How to Generate Rental Leads for Apartments

Multifamily communities have found themselves swamped with an increase in online traffic and online leads. Consumer buying habits have gradually changed in the last decade towards automation and instant gratification. This path is also being followed by the next generation of renters, Generation Z. Gen Z has grown up with the digital world and expects an online presence from businesses no matter what, big or small.

This has led to a dramatic increase in leads, but many of these “leads” aren’t serious prospects or are going to move 3+ months out. There are lots of ways to generate apartment rental leads. The most important way is to have an engaging website that is set up to collect insightful data on the prospects as they click through your website. Recent trends have resulted in more casual, online shoppers on property websites. Another method is using proper Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to increase your online presence.

Leasing AI and virtual leasing have really taken off in recent years. Virtual leasing is a must nowadays because of the need for virtual touring. Leasing AI has been met with more skepticism due to cost and not knowing if it will help in the end. There are a lot of chatbots and AI Assistants out there. PERQ’s AI Leasing Assistant can help onsite teams with the influx of leads, keep prospects engaged, and increase your website traffic and lead to lease conversion numbers. Let’s dive into how an AI Leasing Assistant can help improve your operational efficiencies and be a worthy investment.

2 Methods to Generate Leads for Apartments

#1: SEO

Generating apartment rental leads comes down to having a website that is optimized for search engines and engaging. Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is an important part of any marketing strategy in the digital age. The majority of rental prospects are using search engines and the internet to find their next home. Getting your multifamily property website higher up on the search page is important to generate more leads.

SEO uses the practice of keywords and phrases to bring visibility to websites. Knowing what keywords your rental prospects are using to search for their next unit is the first step. The next is using those keywords in your website copy. The landing page and other pages need to have these keywords scattered throughout. Since there isn’t a lot of copy on these kinds of pages, having a blog is one way to gain that visibility and rank higher up than your competitors.

Prospects aren’t looking for their next home on community boards or Yellow Pages. They look at an ILS or search online and typically don’t go past the second page of results. Getting your apartment website ranked higher in organic searches is a great way to capture more people’s attention and have them go directly to your website.

How can you rank higher up? You need to know the keywords that prospects are using to search for apartments. There are tools and even agencies out there that can help you with this. Knowing if they are looking for “apartments near me” or “apartments for rent” is important. Once you know which keywords you need to hit, you can add those to your website copy so it can be easier to find.

While this helps your multifamily property website become easier to find, it still doesn’t help that there’s a huge amount of casual online visitors clogging up your system. Unified Residential is one of many multifamily property companies facing this issue. The way they solved it was by leasing AI.

#2: Using an AI Leasing Assistant

Unified decided to hire PERQ’s AI Leasing Assistant to help with the increase in property management leads. By keeping these casual online shoppers engaged and nurtured through text and email, they are seeing more qualified leads and tours. The added benefit, according to Dalia Kalgreen, Director of Marketing at Unified is that “It takes a lot of time for your leasing team to sift through what we call ‘looky-loos,’ when they could be working on more serious leads.”

How does that work? Since many people begin their searches months in advance, the AI Leasing Assistant knows this and tailors the follow-up to meet their timeline. This way when it is time for them to talk to a leasing specialist or go on a tour, the Assistant will have kept your property top of mind and give the leasing team detailed information on what that lead is looking for.

Generating more leads doesn’t mean clogging up your system and having leasing teams spend their time sifting through the clutter. Having a tool that helps identify which leads are important, which ones it can nurture for a bit, and which ones are just “looky-loos” will improve your operational efficiency and increase your website conversions.

Your Apartment Rental Agent Can focus on Qualified Leads

With the AI Assistant on the site, answering prospect questions 24/7 and collecting better data on them, leasing specialists can focus on only qualified leads and keeping residents happy. The AI Assistant only hands off leads who are ready to talk, tour, or lease. It handles all of the rest so that the leasing team doesn’t have to split their work hours trying to nurture trash leads.

Better lead management with a renters database that is easy to use translates into an increase in website traffic and better lead to lease conversion. This is because the conversations and overall experience for prospects are more personalized to their needs.