Google Advertising is undoubtedly one of the best ways to generate website traffic, land quality leads and, ultimately, conversions. But, as with any popular medium, it takes time, experience and dollars to create the perfect high-converting, low cost ad campaigns for your property. Continue reading 5 ways to stretch your Google Ads budget
Google My Business–Google’s completely free tool which allows local businesses the opportunity to share their brand’s offerings across the popular search engine–is a great first step towards boosting your organic search rankings. Its marketing value mainly lies in its reach–as your property could appear in Google Search, Google Maps and Google+; cost (again it is free!); and minimal labor investment when it comes to managing the listing. Continue reading Get the most out of your Google My Business listing
In the multifamily industry, competition is unavoidable. We are all aiming for the same end goals–to lease more units and to lease them fast. And in today’s world of Snapchats, Instas and Facebook live feeds, people have come to not only rely on but expect decent photos and captivating video–and apartments units are no exception. Continue reading Picture perfect unit: how to make your community stand out
The next time you think about ignoring that online property review–think again. Turns out, online reviews actually do help improve local search rankings with the added potential of elevating your visibility —actually, so much so that online reviews are estimated to make up about 10% of how Google decides to rank web search results. Not to mention, online reviews encourage click-throughs, site visits and phone calls. According to a 2018 consumer review survey, 86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses and 91% of 18-34 year old consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
So, to sum it all up, online reviews are pretty important to the success of your property, which is all the more reason why you need to have a strong reputation management strategy in place.
Google places a good majority of its trust in the consumer, which means it will only recommend what it believes are the most trusted, credible sites to users first. Additionally, Google rewards customer interactions. So, when you respond to those online reviews, Google touts these interactions as trustworthy; thus, giving your site more authority and greater credibility.
Here are some key ideas to keep in mind when developing your strategy:
In addition to your Google My Business page, you’ll need to do a quick search of your property to determine which specific sites are publishing your reviews. While Google should be a primary focus, if your resources are scarce, you’ll want to carefully select the review sites that create the most impact for your brand and begin to tackle those first. These sites also create signals and links that confirm the relevancy of your site to Google. Establish a timeline to respond to each review and develop a mechanism to track the various review sites so that your team is not left wondering who to respond to next.
While we’d love to be able to catch all complaints before they transcend into virtual “negative Nancys,” unfortunately, this is not realistic. Negative reviews are never the most encouraging to read, but, oftentimes, are inevitable yet necessary feedback to receive. When you come across these problems, ensure that your response is timely, genuine and helpful. Your tenant just likely wants to be heard and for their issue to be resolved. In your response, be sure to validate the customer’s concerns, ask questions to gain a complete understanding of the issue at hand, and work to develop an effective solution to the problem given the information you secured. Once the problem has been solved, you can then begin to kindly ask the tenant to edit his/her review to reflect the positive resolution.
Yes, I said it. This one might be a tad scary to envision, but, trust me, it will produce great results for your property in the long term. You need to ultimately build a community around your reviews, which is only possible if you have someone to engage with. Think of creative ways to secure additional reviews, like adding verbiage to completed maintenance requests or even hosting drawings for tenants who do leave a review.
Over 90% of people don’t go past the first page of search results. Your online reputation matters. And it starts and ends with a great website. At Rentbot, we design websites for your multifamily properties that attract, convert and retain tenants. We’re trained by leading SEO firms and have over a decade of experience improving clients’ apartment SEO-driven traffic. And because Rentbot specializes only in multifamily clients, we know the industry like the back of our hand. Elevate your online reputation with a budget-friendly, conversion-optimized Rentbot website and boost your online reputation and leads at the same time.
Jonsette Calloway joined the Rentbot team in 2015. With a background in public relations, advertising and copywriting, she has helped a multitude of clients achieve their marketing and communications goals within various fields, but she particularly enjoys working with the apartment industry.
Good tenants are sometimes hard to find, and having unhappy tenants are just overall bad for business. Tenants with unresolved issues are less likely to renew and refer others to your property and are more likely to take to review sites first to publish their personal property experiences online. Knowing which top tenant complaints you can expect at your own property and how to tackle them head on when they arise will save you the headache and manpower in the long term. Here are four common tenant issues that you should prepare to address at your property:
Confusion around security deposits is unfortunately one of the most popular issues that many properties encounter on a regular basis. Tenants are oftentimes unaware of all of the stipulations associated with their security deposit, which results in an unpleasant surprise come move-out day for both you and your tenant. To nip this confusion in the bud early on, you’ll want to personally review this portion of the lease with all of your new tenants upon move-in to ensure there are no outstanding questions that could potentially resurface later on. It’s also helpful to supply your tenants with move-out checklists and associated costs at the beginning and end of their lease term to minimize “tenant shock” at move-out.
Poor communication and customer service go hand in hand in the multifamily industry. When tenants complain about poor communication, they want to be kept informed of major rules and maintenance impacts at your property, as well as have their emails and/or phone calls returned in a timely manner. To address this communication discrepancy, you’ll need to first set a standard goal response time across your staff, which should typically be no more than 48 business hours. To ensure your renters are well aware of site projects and rule changes/updates in advance, a regular email blast and/or mailer can help supplement your existing efforts.
Whether it is a leaky faucet or flooding unit, when it comes to resolving maintenance issues at your property, responsiveness is key. In order to address these issues effectively and efficiently, you’ll need to ensure that you have a streamlined maintenance system established first. If your maintenance team is contracted, you’ll need to form a clear understanding in advance as to how they will handle progress updates to your leasing team and establish estimated turnaround times for some of the more common issues so that you can then relay the information back to your tenants.
Infestations can be quite the scary feat to undertake–for both you and your tenants. Upon notification of these pesky pests, you’ll need to take action immediately–whether that means pulling your own maintenance staff to the affected unit or calling in for reinforcements. Delaying this issue by just one day has the potential to create extreme havoc for you both considering that insects have the potential to travel between units pretty quickly. To minimize the occurrence of such infestations, you should try to invest in monthly pest control service for your property, which is an amenity your tenants would also appreciate.
Rental complaints are unavoidable; but, there are actions that you can take now to reduce their frequency–starting with a great website. Knowing that the first interaction your tenants will likely have with your property is your property’s website, we carefully craft each of our Rentbot sites with renter convenience in mind. From our mobile-friendly, professional designs to our real time unit availability, online maintenance process and rental payments, you’ll be able to improve your communication, streamline your maintenance and simplify payment all the while attracting, converting, and retaining quality tenants–all through your website. It’s time you let your website work just as hard as you do. We’ll help tackle some of those complaints, giving you more time to focus on sealing the deal. Experience the Rentbot difference for free. Here’s how: https://www.rentbot.co/website-design/free-website-trial.
Jonsette Calloway joined the Rentbot team in 2015. With a background in public relations, advertising and copywriting, she has helped a multitude of clients achieve their marketing and communications goals within various fields, but she particularly enjoys working with the apartment industry.
A new year means new goals, new trends and most importantly, new leases for your property. As we embark on this 2019 rental year, it may be time to think about adjusting some of your marketing priorities to improve your leasing success in the New Year.
Here are five goals that should top your web to-do list this year: Continue reading 5 multifamily goals that should top your to-do list in 2019
A website is a major investment that may oftentimes leave property owners and managers a little hesitant to take the plunge. You’re already aware of all of the wonderful the benefits associated with a website; but, similar to that knotted feeling that emerges in your belly with any major business move, the fear of the unknown takes over, stalling your next move. Continue reading Turn your website worries into wins
Your multifamily property is unique in its own right. Though your community may have the ability to appeal to the masses, it is more likely that a specific segment of renters will actually call your place home. Knowing and understanding who this segment of renters is can make all the difference in your lead, conversion and retention rates. Continue reading Keep your eye on the target
So, you already know the importance of a good property website, but you’re unsure of what the costs will be. Just like cars, websites come in many different styles and price points, ranging from your basic templated small page site to a custom built, fancy multi-page site decked with all the bells and whistles. And, while website costs are hugely influenced by the level of “flashiness” that’s created, it’s what’s behind said flashiness, or the back end of the site, that will determine how much you pay.
While, ultimately, your budget will determine the level of intricacy of your new site, here are some of the costs you can expect to pay when venturing down the route of a professionally designed custom website.
The first move your designer will likely make will be to secure your domain name. Standard domain pricing will typically range from $10 to $50 annually; however, if you prefer a custom extension, like .apartment or .online, etc., costs could increase to an upwards of $300 per year. The next step in your website build will be finding a hosting provider, which is where your website will be housed online. Hosting costs vary based on the amount of and with your site’s using, but could range from $10 a month to $100+ per month for small to mid-sized properties.
You’ll also want to secure your site through an SSL (secure socket layer) certificate which will ensure that your renters’ information remains safe and secure from interception. These costs are charged annually, and will usually range from $10 to $100.
Responsive site designs can come in the form of totally custom, built-from-scratch designs, which are usually charged by the hour, or tweaks to standard templates, which average between $500 and $2,000. Costs will of course vary based on the number of features, like logo/imagery placement, navigation, framework etc. Those who want to completely set their property apart from the competition and tend to favor the “bells and whistles,” can typically purchase a built-from-scratch design from $5,000 to $15,000 on up–all based on the depth of your site and business.
Once the site’s framework is designed, content is soon to follow. You’ll need to first determine if you will have the time to curate your own content and imagery or prefer to outsource it. Your designer will usually partner with a copywriter who will, upon learning all there is to know about your property, strategically draft content for each of your pages to best capture your prospects while on your site. Copywriting costs can range from $.05 per word to $50 per page. If you’ll need professional photos taken for your new site, you can expect to chalk up an additional $500 to $2,000 for just enough property photos to populate your pages.
The inclusion of SEO is a feature that should be standard when building a website. After all, you want your prospects to find your site to experience it first hand. SEO costs will likely vary, but you can expect to pay between $2,000 to $5,000 upfront, and a monthly maintenance charge of up to $1,000. The larger your property, the more you can expect to pay.
In addition to your standard website features, you may also want to invest in property management software that integrates with your new website. While there are tons of companies and products that will do this for you, by assessing your rental needs and budget, you can better determine which features are most essential for your property. For instance, if you’d like to take applications, maintenance requests and/or rental payments online, then you’ll want to choose your package wisely. Pricing for this software will average from $1 to $2 per unit to a monthly minimum of about $250.
So, your beautiful website has finally been created and launched; but, you’re still not out of the woods yet when it comes to expenses. In addition to regular updates to your site’s content, you’ll also need to leverage your web designer for upgrades to the framework, plug-ins, extensions, and more. These services will typically run you about $100 per hour.
Simply put, websites can be pretty expensive, which is an understatement for small, multifamily properties. That’s where Rentbot comes in. We create mobile-friendly websites for property managers and owners equipped with unlimited personal admin support, fast and secure hosting, and built-in SEO for less than half the cost of a traditional custom website build. In a matter of days, we’ll provide you with a custom, turnkey site for your property that is guaranteed to attract more leads, create higher conversions and retention than before. And, with multifamily features like online payments, applications, maintenance requests and real-time availability, we’ll save you even more on the back-end, avoiding the need for you to invest in a separate software system.
It’s time to give your budget something to smile about. Give Rentbot a try for your high-performance website needs, and, if we don’t meet your expectations within the first 60 days, you’ll receive a full refund–no strings attached. Schedule a call with us today to begin your new website journey.
Jonsette Calloway joined the Rentbot team in 2015. With a background in public relations, advertising and copywriting, she has helped a multitude of clients achieve their marketing and communications goals within various fields, but she particularly enjoys working with the apartment industry.
It’s the million dollar question all property managers and owners alike struggle to find an answer to daily–how can I lower my operating expenses? Continue reading Lower your operating costs, increase profits
