How to Target the 3 Most Critical Renter Moments

An article on Think with Google on how Smartphones have changed the purchase journey said: "For today's constantly connected consumers, shopping never sleeps. Whether making an everyday purchase or researching a big-ticket item, we reflexively turn to mobile. These I-want-to-buy moments are important for consumers, and they're critical for brands."

Targeting Key Renter Moments

Finding and keeping the best tenants is an art. It's not about inundating people with information, it's about finding the key moments when your leads are inspired to become your tenants and placing as much emphasis as possible on them.

Here are the three steps a property manager must nail to find and keep the best tenants:

1. Find 'em - the moment when there's a mutual attraction with the best tenant.

2. Close 'em - the moment when a prospect can see himself living in the property. You need to create a leasing process that feels easy to both the renter and the property manager, so that all the steps, from screening to closing, act like a smooth run to the finish line.

3. Keep 'em - tenants make decisions about staying or going long before their lease expires. The best timing, offers, and proactive maintenance can help ensure renewal decisions will go your way.

Smart Phones Make the Tenant Journey Faster - Are You Keeping Up?

Today's tenants are continuously searching for homes online. "We're in a world today where people are on 24/7. They have more choices when it comes to what they look at and when they look at it," says Alison Lewis, CMO at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies. Your tenants are browsing and committing to their new home on their mobile devices. Whether they're in a parking lot, a grocery store, or waiting to catch a flight, they're using smartphones to move through the process of becoming a tenant.

How to Win Your Tenants' Micro-Moments

Here are five ways to win these micro-moments:

1. Identify your consumers' I-want-to-buy moments. Talk to them in a variety of venues to determine how they're researching and making purchase decisions. Connect with them in your office, through focus groups, and via social media to learn more about their decision-making process.

2. Be there in these moments of need. You need to be the company that your tenants turn to when they're looking for a property. Develop a holistic marketing and outreach strategy across multiple channels, including SEO, video, social media, and in-person connections. Understand that you're going to connect with today's consumers on the move -- they may not be sitting at home in front of a computer or walking into a storefront office. Make yourself available to prospective tenants by going to where they are online.

3. Deliver relevant messaging. Simply being there in these moments isn't enough. Research how people find your property management company. Understand the search terms they use and the questions that they ask. Develop resources such as blogs, webinars, and FAQs that address these questions.

4. Make it easy for them to make a purchase. Your tenants shouldn't need to work hard to become tenants. Give your tenants multiple ways to enter the tenant screening process. Bring them from an online video or social media post to your tenant application and screening process.

5. Measure every moment that matters. It's not enough to measure who's converting through a single online channel. Your tenants are coming to you through multiple, fragmented channels. You need to understand how each marketing technique yields results, measuring how people move to your site from your office, through social media, through guest and blog posts, and through apps. The data you collect will help you hone your marketing techniques in the future.

Are you ready to capture the critical moments of a tenant's decision making process?

Start right now by reading the first article in the series: Creating Mutual Attraction in Rental Property Marketing.

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