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Under Construction: Building a Property Management Company From the Ground Up

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According to a 2013 report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, a whopping 43 million American households now live in residential rental properties. For entrepreneurs considering property management, this growing figure represents a staggering pool of business opportunities. While the growth potential of this industry has skyrocketed, both would-be property managers and established firms need to formulate a strategic growth plan to maximize profits and build momentum. The following steps are among the most crucial for anyone looking to start a property management company.

Build a Reputation

Are you eager to court homeowners en masse, but struggling to make an impact in your local market? Building a great reputation takes time, but there are certain keys you can use to accelerate the process. First and foremost, focus on providing exceptional service to the customers you already possess. Some business owners mistakenly direct their zeal at reaching new clients, in turn neglecting those who already entrust their homes to the property firm.

Organic feedback and reviews from your customers will help firmly establish your business’ credibility, but consider joining both national and local housing associations to further polish your image. Groups like the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM) and the Better Business Bureau (BBB) provide affiliate membership to real estate professionals. Joining these groups gives you access to a powerful network of other players in the industry, while also offering peace of mind to potential customers.

Master the Art of Marketing

The modern business owner must remain versatile and in tune with current market trends. If you haven’t already established a marketing plan, begin working on identifying the niche you’d like to target and craft a strategy for reaching those individuals. Consider using a combination of both offline and online marketing campaigns to better connect with homeowners, property investors, and tenants. When in doubt, turn to a professional team to polish your company’s vision and create an aesthetically pleasing brand image.

Embrace Technological Resources

Whereas property management websites once featured nothing more than a few simple lines of text about available properties, today’s real estate firms have access to cutting-edge tools that make it easy to find new clients, process tenant applications, and interact with existing customers. Property management portals like AppFolio and Propertyware are two notable examples. Don’t hesitate to integrate these tools into your business website—not only will this approach satisfy your customers, but it will help to streamline your workflow and maximize your staff’s efficiency.

When the various responsibilities of running a property management company are addressed appropriately, this unique industry can prove quite lucrative. On the flip side, neglecting the fundamentals of building a vibrant, modern brand could have devastating consequences for the longevity of your company.

Are you ready to take your business to the next level? Schedule a consultation today and let our marketing experts take the reigns. We’ll analyze your current property management site, provide you with practical feedback and advice, and help you build a strategy moving forward. From advertising campaigns to property portal integration, our talented team of developers, content creation experts, and marketing gurus can’t wait to help bring your vision to fruition.

Call us today to learn more.

Frightening Ways Your Website is Losing Leads

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Frightening Ways Your Website is Losing Leads

It’s Halloween, and in honor of the holiday, we’re going to take a look at some frightening ways your website could be losing you leads. If your website is not properly set up to get conversions and bring in leads, you’re losing out on potential business and bleeding money. The scariest part is, you’re probably not even aware of it!

There are many fundamental items your website must contain to have a high conversion rate – these include layout, design, and content. If your website is missing even just one of these important factors, your bottom line could be affected.

Above the Fold

What is”above the fold” and why is it important? Above the fold is the area of your website a visitor will first lay eyes upon when coming to your site, the area that is visible without having to scroll down. Sometimes referred to as the hero or the showcase area, this is your first chance to catch people’s attention, tell them what you can do for them, and address their pain point.

You want to answer their question: What’s in it for me?

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Does your showcase area effectively target your key audience? Does it contain the important elements that will turn visitors into customers?

If the answer is no to either of these questions, then you could be losing out on potential business.

Homepage Content
Of course, when we think about content, we think about the words on the page and crafting great copy to draw in our visitors and sell them on our products. What most people don’t know is that content isn’t just words.

 

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There are key elements every website needs to have to grab attention and convince your would-be customers that they need you. These include forms, social proof, and up-to-date contact information, just to name a few. Above and beyond that, there is a specific formula to these elements that, if followed, will greatly transform your business and increase your sales.

Other Features
Websites that are built for marketing will assuredly capture more leads and increase your sales. There are many features a website can include to capture these leads, and if your website doesn’t have these items, you’re bleeding money and missing out.

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So, how do you know if your website is effective at capturing leads and turning over conversions? Which features should your website include, and what should your forms ask your visitors for? If only there were some type of test you could take to figure all of this out for you . . .

Introducing DoorGrow, a simple test you can take in just a few moments to evaluate how well your website is at getting you those leads. Geared towards property management websites (because that’s our specialty), this test will walk you through your website step-by-step and ask questions to determine if you’re losing out on leads or converting like a pro.

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Editor’s Note: If you’re not a property manager or a property management website, don’t be afraid to take the test, too. It’s targeted towards getting more doors for property management companies, but it’s still a great test to evaluate key elements every website should have to increase conversions and sales.

Building incredibly effective websites is what we do at OpenPotion—after all, we’re marketers first and designers second. Take our free test today  and discover for yourself if your website is costing  you leads.

 

-Starr, Content Goddess

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Why is WordPress the Best CMS Choice for Property Management Websites?

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If you’ve made the decision to use WordPress as the starting point of your property management website, you’re already off to a great start. While there are several other choices out there for a content management system for your website (such as Joomla and Drupal) there are a number of advantages that WordPress brings to the table.

But first, you may be asking yourself what exactly is a content management system and why use a CMS in the first place?

What a CMS Does

Essentially, a CMS is a web application that makes it easy for non-technical people to edit, update, and manage their website through a visual interface. You no longer have to be a hardcore coder to make grand changes to your website – with a few sweeping motions of your mouse and a few clicks, you can add in a video, change the background image, edit the text content, or create an entirely new page.

The power of a content management system effectively hides all of the “behind the scenes” complicated stuff allowing the user to focus on the website’s message and presentation.

 

WordPress makes creating and editing your site easier.

WordPress makes creating and editing your site easier.

 

Even though creating an interface that is easy for the average user to use is the goal for all CMSs, it’s important to note that not all CMSs are created equally–in fact, many management systems can still be fairly complicated applications that will challenge your intellectual prowess.

Why use WordPress?

WordPress has been downloaded 140 million times, while the next popular CMS was only downloaded 30 million times. This gives you a pretty clear picture of just how widely used WordPress is. Simply put, it’s popular for a very important reason: it’s easy to learn and use.

Some of the major WordPress advantages:

  • You’re in good company: CNN, Harvard, Forbes, and the White House use WP.
  • Responsive: works on mobile phones and tablets
  • Manage your website from any computer, anywhere in the world
  • Search engines LOVE WordPress: it’s easy for search engines to read and index your site, and includes options for precise search engine optimization (SEO). Getting ranked highly by search engines has always been a tough battle – by choosing WP, you make it that much easier to gain valuable ground.
  • Everything is 100% customizable – from the text content to the visual layout, you have as much control over your site as you need.
  • Make Your Website Do What It Needs to Do: with 27,000 free plugins available, you can add new functionality and life to your site in minutes—add contact forms, photo galleries, event calendars, live chat, rental listings, application forms, and more.
  • You don’t have to know a thing about HTML, CSS, PHP, or FTP (or even what they stand for):  WordPress is hands down the easiest CMS to use for beginner users, and you can make all your changes entirely within the visual interface.

If you’re thinking of creating or redesigning your property management company’s website, you are on the right track. With more than 70% of renters starting their search online, and more than 92% of home buyers using the internet to find their next home, WordPress will allow you to set up a website quicker and easier.  And thanks to the many SEO features and options, you’ll reach more property owners and tenants in larger numbers than before.

Even still, there is a way to take it a step further.

Enter OpenPotion . . .

While many property managers are satisfied with using WordPress out of the box, we know our clients expect more. When we develop a website using WordPress, we add extra functionality and features that go above and beyond the standard CMS.

We add a tried-and-true layout that converts users to customers: even if you add your own pages or content, your site will still follow the basic rules and layouts we’ve established to convert.

Wanting to make things even easier, we add “drag and drop” functionality: editing your site has NEVER been this easy before. Want a text box on your page? Then you simply drag a text box where you want it to be on the page, then edit the type. Want to add a button? A testimonial? Click, drag, drop, then customize it as you see fit.

 

Here’s just a sample of the visuals you might see when editing your WP OpenPotion website.

With WordPress as your CMS and OpenPotion as your tour guide through the process, you’ll save time, lower costs, increase sales, and end up with an incredibly effective website.

Ready to discover what OpenPotion can do for your business?  Contact us today.

-Morgan, Website Developer

Morgan