Save the Date: Brainstorming Sessions September 15-17, Dallas Tx.
Thoughts straight from my Trends Luncheon slides.
People’s online behavior is changing enormously. We are becoming increasingly used to real-time interaction thanks to the social internet. Quoting Robin Grant of WE ARE SOCIAL “In the places that people choose to spend their online lives, constant interaction is the norm. But where does this leave the current, and by now pretty traditional model of our websites?”
Conversation platforms is where we are……. The static web site is on its way out (who am I to say dead, but we are headed that direction) Most websites are fairly static. However, the website model of the past is changing enormously. Users are now used to a constantly updating online world, even regularly maintained sites seem static. Not only are these websites static, they are expensive to build, requiring lots of design, animation, coding, and programming resources. After this, the whole pricey process starts over again just to keep up.
Websites need to be a more responsive, fast-moving and a realistic representation of a brand’s online life.
Most importantly, an area devoted to the discussions with residents for handling feedback. The most important thing by far is the conversation you’re creating. It’s all about how best to create those conversations – which, in short, is done by engaging.
Don’t live in fear of what your residents might say… studies after studies have shown that Getting real people to talk about your brand is much more persuasive than anything you could say about yourself. 
Information and entertainment have melded in recent years creating what has been dubbed ‘infotainment.’ It can be argued that the evening news has become more entertainment than hard news.
So what does all this have to do with you and how you deliver your message?
The time is here, that companies will not be able to get away with merely having online brochures or even extensive pages singing the praises of every feature and benefit associated with our communities. People demand more, they insist your website be interesting, informative, and entertaining; and it is this aspect that potentially makes your marketing presentation memorable. We are moving to Web-Programming
Web-programming takes the creative Web-video campaign concept and takes it one step further by integrating the marketing message into a programming environment.
This concept is not an entirely new idea, in fact one of the most noted television commercial campaigns of 1991 was the Taster’s Choice soap opera-like series of commercials that wove the marketing message into a courtship relationship between two apartment neighbors.
In an environment where information and entertainment blur, it seems like an ideal solution to capturing an consumers attention and interest, while creating a viral buzz. Instead of presenting a bulleted list of features. Think : an episodic Web-video marketing campaign.
More and more, the offline world (a.k.a. the real world) is adjusting to and mirroring the increasingly dominant online world, from tone of voice to product development to business processes to customer relationships. Get ready to truly cater to an ON generation, even though we are bricks and mortar.
Think of it as theater, and you have to memorize your lines……. Even if you are not going to do all these online initiatives, when the customer visits you in person, you have to speak their digi language
• Speaking an online customers’ language shows them that you get it*, show them you know what they’re excited about.
• This is really marketing, advertising and PR in its simplest form. So if nothing innovative comes to mind when brainstorming about ON = OFF (something I have a hard time imagining) , but hey at least try to speak your digi-audience’s language.
Listen, if Christies , which has been around since 1759, can go all out online, and is happy to advertise about it, certainly there’s nothing holding us back when speaking to our customers’
Experienced consumers are lusting after detailed information on anything and anyone. Which is why millions of sites, services, devices and apps that facilitate instant checking, tracking, alerting, visualizing, analyzing, mapping and reviewing are hotter than ever.
• In the online world, and increasingly in the offline world, too. INFOLUST is a great way to turn marketing into a service.
So, the real opportunity, for now, is understanding that consumers actually need and want info, that delights them, that they crave. They ask for relevant information, even giving you permission to provide them with more.
What’s not to like? Learn from the sub-trends that we spoke about in this morning’s sessions, then start adding to the current information overload in meaningful ways 😉
BTW : Contagious has released their annual Most Contagious report, a “review of the most talked-about trends and technologies to have influenced global marketing over the past 12 months”. If you want a copy email me and I will send it to you! Tami@multifamilypro.com
Happy Holiday!
Tami