Property Management Leads: Buy vs. Rent Analogy

Today we are illustrating two marketing methods used to help property managers acquire new property management leads. Whether you’re working with Fourandhalf or another marketing company, understanding these two marketing methods will help you to more effectively decide how to invest in growing your property management business. To keep it simple, we like to look at property management marketing the same way an individual might look at renting a property versus buying a property.

When you rent a home, you get immediate gratification. You pay your rent and you have a place to live that’s ready for you to occupy. When you buy a home, it takes a little more time and effort to get your desired result. You have to save up for a down payment and get a good mortgage. Then, you are able to own something that increases in value over time. Digital marketing strategies can often work the same way.

Fast Growth (Renting)

The first method is what we call fast growth and basically you’re renting your leads because you’ll use services like Allpropertymanagement.com, where you have to pay for any potential leads. There is also Google Adwords which helps you find new business by advertising on Google and showing up on the front page of any Google search. This puts your information in front of potential landlords, and hopefully they will call you.

This method is expensive, but it works. In fact, its greatest advantage is that it works quickly. It tends to be cost effective as well. Our customers who engage in a Google Adwords campaign generally spend between $200 and $400 in order to close on one new contract. That isn’t the cost per lead; it’s the cost of bringing in one new property under management.

Here’s the disadvantage of the fast growth approach: you have nothing to show for it in the long term. As soon as you stop paying Google or Allpropertymanagement.com or any of the other resources out there, you have nothing new coming in. You have not built anything to last.

Platform Growth (Buy)

The second method requires you to build your platform, which takes longer to work. The three main components of building a lead generation platform (or, your company Digital Identity) is Content Marketing, Reputation Management and Social Media. You have to put content together; write articles and film videos. You have to make sure all of your content is engaging and informative and it addresses your client’s pain pain points. This requires you to dig in deep and really come up with good information. Before you do that, you’ll have to understand your customers and get a sense of what your potential clients need. Then, you need to incorporate your social media and your Google Plus page. There are a lot of pieces to put together in order to create a meaningful and effective presence on the Internet, so you won’t have the benefit of instant gratification.

This method takes a little extra time, but it’s successful. You will start getting leads organically. Instead of paying per lead, you’ll naturally get more traffic to your website and your landing page. Over time, the cost is also much lower than the fast growth approach. Our customers can pay as little as $50 per management contract after building a platform. It’s a long term strategy and there is unpredictable business growth. However, that growth improves with time (similar to appreciating Real Estate) as your content and your reputation online grow. Google will begin to value your presence and your longevity, so you’ll find yourself with more exposure and more leads.

As you can see, it’s possible to rent or buy Growth through a digital marketing strategy. At Fourandhalf, we recommend a solid combination of these strategies if you can do both. That way, you have control over how fast you grow today, while building your company’s digital identity and lead generation engine for years to come.

If you have any questions about how you can benefit from these strategies, you know you can contact us at Fourandhalf . We love responding to your questions and hearing your feedback.