Turn Your Website into Your No. 1 Leasing Tool

While it’s a common belief in the multifamily industry that property websites don’t directly drive leads, many property management companies have transformed their websites into their number one apartment leasing tool by adding AI technology and marketing automation to the online mix.

“We consider the property website as a primary leasing tool,” says Jenny Richard, Director of Marketing at Gene B. Glick Company, which manages multifamily rental communities in 13 states.

“We know prospective renters are completing their apartment research online and making decisions about where they want to live well in advance of speaking to anyone on the leasing team,” Richard says. “That means we must provide the best online experience and ensure we are offering the most up-to-date information regarding pricing and availability, as well as what’s in and around our community.”

Add AI on Multifamily Website to Capture Online Leads

AI and marketing automation allow your website to guide the prospect automatically through the leasing process, collecting their data as they interact with engaging online tools, quizzes, and calculators. These interactive experiences answer prospect questions immediately, helping them narrow their selection before they ever contact your team.

Renters remember websites that anticipate their needs without overwhelming them with information. AI and marketing automation transform your property website into a powerful apartment leasing tool that’s light years ahead of competitors stuck with boring, brochure-like websites.

Nolan Real Estate implemented AI technology on several of its multifamily property websites because the company understands the value of using their website as a leasing tool. “No question about it,” says Caleb Bartlett, Nolan’s Digital Sales & Media Manager. “We have structured our entire digital strategy for our leads to touch our website as the first point of contact. In short, it is becoming 100% prospect engagement.”

Digital Marketing Cloud Unites Data for Automatic Lead Nurture

Easy to implement on an existing website, AI-driven technology can power an integrated digital marketing cloud. This technology better leverages website data and converts more online leads by guiding prospects through their journey. It also provides leasing offices with in-depth insights into each person’s leasing process.

Through the cloud, companies can tap into the centralized consumer data to automatically nurture online leads in email and text campaigns, personalized with content and incentives related to their current search.

The content drives the consumer back to the website to schedule a tour or engage with interactive research tools. These tools can include a quiz to match them with nearby activities they find important, a pre-qualify loan assessment that gives them a head start on the leasing process, and a calendar for instant tour scheduling.

Cloud Computing Helps Leasing Consultants Connect with Renters

A marketing cloud gives companies a way to track a prospect throughout the entire renter journey, taking into account all of the various digital and offline touchpoints to deliver detailed consumer information to leasing consultants. That information allows leasing agents to make an immediate connection with a prospect when meeting in person for a guided tour or following up with an email, call, or text. This approach to using your website as a leasing tool creates a seamless handoff between digital engagement and personal interaction.

“Finding the connectivity between what they want in a home and the desired lifestyle they are looking for is essential to making a connection and converting to an appointment,” Richard says. “Our website is key in capturing this experience, and providing those experiences in a way that lets our leasing team members receive information about what’s important to each prospective renter, which allows them to build relationships.”

Target Your Ideal Renter Online with AI-Driven Insights

Companies also gain insight into the exact ROI of each digital channel, broken down into cost per lease and per lead. With AI-driven technology on a website, those numbers show a significant improvement over traditional lead generation solutions commonly used in the multifamily industry.

This data can be analyzed in conjunction with large sets of data stored in the cloud that come from similar stores. Using machine learning, cloud software analyzes millions of data points to compute a property’s “ideal prospect.” It identifies the type of person most likely to rent at that property based on processed data and then determines the best ways to target those particular prospects.

Convert Prospects with Convenient Online Experience

Since The Worthing Companies added interactive AI software to a dozen of its property websites, the average time a visitor spends researching on those websites has jumped from 2-3 minutes up to 7-8 minutes. “It’s crazy the traffic that we’re getting off this, and it’s driving people to stay on the website longer,” says Trent Jones, Regional Marketing & Training Director at The Worthing Companies.

Jones says the engaging website leads them through the process, making it such an enjoyable and helpful experience that prospects don’t feel the need to branch out and look elsewhere for a place to live.

“We’re getting tons of leasing off of it,” Jones says. “By the time they talk to a leasing agent, the website has answered all of their questions. When they get here, it’s usually just a tour and then a done deal. Some of them even lease online without coming to tour.”

Transform Your Website into Your Best Leasing Asset

Properties using AI-powered websites are seeing dramatic results: longer site engagement, higher-quality leads, and faster lease conversions. As prospects increasingly make rental decisions online before ever speaking to your team, your website must work as more than a digital brochure—it needs to function as your most effective apartment leasing tool.