] Motivation -  What motivated them to start a company, the experience of growing a business, how the stress came into play.

[30:31] Payroll – Story of the first hire and how the payroll evolved,

[36:32] Family Background -  David, Reid & Nicole share how their families viewed and supported the business.

[50:10] Advice to Entrepreneurs – What advice can they give to upcoming entrepreneurs.

[1:05:00] What would they do differently –  Knowing what they know now, would they do anything differently?

[1:19:00] Plans & Predictions – Their plans, goals, and prediction for Digible in the coming years.

Today we have a special guest, Brenda Studt, from Excelsior Creative. Excelsior Creative is a branding and marketing agency real estate and related businesses. Brenda has been at Excelsior for eight years. In today’s episode, Brenda shares her wisdom on the importance of branding for apartment marketing.

Brenda starts the discussion with her eight-year journey with Excelsior Group and Excelsior Creative. Excelsior Group has been in the industry for around 15 years, and in its early days, Excelsior focused on its investment real estate group. Since then, Excelsior has come a long way, and Brenda’s group, Excelsior Creative, has been functioning as an in-house agency for the last three years.  Brenda shares the story of this transition and the unique way they operate.

In the next section, Brenda shared the journey of building her team and how their billing pattern evolved from project basis to time tracking.  Being affiliated with the Excelsior Group, Brenda’s group, Excelsior Creative, has a strong base of built-in clients.  Brenda explains how they make use of different opportunities available via this network. She also shares what the company culture is like and what its core values are.

Moving into today’s main area of focus, Brenda talks about her approach to branding. She shared the story of Rafter and how its name was chosen to match the neighborhood. Brenda describes in detail how you can use different types of tools, such as videos and printed sales tools, to create a better consumer experience.

In the next section, Brenda talks about rebranding. She shares her take on what kind of situations can benefit more from rebranding. Toward the end of the episode, Brenda shares more valuable ideas from her experience on the easiest ways to make a significant impact, helpful tips for decision making around rebranding, growing demand for your properties, and many more.

[02:21] Brenda’s Story – Brenda’s background and her role at Excelsior Creative.

[07:06] Building a Team – How Brenda developed her marketing team and how they collaborate with different sections of Excelsior Group.

[14:42] Brenda’s Approach to Branding – Brenda talks about how she approaches branding for long term projects.

[21:18] Owner Goals & Budgeting – How Brenda aligns her branding process with owner goals to maintain a better ROI.

[26:00] rebranding – What kind of situations can benefit more from rebranding and what to do when you’re inheriting a brand.

[31:49] Quick Wins – The easiest thing you can do to make the biggest impact.

[37:34] Rebranding Decision Making - What you should consider when making decisions about rebranding properties.

[41:31] Growing Demand -  How to grow demand for properties and build a better consumer experience.

Resources:

excelsiorcreativellc.com

In the last few weeks, almost every aspect of business started to change drastically as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. So this might be the best time to consider running dynamic ads. And we dedicated today’s episode to talk about everything dynamic ads.

So, what exactly are dynamic ads? It means updating your ad copy or update images or other media on demand. This can be done on a schedule, on some other triggers, or even in real-time. Dynamic ads are available on paid search as well as paid social media, and most major advertising platforms such as Facebook and Google Ads support this feature.

David starts the discussion by explaining what benefits you can get from dynamic ads, the value of keeping your ads updated, and some use cases of dynamic ads that are useful for apartment marketing. David shares his take on dynamic ads for retargeting and some challenges involved in it.

In the next section, David & Reid talk about using dynamic ads to show different ads to visitors who view different sections of your website. We mentioned this in our last webinar when we spoke about visitors who view the floor plan page. Toward the end of the episode, David some more valuable tips on working with an agency to run your dynamic ad campaigns.

[01:28] What are Dynamic Ads? – A brief explanation of what dynamic ads are, how they work, and some use cases.

[04:13] Setting Up Dynamic Ads – How to set up dynamic ads and how dynamic ads allow you to update your ad while retaining your quality score for the ad.

[07:32] Value of Staying Updated – Why you should update your ads for COVID-19.

[09:00] Working with Vendors – Effective methods of updating data when working with vendors.

[10:01] Dynamic Retargeting – How you can take advantage of dynamic ads for retargeting.

[11:33] Floor Plan Views Vs. Home Page Views – Showing different ads to visitors who view different sections of your website.

[13:13] More on Vendors – More tips & tricks about working with vendors.