Insights

Showtime is go-time in the retail conference world, but attendees should first master the meeting fundamentals.

When you get a chance to go face-to-face with the top dealmakers and experts in your industry, you should make the most of it. A new meeting, deal or relationship could be the difference in a conference, a year or even your career.

Those driving innovation and evolution in retail real estate can be found at the International Council of Shopping Centers or ICSC. Whether a local or regional event or the premier national conference, ICSC Las Vegas every May in Las Vegas, attendees should take great care in their planning and preparations, while also making time for extras.

Plan

Why should you go to ICSC? The question sounds simple, but it’s important to have detailed, reality-based objectives for attending the conference, starting with your target connections.

“Should you meet with owner/operators or should you meet with tenants or a combination of both. If you don’t have a good reason to go, such as a project or site, then don’t go because it wastes everyone’s time,” writes John Orr, president of Carolina Retail Experts.

After creating a list of targeted contacts you want to meet and why, work diligently to schedule the prospects for firm meetings. Your company booth in the convention hall is always a good place to meet given the concentration of team support and brand visual power behind you. If not there, make it as convenient for your prospect as possible… they have probably been on their feet all day.

“After the first few years of the conference, I started planning my attendance around the comfort level of my shoes,” says Ryan Nixon, a more than 20-year sales veteran of ICSC Vegas. “By Year 15, I ditched the suit for slacks and a sport coat, my pace slowed a bit to preserve my feet and I never left the hotel room without a PowerBar and Gatorade.”

In addition to stamina, prepare your calendar a year in advance, Orr recommends. Especially important when your conference schedule includes many stops each year, blocking off the time for ICSC as soon as possible reduces the possibility of conflicts down the road.

Prepare

Being organized is being in control, it’s been said. That control means a greater chance of success when pitching your retail business.

First, your ICSC meeting materials should be easily accessible (including plenty of business cards!). Time is of the essence when connecting with prospective clients so make those few minutes together smooth and efficient. Orr adds the “pro tip” of not being totally reliant on Internet access; make sure your presentation materials and marketing collateral are available offline as well.

It goes without saying that your presentation should be well-rehearsed. When prospects are confused by a hole in your messaging or distracted by a fumble, they are less likely to appreciate and connect with the product or service you’re offering.

Finally, it’s ICSC so make sure you know prospects’ stores and their competitor stores and understand the market, Orr adds.

Think Extras

Extra effort is a good thing in business, and so it is at ICSC. Scheduling that additional time to walk the exhibition floor (with the right shoes) and drop in at various booths might lead to the discovery of new or expanding concepts or happening upon that friend from two jobs ago or a fellow alum with powerful connections. “We enjoy this environment, it is exciting and full of action. And that is where our team thrives.” said Tim Patton, Infinitee’s CEO.

Don’t stop there. Scheduling “special time outside of the show hours to take clients or prospects to dinner or meet for coffee” is a good way “to solidify existing relationships and create new ones,” according to Orr. Let’s face it: people are going to remember a nice dinner and hours of conversation versus another hustle and bustle appointment in the conference crowd.

And don’t forget about “after the conference”. Once you get home, the follow-up begins. It’s a good idea to sort your notes/cards into piles. One pile is for immediate follow-ups which might typically be a specific proposal, or any info to send in the pursuit of new business.  The other pile is for follow-up/thank you notes, with the goal of emailing them within a few days of returning home.

Like a reporter, brands must stay on top of the who, what, where, when, why and how of digital marketing to optimize performance.

Digital marketers, store that shotgun approach safely away, forsake those for the-sake-of appearances tendencies, and check the check-the-box approach at the door. It’s not enough to show up in this dynamic marketing sphere, you better show out. That means embracing digital marketing best practices to maximize results for building your business.

Digital or online marketing offers many advantages for brands to generate attention and sales for products and services. Delivered right to a handheld device, whether via social media, websites, search engines, email, or text messaging, your messaging could not be more accessible. Forbes shared the following best practices to turn those big advantages into big results.

Goals to Go

Like any good business move, initiative or program, your digital marketing efforts should start with a plan. What is to be targeted? What are your goals? Increase website traffic, build brand awareness, boost brand engagement, elevate your thought leadership profile in the industry, generate more qualified leads, expand your email prospect database and, of course, increase sales are examples of top digital marketing goals, according to Forbes contributor Janette Novak.

Know Your Audience

It sounds self-explanatory when trying to increase attention and ultimately sales for your brand that you know the direct object, the people to whom you’re trying to reach. It pays to be detailed and systematic in this step though. Define your target audience by shared attributes (e.g., age and gender), then identify the problems or issues this group has. There’s no better messaging reaction than ‘they get me and my needs.’

Establish a Budget

Unlike the days of print ads, TV spots, and billboard signs, the price of online marketing is quite right.

You don’t need a large budget to get started, so digital marketing can be an effective tool for all types of businesses, writes Novak.

It’s important to know the cost of the tech tools needed to deploy your digital marketing efforts, including SEO and social media management software, as well as the human resources needed to run and feed them, including copywriters, videographers and designers.

System Selection

A brand’s website is the Mother Ship, its home base, the hub to which all the other channels or spokes connect. Not surprisingly, launching a company website is step No. 1 in digital marketing for most businesses. Additional digital marketing methods — social media, SEO and email are the most popular — should depend on what’s being sold, where the target audience spends their time and, of course, budget, according to Forbes.

Track & Analyze

Evaluation happens in school, sports, government and elsewhere, and so it should also be with your digital marketing efforts. Tracking and analyzing performance metrics — Novak calls it relatively easy, just don’t put too much stock into early numbers — indicate what parts of the plan worked well relative to your goals and what didn’t. This leads to informed decisions for future continuance or modification of tactics, as well as those times when it’s back to the proverbial drawing board.

“With all the high-speed commercial clamor out there, achieving authentic and effective connection with one’s target audience can feel like trying to command a kid’s attention in the middle of the world’s biggest toy store,” said Vince Vitti, infinitee’s VP,  Employer Branding & Recruitment Marketing. “The good news is that all those digital marketing channels mean more options for brands to find their sweet spot in terms of audience location, messaging and budget. We can help!”

With community spaces and features never so important, owners and operators are spending extra effort on apartment extras.

‘Give them what they want’ could be a good multifamily maxim. Apartment operators must go beyond meeting renter needs, with the main driver being resident retention increasingly warranting amenity-rich community spaces.

But renter habits and preferences change — especially since the pandemic — and not all amenities are created (or received) equally. The challenge for multifamily owners and managers is getting the amenity package right and then finding a way to generate revenue from those areas, according to Bisnow’s Studio B.

Extras & Externals

To create bonus revenue streams from amenities, multifamily operators can charge for extras. Residents could receive limited access to an amenity per their lease agreement — Studio B uses the example of 10 hours per week in a coworking space — and then be charged for any additional time.

Also, multifamily communities can take a page from the events venue book by leasing out spaces to people, including externally. Who hasn’t been to a clubhouse and pool area for a birthday, graduation or anniversary party? Lee Miller, Studio B contributor, adds, “If you have a wider [apartment] portfolio, you could allow people from other properties in your portfolio to pay to use amenities in another property.”

Knowing Who’s Going

Every marketing pro knows the importance of the move and measure approach, i.e., capturing metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of tactics and campaigns. The same goes for the all-important apartment amenity game.

“The biggest struggle for a property manager is knowing what’s going to resonate with residents,” says Miller about a range of amenities from traditional meeting rooms and cafes to bowling alleys and golf simulators. “These spaces aren’t cheap so they need to make sure they’re investing in amenities that not only attract residents but are really used when people move in.”

Apartment operators should look to technology that both facilitates a seamless experience and crunches the numbers on amenity use for enhanced operator analytics. It’s not enough to have a booking platform that facilitates the management of amenities, they also should demand tools that help monetize those spaces.

Technology-enabled and tracked from season to season and property to portfolio, the optimized apartment amenities mean greater ROI and efficiency, as well as enhanced staffing benefits. A cloud-based system frees up leasing agents from the booking responsibility when residents want to reserve a space, Miller notes, and amenity usage analytics can help operators with personnel deployment.

“We’ve discussed the top multifamily amenities before, and those become even more important in this new post-pandemic chapter of live-work-play for multifamily,” said Michael Rivera, Infinitee’s creative director. “To maximize rental revenue, it’s critical to not only get those community differentiators right, but to also manage them the right way. Partnering with a community branding leader committed to strong collaboration and innovative, creative, highly engaging, and high-impact strategies will help.

From hyperlocal engagement to high-volume delivery and quick hits to long-term collaboration, influencer marketing helps brands stay nimble and connected in a rapidly moving communications world.

The digital marketing space moves at lightning speed. The good news is that brands don’t have to execute the fast and furious, as well as deep and long, content efforts all by themselves. Influencers are there to help with social media endorsements and product placement, but with that special, boots-on-the-ground, impossible-to-commodify persuasive power.

Forbes calls the influencer marketing space in 2024 “brimming with potential for significant shifts and innovations… gearing up for some big changes… [and] shaping up to be an exciting ride.” For brands and content creators, what are the next important moves for the industry “that’s always on the move”?

1. Going Local & Long-Term

There’s no such thing as marketing campaigns that are too targeted or local. Brands want to drill down to connect deeply with specific communities and interests, and they know influencers, specifically of the niche and nano- kinds, can help them. As Forbes reports, geotargeted influencer campaigns allow brands to leverage those local marketers and their strong familiarity of regional preferences and trends. Niche influencers offer smaller audiences but higher levels of engagement.

“It’s like having a conversation with a neighbor rather than broadcasting to a crowd — more personal, more relevant and, often, much more effective,” asserts Danielle Wiley, agency CEO and expert on B2C influencer marketing.

How can you improve on such deep engagement efforts? Go long as well, as in long-term collaborations with influencers. After all, brands strive for authenticity and credibility to build trust and loyalty, and those things are more effectively achieved from consistent influencer brand endorsement over time. They are reducing sporadic promotions and fleeting appearances for the influencer long game, which is more conducive to a genuine feel and engaging narrative.

2. AI Yesses & No’s

It’s not a stretch to see influencers at the forefront of AI with more and more marketers using the technology this year. After all, it’s a high-speed space, and AI can expedite content creation tasks and help analyze follower likes and comments to determine the next, best content steps.

Faster execution and better content analytics are never bad things, but Forbes does issue a note of caution. Influencers and their partnered brands over-relying on AI can make posts seem artificial or overly polished and lead to content ideas that are increasingly detached from audience values. Then, there are ethical concerns.

“For instance, if an AI tool creates too artificial of a scene, it could mislead followers, causing trust issues,” writes Wiley.

3. Jacked Up For ‘Trendjacking’?

Speaking of the high-speed, viral, real-time world we live in, brands better be prepared to go with the flow, specifically capitalizing on trends and media movement at a moment’s notice. We love Forbes’ phrasing: “Brands will need a ‘bucket of money’ for trendjacking.” There’s a time and place for market and user research, messaging meetings and design review, but companies also need the capacity for timely and resonant output, “a powerful strategy to keep brands relevant and actively involved in the cultural dialogue, connecting with audiences in real time,” Wiley adds.

“With the advancement of influencer marketing, brands continue to push boundaries, which means they shouldn’t settle for the same old analytics while they should stay on top of tech tools growing to meet the moment, including Snapchat’s evolution,” said Chantelle McOuat, Infinitee’s Social Media Director. “Ultimately, we agree with Forbes’ position that the role of full-service agencies, with their ability to lead amidst such complexities and leverage the dynamics, becomes even more crucial in 2024.”

Brands’ marketing moves must balance quick and engaging with deep and meaningful in an ever-evolving business landscape.

The marketing song remains the same: connect with audiences with content that makes a lasting and impactful impression. Yet, many business factors affecting brands can be dizzying in their dynamics, including consumer behaviors and tech advancements. Good marketing strategy is finding a way to align all the moving parts to reach that main objective.

That’s why it’s critical for branding professionals to stay on top of the latest marketing trends. Want to do more in 2024? Forbes counts down the top 5 marketing trends for the new year:

1. Conversational Marketing & AI-Driven Interactions

Waiting in line at the ol’ customer service desk in many ways seems like the Stone Age. In the era of smartphones and Siri, today’s consumer wants answers now. Catering to the immediate gratification consumer universe, conversational marketing “is poised to redefine customer interactions,” according to Forbes. AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants allow brands to instantly engage consumers, addressing their informational needs and advancing their purchasing decisions. Through speed and personalization, such conversational marketing tools elevate the customer experience, which increases satisfaction and ultimately conversions.

2. Virtual & Augmented Reality Integration

The global virtual reality (VR) market is expected to grow from approximately $60 billion in 2022 to more than $435 billion by 2030. The possibilities are, well, virtually limitless for brands using VR and Augmented Reality as they continue to push to create captivating, immersive experiences for customers. One innovation allows residents in senior living communities to revisit their childhood home, wedding location or other special place from their past. Brands will increasingly incorporate these technologies into their marketing campaigns as VR and AR hardware become more accessible, Forbes notes.

3. Sustainability and Ethical Marketing

“From eco-friendly packaging to fair trade sourcing, marketing in 2024 is as much about values as it is about value,” writes Jennifer Gaier in Forbes. Increasingly, it’s not enough to do well with modern consumers; brands must do good by them as well. As reflected in the heightened corporate focus on ESG (environmental, social and governance), consumers these days go deeper beyond the sale or a campaign to what matters most to brands and how they regard and support things like environmental and social responsibility. Sustainability and ethical marketing are a smart way to grow meaningful connections with customers as well as the bottom line.

4. Hyper-Personalization Through Big Data and Analytics

The days of shotgun marketing are gone, and personalization and customized experiences are in. With so many ways to collect customer information and better and better processing technology, such as machine learning, brands better be taking advantage of Big Data and analytics to fashion “hyper-personalized marketing strategies where content, product recommendations and even advertisements are customized for individual consumers.”

5. Video Marketing and Short-Form Content Dominance

The fact that the number of U.S. households owning television sets grew from approximately 8,000 in 1946 to 45.7 million in 1960 is an old school, yet still very impressive confirmation of the power of the visual medium. In new school marketing, TikTok, YouTube Shorts and similar short-form video platforms are elevating the dominance of video. Used for more than just ads, “the ephemeral nature of this content, combined with its engaging visual appeal, aligns perfectly with the dwindling attention spans of modern audiences,” asserts Gaier.

“When your name means unlimitedness, you’d better be ready for new trends and challenges,” said Vince Vitti, infinitee’s VP, Employer Branding. “As brand makers, storytellers and creative advocates for your business, we’ll be there every step of the way to help your marketing team view challenge as opportunity and something new as a chance to improve.”

Social media posts should spur the moment while also being designed and executed in support of strategic brand goals, including audience engagement and customer loyalty.

What if you had a one in a hundred chance to catch your target audience when they're on Instagram? Research showing that users spend an average of 12 hours on the social media platform or about 1% of their time each month should make one thing clear to marketers: it’s really important to post when your top users are online to maximize engagement and ultimately increase conversions.

"Timing and consistency are the unsung heroes of social media success. Even the most compelling content deserves the spotlight at the right moment. In our experience, it’s not just about creating content, it’s curating moments that connect with our audience. Something that sticks with us constantly is “It's not just about what you say; it's about when and how often you say it.”

It can be all too easy for marketers to treat social media posting as merely a box to check on a to-do list or to schedule content based on some conventional wisdom on the daily calendar, but in the business of connection, it’s critical to do all you can to connect with your most important followers. HubSpot delves into why it's important to post to Instagram at specific and consistent times.

Increasing Engagement

The global average Instagram engagement rate is nearly 6%, according to 2023 HubSpot research. The software company likens engagement on the platform to throwing a rock in a still pool. Your brand wants staying power after the first ripple of immediate likes, comments and saves after posting. The next wave comes from Instagram features such as Favorites, Search and Videos, each interconnected but with its own independent algorithm. Posting at the right time helps beyond the immediate marketing moment.

For one of our clients, Tanger Outlets, a 2023 objective was to provide their audience with information on deals, savings, and promotions. Our strategy was focused on ways our audience could earn even more discounts strictly through social in an interactive way. Last year we introduced “comment to like” on Tanger’s Instagram and Facebook platforms which included copy that mentioned “Want XX off? Comment “YES” to learn more”. Once our audience responded in the comments, we would then send them a link that provided information on how to get more savings at their favorite stores. This kind of approach increased overall engagement but was also something we have adopted in our strategy moving forward.

Building a Loyal Audience

Marketers know that customer loyalty is not like flipping a switch; it takes time and effort to build. The timing of your social media posts factors into this important effort because setting expectations for your target audience and being consistent with your timing and touch helps build relationships. Followers who see that your brand wants to engage and, in addition to high-quality products and services, can count on that effort will keep it top of mind, making them more likely to develop devotion.

“Recognizing when your demographic and target market are most active online is crucial to building a loyal audience. It's not just about being present; it's about being present when it matters most to them. By aligning your content schedule with their online habits, you create a dynamic connection that resonates, engages, and leaves a lasting impression”.

Again with Tanger Outlets as an example, we are constantly monitoring when our audience is online, what content they are responding to, etc. It is our goal to understand our audience on a deeper level, so we can better understand their behaviors and what they will engage with.

Keep Time on Your Side

So what is the best time to post on Instagram? Posting between 6 and 9pm and 8 o’clock in particular on Friday (followed by Saturday and Wednesday) is optimal, according to 2023 HubSpot research.

But the real answer is perhaps one that the checklist marketers don’t want to hear: it depends. When is your audience online? Obviously, it matters the industry you’re targeting and whether they’re east or west coast. As Hubspot reports, people in financial services are easiest to reach on Instagram on Sunday nights while workers in agriculture are more available on Saturday mornings.

“From post timing to trying out different features to even testing new Instagram algorithms, let’s not lose sight of the fact that content quality is still essential — content is king,” said Tori Alexas, one of infinitee’s Brand Managers. “Once we get content to the high brand standards of utility and appeal, then we optimize with Instagram tools and tactics, including, of course, timing that caters to our target audience.”

The creative and analytical sides of marketing must come together to raise the standards of messaging, experience, values and culture in support of brand value.

Business has always been about how much you put in, but even more so what you get out of it:

Return on Investment. Yet, with marketing’s role to, so to speak, set the scene for sales, the connection from inputs to outputs has been traditionally viewed more as a dotted line. In a world with no shortage of metrics and pressure to produce though (combined with economic anxiety), how can CMOs prove brand worth?

“At a time when being able to demonstrate impact is more important than ever, the ability for marketers to quantify the value of the brand they’ve built can serve as an asset in difficult discussions with the C-suite, all while also serving as an indicator for the health of the business,” writes Deloitte Digital’s Maggie Windsor Gross and Mark Singer in Forbes.

The two opposing camps within marketing, the creatives and the analytical, must find common ground to prove brand worth. Stronger together, armed “with precise, data-driven insights that emphasize brand impact and how brand investment lifts every part of the company,” they’ll be able to stand that ground versus the C-suite and any other critics. According to Deloitte Digital, they can do so by using the following marketing benchmarks: Values Alignment, Experience Satisfaction, Message Memorability and Share of Culture.

Values Alignment

More than three out of every four consumers (76%) would refuse to buy from a company that supported an issue conflicting with their beliefs, one study found. That’s the importance of Values Alignment, which when achieved can send a brand’s customer loyalty score substantially higher than industry averages. It fuels the trust part of the marketing-sales funnel that leads to bottom line results. “Research shows brands that do best here are purpose-driven and are unafraid of taking a stand on social and societal issues,” asserts the Deloitte Digital team.

Experience Satisfaction

Did you know that 32% of all customers would stop doing business with a brand they loved after one bad experience? And, as you’ve probably heard, unhappy customers will tell twice as many people about their bad experience as completely satisfied customers will tell about their positive ones. Not surprisingly, Experience Satisfaction, the second marketing benchmark, is vital. “The brands that perform best are human-first [rather than digital-first],” writes Gross and Singer.

Message Memorability

Like traditional brand trackers, this benchmark measures how quality content connects with the right people at the right time in the right place. Combining creativity and calculation, top brands performing well in this metric convert up to 75 out of 100 customers, showcasing full marketing-sales funnel performance, according to Deloitte Digital.

Share of Culture

This final metric prioritizes brand interaction and participation with customers. Companies that take part in extensive and inclusive cultural conversations with consumers broaden those relationships and elicit deeper feelings from them. That leads to staying power and, as Gross and Singer state, a new marketing channel: word-of-mouth recommendations.

“Since branding has been our thing for more than 31 years, you shouldn’t be surprised to know we’re brand defenders as well. That means showing the branding goods but also the gains,” said Amy Norton, Infinitee’s Director  of Strategy & Accounts. “With a reputation of combining a creative, personal touch with measurable results, we can elevate your game and boost your brand’s worth.”

Marketers seek to balance the ‘wow factor’ in today’s digital world with the tried and true principles of effective customer engagement.

Digital marketing is changing at the speed of technology. Advancements such as generative AI, virtual and augmented reality, social commerce and others have brought about a revolution in how businesses interact with customers and how personalized and immersive marketing experiences can be. By understanding and maximizing these movements, brands can elevate customer engagement and increase conversions.

Noting there isn’t a single solution that covers all scenarios, Newsweek focused on the following emerging digital trends that can help propel marketers ahead of the competition.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

Think of the typical car dealership glossy brochure. Now think of being able to virtually step inside your dream car model – from the comfort of your own home – and inspect its features and even do a simulated test drive. Which marketing experience will resonate more? The one with more vroom (and VR room!).

Marketers know the more captivating and immersive the experience the better, and virtual and augmented reality are revolutionizing the way to achieve that with customers. “Although it may seem distant for small businesses, global brands are already capitalizing on these opportunities,” writes CEO and branding expert Erica McMillan.

Generative AI

Marketers should already know about generative AI’s various timesaving capabilities, from automating daily tasks to generating ads or content. But McMillan, noting the “significant shifts in consumer behavior” in this area, raises the possible concern of the target audience using the same tools, like ChatGPT, thus pulling from the same Internet-scoured data.

“Businesses and marketers must elevate their content strategies… [by] providing unique perspectives and expert insights that cannot be easily duplicated by generative AI tools,” she wrote. “The focus should shift towards delivering value-added information that's derived from hands-on experience in the subject.”

Social Commerce

Integrating shopping with social interactions on social media platforms offers much greater connection than traditional online methods, including sales-only siloes elsewhere in the e-commerce realm. Brands can leverage captivating photos and engaging videos like always but with the personal, emotional and quite valuable stamp of approval from one’s social media followers, i.e., friends. One marketing guru noted that 90% of folks trust peers on social networks while only 15 to 18% trust brands.

The interactive nature of social commerce is so important. By allowing customers to ask questions and otherwise engage with brands, a powerful connection is made where customers build confidence in purchase decisions while companies glean valuable insights to better understand the market.

“Going for the home run, so to speak, with AI or virtual/augmented reality tools is important because as marketers we should strive for what we call ‘limitless possibilities’ with the brand experience,” said Vince Vitti, infinitee’s VP, Business Development. “But given engagement realities like 72% of consumers having used a voice assistant, let’s also make sure our singles hitters – voice search, chatbots, live chat and messaging apps – are aligned and primed to keep people engaged and enjoying their customer journey with the brand.”

While marketers rush to embrace the advantages of the advanced technology, they should also study the catches and liabilities.

Imagine if your marketing team had a tool to quickly devise 10 or more ad angles for a video shoot based on customer reviews or one that could read thousands of those reviews and speedily summarize the testimonials for optimized customer service response. Imagine no longer. Generative AI is here to help generate large volumes of content in seconds and reduce monotonous tasks and other busywork.

But before you go thinking that the technology will be your everyday failsafe “easy button,” be sure to know the bumps and risks along the robotic road. Generative AI brings with it content and even legal concerns set against the battlefield backdrop of human worth versus technological advancement.

“There has always been a tension between the art and the science of marketing and creativity, even when the technology was much more rudimentary than that of generative AI,” Jay Pattisall, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, told the Wall Street Journal. “Machines in whatever form simply just can’t replace or replicate human creativity. That was true then, and it is absolutely true now.”

Eyes to Optimize

Generative AI definitely can help creative professionals in marketing and advertising come up with ideas and work more quickly, saving valuable time. Audience segmentation, customer service chatbots, programmatic advertising, SEO and e-commerce are other key uses for which companies are leveraging the technology.

On the content creation front, Wesley ter Haar points out that generative AI helps marketers “visualize and test out different concepts at speed. You can also easily swap out different elements — like changing the background, changing characters — at any point in the production process without having to go back to the drawing board,” said the digital advertising and marketing services executive, adding that AI may also help brands battle “creative fatigue.” And weariness from tedious, rote tasks, such as analyzing those aforementioned customer reviews, can be greatly reduced as well.

When AI Turns Unnatural or Even Unlawful

“I’m not laughing with it — I’m laughing at it,” Mint Mobile’s CMO said about the AI ad featuring actor and part owner Ryan Reynolds. Yes, while many pros rightfully court the potential for the technology to boost advertising through automation, there is still a disconnect. Pattisall points out that while generative AI’s ability to write prose has turned many a head, it is still only generating output from data and not originating thought or expression.

It’s been said that our potential for innovation, problem-solving and growth is only as good as the data we collect. AI’s definitely got the data collection part down, but what if the information is incorrect, biased or copyrighted?

AI users should be watchful for this possibility and mindful of the inherent risk of sharing such data in a customer-facing way. Marketers should know the data sources that train their generative AI models. Such major concerns, along with the question of who owns an idea originating from a machine, led ter Haar to say, “I’m sure the lawsuits will be extremely interesting.”

“AI definitely piques our firm’s ‘limitless possibilities’ mentality and dovetails with our constant striving to leverage innovative tactics for our clients, but we also must realize that it’s an evolving technology that requires smart, grounded planning and due diligence,” said Tim Patton, CEO at infinitee. “For more than 31 years, we’ve been balancing that ‘art and science of marketing and creativity’ and can do so for your brand.”

Though small and silent, quiet rooms can raise an apartment community’s profile while boosting its multi-use advantage.

In a marketing world of constant striving for bigger and better engagement, ‘quiet down’ isn’t a thing, but in the apartment sector quiet up just might be. Quiet rooms, spaces that can be isolated from larger multi-purpose or community rooms, could be the newest must-have for multifamily owners and operators looking to boost a community’s amenity profile and ultimately fuel sales.

Quiet rooms are designed for small meetings, work requiring calm and concentration, video or conference calls, student tutoring, playing board games and hosting private luncheons and dinners, even wine tastings, reports Cooperator News. They also provide an alternative from one’s residential unit or community density.

Design of the Times

Near, adjacent to or a part of a larger multi-purpose space, quiet rooms should be separated from the bigger area with walls and a movable door. Sliding doors allow the space to be added to the greater communal room as needed, and glass ones allow residents to see if someone is in there, according to design firm principal Marilyn Sygrove, adding that a large flat-screen TV, a round table and chairs for work/study and gatherings are popular furniture components for quiet rooms.

There’s value in variety, of course, but for apartment communities looking to separate themselves through their amenities offerings it’s also about maximizing space, including reviving dead space, and complementary design. Future-proofing is difficult; incorporating multi-use spaces is a good hedge.

With the goal of carving out more work-from-home locations, Greystar redesigned a fitness center in San Diego to add three “Zoom rooms”: one a quiet room accommodating two people, a small room that can be used for video calls and another like the second, only larger. “Being able to pivot is important. You can’t set a design three years ago and not be able to move as the market moves,” Raul Tamez, Greystar’s senior director of development, told the National Apartment Association.

Some Restrictions May Apply

Like any shared apartment amenity, there must be rules. Just as Bob can’t have a raging pool party at all hours of the night and Becky can’t take over half of the clubhouse with her cosmetics business, the quiet room must come with its own checks and balances and regulations to serve the interests of the whole community. Obviously, scheduling through an efficient reservation system is key with a shared resource.

CN brings up another possible point of contention: should quiet rooms be child-free zones? While scheduling is important no matter what, Sygrove recommends an adult supervision requirement as a happy medium. That way, children can enjoy the space provided it’s an overseen activity such as tutoring or a family board game night.

With the post-COVID getaway mindset from crowds to the outdoors, suburbs or merely one’s home office, quiet rooms just make sense. Heeding the pandemic lessons, apartment owners and operators can come up big by accommodating for smaller groups.

“’Quiet please’ isn’t just a request you hear at the library or movies, it’s a reflection of a fresh personal need in the multifamily sphere, a new meaning to being a part of an apartment community,” said Michael Rivera, infinitee’s creative director. “From quiet rooms to your next amenity play, we’re ready to help your company make some marketing noise.”

Marketers have a direct, impactful way to engage their target audience, but there are many ways to fall short on e-marketing open, click and conversion rates.

How important is email marketing? Despite a recent doubter trend, the numbers confirm that it’s still a powerful, direct-to-audience tool. After all, 99% of consumers check email every day with it being by far the preferred way to receive updates from brands, reports Hubspot, and 73% of Millennials hold email as the preferred mode of communication from businesses. Two out of every five B2B marketers say e-newsletters are “most critical” to their content marketing.

With that said, how important is it to get email marketing right? Let us count the ways… companies get it wrong.

Not Defining the Goal or What Success Looks Like

To be impactful with e-marketing, you must first be intentional. Companies should have a clear picture of what they want to achieve or the “why” of the email, according to Search Engine Journal. Sending out an e-blast meant to drive audience interaction warrants different email copy, call to action and other components than one meant to get leads. Know the end goal and plan backward so that your marketing funnel is as streamlined as possible.

You can't really know where you are going until you know where you’ve been, it’s been said, and the wisdom applies to e-marketing as well. We must measure past performance, i.e., evaluate the road traveled, to be able to chart the best course ahead. From click-through to conversion rates and unsubscribes to unique opens, there are many metrics by which to measure success. E-newsletters have different objectives and thus different key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure that success. For example, the success metric of a welcome email would be open, not conversion, rate.

Not Knowing Your Audience

Knowing whom you’re targeting with your messaging is a basic principle of communications. But what does it mean exactly for e-marketing? Whether decision-makers, influencers or others, write for the target persona with whom you want to maximize engagement.

And know that your e-marketing audience doesn’t always want to be sold. Sending only sales-focused emails is “considered a huge mistake for email marketers, especially when you’ve just started,” according to Search Engine Journal. People want to be welcomed, interested, educated and more before they see a sales pitch. Remember the marketing and sales funnel progression — a like feeling comes well ahead of a buying commitment — and know that overselling could result in lost subscribers or low engagement.

Not Getting Interactive

Compelling copy is a must in your e-newsletter, but the offering needs much more. Personalization, participatory elements (e.g., quizzes, surveys and polls) and a prominent call to action (CTA) will help boost interactions, which include opens, clicks, replying or forwarding, and signing up for a webinar. Search Engine Journal emphasizes the importance of conversational, personalized CTAs, which, according to HubSpot, convert 202% better than basic ones.

“It sounds simple, but marketers want action, and email marketing is a great, direct way to do it,” said Amy Norton, infinitee’s Director, Strategy & Accounts. “But to get to the ultimate desired action of increased conversions, brands need to commit to interaction, which brings greater engagement, boosted metrics and enhanced brand awareness and customer loyalty. We are here to help.”

By leveraging linguistic drivers, marketers can create higher impact content that nets more than just views.

Content is king, but there’s a difference between catching people’s attention with your marketing efforts and captivating them. Increased views and clicks are good and necessary objectives, but how do marketers keep an audience engaged, maximizing focus on their content?

From brands to consumers, managers to employees, teachers to their students and on and on, the goal to gain and hold an audience’s attention is practically universal. The key is to analyze how content, including the language used, shapes and holds the audience’s attention. A 2023 Journal of Marketing study, which performed a multi-method investigation utilizing natural language processing of more than 600,000 reading sessions from 35,000 pieces of content, combined with controlled experiments, offers key lessons for chief marketing officers.

Holding Attention

What moves content consumers past the head-turned, “window shopping” stage to one of sustained attention and interaction? The JM study emphasizes the important role of emotional language and shows how different verbal features shape content consumption.

How effective emotional language is in sustaining attention will depend on the link between specific emotions, uncertainty and arousal. For example, anxiousness by nature is more uncertain than anger and will typically “increase attention and processing as people try to resolve what will happen.”

The study suggests that language channeling high-arousal emotions should sustain attention and encourage continued consumption. Using our example, anxiety checks both the uncertainty and arousal boxes while anger scores only in the latter and thus would typically score lower in eliciting consumer consumption. At the other extreme, sadness would trigger neither uncertainty nor arousal.

Two Sides of the Content Coin

Improving content creation is obviously important for advertisers, marketers, publishers and presenters, but are they focused on how to sustain attention versus merely getting it? Even some experts still think that holding people’s attention is almost entirely dependent on topic (e.g., celebrity gossip rather than financial literacy), but the study digs deeper into how language, the building blocks of content, factors into how consumers react.

“What holds attention is not always the same as what grabs attention or encourages word of mouth,” according to the study. “While more certain language can increase likes and shares, we show that emotions that make people feel certain are actually detrimental when it comes to sustaining attention… Retaining attention is a different type of engagement.”

This content reality holds huge consequence, from your company’s bottom line to the nearly $600 billion digital marketing industry as a whole to even the enormous implications of social media’s role in the dissemination of disinformation and hate speech.

“From authors to heads of state, everyone wants, if not demands, attention, but we can’t all be the Pied Piper of persuasion, whisking away the audience to our desired place or action in one fell swoop,” said Tori Alexis, one of infinitee’s  Brand Managers. “Connection is so vital to marketers so it’s imperative to know the building blocks, most notably language, of successful content creation. And team up with a veteran partner who can help with innovative, creative, highly-engaging and high-impact marketing strategies.”