If you’re puzzling over how to increase property tours and leases, your property website may be the missing piece. Sure, your multifamily team posts dazzling photos and highlights the amazing amenities, but does the website invoke any strong emotions or inspire prospects to take action? Or, is the site simply an online brochure that’s static, and just like every other property website in your market?

Multifamily brands that treat the property website as a top leasing tool, like another leasing specialist on staff, collect and convert more online leads to leases. As an on-site leasing agent works to establish good rapport with rental prospects by being helpful, your property management website should also guide website visitors along the leasing journey and build a connection with prospects using a personalized approach. 

Figure out how to move prospects emotionally and you’ll move them closer to signing a lease. Create these 5 feelings with an innovative property website that leverages artificial intelligence to win over online visitors, while increasing tours and leases.

1.  Welcomed

Acknowledge online visitors the moment they land on your community’s website. Welcome them with a personalized message and offer to show them around the website with a quick virtual tour or point out some of the helpful tools you offer on the site to get them started. 

Sending each lead an automated email after their initial visit is another way to show prospects you’re happy they visited the property website and invite them back to continue their research. Use AI technology to personalize the marketing automation process, so the follow-up emails or texts include the lead’s name and information hyper-relevant to what they searched for on your property website.

2.  Educated

Prospects do a large portion of their apartment searches online and are far along in the sales funnel by the time they actually reach out to speak or interact with an on-site leasing specialist. Give them access to all the research they seek on your website, such as information about nearby neighborhood businesses and public resources that serve the community, without making them pick up the phone or fill in a generic form to request more information. 

Online consumers prefer to self-serve, so let them gather information at their own pace. The more educated a prospect feels, the more ready they’ll be to confidently make an informed decision on where they want to live.

3.  Helped

While prospects prefer to gather information on their own, they do appreciate it when a website guides them along in the process. Use AI website conversion software to intuitively lead consumers in their leasing journey as they look for their next home. 

Direct them to the products in your portfolio that best suit their search, and set up your website so it guides them to the next best step to take in the leasing process based on the data you’ve already collected on them as they clicked around. Did they already look at or save floor plan options they’re interested in on your site? Now offer them a rent calculator to see what the full cost would be with utilities, website service and optional pet fees or garage/storage fees, for example. 

Consumers choose to do business with helpful brands when it comes time to make a decision. Right now, with so much uncertainty, it's more important than ever to make prospects feel like you're authentically trying to help — without making them feel pressured. Serve up relevant incentives and personalized deals to help prospects out. Consider waiving the leasing fee or giving a free month’s rent to those who book a virtual tour.

Use your website to assist prospects with technology, through a chat tool, interactive experiences and a multi-option tour scheduler that allows them to pick if they want a virtual tour or in-person tour, for example. In May 2020, properties that offered tour options through PERQ's solution proved to be successful. Of 3,700 tours scheduled, 35% of prospects selected in-person tours, 30% preferred a live video tour, 21% opted for self-guided tours and 14% selected either photo, pre-recorded or phone tours. 

4.  Trusted

By being helpful and guiding prospects, your website builds trust and a connection with online leads before they ever communicate with a leasing specialist. Quick, personalized responses let prospects know they can count on your leasing office. 

Set up personalized automated emails to greet each new lead after they visit the website, and ensure on-site staff immediately addresses any questions or requests that come in by text or email. Prospects who value technology also value an instantaneous response that’s personal and relevant. 

A property website should cultivate a belief your multifamily company truly cares and offers support in their apartment search. Nurture leads by personalizing content on the website and delivering free experiences to help them narrow their choices of floor plans, explore the neighborhood and calculate estimated monthly bills for that apartment.

By collecting lead data as they interact with the website, properties can deliver automated emails tailored to the lead’s online behavior and known preferences. Leasing specialists can also use the logged website data to personalize their lead follow-up approach when reaching out to the prospects who indicate they’re ready to rent right now.

“We use the data and analytics available to us to help tailor our approach, and to ensure we can connect in an authentic way with our customers,” says Jenny Richard, Director of Marketing at Gene B. Glick Company.

5.  Special

Above all else, prospects who spend time searching your website, handing over personal information in exchange for a more personal concierge experience, deserve to feel special. 

Add a personal touch by sending a customized video to introduce your leasing office and invite their questions to spark a conversation. Send them a video highlighting the exact unit they’re most interested in, showing them around the place with a personalized narrative to make them feel comfortable. 

“We’ve had a handful of leasing associates really shine and put their personality to good use in the videos that are now so critical,” says Katrina Greene, Senior Regional Manager at Sheehan Property Management.

Give prospects the VIP treatment online by always addressing them by name, welcoming them back every time they return and showing helpful information catered to their individual search for a new apartment. Assist them in making an appointment by offering an online scheduling calendar, and send pertinent follow-up information to help them prepare for the virtual or in-person tour. 

Your property management website should leave prospects thinking, “That was easy!” and inspire them to take the next step toward signing a lease. Get them excited about the idea of moving to your apartment community, and give them the online technology to make the process effortless.