I just got back from AIM last week, and it was quite the inspirational experience. As usual, the networking was great…a chance to catch up with many old friends and meet a few new ones. Here are key themes I took away from the sessions I attended and the conversations I had:

1. Multifamily CRM has arrived. 
From sessions about lead management to vendors like LeaseHawk, AnyoneHome and Rainmaker ILM, there are finally good CRM solutions in the market. An excellent session on lead management led by Rent Dynamics really drove home how much people are finally starting to focus on working the lead pipeline with modern tools and modern approaches.

2. We’re still missing out on some basic blocking and tackling. 
In that same session, it was obvious to me that our industry still spends too much time on the “new shiny bangles” and not enough on basic blocking and tackling…the stuff that isn’t sexy, but works. The session was conducted more like a “workshop” with about 30 marketers encouraged to interact in a discussion rather than listen to a presentation. I brought up the research D2 Demand did in 2014 where we found only 1 out of 31 companies we tested had an automated email drip campaign. I suggested that if we did the research again today, I doubt it would be more than 2 or 3. A show of hands confirmed my suspicion.

3. It really is about the data. 
There were several sessions on data, from resident data mining to a presentation recognizing some of the limitations we suffer called, In the Trenches: Using the Limited Data You Have. The panel included some of the industry’s leaders in this space sharing the latest in how to get analysis out of textual data. As a highlight of the conference, I was particularly interested in the results-driven presentation on consumer neuroscience. Check out WC Smith’s website if you want to see some of the best online marketing out there.

As with any marketing conference, there was a fair share of the “it’s kind of way out there but maybe it will be highly relevant stuff” like drone demonstrations, virtual reality and plenty of what’s new with social media. While I’m not sure of the immediate ROI for any of these in our direct response oriented industry, it certainly gets one thinking.

In closing, kudos once again to Steve Lefkovits and NAA for bringing together a great group of practitioners and vendors for a great review of what’s happening (and could happen) in multi-family marketing.