Insights

Marketers seek to balance the ‘wow factor’ in today’s digital world with the tried and true principles of effective customer engagement.

Digital marketing is changing at the speed of technology. Advancements such as generative AI, virtual and augmented reality, social commerce and others have brought about a revolution in how businesses interact with customers and how personalized and immersive marketing experiences can be. By understanding and maximizing these movements, brands can elevate customer engagement and increase conversions.

Noting there isn’t a single solution that covers all scenarios, Newsweek focused on the following emerging digital trends that can help propel marketers ahead of the competition.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

Think of the typical car dealership glossy brochure. Now think of being able to virtually step inside your dream car model – from the comfort of your own home – and inspect its features and even do a simulated test drive. Which marketing experience will resonate more? The one with more vroom (and VR room!).

Marketers know the more captivating and immersive the experience the better, and virtual and augmented reality are revolutionizing the way to achieve that with customers. “Although it may seem distant for small businesses, global brands are already capitalizing on these opportunities,” writes CEO and branding expert Erica McMillan.

Generative AI

Marketers should already know about generative AI’s various timesaving capabilities, from automating daily tasks to generating ads or content. But McMillan, noting the “significant shifts in consumer behavior” in this area, raises the possible concern of the target audience using the same tools, like ChatGPT, thus pulling from the same Internet-scoured data.

“Businesses and marketers must elevate their content strategies… [by] providing unique perspectives and expert insights that cannot be easily duplicated by generative AI tools,” she wrote. “The focus should shift towards delivering value-added information that's derived from hands-on experience in the subject.”

Social Commerce

Integrating shopping with social interactions on social media platforms offers much greater connection than traditional online methods, including sales-only siloes elsewhere in the e-commerce realm. Brands can leverage captivating photos and engaging videos like always but with the personal, emotional and quite valuable stamp of approval from one’s social media followers, i.e., friends. One marketing guru noted that 90% of folks trust peers on social networks while only 15 to 18% trust brands.

The interactive nature of social commerce is so important. By allowing customers to ask questions and otherwise engage with brands, a powerful connection is made where customers build confidence in purchase decisions while companies glean valuable insights to better understand the market.

“Going for the home run, so to speak, with AI or virtual/augmented reality tools is important because as marketers we should strive for what we call ‘limitless possibilities’ with the brand experience,” said Vince Vitti, infinitee’s VP, Business Development. “But given engagement realities like 72% of consumers having used a voice assistant, let’s also make sure our singles hitters – voice search, chatbots, live chat and messaging apps – are aligned and primed to keep people engaged and enjoying their customer journey with the brand.”

While marketers rush to embrace the advantages of the advanced technology, they should also study the catches and liabilities.

Imagine if your marketing team had a tool to quickly devise 10 or more ad angles for a video shoot based on customer reviews or one that could read thousands of those reviews and speedily summarize the testimonials for optimized customer service response. Imagine no longer. Generative AI is here to help generate large volumes of content in seconds and reduce monotonous tasks and other busywork.

But before you go thinking that the technology will be your everyday failsafe “easy button,” be sure to know the bumps and risks along the robotic road. Generative AI brings with it content and even legal concerns set against the battlefield backdrop of human worth versus technological advancement.

“There has always been a tension between the art and the science of marketing and creativity, even when the technology was much more rudimentary than that of generative AI,” Jay Pattisall, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, told the Wall Street Journal. “Machines in whatever form simply just can’t replace or replicate human creativity. That was true then, and it is absolutely true now.”

Eyes to Optimize

Generative AI definitely can help creative professionals in marketing and advertising come up with ideas and work more quickly, saving valuable time. Audience segmentation, customer service chatbots, programmatic advertising, SEO and e-commerce are other key uses for which companies are leveraging the technology.

On the content creation front, Wesley ter Haar points out that generative AI helps marketers “visualize and test out different concepts at speed. You can also easily swap out different elements — like changing the background, changing characters — at any point in the production process without having to go back to the drawing board,” said the digital advertising and marketing services executive, adding that AI may also help brands battle “creative fatigue.” And weariness from tedious, rote tasks, such as analyzing those aforementioned customer reviews, can be greatly reduced as well.

When AI Turns Unnatural or Even Unlawful

“I’m not laughing with it — I’m laughing at it,” Mint Mobile’s CMO said about the AI ad featuring actor and part owner Ryan Reynolds. Yes, while many pros rightfully court the potential for the technology to boost advertising through automation, there is still a disconnect. Pattisall points out that while generative AI’s ability to write prose has turned many a head, it is still only generating output from data and not originating thought or expression.

It’s been said that our potential for innovation, problem-solving and growth is only as good as the data we collect. AI’s definitely got the data collection part down, but what if the information is incorrect, biased or copyrighted?

AI users should be watchful for this possibility and mindful of the inherent risk of sharing such data in a customer-facing way. Marketers should know the data sources that train their generative AI models. Such major concerns, along with the question of who owns an idea originating from a machine, led ter Haar to say, “I’m sure the lawsuits will be extremely interesting.”

“AI definitely piques our firm’s ‘limitless possibilities’ mentality and dovetails with our constant striving to leverage innovative tactics for our clients, but we also must realize that it’s an evolving technology that requires smart, grounded planning and due diligence,” said Tim Patton, CEO at infinitee. “For more than 31 years, we’ve been balancing that ‘art and science of marketing and creativity’ and can do so for your brand.”

Though small and silent, quiet rooms can raise an apartment community’s profile while boosting its multi-use advantage.

In a marketing world of constant striving for bigger and better engagement, ‘quiet down’ isn’t a thing, but in the apartment sector quiet up just might be. Quiet rooms, spaces that can be isolated from larger multi-purpose or community rooms, could be the newest must-have for multifamily owners and operators looking to boost a community’s amenity profile and ultimately fuel sales.

Quiet rooms are designed for small meetings, work requiring calm and concentration, video or conference calls, student tutoring, playing board games and hosting private luncheons and dinners, even wine tastings, reports Cooperator News. They also provide an alternative from one’s residential unit or community density.

Design of the Times

Near, adjacent to or a part of a larger multi-purpose space, quiet rooms should be separated from the bigger area with walls and a movable door. Sliding doors allow the space to be added to the greater communal room as needed, and glass ones allow residents to see if someone is in there, according to design firm principal Marilyn Sygrove, adding that a large flat-screen TV, a round table and chairs for work/study and gatherings are popular furniture components for quiet rooms.

There’s value in variety, of course, but for apartment communities looking to separate themselves through their amenities offerings it’s also about maximizing space, including reviving dead space, and complementary design. Future-proofing is difficult; incorporating multi-use spaces is a good hedge.

With the goal of carving out more work-from-home locations, Greystar redesigned a fitness center in San Diego to add three “Zoom rooms”: one a quiet room accommodating two people, a small room that can be used for video calls and another like the second, only larger. “Being able to pivot is important. You can’t set a design three years ago and not be able to move as the market moves,” Raul Tamez, Greystar’s senior director of development, told the National Apartment Association.

Some Restrictions May Apply

Like any shared apartment amenity, there must be rules. Just as Bob can’t have a raging pool party at all hours of the night and Becky can’t take over half of the clubhouse with her cosmetics business, the quiet room must come with its own checks and balances and regulations to serve the interests of the whole community. Obviously, scheduling through an efficient reservation system is key with a shared resource.

CN brings up another possible point of contention: should quiet rooms be child-free zones? While scheduling is important no matter what, Sygrove recommends an adult supervision requirement as a happy medium. That way, children can enjoy the space provided it’s an overseen activity such as tutoring or a family board game night.

With the post-COVID getaway mindset from crowds to the outdoors, suburbs or merely one’s home office, quiet rooms just make sense. Heeding the pandemic lessons, apartment owners and operators can come up big by accommodating for smaller groups.

“’Quiet please’ isn’t just a request you hear at the library or movies, it’s a reflection of a fresh personal need in the multifamily sphere, a new meaning to being a part of an apartment community,” said Michael Rivera, infinitee’s creative director. “From quiet rooms to your next amenity play, we’re ready to help your company make some marketing noise.”

Marketers have a direct, impactful way to engage their target audience, but there are many ways to fall short on e-marketing open, click and conversion rates.

How important is email marketing? Despite a recent doubter trend, the numbers confirm that it’s still a powerful, direct-to-audience tool. After all, 99% of consumers check email every day with it being by far the preferred way to receive updates from brands, reports Hubspot, and 73% of Millennials hold email as the preferred mode of communication from businesses. Two out of every five B2B marketers say e-newsletters are “most critical” to their content marketing.

With that said, how important is it to get email marketing right? Let us count the ways… companies get it wrong.

Not Defining the Goal or What Success Looks Like

To be impactful with e-marketing, you must first be intentional. Companies should have a clear picture of what they want to achieve or the “why” of the email, according to Search Engine Journal. Sending out an e-blast meant to drive audience interaction warrants different email copy, call to action and other components than one meant to get leads. Know the end goal and plan backward so that your marketing funnel is as streamlined as possible.

You can't really know where you are going until you know where you’ve been, it’s been said, and the wisdom applies to e-marketing as well. We must measure past performance, i.e., evaluate the road traveled, to be able to chart the best course ahead. From click-through to conversion rates and unsubscribes to unique opens, there are many metrics by which to measure success. E-newsletters have different objectives and thus different key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure that success. For example, the success metric of a welcome email would be open, not conversion, rate.

Not Knowing Your Audience

Knowing whom you’re targeting with your messaging is a basic principle of communications. But what does it mean exactly for e-marketing? Whether decision-makers, influencers or others, write for the target persona with whom you want to maximize engagement.

And know that your e-marketing audience doesn’t always want to be sold. Sending only sales-focused emails is “considered a huge mistake for email marketers, especially when you’ve just started,” according to Search Engine Journal. People want to be welcomed, interested, educated and more before they see a sales pitch. Remember the marketing and sales funnel progression — a like feeling comes well ahead of a buying commitment — and know that overselling could result in lost subscribers or low engagement.

Not Getting Interactive

Compelling copy is a must in your e-newsletter, but the offering needs much more. Personalization, participatory elements (e.g., quizzes, surveys and polls) and a prominent call to action (CTA) will help boost interactions, which include opens, clicks, replying or forwarding, and signing up for a webinar. Search Engine Journal emphasizes the importance of conversational, personalized CTAs, which, according to HubSpot, convert 202% better than basic ones.

“It sounds simple, but marketers want action, and email marketing is a great, direct way to do it,” said Amy Norton, infinitee’s Director, Strategy & Accounts. “But to get to the ultimate desired action of increased conversions, brands need to commit to interaction, which brings greater engagement, boosted metrics and enhanced brand awareness and customer loyalty. We are here to help.”

By leveraging linguistic drivers, marketers can create higher impact content that nets more than just views.

Content is king, but there’s a difference between catching people’s attention with your marketing efforts and captivating them. Increased views and clicks are good and necessary objectives, but how do marketers keep an audience engaged, maximizing focus on their content?

From brands to consumers, managers to employees, teachers to their students and on and on, the goal to gain and hold an audience’s attention is practically universal. The key is to analyze how content, including the language used, shapes and holds the audience’s attention. A 2023 Journal of Marketing study, which performed a multi-method investigation utilizing natural language processing of more than 600,000 reading sessions from 35,000 pieces of content, combined with controlled experiments, offers key lessons for chief marketing officers.

Holding Attention

What moves content consumers past the head-turned, “window shopping” stage to one of sustained attention and interaction? The JM study emphasizes the important role of emotional language and shows how different verbal features shape content consumption.

How effective emotional language is in sustaining attention will depend on the link between specific emotions, uncertainty and arousal. For example, anxiousness by nature is more uncertain than anger and will typically “increase attention and processing as people try to resolve what will happen.”

The study suggests that language channeling high-arousal emotions should sustain attention and encourage continued consumption. Using our example, anxiety checks both the uncertainty and arousal boxes while anger scores only in the latter and thus would typically score lower in eliciting consumer consumption. At the other extreme, sadness would trigger neither uncertainty nor arousal.

Two Sides of the Content Coin

Improving content creation is obviously important for advertisers, marketers, publishers and presenters, but are they focused on how to sustain attention versus merely getting it? Even some experts still think that holding people’s attention is almost entirely dependent on topic (e.g., celebrity gossip rather than financial literacy), but the study digs deeper into how language, the building blocks of content, factors into how consumers react.

“What holds attention is not always the same as what grabs attention or encourages word of mouth,” according to the study. “While more certain language can increase likes and shares, we show that emotions that make people feel certain are actually detrimental when it comes to sustaining attention… Retaining attention is a different type of engagement.”

This content reality holds huge consequence, from your company’s bottom line to the nearly $600 billion digital marketing industry as a whole to even the enormous implications of social media’s role in the dissemination of disinformation and hate speech.

“From authors to heads of state, everyone wants, if not demands, attention, but we can’t all be the Pied Piper of persuasion, whisking away the audience to our desired place or action in one fell swoop,” said Tori Alexis, one of infinitee’s  Brand Managers. “Connection is so vital to marketers so it’s imperative to know the building blocks, most notably language, of successful content creation. And team up with a veteran partner who can help with innovative, creative, highly-engaging and high-impact marketing strategies.”

From personal to community appeal, retail owners, operators & occupiers look to leverage experiences, services and, of course, places to rise above the competition.

Oh, won’t you stay just a little bit longer? For retail owners to get consumers to stay on property more, they must identify and establish differentiators in their centers. To get that zing, you must do the fresh thing.

Despite major industry and economic disruptors in recent years, retail by and large has forged ahead. What keeps locations relevant in a time of such shifting demands and needs?

Writing in RE Business Online, Barry Caylor, vice president of business development at Outside the Lines Inc., recommends “leaning into what attributes make [retail owners] different. By continually supplying the market with fresh concepts and new ways of presenting them, landlords can keep consumers coming back again and again.” The result is greater foot traffic and increased sales for tenants, as well as enhanced ROI for investors.

Are You Experiential?

“There’s no place like home when you’re this far away,” sang the late, great Jimmy Buffett. Not that retail lifestyle centers are akin to far-off tropical destinations, but they should offer, beyond goods and services, a standout experience and unique sense of place. Yes, e-commerce has become indispensably convenient, but people still need to get out of the house, especially those of us who work, sleep, eat and parent there.

“There is simply no comparison between clicking a few boxes on a screen and visiting a beautifully designed retail center with artfully displayed merchandise that can be tried on and touched,” Caylor asserts. “Adding gourmet food and beverage options and a wealth of enjoyable activities to pass the time in between browsing and buying further enhances the overall experience. The first is purely functional, while the second is a feast for the senses.”

When sales growth and brand loyalty are on the line, retail centers and their tenants must go beyond filling a one-stop need, the mere tick on the shopper’s checklist (which e-commerce typically covers). Attractive outside gathering spaces, interactive elements, live entertainment events and retailer activations appeal to the senses and people’s social nature, adding beyond fun and stimulation a communal component and, of course, keeping visitors on site for hours at a time, thus boosting the sales of tenants.

Service – Upfront & Personal

Need that in a different color? Want to check to see how this fits? Open to alternative suggestions based on your budget concerns or even facial expression? Yeah, chatbots got nothing on in-person service.

While daily-needs retail, including service offerings, have always drawn consistent customer traffic — and investor attention — lifestyle retail centers can take that amenity to a new level, as Caylor puts it, from valet parking to foot massages and coffee. As the saying goes, people may forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel. A big differentiator in today’s retail world can come from creatively “pampering and delighting” customers with a personal touch that they obviously can’t find online.

“We love that new school of retail design thought that shifts the focus from spaces to environments, customers to communities and communications to conversations,” said Marcia Homer, infinitee’s Director of Brand Management. “Our team’s belief in great ideas, personal touch and endless possibilities dovetails with that placemaking philosophy and the focus on experiences, quality services and delightful gathering places. If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well — and fresh.”

Multifamily owners and operators are feeling competitive pressure from single-family rentals to upgrade amenity packages.

What happens when more than half of customers would rather be somewhere else? It doesn’t take John Maynard Keynes to figure out that adjustments will need to be made. There’s a new kid in town, so to speak, with single-family rentals (SFR) and multifamily, the former belle of the real estate ball, will have to up its amenity game in response.

While most U.S. renters live in high-density apartments, 51 percent would actually prefer to live in a single-family rental home, Multifamily Dive reported, citing Bethesda, Md.-based real estate consultant RCLCO’s  2023 National Renter Consumer Preferences Report. Furthermore, an additional 21% of respondents said they prefer a townhouse or duplex.

Now we understand that bigger is generally better regarding living space and household sizes only increase, but there’s more to the current SFR hot streak. Take Millennials, the largest generation in the U.S., for a big example: they are in their prime single-family occupancy years and can reap the advantages of renting, including no down payment or maintenance responsibilities, as well as an easier exit strategy when deciding to move.

Economically, the U.S. housing shortage continues to shut many out of the for-sale market. And the COVID-19 exodus away from high-density apartment living to more spacious residences in the suburbs served as a blueprint for this single-family shift.

That’s why it’s never been more important for multifamily owners and operators to stay on top of evolving renter preferences. When it comes to amenities, it’s not how many a community offers, but “whether or not they meet the needs of renters in a way that makes sound financial sense to the owner,” writes Multifamily Loans’ Jeff Hamann.

ML published its top 5 amenities to add to a multifamily property: package lockers, smart home features, green transportation initiatives, pet accommodations and the right outdoor space based on renter demographics. RCLCO’s survey found that new kitchen appliances, walk-in closets and oversized kitchen pantries accounted for the most popular unit features, while security-related items were the top building amenities: a front desk attendant or gated community and a secure package receiving system.

Amenity preferences tended to differ widely by age group — including commute distance and children's play areas — but more than 80% of all renters view green features as important, with over half willing to pay more for them, Multifamily Dive reported. Walkability to surrounding retail, restaurants and open areas gained consensus as well. Pools, fitness centers and other leisure amenities not surprisingly remain popular, according to the study.

How will multifamily owners further differentiate their product? Build-to-rent units making up 6.9% of the nation’s 2022 single-family starts is a trend that should continue, if not expand, asserts an RCLCO principal.

And on the buy side, about one-quarter of homes in Jacksonville (27%) and Atlanta (25%) to nearly one-third in Miami (31%) were purchased by investors in fourth quarter 2022, according  to data from Redfin.

“When both economic expansion and disturbance work to a real estate sector’s advantage like that of the single-family rental housing market, it puts pressure on multifamily, which has plenty of competition in and amongst itself,” said Michael Rivera, infinitee’s creative director. “Change can be daunting, but the apartment sector still has really solid fundamentals. View it as new, exciting opportunity and take it on with a marketing partner that combines a ‘limitless possibilities’ mentality and a commitment to high-impact strategies and innovative tactics.”

One can find evidence to support each side of the RTO-WFH discussion, but work-life balance should be personal and responsive.

Canceling “Summer Fridays” right before Labor Day? While a proverbial slap in the face to workers before the holiday that celebrates their year-round contributions, the timing is no doubt better than before the Fourth of July. Make no mistake about it though: Goldman Sachs’ high-profile push to get its staff to return to the office five days a week is the latest salvo in the ongoing, nationwide return to office (RTO) debate.

We’ve discussed before in this space how a major side effect of the pandemic has been increased employee flexibility as millions were forced into, then embraced remote and hybrid working. That freedom will not be easily (or ever) relinquished. Furthermore, the major labor shortage persists. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, if every unemployed person from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Ore., found a job, the country would still have around 4 million open positions. Work from anywhere has another connotation in this employee’s market.

Still, company bosses, office owners and pretty much any and all stakeholders in the beleaguered sector are making their RTO position heard, especially this long after the end of COVID-19. CNBC reported that major corporations such as Disney, Starbucks and BlackRock are requiring more time at the office for their employees.

As of spring, the amount of companies requiring in-office work had more than doubled year over year. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of corporate real estate executives reported that their companies now require employees to return to the office at least some of the time, up from 31% a year earlier, according to CBRE's Spring 2023 U.S. Office Occupiers Sentiment Survey.

Financial/professional services firms lead the way in that regard at 71% while tech companies are only at 56%, Bisnow reported. Of the 207 corporate real estate executives who participated in the survey, 45% want mostly in-person work, up from 8 percentage points since 2022, versus 22% who want a mostly remote work format, up from 15% last year. Although 40% of survey respondents expect office attendance to increase, more than half at big companies expect to further decrease their office footprints as leases expire.

When it comes to RTO, there’s the good, the bad and the funny. On one hand, office workers are 18% more productive, according to an MIT and UCLA study. On the other, CoStar reported an all-time high office space availability rate of 16.4% after first quarter. Then there’s Zoom, the epitome of remote working, requiring more in-person office time for its workers.

Justin Owings, in his book Exec on the Desk, a play on “Elf on the Shelf,” quips, “[Leaders] hope water coolers and hallway collisions spark innovation. Only when people show up, the heads go down and the headphones go on. How else do you defend yourself from the assault of the open, collision-friendly office?”

The path forward and possibilities for office-using organizations and their employees definitely seem open and collision-conducive.

“We’re still relatively early in this massive upheaval of work life and office use, but we go back to the ol’ truism ‘our people are our greatest asset,’” said Vince Vitti, infinitee’s vice president of business development and the firm’s recruitment marketing guru. “Companies must do right by their people with RTO so they can stay on course to reach their goals.”

The report of on-site retail’s demise has been greatly exaggerated. Let us count the ways.

The saying ‘you had to be there’ didn’t apply to malls in the last decade-plus or any retail place during the pandemic, but people know — even if occasionally having to relearn — that there’s nothing like in-person shopping, dining and entertainment. Retail centers offer more than goods and services; they offer variety, discovery and, perhaps most importantly coming off COVID-19, the opportunity for social interaction and experiences.

GlobeSt. examined how physical stores remain “a vital backbone for the retail industry.” Everyone from lifestyle centers and big box stores to discount shops and mom & pops will like its conclusion: “While you can take retail out of the store, you can’t take the store out of retail.”

By the Numbers

It was not surprising in the least that e-commerce volume jumped significantly during COVID-19. E-commerce grew from 11.1% of total sales in fourth quarter 2019 to 16.4% by June 2020, according to Census Bureau data, but then back to 14.7% by the middle of 2022. By November 2022, the portion of consumers shopping on retail brick and mortar sites was about par with where it had been pre-pandemic, GlobeSt. reported referencing survey data from CapGemini’s 2023 consumer behavior study.

Those industry pundits insisting that e-commerce would become the dominant form of retail ignored the power of the people, specifically indomitable human nature that will always spur people to get out, socialize, and stop and smell the retail roses. Furthermore, stores support communities with necessity products and services and can rally them with on-site activations, which e-commerce obviously can’t.

“If you’re a pure-play e-commerce, it is expensive and time-consuming to reach people,” said Stephanie Cegielski, Vice President of Research at the International Council of Shopping Centers.

More Bricks & Mortar Benefits

Retail brick & mortar is the full complement or, better put, full of complements. The old-school way is harmonizing tenants that trigger walkup customer traffic for each other. The new wave manifests in a halo effect supporting retail omnichannel strategy: when a store opens, online sales for the retailer in that market increases 37%, while if a store closes, online sales decrease 33%, according to Cegielski.

Site selection obviously is critical across the entire commercial real estate spectrum. Students in the first week of Real Estate 101 know that – location, location, location – but in retail, effectively placed stores can also serve as their own advertising.

Getting Smarter

The reality is that with e-commerce consumers have another option if on-site retail is not satisfactory. That has made the latter work to be better. One key lesson learned by store operators is to commit to very good service, with hands-on expertise becoming a “pivot point” for why customers want to come into the store.

“So much of what our customers rely on us for is expertise,” said Craig McNair, Batteries Plus’ chief retail officer. “It’s about experience, multichannel, to get products and services in the ways you want to get them.”

Speaking of multichannel, it’s like experience goes both ways—on the giving or service end as well as receiving or experiential. It all counts for customer experience, which has never been more important in the retail world.

“If you need proof that the social, experiential need of consumers will never go away, just look around at the countless concerts and sporting events, as well as the rebounding travel industry. The same rings true for retail,” said Michael Rivera, infinitee’s creative director. “Whether reimagining your retail space or refining operations based on post-pandemic lessons, keep your eye on the customer and find yourself a good marketing partner.”

Customized incentives, establishing a stakeholder mentality and, above all else, respect will help senior-living operators counter labor market headwinds.

“It May Be Time for Chief Happiness Officers in Senior Living” was the title of the 2018 article. Yes, 2018, well before COVID-19, the “Great Resignation” and quiet quitting. Employee satisfaction and retention were concerns long before the dips and detours of this decade, and seniors housing and care staffing remain a huge challenge for an industry that, as of 2016, needed to attract 1.2 million more workers by 2025.Lument, which recently found that 62% of seniors housing survey respondents named staffing as the sector’s greatest challenge, set out to find ways to counter its labor struggles. Here are a few key strategies for attracting and retaining talent from the commercial real estate finance firm:

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Whatever the industry, when it comes to managing people, the Golden Rule shines every time: treat others as you would want to be treated. That means respect, plain and simple.

Charles Turner, CEO of Kare, a staffing solution company for senior living communities, points to a disconnect between what operators think of as a strong culture and the view from frontline workers. The former operates in terms of mission statements, collective processes and a unified identity, while staff seeks individual respect, empowerment and “never to be treated like commodities,” Lument reports.

Kare found that around 70% of frontline workers are single parents and 35% have adult dependents, “making them caregivers at work and at home,” Turner noted. They deserve empathy and fair compensation.

To put their money where their mouth is, Turner suggests operators consider covering 100% of insurance premiums in exchange for a slightly lower pay. Kare also offers a “real-time pay” feature allowing staff to receive payment immediately after shifts are verified.

Actions yielding positive, personal, tangible results always trump vision statements. Show respect — and the money! — to retain talent.

Open Books, Open Paths

Transparency breeds trust. On the financial front, staff that are kept in the loop about a senior center’s performance are more likely to feel engaged and able to directly connect their work to fiscal results. It’s the substantial difference between merely punching the clock and having a stake in something bigger than self. As Lument reports, communities that offer staff bonuses based on monthly or quarterly performance further establish a sense of ownership across the company, which does wonders for staff morale and retention.

Openness works in another way, too: career advancement. Creating promotion pathways within senior living operations is an effective way to retain talent because it helps establish the staff mindset that good work will be rewarded.

Sevy Petras, CEO and co-founder of Priority Life Care, an Indiana-based seniors housing provider, reminds that there are plenty of expert needs in the industry in addition to nurses and thus many promotional routes, including in marketing and nutrition. Plus, caregivers can get burned out, which further underscores the need for good leadership to help reroute career paths as necessary.

“The days of finding the unicorn employee who wants to stay in that same seat for 20-plus years and do the same thing year after year are over,” said Petras, whose company has established a certification program at the community college level to help individuals and the industry alike. “It’s not a realistic expectation if we want to have top performance consistently.”

Vince Vitti, infinitee’s vice president of business development and the firm’s recruitment marketing guru, said, “Though we’ve yet to hire a Chief Happiness Officer, we are in the unique position of having marketed senior living communities in award-winning ways and helped recruitment marketing clients with their critical strategies. While the answers aren’t easy in this challenging labor market, combining the aforementioned staffing strategies with a time-tested marketing partner will position your organization in a good way.”

Of all commercial real estate pros, marketers might be challenged the most with striking the right balance between artificial intelligence and personal touch.

“This is heavy,” Marty McFly says multiple times in the movie Back to the Future. The future is now for the real estate industry with artificial intelligence and tools such as ChatGPT looking to make a heavy impact, although not including time travel back to the heyday of malls. Real estate people are currently assessing AI, where it fits and how far it can go.

AI’s use to date has been to lighten the load. Until the last year or so, the real estate industry predominantly used it for processing and analyzing large amounts of data. Then came along large language models or GPT tools “that use deep learning to generate human-like text” and training, not surprisingly, on huge amounts of data to “understand and analyze natural language, generate coherent responses, provide insights, and assist in various tasks such as content creation, customer support and data analysis.”

AI’s real estate application seemingly and perhaps dazzlingly blew up overnight. “Everybody wants to experience it,” Amit Koren, JLL Technologies CEO, Leasing & Capital Markets Technology, told Bisnow. “The degree of wonder associated with it is quite high. Relative to any other tech in recent years, it is capturing people’s attention.”

The systematic, time-saving uses for CRE companies include creating marketing materials and site selection based on lack of supply and/or competitor locations. The big opportunity involving such powerful technology does come with some no-no’s though. As Bisnow reports, JLL will roll out staff guidelines for using new AI tools, including the hopefully-goes-without-saying rule against entering confidential client information into one of those systems.

The content-creation side of AI should definitely get the attention of marketing professionals, including brand makers, storytellers and creative advocates for real estate firms. Its current value though seems to be again in time savings, helping things along versus overhauling the process and its parts.

“It’s OK for a first draft, but it’s a long, long way off from replacing any of my team,” WiredScore Global Head of Product, Jules Barker, told Bisnow. “It wasn’t better than if a senior member of the team had written [a commercial real estate company persona], but it may have been better than a new grad.”

There’s so much more than the black and white of the written word, of course. Tone, for example, which can depend on event, platform and more.

“What surprised me most is, while the general messaging was there, the tone was always wrong,” said Yoo Capital Director of Communications and Social Impact, Louise Page-Jennings. “It felt unauthentic, formulaic and almost heartless. We want to truly engage with the communities we invest in, and this should translate across all our communications. ChatGPT didn’t strike that tone for me, and to nurture relationships over written communications, genuine emotion and passion is key.”

Pros across the real estate industry will continue to conduct “their own tiny experiments” to assess and evaluate AI’s utility and applicability, asserts Bisnow. And why not? Tech is there to help companies improve performance, and those passing on a major innovation like AI will be playing at a disadvantage. Yet, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

“ChatGPT can help draft marketing pieces, but it may be a light year or two away from developing an integrated marketing strategy for a luxury residential community or helping a client reimagine the shopping experience,” said Tim Patton, CEO at infinitee. “Our team’s belief in endless possibilities and great ideas and always delivering service with a personal touch is here to stay.”

Multifaceted developments serve consumers with community activations, and  elevated entertainment and dining options, and boost foot traffic while improving land efficiency.

The Great Outdoors was the ‘in thing’ well before the demise of malls and the COVID-19 pandemic, of course, but those events have helped add more momentum to a fit, fresh real estate trend. Consumers increasingly value health and wellness and retail places that not only provide those types of products and services, but also package it all in a visually appealing, walkable and environmentally sound location. They find those things at open-air lifestyle centers.

RE Business Online defined the pedestrian-friendly, town center-like developments as “intentionally designed spaces that are set against beautiful landscapes and house high-quality dining, retail, entertainment, health and wellness uses.” A breath of fresh air literally and figuratively, open-air lifestyle centers have capitalized on the growing number of people prioritizing wellness amenities and services — 4 out of 5 surveyed intend to maintain or increase spending in the retail segment — and on the mall redevelopment trend, while thriving in the warm climate Sun Belt states from California to the Carolinas.

From a developer and owner standpoint, the retail center type lends itself to improved land use efficiency — including mixed-use with its ‘built-in’ consumer populations — a sustainable focus that not only achieves operational savings, but will only grow in importance with younger generations known for demonstrating their values through their spending habits. The walkable, inviting atmosphere at such shopping centers also encourages foot traffic and expands shoppers' time and money on site.

Tanger Outlets continues to transform the shopping experience across its 36 lifestyle centers in the U.S. and Canada. An infinitee client for over 20 years, the operator of outdoor outlet centers is rolling out a refreshed visual identity dubbed "Open Air" across its portfolio. With a goal to reimagine shopper engagement, the elevated mix of offerings may include micro-breweries, gourmet groceries, golf simulators, electric car recharging stations, selfie concepts and even robotic dinosaurs.

In addition to that innovative mix of offerings and a refreshed visual identity, including a new logo, Tanger will expand on the programming that boosts the community hub appeal of its open-air lifestyle centers. From environmental activations to holiday programming, the community events and experiences, coupled with elevated entertainment options, create outstanding and meaningful connections for guests.

This open-air shift is happening everywhere. For example, the Chicago suburbs have lost 40% of its enclosed malls in the last 30 years and could have only five to eight remaining by the end of the decade, according to one projection. A classic example of moving on from the classic, old mall is the Fox Valley Mall conversion in Aurora, Ill., where a vacant Sears store and parking lot will become 304 luxury apartments, part of a mixed-use community with walkable connections to entertainment and shopping.

Whereas many mall department stores back then viewed restaurants and other uses as competitors for parking, now the focus is on cross-shopping with the rising tide of foot traffic lifting all business hopes. A principal of Mid-America Real Estate, which has tracked more than 5 million square feet of lifestyle space over the past decade, told Bisnow that lifestyle centers have never been stronger than in 2023, citing the creative engagement potential of outdoor activations for fitness classes, concert series, outdoor movies and more.

Grand Boulevard in Miramar Beach, Fla., not only offers the multifaceted appeal and resulting commercial commingling benefits of 765,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, Class A office space and three on-site hotels, but the mixed-use lifestyle center also drives greater consumer traffic with year-round happenings, including the 30a Songwriters Festival, ArtsQuest Fine Arts Festival and its signature event, the  South Walton Beaches Wine & Food Festival.

“As creative, people-centric advocates who believe in endless possibilities and great ideas, the open-air center trend is right down our alley,” said Michael Rivera, infinitee’s creative director. “Building unique and compelling brands is what we do, but their activation, especially in cool outdoor environments such as Tanger’s and others, is really one of the best, most exciting things that we get to do.”