RentMarketer: Rental Marketing Tips

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ISSUE AT A GLANCE (Issue 1): PHOTOS — PHONE LEADS — SEARCH ENGINES

PHOTOS

Statistics show that adding at least one photo dramatically increases the amount of qualified leads that are sent to you. Adding more photos, increases the quality leads even more. Many times, the best leads are those where the potential tenant calls or writes to you and says, "I would like to schedule a showing to see the property." Those ads with more photos and details in the description, have more of these ideal leads.

Things to keep in mind when taking photos of the property:

Make sure there is enough light

Remove any knick knacks from the table or refrigerator. People do not like the sight of clutter

Top areas to take photos of:

Front of home -- Kitchen -- Bath -- Living Room -- Back Yard

TOP 4 WAYS TO TURN PHONE LEADS INTO LEASES

	Try to answer all incoming phone calls; when they talk to a person and not a machine, the percent of showings goes up dramatically.
	Get in touch with your leads quickly; studies show that the faster you respond, the higher your success rate.
	Anticipate the potential tenants questions; Always have a detailed sheet of the property on hand with every call
	Follow up every call with a personalized email; show them that you are interested in earning their business by personalizing emails. Examples: Send them a link of all of your properties that fit their criteria. Send them directions to the house for viewing. Use these maps: Google Maps or Yahoo Maps

			Leveraging Search Engines How do people search for rental properties? Millions of potential tenants look for properties online using search engines like Google, MSN, RentalHomesPlus, Yahoo, Craigslist and others. How do these engines work? There are two types of search engines. 1) Those that crawl the web and store data in their index. Each crawl usually takes place once a month i.e Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. 2) Those that receive data from users entering it into their system i.e. RentalHomesPlus, Rentvine, etc. These are referred to as vertical search engines What is the user search behavior on both types of search engines? When potential tenants search on the traditional search engines, they use search terms like, "homes for rent in denver", "townhome for rent in colorado springs", etc. When a potential tenant searches on the more vertical search engines like RentalHomesPlus, they also use terms like "homes for rent in denver", but in addition, because of the vertical focus, they use terms like, "2 bedroom home for rent", "condo near cherry creek" etc. The reason for lack of geographic location in most cases is because the vertical search engines walk the potential tenant through steps to get them to only search their data in a particular geographic location. Example would be: User goes to vertical search engine ---> Clicks on Colorado Homes For rent -----> Clicks on Denver ----> Clicks on Townhouses/Condos for Rent ----> And then browses or searches. It is a very good idea to assume that searchers will search until they find what they like. Studies have shown that potential tenants will search deep into search engines to find their perfect rental. Keep this in mind as you want to increase your ad's chances of being seen first. Take Away Use descriptive terms in your ad. Think like a potential tenant. What would you search for? If you were looking for a rental, what terms would you use. "Home for rent in denver" If so, ad this in your ad. "Condo for rent near shopping", If so, add this to your ad. The more quality, descriptive terms you have in your ad, the more likely a potential tenant or search engine will see it.