This is part two in our series that focuses on basic digital marketing strategies that are proven to help you attract and convert leads.

In part one of our series on digital marketing, we focused on what can be done to help acquire leads for your properties, but that’s just one piece of the puzzle. If those leads don’t progress down the funnel, all of that effort was for not. This post focuses on how we suggest working leads once they’ve entered your CRM.

Automate first contact. Now that you’ve got the lead, you should have triggers in place to automatically send an email or text (depending on the lead’s preferred contact method) to let them know you’ve received their request for information and you will be following up shortly.

Leasing agent reaches out. Next, depending on how you prioritize the new leads you receive, a leasing agent should reach out to the lead.

Follow-up/lead nurture. Depending on how the conversation with the leasing agent goes, there are multiple events that could be triggered. The lead could have scheduled a tour, which would initiate a contact point that provides them with access information. The lead could have requested an application, which would result in a link to the application being sent to them. Maybe the lead needs more time to think. If that’s the case, they’ll be kicked over to a nurture sequence that provides them with more information, keeping the lead warm until it’s time for the leasing agent to reach out directly again or it’s moved over into the ‘lead not progressing’ bucket.

Complete application. After receiving the link to the application, it is up to the prospective resident to complete it, but just like with the previous step, a good CRM will enable you to automate messages to nudge completion.

Approve or deny. When you receive the application back from the lead, the vetting process is triggered. Ideally this will include a standard background check and income verification along with any other checks you see fit. Finally, you reach out to the applicant to let them know if their application was approved or denied.

Reporting. Another aspect of the lead to lease process to consider when evaluating CRMs is reporting. It’s important to be able to see where each individual lead is in the process, what type of contact has been made with them, what primary and secondary lead sources are associated with the prospective resident, and which leasing agent they are assigned to. Having access to this information is invaluable to the planning process and ensures a high occupancy rate and a fast lease up process.

How Entrata can help

The Entrata Property Management Operating System provides property management companies and owners a number of different tools that will help them create campaigns, monitor leads, and collect data to help optimize future campaigns. From our Marketing Strategy Hub to our Lead Manager, we’ve got your marketing needs covered.

ProspectPortal Building an online presence for your properties has never been easier. Entrata Prospect Portal enables you to showcase all of your listings in real-time, while simplifying the process to find and convert leads via a responsive website solution.

ProspectPortal offers a variety of flexible templates that enables you to quickly create sites for all of your properties and includes the ability for prospects to schedule tours or take a virtual tour of the floor plan of their choosing. Having an accessible, easy-to-navigate website increases conversions while accelerating the renters’ journey.

Marketing Strategy Hub With Entrata Marketing Strategy Hub (MSH) you’ll be able to see which lead sources are converting the most prospects, which as mentioned previously will help you evaluate and optimize your marketing spend. MSH enables you to pull leads from sources like Facebook Lead Ads, Google Lead Ads, and all of the various Internet Listing Services (ILS) and provides insights into how long the lead process takes from sourcing to closed won/closed lost.

Additionally, MSH improves your organization’s forecasting based on the conversion rate and lead volume it tracks for all of your properties, and best of all much of this process is automated, which saves your site staff time and resources that can be used to improve the resident experience.

The feature that will likely have the most impact on your team is that listings are updated and syndicated to all of the listing services you use. This ensures that you aren’t missing out on potential revenue because prospects aren’t able to find available listings. Beyond that it keeps your prices up-to-date and competitive.

LeadManager LeadManager increases lead conversion, improves response speed, and maximizes your leads by consolidating all your prospect traffic into one efficient, easy-to-use dashboard. LeadManager makes management easy by compiling and organizing all of your leads sources whether it be walk-ins, phone calls, or online inquiries in one place.

Having all of this information in one place makes following up a breeze, while also making sure you have a log of all correspondence. You’ll know who’s calling whom and what the end result of the conversation is. Lead Manager also identifies which lead sources are having the most impact, enabling your sales teams to focus on high quality leads first.

Learn more

To learn more about how to build and manage a digital marketing strategy that increases engagement and conversions download our ebook, Building a Digital Marketing Strategy that Converts| A guide to developing an efficient, data driven digital marketing strategy that increases lead to lease conversion rates.