AIM 2012 programming is coming together as we finalize conference sessions and confirm speakers. This year we’ll again strive to bring only the most valuable and insightful Internet marketing content from leading marketers and sales executives from inside and outside the industry. They will share what works for them, provide tactics on how to improve your online performance by serving customers and provide the science to creating a great web experience. The full session agenda will be available soon. Until then, here’s a quick inside look at some of the exclusives:

• How to validate your online engagement with proven techniques gleaned from the auto industry for transitioning the online conversation to offline conversions.
• Advanced strategies for online reputation management to get you beyond Google Alerts to take control of your messaging and activate the measurement and shaping of your company’s online perception.
• Supercharging your ethnography (that’s the whole psychology of web design and the user experience) to involve your customers in a rewarding online environment by taking advantage of how humans organically process visual information in web-empowered and interactively rich user environments. Wow.

We’ll be sure to share more in-depth AIM programming news with you as it develops between now and the conference, drilling deeper into specific sessions and even interviewing a speaker or two, so be sure to bookmark the blog and stay tuned! Challenge yourself to think Customer First at AIM 2012 and register today to access the best Internet marketing education value for multifamily executives.

The AIM 2012 Apartment Internet Marketing Conference will be held April 25-27 at the luxurious Sheraton Phoenix Downtown. Don’t miss out on the exciting and informative insights into online marketing strategies to help you reach and connect with customers!

Persuasive technology: systems and machines designed to influence human belief and behaviors, usually with the intent to bring about positive change.

Wow, when I first read that I thought I was reading the intro to an Aldous Huxley novel. Turns out, persuasive technologies are already all around us —from mobile phone apps to Facebook tags. So, if you think there’s a persuasive technology application to apartment marketing you’d be right on, and if you figured by now those applications would be featured at AIM 2012 you’d be right on again.

AIM conference producers are proud to welcome Stanford University professor and persuasive technology guru BJ Fogg as the AIM 2012 keynote speaker. As the director of research and design at Stanford’s Persuasive Technology Lab, Fogg’s message of how to bring people into the mobile and online experience is sure to resonate with apartment marketers (see, for instance, the video on how Facebook uses persuasive technologies above). More importantly, Fogg’s focus and analysis on “looking at what works and expanding upon it” couldn’t be a better example of the AIM 2012 Customer First theme.

“Convenience and easy access to information on every device are what shoppers care about.  AIM 2012 will deliver best practices in making great online (and offline) renting experiences a reality,” says AIM producer Steve Lefkovits. “BJ Fogg is at the bleeding edge of how we create systems to change human behavior, and his AIM 2012 keynote on mobile persuasion technology couldn’t be better timed for multifamily marketers.”

During the 3 days at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown hotel, AIM 2012 attendees will navigate strategies within the online user experience and across topics including mobile marketing, social media — even ethnography. Challenge yourself to think Customer First at AIM 2012 and register today to access the best Internet marketing education value for multifamily executives.

Register today for AIM 2012 — $595 until February 17, $695 thereafter.

Save the date to learn about Customer First online marketing strategies across the apartment resident experience lifecycle.

Is your organization customer-centric?  Are you reaping the benefits of a “Customer First” strategy?  AIM 2012 features innovative and actionable information to deliver an unforgettable online experience for your prospects and residents. Forget about save the date: register today and start bridging the connection between customer experience and profitable rental revenue.

AIM Conference 2012

April 25–27, 2012

Phoenix, Arizona

Advance Registration

$595 until February 17, $695 after

Register at www.aimconf.com today!

Responding to a viral testimonial video leaked from last year’s Apartment Internet Marketing Conference (AIM), at least two national beer makers are vying to gain corporate sponsorships at the 2012 event, anonymous sources said today.

The video–which shows J.C. Hart Company vice president of marketing Mark Juleen wearing a headband and using an ice chest filled with beer to entice conference-goers into a pick-up game of foursquare—reached several hundred thousand hits on popular video sharing sites before being pulled down this morning. See the complete footage of Juleen’s video below:

According to sources, the beer companies now in talks with AIM conference executives were impressed by Juleen’s “loose style” and “casual delivery of testimonial and branding messages.” Juleen’s seemingly natural ability to cross-promote brands like Pandora and Foursquare also impressed advertisers, sources said, although the rumored possibility of Juleen’s move to the Spotify streaming music platform has some Pandora purists questioning his allegiances.

Sources declined to name which companies were in discussions with AIM, but indicated that this year’s “Customer First” themed conference on the evolving uses of internet marketing to attract, retain and interact with rental residents and prospects is likely to blow the roof off past events. “That’s the whole reason why we’re in Phoenix this year,” one source said. “There were some concerns that Apartment Internet Marketing executives were just ‘too intense’ for California.”

Of course, the careful observer by now should realize an actual beer sponsorship of AIM can’t be anything but a spoof. But the Apartment Internet Marketing tactics presented and discussed by cutting-edge speakers from both inside and outside the industry are not, and AIM 2012 attendees will gain invaluable knowledge to more effectively reach target audiences with the messages they are trying to deliver.

AIM 2012 will be held from April 25-27, 2012 at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown located at 340 North 3rd Street, Phoenix, AZ. Click here to register.

Translation: the development of bona fide online leasing systems is the game-changer everyone thought it was going to be. Certainly MRI and VaultWare aren’t alone out on that particular apartment tech frontier, and you can bet this deal has serious antennae raised down in Carrollton, Tex., out in Santa Barbara, Calif., and up in Provo, Utah.  But are we totally there yet? Does the MRI / VaultWare deal close the loop, or is there work yet to be done in creating total ownership of residents on a single platform, from their first hint of becoming a prospect to the third, fourth and fifth renewal of a lease?

If you’re a supplier or vendor trying to sell into the multifamily ownership and management space, Terry Danner feels your pain. “This is going to be like a self-help session on how to deal with abuse,” joked the president of Dallas, Tex.-based Riverstone Residential in his keynote address at the AIM 2.0 Internet Marketing for Apartment Suppliers Conference held Dec. 7-9 at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara, Calif.

Danner detailed to attendees the bandwidth and resources his firm dedicates to owners in the fee management arena as an analogy to the multifamily vendor space, and reaffirmed relationship-driven business and fortified partnerships still carry the day when it comes to creating value with the products and services that make apartment communities and portfolios perform.

“All of our time is spent with our clients on managing their assets,” Danner said, adding that Riverstone deals with approximately 25,000 different suppliers to support a team of 102 regional managers and 700 maintenance professionals serving some 231 apartment owners. “So I know where you are coming from because I am on the same side when we try to sell our clients. We’re not trying to ignore you, because we need to partner with you. We are trying to grow our company, but I’m not going to say it is easy to get in front of me and my counterparts. There are times we dedicate to it, but the days are busy.”

Those bandwidth constraints mean Riverstone does not have the time or resources to entertain ten, twenty, or fifty different vendors in any specific supply vertical, Danner said. Instead, the company looks to have one primary and one secondary partner per product and service channel. Successful vendor partners view the contract as only the entry point to that partnership, and help Riverstone to carry the load with program implementation and stakeholder buy-in.

“It’s never easy getting from A to Z with any particular supplier,” Danner said. “We are a conduit of business to the properties, and we cannot do business without you, but we do recognize it is our job to figure out who is the best supplier, match them up and get them working on the property, and then optimize that relationship to the fullest.”

Reaffirming the effectiveness of Sales 101 strategies, Danner advised apartment suppliers to do as much homework upfront as possible, and impress prospects not just with capabilities, but with an inherent knowledge of what makes that prospect’s business tick.

“Selling to one company is not the same as selling to another. Property managers, REITs and mom-and-pops all have different resources and nuances on how they are conducting business,” Danner said. “Know my company, know who I am, know what I’ve got. There are plenty of people who try to sell me things that have no rational fit with what we do, and you’d be surprised how many salespeople don’t know our business.”

Want more AIM 2.0 exclusive news and strategies? Check back here next week for a Q&A between Danner and Steve Lefkovits and coverage of all of the AIM 2.0 educational programming and breakout sessions.

Managers and Owners – want to supercharge your B-to-B marketing? Attend this week’s AIM 2.0 Conference – Internet Marketing for Apartment Suppliers for free!*   Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the conference will be held December 7-9, 2011 at:

Hyatt Regency Silicon Valley
5101 Great America Parkway
Santa Clara, CA 95054
apartmentsupplierconf.com

Managers and Owners -  Come sharpen your competitive marketing skills to help you attract new clients and capital -  as our guest.*  This week we are kicking off our first-ever internet marketing retreat for vendors, suppliers and brokers. (We’re hoping our vendor/supplier/broker attendees won’t mind networking with a few extra owners.)

The AIM 2.0 Conference – Internet Marketing for Apartment Suppliers is being keynoted by Terry Danner, President of Riverstone Residential.  Sponsored by NAA, AIM and Benson Integrated Marketing Solutions, it features 10 breakout sessions on topics such as:

• Video Marketing for Business to Business
• Online Business Strategies: Getting LinkedIn
• Stress-Free Email Marketing
• Using Webinar Techology to Attract Prospects and Communicate with Clients
• How and Where to Advertise Online
• Leveraging Trade Associations and Organizations
• Online Customer Relationship Management (Salesforce.com)
• Facebook for Small Business

This week’s event opens with a reception on Wednesday evening December 7.  Sessions are from 9:00AM – 4:30PM on Thursday December 8, followed by a reception and more sessions from 8:45AM – 12:00 noon on Friday December 9.

Managers and owners – we hope you too can join us for this first-of-its-kind business marketing retreat.  Please register at apartmentsupplierconf.com/register and use complimentary registration code aim20ownermanager for this last-minute special.

Hotel rooms may still be available by calling 408-200-1234.  Ask for the expired NAA room block. The venue is five minutes from the San Jose airport, a hub on Southwest.  Jump a cheap flight if you can and join us!

(Please note that the original Apartment Internet Marketing Conference for owners and managers will be held April 25 – 27, 2012 at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel. Registration opens December 15 at aimconf.com.)

* Free offer available only to employees of companies whose primary business is managing an/or owning multifamily apartment communities.  We reserve the right to review or cancel any registration made under this offer at any time.

We hope to see you there!

Rich Hughes

In short, it’s easier to ask for more rent when you know your residents like where they live and when the alternatives in the market don’t match your demonstrated customer service levels. “I already have an algorithm that uses social media as one of the inputs to generate renewal price,” said Chicago-based AMLI Residential’s revenue manager Rich Hughes. “It’s a logistic regression and looks at transactional behavior and psychographic and behavioral demographics, and social certainly falls within that. You find that on the front side the pricing is somewhat homogenized because you are exposing pricing to the market and saying OK, who wants the product at this price? On the renewal side you have a one-on-one relationship with these people that allows for bespoke pricing, and there area lot of strategic levers based on who they are and what they like that affect how much of a price increase you can push.”

Even if you’re not quite up to programming logistic regression algorithms, gauging resident sentiment via social media (including compiling and aggregating ratings on the sites that have them) offers any operator the ability to better determine renewal rates. “I certainly think that resident sentiment can be measured via social to help determine propensity to renew,” says Stacy Westbay, president of Dallas, Tex.-based multifamily revenue management consultancy Revenue Edge. “Obviously a key area to gain uptick in revenue via revenue management is on the renewal side. If you’ve got really strong apartment ratings or scores or if your company participates in regular resident satisfaction type surveys I think you can certainly gauge what your perception is from your residents and know that you can push rents a little bit here or there.”

Stacy Westbay

Still iffy for the apartment set is whether or not social media can be used effectively as a direct marketing channel, or for targeted marketing to create incremental and variable demand to improve revenue management pricing outputs. “On the gaming side with both Facebook and Twitter you can target very specific demographics for push marketing messages as compared to blast marketing to the general population,” Westbay says. “That is a little bit harder to do with multifamily, where fans of apartment companies on Facebook and Twitter are typically going to be existing residents, not prospects.”

Hughes says that even if social media is going to pull prospects in the door, it can still be tied to guest cards as a way to better to gain inferential data for qualifying and selling applicants. Is Jane Doe checking in at the local BBQ joint? Make sure to point out the fire-pits and poolside grills during the community tour. “That and the final element of social of course is the extent that you can get highly relevant long tail tie-ins for SEO lift. You’re not going to rocket up the rankings and knock off Rent.com because you’ve got Facebook at Happy Acres, but in the domain of long tail marketing, which is probably where the smart operators are looking right now, I think there is a lot of value there in social media.”

Have a killer idea about integrating social media with revenue management? Email me at steve@jtimedia.com

The multifamily industry has unique marketing and customer communications challenges. Suppliers and vendors must not only develop a brand and reputation that reaches the decision-makers on the corporate, divisional and regional levels, but also garner a confidence among the on-site staff. So how do you profitably and efficiently connect across a portfolio?

Answering that question is at the heart of the AIM 2.0 – Internet Marketing for Suppliers Conference, the premier educational forum and networking event for multifamily suppliers and vendors. The conference brings together Internet sales and marketing experts to help you refine online business strategies and successfully reach property management and investment companies. You’ll learn how to:

• Market directly to property professionals
• Leverage online marketing and advertising to reach the “deal guys”
• Sell portfolio-wide services
• Gain benefits from online business networks
• Leverage employees as brand ambassadors
• Create stress-free and successful email marketing campaigns
• Effectively use rich media to deliver your message
• Manage the complexity of online advertising
• Get marketing benefits from membership organizations
• Maximize customer relationship management tools

This high-tech conference is a must attend for every multifamily supplier and vendor. Big and small companies alike will learn how to better use the Web to market to multifamily management and investment companies. From social media to blogging to pay-per-click, you will learn successful strategies to convert multifamily prospects into loyal customers.

If you’re interested in learning the effective strategies that will allow you to sell your company’s value proposition in the multifamily space, then plan on joining us December 7–9 at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara in Santa Clara, California. Be sure to register before November 7 to take advantage of the early-bird special price of $695—a $200 savings. You can find more information and session details at www.apartmentsupplierconf.com.

I hope to see you there!

The visionary and inventor who created the products that would make us rethink how we communicated, worked, played and marketed our products met with what he called “very likely the single best invention of life”—death. Jobs passed away at the age of 56.

In his June 2005 commencement speech at Stanford, Jobs apologized for the drama of those words, but it was typical Steve Jobs. To him, death was Life’s change agent, where the old was cleared out to make room for the new. It was this type of thinking that had paved his path in business, fully believing that, in the end, all the dots would connect somehow and we would be the richer for it.

And we are. What he left behind is a legacy of tools that not only ushered in the digital age but pushed the doors wide open for millions of consumers, young and old—Apple II, Macintosh, iMac, MacBook, iPod, iPhone, iPad and iTunes.

Perhaps greater than those iconic computers and tools, however, is what he taught us about marketing: Innovation and product functionality might get you in the channel, but designing products with the consumer in mind would bring a loyalty to brand that went beyond the bottom line. It was that appreciation for the consumer—coupled with a drive for perfection—that created legions of devoted fans and had Apple supplanting Exxon Mobil as the most-valuable company in the world for a time.

It’s been said that Jobs knew what we needed long before we did. We wanted technology, but we also wanted something that appealed to our senses. In a January 2000 Forbes interview, Jobs explained that the attention to design “is what customers pay us for—to sweat all these details so it’s easy and pleasant for them to use.” And when the iPad 2 was unveiled this past March, he commented, “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough—that it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields that result that makes our heart sing.”

We could all learn a lesson from Jobs on how to bring our products to market. Rest In Peace, Mr. Jobs.