How to attract tenants to your letting agency website

Some letting agencies may not be as lucky as our tenant rich cousins in major cities like London , Dublin etc.

How do tenants find your listings

In my previous blog post “using Google keyword planner effectively”, I discussed how letting agencies can drive more landlords to their site. But if you’re an agency that is on the other end of the scale and you are looking at how to attract tenants to your website well then the approach is a little different.

What are the search terms that tenants use

Tenants search terms tend to be a lot simpler as they don’t tend to normally be bothered if they rent from a property management company, letting agency or landlord. They tend to mainly search through the portals and use terms such as “flats to rent in Fulham” . The search results that tenants normally use tend to be dominated by portals and dependent on location and if the search is generic your letting agency website most likely will only ever get listed in the bottom half of the first page of results. This isn’t great as the stats will show 70% of clicks will be on the top half of the page.

How to improve your search return

You can improve your search return by being a little more specific in your listings and to use different sources of marketing. For example if your tenants search term is a little more specific you have a greater chance of returning on the first page. We can target these searches through long tail keywords (In my previous blog I illustrated what long tail keywords were) By listing your property on your own website with a full street or complex address in the page title, keywords etc its more likely to come up in the top half of search results.

Long Tail keywords a more detailed searcher

If your tenant was to look for a property within a specific complex or road within an area you are much more likely to appear on the top half if not 1^st of the search returns.

Example

Lets say a tenant was looking for an apartment on “Manchester Ave”, they may conduct a search such as “Manchester Ave apartment to let”. This gives you a much higher chance and ability to rank on the top half of search results.

How can you rank on top of the search terms

I would first of all recommend to use YouTube when advertising your properties. By recording a quick and informative property overview, uploading it and listing the property on your letting agency YouTube station with the location name in the video title, descriptive text and keywords you are much more likely to get to the top of search returns.

If fact type in “Manchester Ave apartment to let” into Google and you will see how I have done this with a very simple post. Not only does it come to the top half of the page but a video box displays showing that a video is there. As a result the searcher (tenant) will be drawn to the image.

Tenants Database

If attracting tenants to your property management company is what you looking to do then its vital you store the tenants details in a database to use as more suitable properties come on the books. If you want a cutting edge tenants database for free I would be delighted to give you access to one just click here.

Generation Yers or echo boomers … call them what you like but this group of professionals in their 20s and 30s make up a significant portion of the rental population and will probably therefore be a fair share of the potential tenant pool.

So how do you attract these tenants to your property?

Figure out their needs, match your property to them accordingly insofar as possible and market the property so the Gen Yers know you’ve got what they want! Sounds simple doesn’t it? But we all know economic conditions are not making life simple at the moment. However, here are some tips on attracting Generation Yers to get you started.

Attracting tenants with mod cons

Mod cons are a must. The property doesn’t need to have everything under the sun in it, but basic expectations should be met. Going above expectations such as having the latest model of a fridge instead of one from a few years ago or under-floor heating would be a plus, but of course may not be possible. Generation Yers may want to add their own mod cons as time goes by and of course it is at the landlords’ discretion whether or not they’re happy to go with it.

Image credit Adegie

Tech savy tenants

Internet connection is also a must. While Generation Yers may not have been immersed in technology since birth like the Net Generation, they are still very tech-savvy. Working for companies like Google and Facebook means that the internet and various technologies and gadgets are a part of their daily lives, and will obviously extend to their home lives. Because of this, being able to connect to various cable outlets for gaming or for music is also important.

Leading on from the above, we’ve all heard some variation of the phrase ‘my phone is my life; I’d be lost without it’. The theft or damage of some technological gadget is a great loss to a Generation Yer, and so they need to know that their belongings are not covered by a landlord’s contents insurance, (s)he needs to have their own.

Amenities

Another feature of how you will attract more of Gen Yers is how they’re always connected to others. Again this is mostly through technology but most of them are not hermits, they like real life interaction too! Therefore, you need to emphasise how close your property is to others. Not just other homes but also to shops, cafés, parks etc. Also when advertising, use every platform you possibly can. Don’t just stick to the old reliables, check out smartphone and tablet apps.

Transparency

Offer your Gen Yers a renting platform like Rentview. This way they can have complete access to the rent schedule with their own secure login. They will also have access to a complete online detailed picture inventory and monthly rent receipts, to name but a few features.

Feedback

Finally, when the lease is over, ask the tenants what they thought of the property and how it could be improved for future tenants. Learning is a lifelong process, and being open to it could mean a faster agreement and a higher rent in the future. Maybe even as soon as the next tenant!

by Andreas Riha

Tag: attracting tenants