Over the last couple months, we’ve received several emails from the firm we referred the client to, keeping us updated on the progress of the relationship.  It was refreshing that they didn’t forget about us shortly after they obtained a new client.  We’ve been kept abreast on all the milestones of the client engagement and although we never requested this, it was great that they decided to keep us in the loop.

What do you think about going above and beyond to keep your referral sources in the loop?
 

- By Berbay Senior Account Manager Megan Braverman

This data suggests that there are specific windows in which sending an email could positively or negatively affect your readership.  For example, statistics show that:

• Between the hours of 6 am and 10 am, consumer interest is generally at its highest, because people allow themselves to be distracted.

• The average blog gets the most traffic around 11 am.

However, time of day is not the only factor worth noting.  For example, email open rates are at their highest during the weekend, by as much as 44%.  Although this may indicate you should be sending your emails over the weekend, the weekends are also prone to the highest abuse reports and bounce rates. Of course, these statistics might not accurately reflect the industry you are in, rather they act as a guide to experiment with your own clients.  Your own email timing data is the best guide.

Additional tips in the article:

• Emails related to property and financial services are generally opened between 3 pm and 5 pm.

• Email abuse reports are reported highest in the early morning during all days of the week, with the weekend being the highest.

• Email bounce rates occur highest in the early morning during all days of the week, with the weekend being the highest.

• Email open rates and click rates are highest in the early morning during all days of the week, with the weekend being the highest.

• The optimal frequency for sending emails is generally 1 to 4 emails a month.

• Consumer promotion emails are best sent between 7 pm and 10 pm.

• Holiday promotion emails are best sent between 5 pm and 7 pm.

When do you think your email marketing is most successful?

No, not that one; Howard Stern, the president and director of Hudson Pacific Properties, a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on owning, operating and acquiring office and media/entertainment properties in select growing California markets. Mr. Stern spoke before the Moriah Society, a real estate professionals association and American Jewish University fundraising group. I thought I’d share his insights into the dynamics of a couple expanding real estate markets: the tech market in San Francisco and the entertainment market in Los Angeles.

San Francisco tech market

When Hudson went public in 2010, its real estate holdings were concentrated in Southern California. Today, 55 percent of the company’s annualized rent is generated by San Francisco properties.

The Bay Area’s real estate market, particularly for tech-company offices, has recently mushroomed: Stern says rents have increased 15 percent in the past few months, and predicts further, double-digit increases in the next few years.

Deja vu? Not quite. Stern insists the current tech real estate boom is fundamentally different from the one that accompanied the dot-com bubble. Then, the property in high demand was large high-tech manufacturing facilities in Silicon Valley. Now, the growth area is social media and the cloud, where physical space is not as important; accordingly, the real estate that people want is office space in San Francisco.

Stern also noted that whereas dot-com companies commonly overcommitted themselves real estate-wise, leasing expensive properties even when they weren’t profitable, 2012′s recession-born tech firms are conservative, leasing more modestly, but more sustainably.

Los Angeles entertainment market

Hudson’s other focus area is entertainment production facilities in Los Angeles.

Stern pointed out that the supply side of this market is limited: There are only 305 stages in L.A. (fewer if one needs a stage of 5,000 square feet or more). The reason is, stages require a lot of land and can’t be built one on top of the other, so constructing new ones isn’t very profitable. Meanwhile, the demand side of the market remains high. Although film production is increasingly relocating to outside of L.A., TV is generally staying put. Ninety-five percent of Hudson’s revenue from this sector is from TV production.

The big drawback of the entertainment market is that the leases typically aren’t long-term, because they’re based on short-term factors such as whether a TV show is renewed. Real estate investment trusts like Hudson don’t like that, since cash flow and continuity are integral to their business model. So, Stern has been trying to persuade lessees to commit to longer-term agreements. One strategy he’s using is making long-term leases less burdensome than short-term ones (including fewer stipulations and such). Another tactic is including in long-term leases a relocation clause, which commits the landlord to paying the tenant’s relocation costs if the tenant is forced to move during the lease term (because, say, their show got cancelled).

Lastly, Stern discussed some ways aside from rent that Hudson generates revenue from its entertainment properties. Again, stages can’t be built on top of each other, so the amount of revenue the properties can generate through basic rent is capped. To ensure sufficient cash flow from the stages, Hudson requires tenants to use the properties’ so-called ancillary services—phones, intercom, parking, HVAC, lights, etc.–rather than bringing in their own. Such services yield forty percent of the income created by Hudson’s entertainment properties.

-By Berbay Principal Sharon Berman

The first was at a sushi place my husband and I order takeout from every week, Santa Monica’s Sushi Sho. We’re creatures of habit: Week in and week out, we get the same thing, with the exception of maybe a few items. The other day, the woman who regularly takes my order says to me, “Look, I’m going to just keep your basic order on the bulletin board here; that way when you call, you can just tell me what the changes are.” That impressed me. On one hand, it made things easier for her as much as it did for me. On the other hand, it made me feel like when I had been calling to place my order every week, I’d been talking not to some automaton, but to a real live person who had heard me, gotten to know me and my order, and now wanted to make things easier for us both.

Example two happened at the place I’ve been getting my bagels recently, New York Bagel and Deli (on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica). Whenever more than a couple people are in line, the employees make it a point to intermittently say things like, “We’ll be right with you,” and, “Thanks for your patience.” It’s a small but, I think, very nice gesture. Not only does it reduce any frustration the queued customers might be feeling, but it also gracefully acknowledges and expresses appreciation for the customers’ patronage and patience.

At Berbay, we try to let our clients know they’re being heard just by keeping them in the loop, even when the wheels are in motion but there isn’t much to report. We periodically reach out to clients merely to say, “Just wanted to let you know we’re working on this, and that it hasn’t fallen through the cracks. We’ll keep you up-to-date on the progress.” At the end of the day, showing clients you’re listening to them and you appreciate them, is as important in our line of work as it is in the bagel or sushi biz.

-By Berbay Principal Sharon Berman

• What do your clients expect of you?  During the workshop, there was a lot of discussion on what the client expects from the account executive versus the firm.  After much debate, the workshop coordinators showcased the results of a national survey answering this very question:
  • Industry/market knowledge
  • Making the client’s job easier
  • Organized and dependable
  • Empowerment to make decisions
  • Passion for solving problems
  • Willingness to be treated as a consultant and vendor
  • Don’t learn on the job
• How to be a consultant and not a vendor. Business is built on relationships and there are significant differences between being a consultant for your client and being a vendor.  Consultants take the time to understand a client’s goals and strategically help them accomplish them.  Conversely, a vendor typically provides tactical services that help move that vision forward, but doesn’t act as a strategist.  Below are ways to become a consultant:

 Below are approaches you can implement to be a consultant to your clients: 

• Trust: Perceived as caring intensely about the well-being of clients and their business.
• Manage expectations: Under promise, over deliver.
• Constantly look beyond today: Don’t get stuck in tactical mode, you always need to carve out time to be strategic. 
• Empathize with the CEO: What keeps your client up at night?  How can you create solutions to help solve these problems?

Attending workshops like these serves as a great reminder about what clients expect from you as an account executive, and what they expect from their marketing/PR firm.

What do you think clients expect from you and your firm?