If you're reading this, you probably are experiencing the weight of the multifamily industry's staffing issue. The amount of work and pressure for on-site teams is creating burnout. (It's why centralization is 'the' trend.)
That said, have you taken a closer look at your marketing strategy and determined if it's partly to blame for this burnout, too?
Adopting some of the available multifamily marketing automation technologies could improve the quality of leads and the life of your leasing staff by making everyone's jobs easier and more fulfilling.
In this blog:
- Automated digital ads for apartments
- Lead-qualifying apartment marketing channels to invest in
- Marketing syndication software for apartments
- CRMs for nurturing prospective residents
- Reputation management software for apartments
Automated digital ads for apartments
There are not enough hours in the day to study or make the best changes to keep tabs on your digital advertising campaigns for each community.
You usually set a static ad budget for each community's ads, and either you or your current marketing vendor check in monthly to see if that amount is enough for leasing success, make adjustments then, and hope it works.
But everyone knows that isn't always guaranteed since every community has unique needs because demand and occupancy constantly change.
However, automated marketing software like RentVision's predictive advertising solution for apartments makes managing multiple ad campaigns at scale for each community easier and faster.
Predictive ads automatically allocate your ad budget daily across Google, Meta, and other leading platforms depending on your future vacancies, ensuring those campaigns deliver the right amount of qualified website traffic at the right time for every community.
While other PPC vendors are available to ease the stress of dealing with multiple digital ad campaigns across numerous communities, few can offer a solution that makes automated spending changes daily, which is hugely beneficial if you're trying to get ahead of vacancies before they occur.
Lead-qualifying apartment marketing resources to invest in
We have heard from folks in the industry who say they're getting too many leads while paying a premium in cost-per-lease, further wasting time and hurting the morale of their leasing teams.
While automated digital ads solve the problem of too many leads, you still need lead-qualifying marketing resources in your strategy.
These two investments can immediately help generate qualified leads for your apartment community:
- A community website. It seems obvious, but each community needs this online platform to allow prospective residents to see your floorplans, amenities, pricing, availability, and more. That way, when they call or schedule a tour from your website, you know they're more qualified because they're already familiar with your apartments and feel confident that your community best fits their needs.
- Get professional photos and videos of every floorplan. Prospective residents demand to see the inside of your units and amenities online. If you're a homeowner or renter, you know this. You would've never moved in somewhere after only seeing a few exterior and pool photos. Plus, attractive and professionally produced visual content triggers a critical part of the brain that helps prospects choose one community over another.
Though these investments intend to build interest and awareness of your communities, they do something else you need: Disqualify leads.
The more information you can provide prospective renters up-front, the more power you give them in deciding on a future apartment home. They no longer need to take an in-person tour to gain the information they need because all of it is online, which lowers your lead count and number of tours given—in a positive way.
With lead-qualifying marketing tools, your leasing staff will often deal with leads genuinely interested in your apartments and close more leases. And it also lowers your cost-per-lease because you no longer need to pay a premium in marketing to generate an 'x' number of leads to earn 'y' leases; your marketing sources do the work of improving lead quality and lease conversions.
Marketing syndication software for apartments
Marketing syndication for apartments consists of software automatically updating unit pricing, availability, virtual content, and more across all your marketing channels from a single dashboard.
It can be a significant time-saver for your marketing personnel, primarily when overseeing multiple communities and needing to roll out changes at scale because of a new special, new unit availability, or anything else that needs to be updated.
CRMs for nurturing prospective renters
To streamline the nurturing of prospective renters through their decision-making process—a.k.a 'the leasing funnel'—you can utilize marketing automation technology in either your property management software or third-party CRM (customer relationship management) software to send emails to prospects.
If a prospect schedules a tour online, an email can be sent to them automatically that thanks them for their interest and includes critical details for their showing. You can also have emails sent automatically to them after tours that include photos, videos, pricing, availability, and more about the unit or floorplan they toured.
Automating the nurturing process is a great way to remove some manual work from on-site personnel while still providing exceptional service to future renters.
Reputation management software for apartments
Reputation management is massively essential for multifamily because it's well-known that prospects look at what others say about their experience with your apartments during their search process. A negative review can be devastating to your community's reputation and operation.
While most operators know they need someone to monitor and respond to reviews actively, it's a tall order for short-staffed teams.
Regardless of staffing challenges, you can’t afford to let your community's reputation become the thing that slips through the cracks. Thankfully, some helpful third-party companies (like Widewail or Opiniion) specialize in automating reputation management for multifamily.
Summary
Here are five automated marketing tools you could add to your property management that could help make the life of your on-site staff easier and eliminate burnout:
- Automated digital ads: RentVision's predictive advertising manages ad budgets daily for optimized traffic generation.
- Lead-qualifying resources: Community websites and professional visual content help qualify leads upfront, reducing unnecessary inquiries and tours.
- Marketing syndication: Software updates marketing channels centrally, saving time for marketing personnel.
- CRMs for nurturing prospects: Automation streamlines the nurturing process, enhancing service to potential renters.
- Reputation management: Third-party companies automate reputation management, maintaining a positive online presence.