Speaking at AIM 2012 (left to right) Judy Bellack, Dennis Cogbill, John Kobs and Dennis Smillie

I’ve been talking to quite a few reporters and editors in the apartment trade media over the past week about PRIMEDIA’s announcement that it plans to purchase Rent.com from eBay. “So what’s next?” they ask, or, even more pointedly: “What does all of this mean—if anything—to apartment operators and marketers?”

Perhaps the more critical question that needs to be asked is what does ILS consolidation, and really the total evolution of “first-look” online apartment marketing, mean to the customer? By “first-look” I mean exactly that: what is the first thing a prospect sees in the lifecycle that eventually ends with them moving their furniture into an apartment unit (and hopefully renewing at the end of their lease expiration)? What is the beginning of the customer experience?

At AIM 2012 – Customer First, you’ll hear from a panel of top experts who are on the front lines of first-look customer experience. Judy Bellack, Dennis Cogbill and John Kobs will speak on “What Prospects See When Visiting an ILS,” a blockbuster discussion, to be moderated by Dennis Smillie, that will survey best-in-class opportunities for enhancing multifamily’s presence in the first-look customer experience.

It’s the perfect opportunity to catch multifamily marketing experts and get exclusive insight into an industry flash point in the making. If the deal happens to close between now and AIM, attendees will again have a first-look into online multifamily marketing trends in the making. Either way I’d personally wager the panel will be another tour-de-force apartment marketing presentation—we’ve got 18 of them prepared for you at AIM, not to mention three days of world-class multifamily networking.

Don’t miss out: Register for AIM 2012 – Customer First.

The AIM 2010 Conference theme – Many Marketing Channels: One Goal – reflects the needs of owner/managers and their service providers to master many channels to drive and validate their impact on net operating income. AIM 2010 will feature cutting-edge business education designed to help simplify using multiple marketing channels to achieve a targeted ROI occupancy. With more than 200 companies that own and operate apartments in attendance, it’s an event you can’t afford to miss!

We’ll be meeting at the beautiful Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa in Huntington Beach, California. The location is fantastic and has to be seen to be believed. It’s right on the beach with lots to see and do in the immediate area. Best yet, it’s a family-friendly resort so bring the family and stay the weekend! There’s more information about the Hyatt and how to reserve your guest room at the special AIM Conference rate at www.aimconf.com. Be sure to make your reservations soon before our room block sells out.

There’s an exceptional line-up of presenters this year. Keynote conference speakers include Google’s Sam Sebastian, Director of Local and B2B Markets; Greg Sterling, Founding Principal of Sterling Market Intelligence; Danny Sullivan, Editor in Chief of Search Engine Land; Gary Angel, President of Semphonic; and Vivek Sodera, Co-Founder of RapLeaf. AIM 2010 also features intermediate and advanced sessions specifically developed with topics and speakers that address the challenges of using multiple marketing channels.

And we’re grateful to our sponsors who make it all happen. They include Apartment All-Stars, Apartment Finder, Apartment Guide, Benson Media, Capture the Market, First Advantage SafeRent, G5 Search Marketing, Grace Hill, Level One, Move, Multi-Housing New, Numeric Analytics, On-Site.com, Property Solutions International, RealPage, Realty DataTrust (Founding Sponsor), rentbits, Spherexx.com, The Rainmaker Group, and Yardi.

True to its reputation, the AIM Conference is going to be packed with educational value, growth opportunities and plenty of networking. We’ll see you there!

Register here for AIM 2010.

Click here to view AIM 2010 press release.

The multifamily industry spends around $170 per unit yearly on marketing costs – over $50,000 annually for a 300-unit property, or $1.7 million per year for a 10,000-unit portfolio. The bulk of this spending goes to advertising, yet the typical owner/manager still struggles to determine if this money is delivering cost-effective results.

Many advertising decisions are made without clear data on how effective different forms of advertising can be. The multifamily industry can change this by using principles of direct marketing to assess which advertising methods will generate the most leads and leases for the least amount of cash outlay.

John Helm, CEO of MyNewPlace.com stresses the importance of consistently tracking the effectiveness of each advertising source in a white paper Cost Effective Resident Acquisition.  His team worked with the heads of marketing for several owner/managers in implementing the recommended analytical approach.

In every case, the owner/manager was able to identify that 20%-30% of their advertising spend was simply not cost-effective. In many cases, they were able to cut this spend, redeploy half the “saved” dollars and replace, or even increase, the number of leads and leases generated.

There are five basic steps owner/managers can take to evaluate most cost-effective lead sources:

1) Identify Sources

2) Determine Common Metric

3) Benchmark Sources

4) Allocate Spend (and Effort)

5) Repeat

Using these basic steps can help multifamily housing managers identify ineffective cost areas of their advertising spend. That money can then be reallocated to more efficient advertising methods, resulting in better leads and leases for the same or lower costs.

Click here to read the full report.