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Marketing Minute – Episodes 4-8

Marketing Minute – Episodes 4-8

Last week I posted 5 episodes of the Marketing Minute. Topics include net neutrality, spilling candy, death of radio as we know it, digital amenities, and how I handle online reviews today.

Two things.

1. Subscribe on YouTube if you want to watch them as I post them.
2. Please comment. Even if you don’t have something to say about one of the topics of the day, ask me about something that’s on your mind and I’ll mention you in the next episode.

Episode 4 – Net Neutrality

Episode 5 – Spilling Candy

Episode 6 – Death of Radio

Episode 7 – Digital Amenities

Episode 8 – Online Reviews

 
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On the topic of Net Neutrality, the big corporations did a very good job at defining the conversation by saying they want to offer "fast lanes". But in reality, they are toll lanes, and anyone who doesn't pay the toll, won't be able to afford to do business. This is exactly what happened with Netflix - even though people spent their money for their own Internet access, Comcast wanted to "double dip", and charge Netflix too. So it started to cripple their service until Netflix had to cave. Fortunately for Netflix, they had the money to cave and pay the money. But realistically, it would knock out new websites in a flash. This website right here may not exist, if it weren't for net neutrality. Would Facebook come to exist if it couldn't have started up without paying the bribes to Comcast, Time Warner, etc? Probably not...

And to those who are "free market" people, like I am, and who think that Comcast should be able to charge whatever they want, there is a problem with that assessment. The problem is that Comcast, Time Warner, etc all have local market monopolies or oligopolies. That means that other competitors can't come in to make an efficient market. This is why our speeds lag other major industrialized nations, because these companies are not forced to upgrade their networks to compete.

The only reason someone would not support Net Neutrality would be the large ISPs, the politicians who get funding from those ISPs, or maybe other large companies who could afford to pay for the toll roads, and then get the benefit of locking out startup competitors.

If anyone wants to act now on making sure that Comcast and others don't "double dip", you can visit here to contact the FCC: https://www.callthefcc.com/

  Brent Williams
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Question about the spilling candy video: Are you getting more people because you made it simpler to ask for more information, or are you getting more people because they have to ask for more information because it wasn't shown? I'm not sure if it makes much of a difference, but the latter might suffer from lower conversions to leases because in the end, they had to get more information to qualify themselves, and it didn't change that they were not a good fit in the first place. Does that make sense?

  Brent Williams
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Brent, I think we make the assumption that people need to know everything. Sure, we need some filters, but as long as there are some photos, a price range, and people understand the location of the property I'm suggesting that everything else is "spilling candy". If one of our communities fits these 3 criteria then I'm sure hoping they reach out. That gives us the opportunity to determine if there are any other filters that may or may not work for a customer. Our phones aren't constantly ringing, and I'm not getting a new email lead every minute. I'm suggesting that the opportunity for us to create additional value, and maybe even word of mouth, by having human to human contact with a customer is more important than any customer deciding that they are going to qualify themselves out based on what they find online. As a sales person I want the opportunity to talk to as many people as possible. If I share a pet policy, deposit and utility expenses, actual availability, amenity pricing, etc. then I'm just setting myself up to be compared to the competition based on these check list items. And then we shrinking the opportunity for us to show the value of our community and service because one of those check list items isn't as favorable for our property as it is another. I'd rather have the chance to discuss that with someone.

I'm by not showing all the info and essentially forcing the communication that we filter out people as well. But I don't believe that is the majority of people. I think the majority, if they like the location, price range, and photos, are going to call/email. I'd rather play my cards with the majority than the minority I guess.

  Mark Juleen

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