How Interactive Multifamily Software Increases Tours and Leases

Creating a connected online consumer experience helps property managers capture valuable consumers in the apartment research phase, resulting in more apartment tour conversions and ultimately more renters.

As digital marketing becomes more efficient, apartment companies and leasing agencies need to take a moment and ask what their website can do for them in terms of increasing the actual number of tours and leases signed.

Today, more than 80% of digital ads are ignored. Instead, visitors to your website are craving marketing experiences like quizzes, calculators, and other tools. Interactivity is now crucial to engage with with prospective residents. Here’s some insight into just what interactive web features are driving that increase in tours and leases for your multifamily property:

Go Beyond the Guest Card

In the world of multifamily rentals, the work of websites to generate leads has often been static. Prospective residents would be offered a “guest card;” which is essentially your traditional, run-of-the-mill static lead form. It has fields for a customer to enter their contact information and maybe answer some questions about potential move-in date or desired floor plan.

Derek Hoover, leasing manager at TWG Management in Indianapolis, says guest cards, or static lead forms, just aren’t effective. “We need to be able to capture more information about our potential leads,” he says.

Since implementing interactive experiences (like quizzes and pop-up promotions) onto their websites, Hoover quickly realized just how ineffective those guest cards truly were. “For every 50 leads I now get with more interactive features, I only get one person using our guest card,” Hoover says.

Get the Whole Scoop

It’s important to note that not all leads are equal. The more your digital marketing experiences can provide information about your product/service offerings, the more prepared they’ll be to ask questions and talk about their needs.

“In this day and age, people don’t want to pick up a phone,” Hoover says. “If they don’t need to call us to find out if they prequalify, what our floor plans look like, or to schedule a tour, our job is easier and so is the process for them.”

As Beth Roberts of Hunter’s Point Apartments puts it, “PERQ’s experiences give us a much better picture of the client. ” She stresses the benefit of having more information about leads before following up with them. “I don’t have to be vague when I follow up because I know what they’re looking for. Them going through the interactive experience means I know they want a two-bedroom and they can move in 90 days,” Roberts says.

Go with the Flow

Just getting emails, names and phone numbers through the traditional guest card isn’t as effective as understanding the flow of traffic to your website. How are people finding out about your services and where are they coming from?

If you’re generating a ton of leads through sharing interactive experiences via Facebook, then perhaps you need to increase your marketing spend on that particular social media platform.

For Hoover, the added value in working with PERQ is access to this type of information. “Through working with PERQ, I was finally able to understand how to interpret our website traffic — something I hadn’t thought much about before, but can now include in my marketing strategy,” he says.

Web design is constantly evolving, and forward-thinking marketing teams must stay on top of trends in order to reap the benefits. A truly engaging, interactive website puts multifamily properties steps ahead of the competition when it comes to attracting leasing leads.

In addition to having an interactive website, a connected experience makes potential renters feel more appreciated, more informed, and more prepared to lease, while collecting data to hone future strategy at the same time.