Denver area. “We embrace new technology and change
processes to make the day-to-day easier.”
Does your lead management system assist
in converting leads to tours, give you actionable
insights to improve the property website, and provide
efficiencies to help leasing agents close more sales?
By leveraging automation technology, a customer
database can work at nurturing leads and engaging
prospects until they’re ready to sign a lease while also
delivering actionable insights. “We have properties
that compete against each other, so we are constantly
using automation data and watching to ensure
that we have a smart spend in those markets,” says
Desiree White, Marketing Manager with NE Property
Management. “My team does a lot of the behind-thescenes
[work], getting those reports and analytics to
make sure we’re staying at the top of our market and
our onsite teams are seeing success."
Create Quality Conversations
for More Tours
Technology powered by artificial intelligence
provides properties with qualified, identifiable leads
versus just anonymous visitors, capturing both more
leads and more information specific to those leads.
While this helps property managers better prioritize
the lead nurture process, the deluge of information
can overload even the best leasing agents. By adding
automation to the process, multifamily properties
can effectively manage leads higher in the funnel who
aren’t quite ready to rent through personalized content
delivered in timely email messages.
“With automated prospect emails, our lead
management system generates an introduction to
engage the prospect prior to involving the onsite
team,” Struve says. “This automated engagement
essentially gauges the prospect’s interest before a
person steps in to further the conversation towards
leasing the apartment.”
Introducing automation into the lead
management process creates qualified conversations
with leads and converts more online leads into tours by
repeatedly engaging prospects who visit the property
website. It also increases tour-to-lease conversions.
Since implementing AI technology to automate lead
nurture and engage prospects visiting the property
websites, Mission Rock Residential sees 50% tour-tolease
conversion rates — compared to the industry
average of 35%, says Marcella Eppsteiner, Mission
Rock’s VP of Marketing.
"Where I anticipate automation going, we'll
actually convert even more and anticipate the
conversion ratio going up to 60%," Eppsteiner says.
"Our sales teams are rockstars, but it's also because
the people our team is reaching out to have already
been nurtured. These leads are ready, true prospective
residents."
An AI-driven automation solution provides leasing
teams with the highest quality prospects to personally
nurture, while automatically engaging more lukewarm
leads through automated emails or texts. The
personalized messaging ultimately serves to drive
prospects back to the property website and entice them
to take the next step by booking a tour online using an
automated schedule tool. “Let your team handle the
important follow-up,” says Scott Hill, Co-Founder and
CEO at PERQ. “Condense opportunities down to those
leads most likely to tour and that most fit the profile.
You’ll see a higher tour-to-lease rate, because you’re
following up with the right people.”
Marketing Automation Delivers
a Better Leasing Experience,
Better Data
Not only does automation result in greater
customer satisfaction as a result of personalized
experiences, but the leasing team also gets timely
information they need to improve efficiency. Through
AI-driven website content, interactive quizzes and
automated emails, multifamily properties can
automatically educate and engage renters looking for
an apartment in the Denver area, while simultaneously
gathering lead information on those online visitors.
“Capturing more consumers earlier in the process
enables you to have a tremendous amount of data.
There are ways to do it where the consumer wants to
share information because they get information in
return,” Hill says. “Once you have the data, you can
qualify the leads. Send the most important leads to
your leasing team while you nurture other leads until
they are worth your team’s time.”
Leasing teams ultimately book more tours with
less work, using automation to prequalify prospects so
onsite leasing teams can prioritize and follow up with
the prospects ready to rent right away. Automation
also streamlines the data gathering and analytics for
properties by identifying prospects across all devices
and repeat website visits, sorting and organizing
the information to deliver more insightful data on a
renter’s individual leasing journey.
“With automation, we have ways to sort and use
data which has given me time back to focus on the
bigger picture,” Struve says. "I’m not in the day-to-day
manual management of data. Yet, I am leveraging
the data more usefully while gathering pertinent
information for a smoother process.”
Put automation to work to collect more data about
rental prospects visiting your website. Automation
engages website visitors with personalized messaging
and relevant information, allowing them to educate
themselves until they’re ready to schedule a tour
or visit a leasing office in person. Concurrently,
automatically collecting valuable prospect data
through interactive content, quizzes, and floorplan
finders provides properties with better information
on a lead’s current position in the sales funnel.
Understand which prospects are ready to rent and who
needs to be nurtured, then adjust your engagement
strategy and messaging for different types of leads.
“A more personalized leasing experience helps
prospects find their next home, and that's a big deal.
It's a huge part of their life and a lot of money,” White
says. “It's an investment and we’re helping them in this
journey and making this experience the best they’ve
ever had.”
Follow these Tips to Improve
the Leasing Process
1. Prioritize leads and score prospects based on
their answers to interactive content, website
shopping behavior and their desire to talk to a
leasing agent.
2. Leverage a CRM that includes this automated
functionality, or create best practices based on
your current data system so your leasing teams
clearly understand which leads to personally
engage first.
3. Keep prospects higher in the funnel engaged
with automated and personalized email
nurture campaigns. Tailor campaigns to
include pertinent, timely information that’s
relevant to where they are in the process and
what they’re looking for in an apartment
community. Trust the automated process to
efficiently manage leads who are still doing
their research and say they aren’t ready to
rent for a few more months, and utilize your
leasing agents for prospects who are ready to
rent now or within the next couple weeks.
4. Use data captured about leads to improve
operational efficiencies, while also gaining
better insight into property performance, and
therefore make better marketing decisions.
5. Train your onsite leasing teams to be the best
salesperson they can be. Leasing specialists
are at the forefront of your brand. Help them
improve their conversations and show them
how to use the data they have for each lead to
make follow-up more personal to
each consumer.
www.aamdhq.org
JULY 2020 TRENDS | 21