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Chris Masterson

Sr. Content Marketing Manager - Second Nature

A Step-by-Step Brand Positioning Framework for Property Managers

Whether your property management company is brand new or well established, it’s helpful to go back to basics and reconnect with who you are as a company. Your brand is more than just your name, website colors, and logo—it’s how your residents and property owners perceive and interact with you, and it’s how you position yourself in the market. If you haven’t revisited your brand in a while then a brand positioning framework could be helpful. What is brand positioning? Your brand positioning is the way that you present your company in the market, how your customers connect with and identify you, and what makes you different from your competitors. Brand positioning should typically include a few things: The value that you bring to your customers How you stand out from the competition Who your ideal customer is What you stand for, or your company’s values For property managers, this can seem like a difficult task. In a service-based industry, it can be challenging to find ways to differentiate yourself. By focusing on your mission, vision, and values, you can create brand positioning that focuses on the experiences you bring to residents and investors, and what kinds of properties you want to manage. Why does brand positioning matter? Why is brand positioning so important in the first place? To start, it makes it easier to connect with the right customers. When you know what kind of investors you want to work with, and you present that stance clearly in the market, you’ll find better matches more quickly. It can also increase customer loyalty. When you’re deliberate about who you are as a company and how you’re perceived, you can deliver better services and experiences that make residents want to renew their leases and investors want to keep working with you. It also makes it easier to focus your marketing and customer service strategies. When you know what values you want to embody, you can be hyperfocused on delivering on that promise. Ultimately, proper brand positioning creates a triple win for you, your residents, and your investors by letting you home in on what’s important to you, and deliver a top-tier experience to everyone involved. Your brand positioning defines how you approach every interaction with customers and potential customers, and how you present your company to the world. What is a brand positioning framework? Now that we’ve established what brand positioning is, it’s time to figure out how to actually develop it. That’s where a brand positioning framework comes in. A brand positioning framework is a process or method of deciding what’s important to your brand, and then building that into a clear positioning statement. A positioning framework provides the structure and tools needed to flesh out your positioning. Our step-by-step positioning framework Okay, it’s time to dive in. Here are our favorite steps to building a property management brand statement. 1. Determine what kind of positioning you want to lead with It’s important to start by looking at what your focus is as a company. While not all of these might end up in your final positioning statement, they’ll help you decide what’s most important and provide an opportunity for self reflection. Competitive differentiation: What makes you different (read: better) than your competitors? Do you take a more comprehensive, white-glove approach? Do you have expertise in a particular segment, like low-income, student, or single family housing? Maybe you have in-house maintenance or a law degree that means you don’t have to lean on as many vendors. Find what makes you stand out. Quality: What quality of service do you deliver, and how? Are you focused on being the absolute best, no matter the cost? Do you have a commitment to maintenance resolution times and on-call staff 24/7? Experience: This is similar to quality, but it goes a bit deeper. How do you find opportunities to delight your investors and residents? Where do you go above and beyond? How do you make life easier overall for everyone you interact with? Price: Are you a company that competes to be the most affordable option, offering discounts and rewards for investors to work with you? Or do you charge a premium for your top-notch service? Simply saying, “we’re the best at everything and we’re the most affordable!” is not generally helpful in developing a brand position. We’re all familiar with the old adage that something can be good, fast, or cheap. Pick two, but you can’t have all three! The same applies to property management. There are always tradeoffs, and part of developing your brand is deciding where you put your focus. We recommend this diagram to evaluate where you fall: In this example, the property management company in question has a strong focus on quality and experience, and that comes at the expense of being able to offer cheap pricing. They should lean into that as part of their brand positioning statement, marketing themselves as more of a white-glove, luxury brand. 2. Create a perceptual map Another great tool that we highly recommend is called the perceptual map. A perceptual map is a chart used to visually illustrate where a brand is positioned compared to its competitors. To start, select two metrics that are important to your industry. Set one as the x-axis and the other as the y-axis, and then map yourself and your competitors based on how you’re perceived. As an example, let’s look at a consumer product we’re all familiar with: cell phones. It’s pretty easy to map some of the biggest brands based on how affordable and how user-friendly they are. For property management companies, you may use something like price and extent of services. A key to the perceptual map is that it can help you identify areas of opportunity, or gaps in the market. If there’s an empty quadrant, that might be a good place to establish your brand to capture underserved customers. In this case, it’s a perfect fit for our sample property management company who’s focused on delivering the best possible experience at a slightly higher cost. 3. Create a brand wheel Another great tool is the brand wheel. A brand wheel is a diagram that helps develop your brand positioning by starting at the core—brand essence—and moving outward to brand benefits, propositions, and values. First, start with your brand value. This is typically a single feeling or emotion that you want your brand to embody. For our example company, which we’ll call Gold Key Management, this might be something like “relaxation” or “peace of mind”. This goes at the very center of your brand wheel, because it’s core to everything you do. Next, outline your brand’s benefits, your differentiation statement, and the facts that back up that claim. For our company, the benefits might be worry-free management, investment protection, and consistent return on investment. The differentiation statement may be that investors get complete asset management with low vacancy rates and competitive rents. To substantiate that claim, we can cite low turn times, high lease renewal rates, and high resident satisfaction. Finally, it’s time to look at what values and perceptions you want your brand to have. For our high-end management company, values might include clear, proactive communication, transparent reporting, and regular preventative maintenance. Perceptions might include exclusivity, professionalism, and trustworthiness. By starting from your central brand essence, you can quickly gain clarity on how you want your company to be perceived. 4. Ask the audience Okay, enough with the fancy charts and graphs. This tip is simple, and it may be the most important. If you want to know how your brand is being perceived, just ask! To get the most complete picture, you’ll want to get input from your residents, your investors, and your employees. Asking your team how they see your brand can be hugely insightful. It not only shows what kinds of values they’re bringing into their interactions with customers, but it also reveals potential gaps in training and internal messaging. Investors can also be valuable in understanding your brand, because at the end of the day, they’re the ones paying you. While it can seem daunting, sending a periodic survey to your investors to understand their satisfaction level and what they want to see from you can go a long way. You can also integrate a short survey into your onboarding process for new investors. Even asking something as simple as “why did you choose us to manage your property?” can surface great insights. Finally, talk to your residents. Schedule automated feedback surveys after lease signings, renewals, and maintenance tickets. Consider an annual pulse check survey to gauge their satisfaction. While most residents probably won’t want to volunteer their time to help you with your marketing strategy, they’ll often have strong opinions that can show you whether you’re actually living out your intended brand values. Draft your positioning statement Now that you’ve gathered all of your information, organized it effectively, and put it on paper, it’s time to sit down and write your brand positioning statement. This is where you pull it all together. Keep in mind that you may go through a few revisions, and that your first draft doesn’t have to be perfect. You can think of your positioning statement like an elevator pitch—it should only be a couple of sentences, short enough that you can say it out loud without having to stop to take a breath. Consider some of these questions to get you started: IS: What do we do? What are we offering to our customers? How would you describe your services? FOR: Who do we serve? Who is our target customer? Who are your services for, and how specific are you when selecting customers? WHO: What challenges or opportunities are they facing? What are your customers trying to achieve? What can you help them with? FOCUS: How are our offerings unique? How does our service help our customers? What benefit or value do your customers receive from you? For Gold Key Management, the positioning statement might look something like this: Gold Key Management is a full service property management company for single-family home owners in the Omaha area who want to protect their investments. We focus on proactive management while providing grade-A service and experiences to our residents. Here are a few things that make this a strong positioning statement: It clearly defines the market. Single-family homes in Omaha are the specialty, so potential customers know right away whether they’re a good fit. Language around investment protection shows that a top priority is the financial management of a property, which differentiates from management companies who are reactive. Terms like “full-service” and “grade-A” emphasize a focus on high-quality work. Revisit regularly Finally, once you’ve established your brand positioning statement, make sure that you treat it as a living, breathing document. Don’t just put it on a shelf and forget about it. Not only do you need to make sure you’re instilling these values in your team and living them out with every customer interaction, but you also need to revisit them to make sure they’re still reflective of your market. Markets change, new competitors enter the space, and brands evolve. Make sure that you’re checking in periodically, typically every six to twelve months, to make sure that it still helps set you apart from the competition. Make sure it’s still resonating with staff, investors, and residents, and make updates as needed to keep yourself ahead of the pack. Looking to differentiate yourself? A Resident Benefits Package is a great way to set yourself apart from the competition while also generating revenue. By providing unique benefits to residents, you can make your investors’ lives easier while creating a new income stream for your company. Curious about RBPs? Join our upcoming RBP workshop!

Calendar icon January 14, 2025

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Brand vs. Branding: Focus on the Experience You Deliver, Not Just Your Logo

Having a strong, well-defined brand is important for any business. But in property management, where business owners are constantly busy putting out fires (sometimes literally), it can be difficult to prioritize building a brand. Most property managers just don’t put enough time into it. Most property management companies commission a logo from a designer, build a website, and call it a brand. In reality, though, a brand goes a lot farther. Focusing on your brand beyond just branding can have an outsized impact on your business, and lead to happier residents and investors. What is branding? A lot of people confuse having “branding” for their company with having “a brand.” To simplify things and make sure we’re all using the same language, your branding is the visual and stylistic representation of your brand. It includes elements like: Logo, colors, and font Slogan Website Imagery, photography, and icons Branding is when you make sure the color of the ink on your business card matches the colors on your website, or when you put your logo on the side of a maintenance truck. It’s making sure your lease template uses the latest logo and colors, and that your welcome guide uses the same iconography as your resident portal. But your visual branding is only a subset of your overall brand. It doesn’t get at the heart of what makes your company unique, and it doesn’t account for how your audience sees you. That’s what a true brand is. What is a brand? Your brand is how your employees, customers, and potential customers see you. It’s how your company makes them feel, the reputation you carry, and the experience you bring to the market. Let’s look at a few different elements that make up your brand, and how they come to life for a property management company. Memorable experiences Every time you interact with someone, whether it’s on your website, via a phone call, or by fixing a maintenance issue, you’re building experiences they’re going to remember. Part of building a strong brand is giving consistent, positive experiences at every opportunity. It’s the steps you take, the words you use, and how you respond to issues. For example, Dollar Shave Club has created memorable experiences through their creative advertising and viral marketing. They back it up with a simple, quality product. Emotional connection A brand is about fostering an emotional connection with your audience. Maybe your brand is about making your audience feel heard and supported, or about making them feel like they can trust you. Maybe it’s making them feel like you’re a friend, or a professional, or an expert. It’s your job to decide what emotions you want people to associate with your company, and then to live that out every day. One company that absolutely nails emotional connection is Starbucks. By writing your name on your cup, presenting their shops as places of communal gathering, and leaning into special occasions with their holiday cups, they make a simple transaction feel deeply personal. Reputation Your brand is how people see you. It’s whether they like you, have positive experiences, and appreciate you. It’s what they say in Google reviews. And that goes for both your residents and your investors. Rolex is basically synonymous with high quality watches. They’ve built a brand almost entirely on a reputation for quality (and the price tag that comes with it). Your story Your brand is who you are, how you got here, why you care about the work you do, and your vision of where you go from here. Maybe you have an extensive background in real estate, or maybe you became an accidental landlord. Maybe you get satisfaction from helping residents keep a comfortable home, and maybe you love helping investors maximize returns. That all relates to your story and your values. Nike does a great job of embracing their history. They hold strong ties to Oregon—their home state—and advertise as an American company. Their history is so meaningful that one of their shoes has its own movie. Differentiation Your brand tells people how you’re different from every other property management company on the block. All of the elements we’ve already outlined add up to create a unique brand. That’s how residents and owners will see you, and how you’ll stand out from the competition. If you want a great example of differentiation, look to Whole Foods. They captured the mainstream market for high quality, natural and organic food nationwide. While natural and organic stores existed before, they weren’t seen as mainstream grocery stores. Whole Foods created a brand based on their differentiation from traditional stores and challenged the big players. Values and workplace culture The principles you hold, even when no one else is watching, are key to who you are as a company. They should help shape your brand and your culture. That brand is reflected in the team that works with you, and the environment they work in. Apple is a great example of a company that builds a great culture to uphold their values. For example, they were among the first companies in the United States to offer in vitro fertilization benefits for employees. Their mission is to use innovative technology to empower people and enhance their lives. What better example is there than IVF? This list isn’t exhaustive. There are plenty of other elements that contribute to your brand, like your mission, your communication cadence, when and how you ask for feedback,and your written style guide. All of those things are equally important. The important thing to remember is that your brand is all of these things put together, which creates an overall perception in the market. Brand vs. branding: why does it matter? As we outlined, your branding is just one piece of your brand. But why is a brand so important, anyway? First of all, a strong brand is a business advantage. Quite simply, it helps you stand out in the market and win more business. When you’re memorable and give potential customers a positive experience, it makes them want to work with you. Second, it helps build a connection and sense of trust. Residents and investors alike want to work with a property manager that they feel has their best interests at heart, and who they can truly trust to do the right thing. When that’s part of your brand and lived out in each daily interaction, it encourages a genuine connection. Finally, a strong brand gives your team members the principles and values that they need to represent you well. When your brand principles are instilled in your employees, they’re more likely to carry it out in their day-to-day work. They’re also more likely to feel connected to your company, do better work, and stay with the team longer. Brand expert Drea Buer, owner and founder of Respect The Brand, agrees that a brand is essential for any company owner. “A personal brand isn’t just a buzzword. It is the face and reputation that you put out into the world,” she says. “It’s how people connect with you.” As far as the benefits, Buer says, “When people trust you, they’re more likely to buy from you, refer others to you, and advocate for your business.” In her full video, Drea dives into why a personal brand can have an even larger impact than just a company brand. Building a Triple Win experience Ultimately, your brand should create benefits for you, your residents, and your investors. When you create a Triple Win, you bring a new level of success to property management. Remember, your brand isn’t just how you intend to present your business to the world. It’s also how your business is received. You need residents, investors, and team members to receive your brand positively if you want to be truly successful. If you’re looking to learn more about how you can create Triple Wins with your business, register for our upcoming RBP Workshop, where you’ll learn how a Resident Benefit Package can elevate your brand.

Calendar icon January 8, 2025

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Second Nature at NARPM

Best Property Management Conferences, Trade Shows, and Events in 2025

One of the best ways to grow and optimize your property management business is by attending events. There are plenty of property management conferences in 2025, ranging from small local vendor fairs to national events with thousands of attendees. It can be pretty overwhelming, especially when you’re investing so much money and time in traveling to shows. To help you out, here’s our list of the best conferences and events to attend. NARPM National NARPM's largest conference, the NARPM National Convention and Trade Show, is hosted every year around mid-October. It’s among the SFR industry’s headline events with nearly 1,000 attendees annually, and it's an excellent conference for any size SFR operators. This is not specific to large PM companies by any means. It features a vendor fair, numerous workshops and panels, and a range of other events for NARPM members. It’s one of the best networking opportunities for property managers that exists, and an opportunity to become a #SecondNatureVIP. The 2025 edition of the annual conference will be held in Orlando, FL, from October 20 to October 23. Register via NARPM and get a sneak peek at their schedule. NARPM Broker/Owner NARPM’s second largest conference, typically held in the spring, is specific to CEOs and brokers/owners. Structurally, it’s similar to the national conference with a collection of speakers and sessions, circled around a large trade show featuring some industry-evolving vendors. The difference, as mentioned, is the exclusivity of the audience. You're networking directly and only with other major decision makers, which has its advantages and has made Broker/Owner a very popular conference for property management leaders. This year’s event, held at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, CO, features speakers and panelists discussing best practices, leadership development, and technology integration. The event will run March 24-26, 2025, and the 2026 edition will be held on April 27-30, 2026 in New Orleans, LA. Register for the event on the NARPM website, and view the conference schedule. IMN Single-Family Rental East Information Management Network offers three single-family events, which typically have over 2,000 attendees. It's a destination for large companies and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), so you'll get more of a scaled perspective of the industry than you might at a NARPM event. IMN doesn’t have a keynote speaker and is built around a large set of industry panels. In addition to a trade show, it's heavy on industry expertise from large-scale operators in the tens of thousands of doors. If that perspective is interesting to you, the IMN single-family will be worth your time. The 2025 edition of the show will be held May 19-21 in Miami, Florida, with an agenda that covered topics including economic considerations, artificial intelligence, resident experience, and tactics for scaling portfolios. NRHC Industry Leaders National Rental Home Council (NRHC) is a relatively new organization, and its Industry Leaders Conference is going on its fourth year in 2025. It's an advocacy organization founded by five 30,000+ door owner/operators, so the conference focuses more on large-scale advocacy. It's a different type of educational opportunity than what you might find at a NARPM or IMN event. Since these companies are owner/operators, there’s more on the resident experience topic that's discussed and less on investor relationships. The 2025 NRHC Industry Leaders Conference will take place from April 6 to April 9 in Orlando, Florida, and will be primarily focused on housing policy, innovation in the single-family rental (SFR) industry, leadership insights, property management techniques, and strategies for navigating the capital landscape. PM Systems Conference The PM Systems Conference will be held from January 20 to January 23 in Las Vegas, NV. PM Systems is designed to be a hands-on experience, filled with small group sessions, working groups, and live coaching. You'll spend time at the conference digging into the actual processes and systems you use and working to optimize them, essentially working on your business while you're there. The organizers of PM Systems promise to provide attendees the opportunity to get actionable feedback and return to their businesses with tangible results. Focused on delivering actionable processes, technology, and approaches that help streamline and grow your business, this event includes networking sessions and peer review sessions. PM Systems has already opened registration for the 2026 edition, which will run from January 12 to January 16 in Vegas. Apartmentalize Apartmentalize is an industry-renowned trade show and conference for the multifamily industry. Typically in June and in a rotating location, Apartmentalize has seen over 11,000 attendees in past years. With tons of exhibitors, learning sessions, and expert speakers, Apartmentalize is a great opportunity for multifamily property managers to drive business growth and learn new strategies. Held in Las Vegas from June 11 to June 13, this year’s edition features over 100 educational sessions, extensive networking opportunities, and industry trends showcased by more than 500 exhibitors. For more information, visit NAA’s website. IMN Build-to-Rent One of multiple Build-to-Rent conferences hosted by IMN, the fall show brings together real estate investors to discuss private equity, debt, and joint venture financing in the land and homebuilding sectors. The forum will be held on September 29-30 in Dallas, TX, and registration details will be available soon. IREM PropertyCon The successor to IREM’s previous annual conference, The IREM Global Summit, PropertyCon is a new conference focused on education for property managers. The two-day meeting will be held on April 23-24 at the Sheraton Boston Hotel. Featuring keynote speakers and immersive learning sessions, the show will feature everything from accounting and contractor management to ChatGPT and repurposing office spaces. For more information and to register, visit the new IREM PropertyCon site. NARPM Southern States The NARPM Southern States conference is one of NARPM’s largest regional shows of the year. This year’s edition, which runs from June 11 to June 13, will be held in Birmingham, AL, and the theme is all things football! The conference will tackle all the latest industry insights, and give you plenty of chances to huddle up for some networking. Registration and hotel reservations are available now. IMN 13th Annual Single-Family Rental Forum (West) The IMN 13th Annual Single-Family Rental Forum (West) in Austin, Texas, focuses on investment opportunities, operational strategies, and technological advancements in the SFR market. The forum will be held on August 21-22, 2025, and will feature more than 80 industry leaders on stage. For more details and to register, visit the IMN website.

Calendar icon January 7, 2025

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