{"id":19108,"date":"2017-11-20T08:20:24","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T16:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/?p=19108"},"modified":"2020-12-24T22:38:09","modified_gmt":"2020-12-25T06:38:09","slug":"ymf-baltimore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/ymf-baltimore\/","title":{"rendered":"YMF Baltimore"},"content":{"rendered":"

A savvy group of marketers joined us for learning, networking and fun at the bi-annual Yardi Marketing Forum<\/a> (YMF) in Baltimore last week. During the event, attendees explored the latest trends in digital marketing, tips and tricks to optimize outcomes, and real estate technology. As noted by Esther Bonardi, Yardi vice president of marketing, the event is \u201call about helping you tap into your inner marketing genius.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are some of the top digital marketing themes covered:<\/p>\n

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  1. Get in touch with your audience<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As marketers, we\u2019ve traditionally divvied up our target audiences by demographic information. In today\u2019s noisy digital landscape, we need to meet our customers where they\u2019re at. Speakers Brad Downs, vice president of marketing for the Baltimore Ravens, and Brad Batesole, staff author at LinkedIn, shared strategies to better reach target audiences.<\/p>\n

    Drawing from his fifteen years of experience in sports marketing, Downs stressed the importance of moving from brand first to fan first. \u201cIt\u2019s that fan first mentality. Our fans are incredibly important to us. Fans want to feel as important as they are,\u201d he said.\"\"<\/p>\n

    By focusing on fans first, opportunities to engage and foster fandom become easier to identify. Downs demonstrated that life stage marketing goes beyond traditional demographic segmentation, resulting in better customer experiences, tailored events and increased engagement.<\/p>\n

    For the Ravens, life stage segmentation resulted in targeted fan development campaigns focused around women and adolescents. This included Purple<\/a>, a community building initiative to cultivate the female fan base, and RISE<\/a>, a football outreach program for local children and high schoolers in emerging Ravens strongholds. Life stage segmentation helped draw 130,000 fans to Ravens marketing events,\u00a0 development of an international audience, and an average attendance of 71,000 people at each home game.<\/p>\n

    At Wednesday\u2019s marketing master class, Batesole discussed digital techniques to hack the millennial renter experience. \u201cMarketing segmentation is getting the right message to the right person at the right time,\u201d he stated. Providing transparent messaging to a segmented audience – from your brand voice to your content to your ads – helps build brand trust. Batesole recommended segmenting millennials into three life stages: 18-24 years of age, 25-30 years of age, and 31-36 years of age. He suggested auditing your content mix along with the visual components of your brand, with a focus on engagement for each life stage.<\/p>\n

    For property marketers, this poses several questions:<\/p>\n