Industry Distributor Named Contributor to National Apartment Association's Blog

Valerie Hayman Sklar, owner of Detroit-based The Apartment Boutique, powered byCorporate Specialties, is one of the few promotional products professionals who specialize in serving the marketing needs of the multifamily market. In additional to sharing her expertise in The Apartment Boutique Blog, Hayman Sklar is now contributing monthly to the National Apartment Association (NAA) APTly Spoken blog.

NAA's APTly Spoken features both staff- and member-written blogs that address the multi-family industry's most pertinent subjects and offer specific advice from the front lines. With daily posts from guest bloggers, as well as regular, weekly blogs from NAA staffers covering everything from government affairs to the humorous side of apartment management, APTly Spoken challenges the standardized role of many association publications and creates a link between NAA's print and digital publications.

"Valerie brings a unique and refreshing voice to APTly Spoken," said Michelle Sherman, NAA manager of new media. "As someone who has been part of the multifamily housing industry since childhood, she has the seasoned experience, innovative ideas and knowledge required to effectively market, lease and manage apartments. Her one-of-a-kind voice is a wonderful addition to the APTly Spoken blogging community."

Hayman Sklar's first APTly Spoken post, "Marketing For 2014: Create The Brand Experience," addressed how apartment communities and property management firms can boost interactions with their brands to create a memorable experience through using promotional products. She followed the first post with "Sweet As Candy: Developing Referral Programs Through HR Managers," where she gave step-by-step instructions on how to create a referral program and why this can be an effective means of marketing for property managers who are looking for ways to recruit residents but aren't comfortable cold calling.

The goal of her APTly Spoken content is to help individual apartment communities as well as parent property management firms market themselves better and smarter. "Promotional products can be used in so many creative ways to build the community brand, boost prospective resident traffic, grow referrals and increase retention," said Hayman Sklar. "Whether the reader is from a large property management firm looking for innovative ways to brand its business or an individual apartment community looking for marketing support from someone who understands the multi-family industry, I want to help busy multi-family professionals who need to increase the visibility of their properties. By writing concise articles packed with real-world tips that can be easily implemented, I hope to be able to reach that goal."