Outreach Live Louisville: Top takeaways & photos from the multifamily event

Did we catch you at Outreach Live Louisville? It was three days of fast-paced sessions, hands-on workshops and Southern-style evening celebrations … and we loved every minute of it.

If you didn’t make it this year — or you did, and you just want a refresher — this is for you! We’re sharing top takeaways from the unforgettable multifamily event, paired with our favorite photos.

One more thing: We’ve announced the location for Outreach Live 2026. Keep reading to see where we’re headed next!

Your intro to Outreach Live

Outreach Live is an educational event for multifamily professionals. At its core, the conference is designed to help you excel at marketing, leasing and everything in-between.  

You’ll discover:

• The latest trends in marketing, leasing and resident services
• Case studies and success stories from multifamily experts
• Right-now insights and strategies to put into practice

We also host enriching evening celebrations, which are inspired by the local community and culture. Outreach Live Louisville featured a distillery tour at Angel’s Envy, plus visits to the Kentucky Derby museum and Churchill Downs.

Keynote: AI & the renter journey

It’s not Outreach Live without an exceptional keynote. Brooke Henderson, VP of strategic partnerships at YEXT, led the charge with a value-packed presentation on AI and the renter journey.

To start, Brooke shared how AI is shaping what renters see and perceive. “We’re entering a new era where AI changes how renters discover communities,” she explained.

The presentation then focused on three themes: The rapid pace of search, ranking and experience fragmentation.

• Search fragmentation: Renters no longer search for apartments on Google alone
• Ranking fragmentation: Universal rankings have shifted to personalized rankings
• Experience fragmentation: AI search is becoming agentic

With those themes in mind, Brooke posed an important question: What can multifamily professionals do next? Attendees got multiple strategies to consider, all focused on meeting renters everywhere they’re searching.   

Top takeaways:

• Structure data like your visibility depends on it
• Build content for conversational queries
• Unify your optimization efforts

Sessions: Neighborhood marketing, media & more

There were so many fantastic sessions this year, including several led by our RentCafe Marketing team. See below for a snapshot of what we covered.

(Our RentCafe Leasing and Living teams also led some standout sessions, which you can read about here.)

Tracking website performance

Are your executives Googling your website to track search performance? If so, tell them to stop.

That’s how Catriona Orosco (REACH) kicked off this presentation. She explained why Googling your website isn’t the best idea — and what you should do instead. Attendees learned how Google personalizes search results, why searches without clicks do harm and more.

“It’s important that your executives understand how personalized search is,” she shared.

Top takeaways:

• Educate your executives on AI engines and algorithms
• Standardize your attribution sources to see what’s working
• Focus on KPIs that reflect relevance and revenue

Keep learning:

Tracking search performance: Why you shouldn’t Google your website

GEO content strategies

If you’re a regular blog visitor, you know we talk about generative engine optimization (GEO) quite a bit. In this session led by Kyle Jones (REACH), attendees heard about the rapidly evolving search landscape … and why GEO is more important than ever.

As Kyle puts it, having clear, concise content is a big piece of the GEO puzzle. Content helps you establish authority, then authority helps you build trust with traditional and AI engines. “You need to make it easy for AI engines to cite your content,” he explained.

Top takeaways:

• Have structured data that’s formatted for easy reading
• Create short-form, medium-form and long-form content
• Include social media in your content strategy

Keep learning:

Generative engine optimization: 6 GEO tips for every apartment marketer 

Performance Max campaigns

A dynamic duo came together for this one: Gretchen Walker (REACH) and Rosie Frank (Google). The session focused on evolving renter behaviors and why it’s critical for communities to show up across multiple touchpoints.

Attendees learned about Google’s newest transparency tools, best PPC practices and how to leverage Performance Max campaigns. There was also a talk track on the power of video assets. “We’re seeing customers are 2.2 times more likely to convert when there’s video in ads,” shared Rosie.

Top takeaways:

• Track your top-performing channels with Google’s tools
• Match goals to actions, which can vary by property
• Add video content and boost your best creatives

Keep learning:

Performance Max campaigns: What are they & why should you use them in your PPC strategy? 

Neighborhood marketing

This topic has been in the spotlight this year, and for good reason. Neighborhood marketing is a fresh, effective strategy for reaching and winning more renters.

In this fun and fast presentation, Esther Bonardi (RentCafe Marketing) spoke to why neighborhood marketing matters today, then shared smart tactics to try now. “Think about properties in a neighborhood where you can deploy a local marketing strategy,” she said.

Top takeaways:

• Build a neighborhood website or page
• Optimize your content (both SEO and GEO matter)
• Create neighborhood-specific blog posts and FAQs

Keep learning:

Neighborhood marketing for multifamily: What it is, why it’s important & how to get started

Mastering visual media

Does media really drive leads and leases? This session, led by Izzy Carunugan (LCP Media) and Sarah Fitzgerald (Greystar), gave attendees an answer. Spoiler: The answer is yes.

Izzy and Sarah explained which types of media generate results — based on case study data — then shared practical tips for building a media strategy that works.

“Marketing shouldn’t be about luck … you need a strategic plan,” explained Izzy.

Top takeaways:

• Make visual media a pillar of your marketing strategy
• Use virtual tours to reduce vacancies and increase revenue
• Publish unit-level content so renters can see their options

Keep learning:

Look good, get found: Apartment media tips for today’s marketers

Data to show & where to find it

Data is powerful. But which metrics matter to which people? And where can you find what you need? Anne Baum (Towne Properties) covered it all in this informative presentation.

Anne shared which data points you need for on-site staff, regional teams and the C-suite. Attendees then saw real dashboards from Marketing IQ, Chat IQ and more — then learned how to use those dashboards to their advantage.

“At Towne Properties, we identified opportunities, aligned with operations and started leading with performance to speak the stakeholders’ language,” she explained.

Top takeaways:

• Use dashboards to monitor and report on performance
• Motivate your teams with real, relevant metrics
• Speak the C-suite’s language with revenue-focused KPIs

Keep learning:

Marketing IQ Genius: Smarter features & analytics for apartment marketers

Workshops & product roadmaps

Each year, Outreach Live attendees get a front-row seat to interactive workshops, plus a fun-filled product roadmap presentation.

For the latter, this year’s “fun” came in the form of hot wings. That’s right … some of our best and brightest took down spicy wings while talking through technology innovations.

What kind of new tech did they talk about? That information is only for attendees. You had to be there to find out! 

Join us next year

That’s a wrap, y’all. Outreach Live Louisville was one for the books. Huge thanks to everyone who joined and to our incredible teams for making this event possible.

As promised, here’s next year’s location reveal: We’re heading to Salt Lake City! If you’re interested in attending, reach out here. And be sure to keep an eye on our social media for more details.

P.S. Visit our social album for more iconic photos from this year’s event (including the evening celebrations).