You spend your marketing dollars attracting leads, but then what? How do you know if valuable emails and calls are slipping through the cracks? Maximize your conversions by cementing a follow-up strategy at your properties to make sure you’re getting the best return for your advertising spend. “We should not lose sight of the fact that through apartment leasing, we are providing homes to our customers, and a home is very personal and dear to many. There is nothing like that personal engagement and touch with the customer,” asserts EPMS, a leading multifamily consulting agency, in an article sharing leasing tips for apartment communities. Optimize your follow-up strategy by checking in with prospects and residents at these four critical times: First Contact Don’t miss a chance to convert a lead because you didn’t follow up fast enough! After a prospect has reached out to you over the phone, through email, or even via live chat, your team should be ready to respond and move the prospect to the next step – whether that’s scheduling a tour, completing an application, or something else. Remember, if you don’t respond quickly, your competitors will. After a Tour You’ve talked, you’ve walked, and now… well you’re not going to just shake hands and say goodbye, are you? Follow up with a call or email within 24 hours after any site visit to let prospects know that they’re important to you and that you represent a property that not only cares but also takes action. Post Move-In Let your new resident know that your relationship with them doesn’t end the day they move in. You’re not just trying to get people through the door, you’re working to cultivate happy residents who will become ambassadors for your community. Check in...

Do you know how to take the leasing lead in your market? It might be easier than you think! The results of our recent leasing strategy survey revealed that smart multifamily firms have multiple opportunities to increase performance and out-market, out-lease, and out-renew the competition. But to beat the competition, you have to know what they’re up to, right? To that end, we put together these top three takeaways from the responses to our survey of multifamily marketing and leasing professionals across the industry: 87% of property management companies surveyed don’t recognize/reward good follow up activity. Create a strong follow up tracking and recognition program to shape your company culture to instantly outperform 87% of your competitors! 64% of companies have no way to monitor resident relationship activity (interactions with residents). Track and reward resident relationships to prevent the loss of good residents. This will also help you impress new leads coming from other communities who don’t carefully manage the resident experience. 52% of responders don’t set a cost-per-lead goal, and 42% don’t have a cost per-lease-goal. Set concrete goals and measure your performance after one quarter. Is there room for improvement or are you doing better than you expected? Adjust accordingly. “Marketing budgets are limited,” notes Esther Bonardi, industry principal of Yardi Marketing Solutions. “Without standards and measures in place to ensure you are getting enough traffic for your marketing spend, you will easily end up with fewer leads than companies who use ROI reporting to make good marketing decisions.” It’s critical to identify opportunities where you can exceed competitor performance and commit to improvement in those key areas. Establishing standards and tracking results is essential to keeping your team on top of the market. Other interesting survey findings include: 46% of respondents...