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In the last few months, I published a couple of articles about some of the shortcomings in how companies tackle content marketing, specifically content written to persuade people to buy certain products. 

I was recently discussing property management, operations, and technology with a senior asset manager, who made a comment that stuck in my mind: "Great regionals can overcome an average operating platform, but a great operating platform can't overcome average regionals." 

Like many people in the industry, I just returned from a few days with about 2,500 of my closest friends in multifamily ops and technology. NMHC OPTECH, which took place in front of a record audience, delivered its usual thought-provoking blend of sessions and related conversations. 

If, like me, you've spent a lot of years working in revenue management, you will be familiar with the reality that from time to time, you have to defend what you do for a living. We find ourselves in just such a situation, as a recent article published by ProPublica: "Rent Going Up? One Company's Algorithm Could Be Why," is the latest to inform us on how revenue management works.

When I conducted the interviews for this year's 20 for 20 White Paper, ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) was an unsurprisingly common theme. Based on the 20 conversations with senior executives, it seemed that ESG was becoming a driver in many decisions, including technology implementations.

In my last blog, I talked about the often-overlooked role of insight in creating persuasive content. In particular, companies that pursue engagement as defined by social media tend to produce content that is too similar to everyone else's for it to be persuasive. This post examines another essential factor that companies tend to miss: value and its role in persuading customers to purchase products.