Online Marketing

Moments that Matter

By Geneva Ives on Mar 31, 2016 in Marketing

It’s a fact: today’s renters want to do everything online. That means they want to use the Internet to find and research an apartment and even make a buying decision – sometimes without visiting the community. Is your property management business up to speed?

The savvy apartment marketer needs to understand what Google calls “micro-moments” to learn how to drive prospects to property websites, grab their interest, and convert that lead more quickly than ever before. Micro-moments are your opportunities to be there, be useful, be quick, and connect the dots for consumers.

What are micro-moments?

According to Google, micro-moments “are critical touch points within today’s consumer journey, and when added together, they ultimately determine how that journey ends.”

They are all those brief instances when people who are searching for a place to live reach a decision point. Do they click the link to your website? Or do they scroll past your search result to the next ad or competitors’ site? Once they’re on your site, do they call your leasing office or start an online application? Or do they abandon their search before taking action?

Why do they matter?

Online prospects place a high value on instant and accurate information. They don’t want to pick up the phone or come to your leasing office to get the answers they need.

Where to start?

Finding the right renters starts with attracting the right prospects. Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) solutions will help you reach apartment shoppers at just the right moments.

A solid SEO strategy delivers content that appeals to both customers and search engines, organically positioning you for maximum visibility in search results. SEM, also known as pay-per-click advertising, is about reach, relevance, and ROI. When the right potential renter receives the right message at the right time, they will click through to your property site and be ready to take the next step.

How else can you leverage micro-moments for your properties?

Five simple ways to incorporate micro-moments into your digital marketing strategy:

• Make sure your landing pages are clean, intuitive, informative, and mobile-friendly.
• Test your floorplan page on smartphones to make sure that pricing and availability is easy to access—only 9% of consumers will stay on a page if they can’t find what they are looking for quickly.
• Think mobile – include at least one mobile ad in every Google AdWords set.
• Target your weekend pay-per-click ads to mobile users.
• Add Call and Get Directions extensions to mobile ads to make it easy to take immediate action.

Interactive prospect and resident portals can also engage renters throughout every moment of the leasing lifecycle, from applicant to resident. Combined with smart SEM and SEO, you have a winning formula that will not only attract and convert more leads but also retain more residents, simultaneously increasing occupancy and decreasing turnover.

Everyone benefits!

The new generation of renters is tech savvy and expects the same from the property management companies with whom they choose to do business. If your digital marketing strategy doesn’t take consumer micro-moments into account, you’re missing out on prospects who are actively searching for a place to live – and your competitors are probably snapping them up! Choosing the right property marketing software is one way to make sure that your company stays ahead of the curve.

“Apartment marketers need to be aware of these critical micro-moments, creating thousands of opportunities to better reach, serve, and win potential residents every day,” says Esther Bonardi, senior director of marketing strategy at Yardi. “The tools we’ve built into RentCafe, including nudge marketing and pay-per-click advertising solutions, capture and convert prospects at exactly these moments. Using leading edge property marketing software means you’re always ready for what happens next in today’s changing online marketplace.”

By strategically implementing technologies designed to attract the right prospects and improve the resident experience, you will also be increasing efficiencies, boosting retention, and lowering your overall marketing spend.

For more information on marketing for the moments that matter most to prospects, click here to join us for a special webinar on April 6. You can also meet us at NAA in San Francisco this summer to catch our presentation of “Succeeding in a Mobile World: Google Talks Micro-Moments and More.” See the full schedule and register here using discount code: YARDI