Best Practices to Follow Up with Property Website Leads

When it comes to leasing more units at your properties, it takes more than simply generating leads. In order to turn those leads into signed leases, Property Management companies and leasing teams need to have a quality prospect experience on their website and a lead follow-up strategy. Follow these tips and best practices for managing and closing multifamily industry leads.

The Internet has revolutionized the multifamily housing industry by how it’s changed the way prospective renters look for apartments. Prospects today conduct the majority of their apartment research online before narrowing it down to a select few properties that they would actually visit in person. In fact, an article in the August 2017 edition of Units Magazine conducted multifamily market research and found that 80% of apartment residents lease the first property they visit. Because of this multifamily research, it’s essential that your property website provides the best experience for prospects and that your leasing team has a plan for following up with leads. This includes the multifamily leasing software you choose to invest in.

Prospect Experience

All of this starts with the prospect experience on your website. Having interactive experiences on your website helps to guide apartment shoppers through your site and turn website visitors into known leads. Not only that, but it also gives prospects the opportunity to engage on your site and start to build a prospect profile. The latest multifamily technology trends show that the industry is embracing leasing AI because of the benefit of interactive experiences on your website, 24/7 support, and more insightful data.

When a PERQ prospect profile is generated from website visitors engaging with our AI Leasing Assistant, your leasing team now has, on average, 5x more lead data to start the conversation with potential renters. The prospect’s profile information allows the leasing specialist to pick up the conversation where the prospect left off. It references the answers to their engagement on the website and the chat history with the chatbot rather than starting the conversation over. This helps build trust and allows the leasing team to be consultative with the goal of turning a prospect into a resident. This kind of multifamily technology is changing how we lease and the kinds of conversions we can expect to see moving forward.

MicrosoftTeams image 18 | PERQ AI Leasing Assistant

In this prospect profile example, the potential renter talked with the AI chatbot and went through some PERQ interactive experiences on the property website. The leasing team was able to find out detailed information like:

  • Unit preferences to provide a floorplan match
  • Floor preference
  • Desired lease term
  • Whether or not the prospect has pets
  • Prospect’s budget information
  • Preferred activities and places of interest

The best part about this kind of apartment management software is that this information is used by the AI Leasing Assistant to follow up with leads with more personalized messaging. PERQ’s AI platform is unique as it uses your brand colors and voice in the follow-up. The demand for multifamily housing is increasing among Gen Z and many Millennials have reported feeling like they will rent forever as they have the lowest homeownership rates compared to the generations before them. Having this kind of insightful data is not only useful but puts you ahead of your competitors.

Breaking Down the Leasing Funnel

When a prospect answers questions within the PERQ experiences and starts to build a prospect profile, this helps the leasing team determine where the potential renter is in the leasing funnel.

funnel | PERQ AI Leasing Assistant

The Discovery phase (or the top of the funnel) encompasses the consumer who has just started looking at different communities. They’re probably not sure what property is right for them or when they’d like to move. Our New Visitor Welcome and assessment experiences capture this type of traffic.

Next, the Research phase is broken down into two sections: lead vs. hot lead. This phase is catching a prospect who might know what area they want to live in but they’re unsure which property is best. They’re more likely to bounce from site to site, and we try to capture this type of consumer by engaging them with incentives and matching them to your location and surrounding community. They’re considered a hotter Research lead once they’ve gone through the floor plan assessment and scheduled a time to visit your property.

Finally, there’s the lease phase. These are going to be your most serious and hottest leads. These prospects have confirmed with you on their scheduled tour and have started the process for pre-approval (before they even step foot in the office). We encourage properties to focus on leads at the bottom of the funnel first since those are the leads most likely to lease right away.

Additional Lead Follow-Up Best Practices

In addition to having a lead follow-up strategy based on prioritization, following up with multifamily industry leads in creative ways is also an important part of every lead management strategy. Here are some additional best practices you can start implementing today.

Personalize each lead follow-up

Make sure to use personalization when following up in order to really grab a prospect’s attention. For example: if someone says they’re interested in a one-bedroom unit and a city view is the most important thing to them, be sure to talk about a specific unit with the best view you have to offer

Offer personalized promotions

Include personalized incentives when following up with a lead who’s ready to move. Gear the offers toward the exact things the prospect is interested in.

Build a prospect database for lead follow-up

Keep a database or use a CRM for all potential prospects and track where they’re at in the leasing funnel. Follow up periodically to see if they want any assistance as they draw closer to confirming an actual move-in date. Showing that you haven’t forgotten about them after such a long time will really impress them!

Help prospects do more research

Include reference links in your follow-up email to assist with a prospect’s research, not just links back to your property website. For example: if they say they have children, send them a list of parks and playgrounds within walking distance or talk about the school systems.

Try photos or videos for engaging lead follow-up

Send personalized photos and videos to add personality and really connect with potential prospects. Record a personal message to the lead on your smartphone and hit send.

Thank you notes

Never underestimate the value of customer service and a good, old-fashioned thank you note. Connecting on a personal level is the touchstone of any creative lead follow-up strategy.

Read our full articles with 20 creative ways to follow up with leads and discover PERQ to learn how this solution integrates with your existing website and lead sources to engage, nurture and convert every lead, improving the multifamily leasing journey for everyone.