At the beginning of the U.S. spread of COVID-19, our team tracked the impact that market uncertainty and changing health concerns had on our multifamily clients. At the beginning of the pandemic, we saw a slump in website traffic and searches for apartment communities nationwide. As time progressed the trends changed and amidst the crisis, we saw an upward trend among our client base.

As we sit here in July, a key leasing period for multifamily communities, the leasing environment we are seeing looks healthier than what many of us might have imagined. Communities will continue to make tough decisions in the months ahead but from where we are sitting right now, the demand for rental housing and the desire for apartment seekers to move this summer is still strong. We looked at several signals across a variety of industry sources, combined with our own internal data to give you a glimpse into today’s rental market.

1. Google Trends

A commonly cited source for national search traffic, Google Trends shows the relative popularity that a search term has in a given period of time. Over the past year, searches for both “apartments for rent” and “apartments near me” show the resurgence of apartment searching beginning in the month of April and continuing into July. Search popularity for “apartments for rent” was even higher in early July this year compared to early July 2019. We saw this same search trend play out across our own client portfolio when looking at organic search website sessions over time.

2. Apartment Website Traffic

Communities typically experience a rise in website traffic in the spring and summer. While communities experienced a decline in March that dropped levels down into the typical winter season level of traffic they rose to meet the typical website traffic levels we are used to seeing in Spring and Summer. Since most apartment searching is happening online, a community’s website plays a large role in its ability to attract apartment seekers. Our own client base shows a 73% year over year rise in total website sessions and a 38% increase in website goal completions* (June 2019 vs. June 2020). This indicated that apartment seekers are spending more time on apartment sites and are more willing to engage with communities there.

*Goal changes are also impacted by the adoption of our website conversion software, better attribution, and overall marketing performance improvements that took place from June 2019 to June 2020.

3. Communication (Chat, Phone & Email)

Live Chat conversations, phone calls, and emails to leasing teams are all signs that renters are actively inquiring about properties and moving beyond the browsing stage. We saw a rise in overall communication with leasing teams across our multifamily client base from March to June.

The following call and email data represent click to call data and click to email data from a sample of over 600 apartment websites.

Live chat conversations from our client’s apartment websites increased a total of 36% March-June compared to the four months prior. 

4. Scheduled Tours

At the beginning of the pandemic, communities worried about their ability to lease apartments in a situation where prospective residents couldn’t easily tour the building. Communities switched from an in-person tour model to a virtual tour model overnight. Many apartment seekers were ok with this shift and we saw communities scheduling tours again at the end of March. We have a few hundred communities who used our tour scheduling platform to promote and schedule virtual tours throughout the pandemic. The average number of tours each community scheduled increased month over month throughout the pandemic. The average community self-scheduled 24 tours last month, twice the average of March.

5. NMHC Rent Payment Tracker

One of the biggest questions the industry had at the start of the pandemic was whether renters would be able to make rent payments. The National Multifamily Housing Council collaborated with several apartment industry data sources to assess the percentage of renters to pay their monthly rent. Throughout the pandemic, the rate of rent payments remained higher than predicted. Rent payment rates by the end of April, May, and June remained in the ninety percent range and only slightly deviated from last year.

When comparing weekly rent payment rates, July payments were only down 2 percentage points from last year by July 20th.

*It’s important to note that not all of the rental properties in the U.S. are represented in this tracker. Only professionally managed multifamily communities with 5+ units are tracked. While this represents a large portion of the rental market it underrepresents 1-2 unit rentals which have fared differently in the recession than the larger multifamily communities we’ve worked with.

6. Survey Results

In late March, Rentcafe interviewed apartment seekers about their willingness to move during the pandemic. In this survey of over 6,000 renters, they found that a majority (60%) were not planning on postponing their move. 49% said that their preferences had not changed compared to what they were looking for before.

Zumper conducted a more recent survey of over 500 renters at the end of April to see how the apartment outlook had evolved throughout the pandemic. When asked how COVID-19 has changed their apartment search criteria, the most popular response was “looked for more virtual tours” (34%). Surprisingly when asked about the biggest challenges renters are facing in their apartment search the most popular response at 55% was not receiving a response back from a community.

The current state of the apartment search process is not without its trials. 52% of apartment seekers say they prefer in-person tours over virtual tours despite the rising popularity of virtual tours. While most apartment seekers still plan to move and nearly half have not changed what they are looking for in an apartment, 28% of renters are looking for a cheaper apartment (RentCafe) and 19% are expanding their search radius (Zumper). However, a small portion of renters (5%) are actually increasing their budget and 9% are narrowing their search radius (Zumper).

Making Sense of the Signals

COVID-19 hasn’t changed the desire for most apartment seekers to make a move. The recent surge in apartment searching online, the increase in engagement with leasing teams that occurred from March to June, and the rise in self-scheduled tours indicates that there is still an active renter base looking to move despite the changing environment.

Among current residents, rent payments for the full month of June indicated that most apartment seekers were able to pay rent and rent payment rates remained very similar to payments before the pandemic. 

So what has changed? The apartment search process, which has become even more virtual than before. Google searches, website traffic, self-scheduled tours, and live chat conversations have all increased in popularity year over year. While apartment search behavior has historically always peaked in the Spring and Summer, time will tell if the current rise in apartment searching will carry over into fall. 

Stay up to date on the latest multifamily marketing trends. Fill out the footer form below to subscribe to our multifamily marketing newsletter and receive invitations to our upcoming webinars. 

The post 6 Signals of a Strong Summer Rental Market appeared first on Conversion Logix.

Winter is a dreary time of year for apartment communities. The days are shorter, the weather is colder, and with the holidays taking center stage during the month of December, searching for an apartment isn’t top of mind for many apartment seekers across the country. While many leasing teams try to weather through the storm with the same strategies that brought them leads and leases in the summer, you came here because you know deep down you need to change your strategy.

Like you, we know that seasonality plays a role in a community’s ability to fill vacancies. We’ve helped communities all over the country to fill vacancies in the winter and we’ve gathered our best tactics and strategies in a winter guide to help leasing teams navigate the slow winter months. We analyzed thousands of apartment marketing campaigns across hundreds of clients to give better insights into the marketing mix, budget allocation, ad messaging, ad imagery, and conversion strategies communities can use to improve leasing results. To give readers a better understanding of the recommendations we provided in the guide, we wrote this blog post.

In this blog post, we share the marketing landscape we see affecting apartment communities in the winter so your team fully understands the challenges and opportunities facing your community in the least magical time of year.

The Challenges…

Most communities invest in a paid search strategy year-round to augment their organic website traffic. While paid search is traditionally one of the best sources of paid website traffic for apartment communities, paid search campaigns aren’t as promising in the winter as they are in the spring and summer. 

After the summer months, online Google searching for apartments steadily declines until it reaches an annual low in December. Searching picks up after the holidays in January and February but remains lower than the spring and summer months that follow.

When looking at lead conversion rates on apartment websites from organic Google search traffic, conversion rates start to drop below average from September all the way into February. When looking at conversation rates specifically in the winter months, December rates are lower than January and February. 

The drop in organic searches that occurs in winter reflects the overall lack of apartment searching during this season. Amidst a drop in the number of people searching Google for apartments, the number of apartment communities advertising on Google stays constant.

As a result, we’ve seen the price of apartment ads on Google increase during the winter months. Higher costs, fewer searchers, and steady competition creates a paid search environment that is less favorable for apartment communities.

The Opportunities…

Social media and display marketing are cheaper in the winter after the holiday season. Cost per click drops on Facebook and Instagram in January and February. January is the cheapest time of year to market an apartment on Facebook. The average CPC for apartment Facebook ads in January is 15% lower than the annual average. December is a slightly more expensive time of year to market to apartment seekers on Facebook. This is due mostly in part to the pool of advertisers running ads in the news feed in anticipation of the holidays. Once the holidays are over cost per click on Facebook drops 20%. Cost per click on Instagram drops 35% from December to January and remains 20% lower than the annual average through February.

Since it’s cheaper to reach apartment seekers on social platforms during January and February, apartment communities’ ad budgets stretch further on these platforms. This increases the volume of quality of website visitors coming into a community’s site.

The percentage of Facebook ad traffic that takes a lead action on apartment websites climb 27% on average from December to January. Instagram advertising conversion rates increase 67% on average from December to January and remain higher in February. More conversions per dollar spent make awareness-building platforms a better investment for communities in the winter months, especially after the month of December.

Creating a strategy for the winter months…

December is a tough time to market an apartment. Renters are focused on the holiday season and aren’t actively searching for apartments online. While marketing to apartment seekers on Facebook and Display networks isn’t at its peak in December, search is at its lowest point of the year, making awareness campaigns a better use of your ad dollars. As other advertisers compete to show holiday ads in the news feeds in December, prices remain higher across all platforms. Once the chimney smoke clears and the holiday season is over, communities are presented with a favorable outlook across social ad platforms like Facebook and Instagram and Display networks.

In the winter, communities get a better return on their advertising investment from channels that build awareness, compared to channels that capture demand. Advertising channels like Google ads are more expensive this time of year compared to the spring and summer and the audience searching is smaller. Apartment communities looking to get the most out of their marketing budget are better off shifting more ad spend towards awareness campaigns on social and display platforms and less on search ad campaigns from December to February.

So how do you build social and display ads that are positioned to succeed in the winter? What kinds of concessions and conversion strategies can communities use to create better winter marketing campaigns?

The post Winter Apartment Marketing Outlook appeared first on Conversion Logix.

In a world full of multiple online and offline touchpoints, it’s become increasingly important for communities to understand the journey their prospects engage in before they become a lead.

Where do potential renters go to find trustworthy sources of information about your community? Which marketing touchpoints do they engage with first? Are the channels prospects go through to find your community online and in person working for or against you? Amidst this growth in complexity, marketing channels and platforms are making a greater effort to give companies more transparency and better tools to answer these questions.

One of the channels communities have the most control over in the customer journey is their website. Most communities already have the tools they need to understand how prospects are interacting with it but don’t know how to use them.

In this two-part series, we’ll help you retrace your prospects’ digital footprints so you can find out which pages on your website lead to engagement, and which lead to abandonment. In part one, we’ll show you the pages website visitors are visiting as they navigate through your website. In part two, we’ll explore the website journey that highly interested prospects took before they became a lead.

Are you ready to start your investigation?

Step 1: Log into your Google Analytics account.

Yes. that scary place with all the numbers, charts and arrows. Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you make it out of there alive.

Step 2: Enter the “Behavior Flow” page.

On the left-hand side of your account sits a menu. To navigate to the “Behavior Flow” page you’ll need to first click on the “Behavior” tab.

Once you click on this tab the drop down menu will appear underneath it. Click on the tab labeled, “Behavior Flow”.

Step 3: Select your time range.

In the upper right-hand side of this page, you have the option to select the time frame you want to view the data from. We recommend looking at at least a month’s worth of data to get a better sample. A year’s worth is more ideal.

Navigating Through Your Behavior Flow Results

Now you should have an overview of your website traffic flow. In the first column, you can see the landing pages that your website visitors are entering into your site from. In most cases, your homepage will be the landing page you get the most traffic from (your homepage will be delineated by “ / “ or “/index”).

In the second column, you will see the starting page in your website visitor’s journey, if people leave the website from this page, they will be counted as a drop-off. The drop-offs are visually represented in red. If you hover over the red flows you will see the total number of people who dropped off after visiting a given page.

The grey flows show you where the traffic moved from one page to the next. The size of the flow represents the relative amount of traffic that passed through that customer journey. On most apartment websites the largest flow will be from the homepage (and other variations of it like the index page”) to the floorplans page. In this example, the floor plans page was the second page most website visitors visited after viewing the homepage. After this page, most people went back to the homepage.

Tracking Customer Journeys by Source & Campaign

One of the more interesting features that behavior flows offer is the ability to segment website journeys by marketing source or drill down to the marketing campaign or ad level. If you change the segmenting options within the first left-hand column in white, you can navigate between these filters.

Source

If you want to evaluate the flow of your traffic by the source of your marketing traffic, you can do so by selecting “Source” from the green drop-down menu on the upper left-hand side.

Once you select this view you will see a page that looks like the one below. At this level, you can evaluate whether some traffic sources lead to more drop-offs or whether if a marketing source is bringing in the website visitors who navigate through a series of pages on your site.

Campaign

If your community is running any specific marketing campaigns, such as Paid Search, Display, Social, or Email, you should use the campaign view to segment your traffic flow. All you have to do to navigate here is search or select “campaign” (it lives under the “Advertising” heading) in the same drop down menu you used to segment by source.

To get the most out of segmenting options like these, you can opt to highlight flows of traffic that come from different campaigns. If you select on the white campaign boxes on the left-hand side, an option appears to highlight website traffic from a campaign.

Once you take this step you’ll see a highlighted flow chart like the one below. This will help you isolate the traffic flow and drop off rates specific to a given campaign and compare them to your other marketing efforts.  

To return to the overview level, select the white campaign box and click on “clear highlighting”.

Interpreting Your Behavior Flow Results

High Drop Off Rates

If you’re noticing a high drop off rate on a particular page that could be an indication that your page isn’t effective or that your traffic isn’t as qualified. If you’re experiencing heavy drop-offs on your floorplans page that could be an indication that your pricing, types of units, and availability aren’t in alignment with your website traffic. If you believe traffic quality is the issue, dig deeper and uncover which campaigns have higher drop-off rates. Use this information to improve your targeting efforts. If your traffic is qualified but is still leaving your site at a high rate, it could be due to slow load times, bad website layouts or a lack of relevant information.

In the case of a one-page website, or with pages that contain the majority of the website’s information, a prospect doesn’t have a reason to navigate to another page, so communities will see a high drop off rate there.

Optimize Critical Pages

The most visited pages on your website are the most valuable pages on your website. If your average prospect only visits the homepage, floorplans page, and the gallery page, you know that those pages are critical to selling your community online. If you know which pages are the most important to your marketing efforts, you can prioritize optimizing those particular pages to get the most ROI from your site. In the examples stated above, it would make sense for that community to try incorporating gallery images of specific floorplans within the floorplan page so that prospect can find the information they are looking for right away. Communities should also ensure that call to actions are visible and relevant on critical pages so your community can maximize conversions in the places that are most likely to see the most traffic.

Conclusion

The first step to creating an exceptional customer journey is to understand the current one. We hope you walked away from this article with the skills you need to start tracking a critical component in your community’s online journey. Stay tuned for part 2, where we break down the path that led your most interested website visitors took before they converted into a lead.

The post Uncovering Your Prospects’ Website Journey: Part 1 appeared first on Conversion Logix.