By Nate Ward, Director of IT Services, Summerfield Management. For more information, contact Robert Parmar
In a competitive multifamily market, optimizing the conversion of prospects into leases is critical. But with a multitude of physical and electronic advertising channels available, how do you ensure that your ad spend is most effective? How do you track and follow up with potential tenants, regardless of how they found your property?
At Summerfield, we have tools in place to track leads from any source, from physical advertising, internet listings and property websites to social media and even word of mouth resident referrals. The key to this is the integration of our CRM software and dynamic number generation, whereby a specific phone number is used for each marketing channel and forwarded to the property’s existing phone system. This ensures that when a prospect calls the leasing office, the lead is centrally tracked from start to finish.
Why is this important?
A good lead management and tracking system helps fill vacancies which in turn limits the amount of time a rental unit sits vacant and is generating zero income. In short, the more leads you track, the more chances you have at filling vacant units.
The best way to explain our system is by example. Let’s say you have a property advertised on Craigslist, Apartments.com and physical media (brochures, street-level signage… etc.). If a prospect calls or emails from the dynamic number/email displayed in the advertising medium, it will immediately forward to the leasing office phone or email number but our CRM picks up the tracking number and records each lead under the attributing ad source.
This allows for the monitoring of both the performance of the ad spend per channel and the responsiveness of the leasing office all in one place.
Depending on the setup of the property’s marketing website, these tools can be even more targeted. On a physical sign or brochure, we can place a QR code. If a prospect scans the QR code and goes to the property website the CRM will attribute the lead to the physical medium. Organic web searches can also be tracked: for example, if a prospect searches the property on Google, the number displayed in the search result will track in the CRM as a Google lead as will any web requests from a clickthrough to the property website.
Leads from all sources and the follow-up communication from leasing staff can be tracked from start to finish. Since every lead source is quantified, Summerfield can determine the most effective allocation of advertising dollars and staff labor for each property’s unique needs.
The end result is more prospect traffic, a more responsive leasing staff and higher occupancy at your property, which is a pillar of the game.
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Part of our commitment to building a relationship with clients is our willingness to go the extra mile. Reach out to us to book a time to chat with one of our experienced property management professionals.
Contact us today or book a call at a convenient time to learn more about our program.
