With that in mind, we asked Mark Juleen and DJ Waldow to help us understand how to get more out of our email marketing efforts. Mark (known to some as the Apartment Nerd) is the Director of Marketing for JC Hart Communities in Indianapolis, and DJ is the Director of Community at email service provider Blue Sky Factory.

They’re certainly not the only ones with something to say about the topic … it was exciting to see a number of faces – new and old – jump into the conversation to share their tips and ideas.

Here are the highlights from the discussion:

Why do I need to incorporate email into my marketing strategy? Aren’t the autoresponders to prospects enough?

• Jonathan Saar: autoresponders are not personal … you are in fact emailing people.
• Charity Hisle: Integrate, Integrate, Integrate! Tactics should work together to be effective.
• Heather Blume: Auto responders are never enough. They’re canned, impersonal, and often get filtered out by SPAM filters. Keep it human.
• Courtney Anderson: Auto responders are some of the most interacted with emails because they are real time – positively impacting deliverability.
• Erica Campbell: Auto responders can b effective if they r done correctly like using personalization & dynamic content to meet their needs.
• DJ Waldow: Why Email Marketing? Easy. According to the DMA it had a $43.62 ROI in 2009 (assuming you do it correctly)
• Courtney Anderson: The more interaction recipients have w/the email the more favorable the ISPs rate your IP reputation.
• Kim Cory: Auto responders are usefull and effective for certain situations. Better than no email at all, but has 2 be custom
• Kim Cory: If U send junk, that’s exactly where it will go! Don’t get lost with the other 100′s of emails your customers get daily. B unique.
• Michael Pickens: We send out autoresponder but require the properties to give a personal response within 2 hours.

Typical emails might be an auto-responder, then a custom response. How else can we use email to reach our audience?

• Courtney Anderson: Interaction based emails, welcome emails, drip campaigns, surveys, many more.
• Jonathan Saar: Newsletters for residents and non
• Kim Cory: We use email for surveys, resident alerts, announcements, holiday greetings, newsletters, promotions, list is endless.
• Meg Fowler: Most marketers treat people like opens, not readers. Content strategy exists beyond the blog.
• Erica Campbell: Email plays a huge role in multichannel marketing – other channels drive before the inbox and after the inbox.
• DJ Waldow: Send updates about cool new apts in their area. Targeted FTW.
• Laurel Zacher: Love email to drive new visitors to our site/fb/videos (from my sig). i just wish I could better quantify it!
• Mark Juleen: We do surveys, monthly news, notifications, introductions to social, etc. and more to come.
• Meg Fowler: How about emails with neighborhood profiles — links to amenities, stories of happy residents… along with rentals.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: Email is a great communication tool with residents. Not as invasive as text. I still wouldn’t like to get text from my community.
• Erica Campbell: Email is great 4 viral marktg, promoting sweepstakes/contests, internal cross promotion, affiliate program referrals.
• DJ Waldow: Consider pics and video when sending email to apartment folks. Keep it real, human, interactive.
• Meg Fowler: Don’t forget to link to social properties. you could even have “apartment love stories” of folks who found a great place.
• Meg Fowler: I also love the idea of checklists on how to assess an apt, how to set a housing budget, how to work out a lease…

What are some of the best ways to capture emails? (Online or offline)

• Duncan Alney: Email and SMS/text should both be opt-in with value added content.
• Meredith Mobley: SMS email capture is a good one.
• Gillian Luce: Homepage sign-up is a good one!
• Erica Campbell: Offline list growth printed materials, direct mktg, in-store display, CS/IT, reg, call center/outbound, tradeshow.
• Charity Hisle: How about capturing emails thru Facebook apps for those that want to learn more about your community?
• Joe Foster: Mailing list sign-ups at community events. Great for refreshing your resident list and scooping renters.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: Offline … we’ve been doing door hangers with tear-off tabs to submit emails to win prizes like ipads & TVs.
• Erica Campbell: I saw a newsletter sign up for weight watchers on the box of their microwave meal- pretty neat.
• Courtney Anderson: If I am in need of an apartment accepting my large dog, an email with properties that do is a great idea.
• Meg Fowler: As far as capturing opt-ins, I’m a big fan of eBook offers — give content sample to assure value.
• Sue Anne Reed: Apartment decorating on a budget would be a great ebook / lead generation campaign for multi-family.
• Sue Anne Reed: As someone who just recently moved, I think you should put a 9 or 10-month trigger on prospects.
• Courtney Anderson: Be compliant with CAN SPAM such as link to unsubscribe, physical mailing address, etc.

We mentioned timeliness earlier. Successful email campaigns are both timely & valuable. How do you ensure timeliness?

• Vacancy.com: Pick your days carefully. Don’t send out an email campaign late in the day- be aware of when your audience will view it.
• Charity Hisle: Email to Poll their move-in experience, Check-in again monthly.
• DJ Waldow: Capture “what is your timeframe for new apartment” info on email capture. Use to send timely emails.
• Resite Online: We find that our marketing emails get better response when sent in the middle of the week. We are B2B though. Know your audience.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: Traditionally Tues & Wed are best email days. Then after 9:30 But before Noon. Before 9, people get delete happy with morning email.
• Mark Juleen: Automate what you can. We often leave too much responsibility to a human scheduling an activity.
• Laurel Zacher: I think we can all learn from the ILS’ outreach emails: useful content about process during search, recontact 9 mo later.

Is your email social? What are some ways you can integrate it with the rest of your marcomm efforts?

• Erica Campbell: Decorating tips, integration w groupon, coupons, partnership deals w local bars ect r effective retention based emails.
• Mike Whaling: Once you have the email, use tools like Flowtown, Blue Sky Factory or MailChimp to see where else your audience is online.
• Resite Online: Include links to your social networks in your emails. You could even give them a taste by including your latest feeds.
• Erica Campbell: Take the HTML version and copy it into your FBML on your FB profile and create a monthly message tab.
• Mark Juleen: Email strategy needs to integrate w/ your social, or your social and/or email will only get you so far. LINK, SHARE, SYNDICATE.
• Meg Fowler: Email only as social as YOU are — if you’re just broadcasting, it’ll read that way. if you’re starting a convo, it’ll ring true.

What metrics are you using to evaluate your results?

• Courtney Anderson: Standard ones, open rate, click thru rate.
• Vacancy.com: A/B testing is a great way to see what worked best.
• Courtney Anderson: Leads per email sent, lead per email open help gauge performance ie bottom line indicators.
• Erica Campbell: For an ILS- guest card submissions, CTR, unique clicks, open rate, opens, % of traffic to overall site traffic.
• Charity Hisle: Subscription counts, web visits, email referral counts are all good metrics.
• DJ Waldow: Opens are a start, click-throughs better, conversions WIN.
• DJ Waldow: Shares/fwds create more eyeballs which increase opens and potential clicks & conversions. Double win.

Videos responses from Mark Juleen:

• Q1: “Have an ongoing strategy to follow up.”
• Q2: “The sky is the limit.”
• Q6: “Besides metrics, keep in mind how you can be ‘top of mind.’”

More resources:

• Full transcript of this week’s #AptChat
• 50 Ways to Build Your Email List (Free ebook from Blue Sky Factory)
• Ways to integrate email marketing and social media (Presentations by DJ Waldow)

How are you using email as part of your marketing and communication mix? What is working well for you? What gives you the most trouble? Share what you’re doing … tell us about your experience with email marketing in the comments!

This week’s chat included 404 tweets from 56 different contributors.

Let’s cut to the chase … here are the highlights from the conversation:

What are the top ways that students find an apartment? Is anything higher on the list than word of mouth?

• Natalie Teinert: Top ways to find our housing is through the University itself.
• Ann Padgett: Word of mouth is huge, students want to live with their friends.
• Elysa Rice: I’d say 2 ways are Google and friends.
• Resite Online: School newspapers and online social networks.
• ATL Marketing Concepts: Other than word of mouth – proximity to school and cost next two decision makers.. Roommate program also helps.
• Natalie Teinert: Housing Office, websites, admissions materials, etc.
• Carla Morin: Make sure to state in your on-line marketing “we accept student applications” or something like that that’s huge!
• Ann Padgett: I see a lot of kiosks on campuses now, both the old fashion paper and staple kind and new touch screen fanciness.
• Darcey Forbes: We have also seen success with CL (Craigslist) for college rentals and searching for roomates etc.
• Nessel Inc.: College newspaper online classifieds site was huge @ my school.
• Resite Online: 1 of our customers likes 2 create buzz around campus about prop’s social life, ex: topless car wash, they wash only tops of cars.
• Natalie Teinert: All of our properties offer a roommate matching program. Especially nice for International students who don’t know anyone.
• Dylan Schleppe: SMS is private, fast and convenient. What they want.

Are there differences in marketing a lease-by-the-unit community vs. a lease-by-the-bed property?

• Natalie Teinert: Most students like the individual lease liability. Parents do 2. Great thing to market!
• Elysa Rice: I think in student world lease by bed is easier on finances for students NOT propty. my roomie was forever late on payments.
• Natalie Teinert: Individual leases also help when applying financial aid. Would get messy with 1 lease/unit & fin aid.

What amenities are at the top of the list for students?

• Mike Brewer: Include all secondary fees, i.e. cable, Internet, water, sewer, trash – in the rent. Parents and students like simple.
• Ann Padgett: Individual bathrooms, washer dryer, location to transit, community events to name a few.
• Elysa Rice: Internet, designated parking (was single girl walking late at night), pay by room, pool, bus to school, TV, recycling.
• Tami Siewruk: Shuttle bus service is a big one.
• Eric at Buildium: ALL student housing should include internet. It is a necessity for college students!
• Speedpro Add: Stud housing is funny bc they position it as “luxury living” here I thght college was roughing it.
• Mike Brewer: Common place to hang with friends – and dog park is proving to be huge – wireless Internet a common area must.
• Natalie Teinert: Students will give up a lot on amenities as long as the student has friends there and believe theyll have fun living @ your prop.
• Lisa Trosien: Some have computer labs with direct links to the university computer.
• Natalie Teinert: One of out props has a bike room you can rent space in & stays locked.
• Elysa Rice: My apartment had room with computer/printers = smart move on their part.
• Elysa Rice: I lived with 3 diet obsessed girls, hello must have 24 hr gym.
• Natalie Teinert: Indoor BBall court has been popular @ 1 of our props up north, theaters are good for programming too.
• Elysa Rice: Pre-pay for entire semester rent is also nice ammenity for students who get loans twice year.

What needs to be on the website for a student housing community? Anything different from conventional apartment sites?

• Ann Padgett: I think u start by building a social network 4 your student residents 2 connect & have fun online, post pics & video.
• Mike Brewer: Ability to sign lease digitally — we are trying to this implement this year.
• Natalie Teinert: Online leasing is a great pull for international students.
• Resite Online: Online Rent Payment is a huge amenity for the student and the parent.
• RealPage: Roommate matching.
• Resite Online: Potentially an FAQs section for both students and parents.
• Ann Padgett: Pictures of the students interacting with each other at events.
• Natalie Teinert: Links to Uni websites are nice 4 current residents. Links to videos/articles how to wash clothes, cook, iron, etc.
• Elysa Rice: @osu_bigredbus (UniversityVillage.com) is our most popular student website. Their bulletin board for students is very popular.
• Natalie Teinert: Calendar of programming events (if you offer) w/links to FB to RSVP.
• RealPage: Providing parental access to the same info and functions a student makes mom and dad very happy.
• Elysa Rice: most important online student ammenities IMHO: online application, online rent pay, “nearby”, lots photos & video, floor plans.
• IRIO Mobile: We have iPhone web Apps on SH micro-sites via text.
• Elysa Rice: Speaking for @KimCoryFitness, I know she polls residents/students & improved website every semester per their input.

What about blogs & social media sites? Do they work for the student crowd?

• Natalie Teinert: Targeting High School seniors w/FB ads has been great for us!
• Natalie Teinert: Basically have created ads targeting specific cities in the Uni area targeting ages 17-18.
• Mike Brewer: FB: target the sphere of influence of current resident base – pic contests that require sphere to vote in the way of comment.
• Mike Brewer: FB: pet look alike, community jingle contest, best photo from spring break, etc.
• Mike Whaling: Just met w/ a group of students yesterday. Not one of them using 4sq yet. Also said Twitter is “for old people.”
• Natalie Teinert: SM has been good for us. Gets students interacting w/us that haven’t before.
• Mike Brewer: Social sites and blogs are only as valuable as the effort put into them — they require hard work to be successful.
• Mike Whaling: Numbers out last week show that Twitter is growing w/ the younger crowd.
• Natalie Teinert: Have seen success w/property twitters that the affiliated university utilizes Twitter as well.
• Lisa Trosien: Camden’s three lease Twitter success story was on a student housing property. Gave a concession ‘code’ in their Tweets.

There were a number of great insights and nuggets along the way, so make sure you look over the full transcript. This past week’s #AptChat included 329 tweets from 54 different contributors.

And if you missed the Student Housing Conference, or if you want to go back to the comments about sessions you may missed, you might also want to check out the Twitter stream from the event.

What do you think? Are these comments in line with what you’re seeing? Did we miss something that’s working really well for you? Tell us about it in the comments!