Maximize Property Management Revenue Part 3: Educating Owners and the Misuse of AI

The Property Management Show

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The Property Management Show returns with Part 3 of Marie Tepman’s discussion with Todd Ortscheid, which builds off the earlier discussions of fee-maxing and choosing the right revenue model. In the conclusion of this series, we focus on the importance of education when it comes to property management marketing, and how to use AI to boost productivity without losing the human touch.

Property Management Marketing Starts with Content Marketing

To someone who does not know the property management industry, the idea that a company like Fourandhalf would market exclusively to property management companies seems incredibly niche. But, the industry is big.

And, the majority of rentals in America are not even managed professionally. Marie was shocked to learn that 10 years ago when she first got started in property management marketing, and perhaps even more shocking is that this is still true today. Ten years later, many rentals are still not professionally managed.

This tells us that education continues to be necessary. It has to come first.

Property managers can educate landlords that there’s value in hiring a professional management team for their rentals. Not only does it save time and prevent errors, they can make more money.

A lot of self-managing landlords, as you know, don’t want to pay someone a percentage of their rent. But, that’s because they often don’t realize that a professional will help them earn more money, not only when it comes to rental pricing, but also with expertise and even the ancillary fees we’ve been discussing.

Education is an under-rated part of marketing. It’s not just having a well-trafficked website and running digital ads. Those strategies help to capture the bottom of the sales funnel by reaching the people who already know what a property manager does. They’re making decisions based on prices, services, and other specifics. They know what they’re looking for.

But what about the landlords and the property owners who don’t know? There’s an opportunity to capture the people who are looking for solutions. They might be having a tough time managing their own property. They’re looking for help, for answers, and for other options.

Those are the customers who will make decisions based on the criteria your educational marketing has taught them to use.

Investing in the Marketing that Matters

Todd understands the need for educational marketing and has become so successful at it that he went on to bigger and better automation programs. He outgrew the basic marketing principles that he learned when Fourandhalf was helping him make marketing videos 10 years ago.

He has some advice to the property managers who are small and strapped for cash and maybe afraid to spend money on marketing.

Todd also works with a lot of clients who don’t have $10,000 a month to spend on marketing.

He tells those clients that the educational component works. It was true 10 years ago when everyone was talking about content marketing and the benefit of education. And, it’s true today.

Look at Marc Cunningham and his company, Grace Property Management. There is video after video after video on that website, and they spend 1 percent of their budget on marketing. That’s it.

Anyone can do that.

Once you start getting all that educational material out there, you’ve become the trusted source. When someone in your market looks for an answer to a question, you’re there providing it.

Todd says a blog he wrote 10 years ago on screening pets is still one of the most-viewed pieces of content on the website. This blog gets tons of traffic. Why?

• Because there’s always going to be a landlord in Atlanta who had a bad experience with a tenant’s pet, so they will go looking for information on how to screen pets. And, Todd’s website pops up.
• The site provides educational information to the person who needs help, and they get value out of it. And once they’re there, they are likely to see other videos and other educational content.
• All of this leads to trust. They trust the information and the expert providing that information.

This means that even if they don’t pull the trigger today, when a tenant leaves at the end of the year and that owner doesn’t want to go through the whole leasing and marketing and screening process again, they’ll come back to that great video they watched and they’ll find the source.

Spending just a little money gets you to the point that you’re building revenue. Then, when you have the budget to spend $10,000 a month on marketing, you can do other things.

Content marketing gets you to the point where you can spend more on marketing later.

It Was Video Then. And It’s Video Now.

Ten years ago, we were talking about videos and how important they were to content marketing. Fourandhalf was writing blogs on the power of content and education.

It’s all still true today, and it’s all still important today.

The difference is that 10 years ago, not everyone was writing blogs and making videos. If you were doing it, you were winning…no matter what the quality of those blogs and videos happened to be. Now, with every property manager in your market publishing a blog, yours have to be the best.

The top property managers are doing video.

The secret to property management marketing is video.

The best way to set yourself apart and increase ROI is video.

That’s not going to change.

As with blog, the video has to be better now because more and more property managers are using video to market their companies.

AI has, of course, opened up this type of marketing to a lot more people, too. AI can write blogs. AI can create a video with an avatar. But, you can do better than that. As a property manager with real expertise and value to provide, do you want to settle for the blog that AI spits out or the avatar that isn’t you on a video?

Todd’s Take on Tech

AI lets us do all these things, and that makes authenticity more important when it comes to marketing. You have to be the property manager that an owner will trust with the keys of their biggest asset.

Todd says he loves tech. He always tells people that the purpose of this technology isn’t to replace the high level stuff that can only be done by humans.

The tech’s purpose is to make it easier for property managers to do the important tasks and provide the important service. Instead of replacing yourself with an avatar, get AI to do the easy stuff. When you do that, you can record the customer-based video and spend some time building trust.

Use the tech to create time for customer account reviews, video marketing, and everything that has real value and can bring in more customers for your business. The value of AI is not to replace your maintenance coordinator or to record all your videos. People can tell when you try to pull that off. The whole purpose of video is to build that trust and to make yourself be the expert. If you replace yourself with code, that’s not doing anything. No one trusts a computer.

Remember when Marie talked to Marc Cunningham about AI being like cake? You can make a cake from scratch. You can buy a cake from a store. Or, you can buy a cake mix and make it your own.

When it comes to content, you don’t have to start from scratch. But you do have to make it your own.

Don’t Be Afraid to Get Started

We covered a lot in this series with Todd, and what he wants you to take away is this: Don’t be afraid to get started. Don’t avoid revenue-maxing just because you’re afraid you’ll get pushback. Don’t be afraid to record a video just because you’re afraid of being on camera.

Don’t be afraid to start. You can start small and keep it manageable.

If you don’t know how to start, talk to a property manager who has been doing this. Work with Fourandhalf or with Todd. There are resources to support you.

This wraps up our three-part series. Hopefully, you now have extra clarity around revenue-maxing, profits, retention, marketing, and AI.

Sign up for Todd’s Property Assist Substack newsletter, and now that you know how to earn that extra margin, turn that money into real owner leads that are a great fit for your business by contacting us at Fourandhalf.

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