When we’re looking to grow a multifamily investment by boosting the property’s rental occupancy, one of the most effective trains of thought dictates that we should focus our energy on empowering our renters to make better, calculated decisions.

After all, in an age where 56% of Americans own Smartphones and 72.4% of American homes have high-speed internet connections, today’s consumer has the ability to research anything and everything at any time and this way of thinking has quickly become the norm for much of society.

So, how do we capitalize on this trend? Instead of remaining focused on the deal from the landlord’s position, we put ourselves in the renter’s shoes and think about the process from the uninformed consumer’s position.

By working our way through the leasing process, we can quickly realize that the renter just wants to know what they are about to get themselves into.

They want to know about the actual leasing process and what the units themselves look like. They want to be able to find answers to all those little questions that pop up in the middle of the night and they’d like to know what to expect when they decide to move out.

We want to engineer all our marketing materials, ads, and website landing pages to easily and uniformly guide the renter through the leasing process.

Marketers call this synergy in our message an, “Integrated Marketing Campaign.”

Potential renters need to be able to get answers to their concerns on the fly. Just like they need to be able to see our signs in their community, receive our direct pieces in the mail, and see our ads in their local guides and have all of those elements grab their attention, complement one another, and inform them enough to want to contact us, they also need to be able to continue the discovery process online.

Nowadays, when someone begins their online search for a new apartment home they have options. They might start with a search on a popular search engine or reach out to through their social media outlets to ask if anyone has any recommendations. If they’ve begun to investigate our community specifically, they may start looking for floor plans, special offers, and probably ask their friends and family their opinions on our complex.

This will most likely turn into the renter seeking out our property’s Facebook page, Twitter feed, or Pinterest account for pictures and more data. What they really want is to see what other people are saying and gather as much information as possible without having to speak with a representative.

They want to click over and search our website for additional images, find any information on deposits or terms, amenities, restriction, etc. They don’t know what exactly to expect and that anxiety is what we need to alleviate by making sure our websites, content, and messages clearly walk them through our rental process and their involvement in that procedure.

Clearly offer all our potential renters access to all our listings virtually if they can’t see them physically.

It’s very important to today’s consumer that they gain immediate access to the product they want. When searching online to make a purchase they get this urge satisfied by the seller posting multiple images of the item in question.

For someone looking to rent, it’s no different. The more images they have to review, the easier it is to imagine themselves in that space.

Offer renters as much up-to-date information and advice on renting as we can via our blog.

One of the best ways to offer all of these desired elements in a clean, easy-to-manage format, is to do so by utilizing a company blog. A blog is something that can be delegated, scheduled, and controlled in a way that is easy for anyone to search any subject we’ve ever covered.

Everything from events and public relation messages can be posted. Links to TV and Radio commercials can be posted. Market research and frequently asked questions can be answered in a public forum that will live indefinitely on our pages for future renters to see. Not to mention, our blog content makes for great, wide-reaching social media content that we can post across multiple social platforms for renters to find.

Do you have some unique ways of empowering your renters? Have you tried something that did not produce the results you had hoped? f so, please feel free to share it with us in the comment section below.

For more of an in-depth study on empowering renters to lease, be sure to check out the 2014 Apartment Internet Marketing Conference (AIM) session YOU CAN DO IT! Empowering Consumers Via Integrated Marketing Campaigns that includes speakers Eric Clark, Sarah Milligan, Dana Pate, and moderated by Jolene Soplaski.