If you have vacant rental units, you’re probably looking for ways to maximize leads.

Between digital advertising, social media marketing, and word-of-mouth, you’re constantly seeking to multiply leads and find qualified tenants for your properties. But devoting your attention to each lead individually can quickly eat away at your time.

Fortunately, it’s possible to automate much of the lead management process with digital tools.

From lead capture and follow-up messages to showings and referrals, automation is now at the heart of modern rental advertising and leasing.

With automated tools operating your administrative tasks and other responsibilities, you can focus on your other priorities, such as repairs or tenant screening.

Here’s how to automate your lead management to fill your vacancies faster.

Lead Capture and Automatic Follow-Ups

Your lead magnets—listings, social media posts, and other marketing content—work hard to attract potential renters for your units. 

Many rental property advertising sites go a step further. Instead of simply attracting leads, sites like Zillow and Apartments.com allow you to compose follow-up messages in advance.

For example, let’s say a renter clicks on your listing and indicates their interest in your property. While you can certainly reply to the renter personally, it’s much quicker to automate that initial message. This way, every interested renter will receive a message in which you introduce yourself, thank them for their interest, and indicate next steps. If the renter doesn’t respond, you can also set follow-up messages to initiate.

This method is effective primarily because it prevents you from wasting time on renters who weren’t seriously interested in renting your property in the first place.

Tour Scheduling

How do you schedule showings and tours? If you haven’t already automated this process, you might be managing tours inefficiently.

Several software programs are available to automate tour scheduling. By syncing with your calendar, these platforms allow renters to schedule a tour of your properties on their own, during times you’ve already indicated you’re available.

Automated tour scheduling saves you from administrative nightmares and streamlines your schedule.

Data Analysis/Insights

Have you ever analyzed your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)? If not, it’s time to start. Automatically generated datapoints can lead to insights that transform your lead management.

Many data analytics are available for free on your property management software. Your software keeps track of important metrics like revenue, leads, and expenses throughout the year to help you find out what’s working and what isn’t.

Chatbots and Virtual Assistants

Chatbots and virtual assistants are another way automation can improve your lead management.

As Natural Language Processing improves, chatbots are even more effective at helping users find what they’re looking for simply by asking.

Either of these tools can be embedded on your company website to help users navigate pages and find the information they’re looking for. Interested renters can ask questions, locate facts like prices and utilities, and get in touch with you or a team member by interacting with the program.

Property Management Software

Using property management software is the number one way you can automate your rental business.

Software offers many tools to help you manage your leads in addition to your current tenants. For instance, listing syndication allows you to upload one listing to your software account and post it to listing sites across the internet. Listing sites like Apartments.com also offer syndication, but property management software platforms tend to have more options and can therefore expand your reach more quickly.

Property management software also makes screening new leads much simpler. Instead of requesting renters’ ID or social security numbers to independently run credit and background checks, you can combine all screening steps with your software. View a complete credit, criminal, and eviction history for each applicant without tracking down the reports individually.

Conclusion

Automation is at the forefront of many industries in 2022. For the real estate industry, automation is one of the most efficient ways to maximize lead management. By taking advantage of these tools, you can generate more leads in a shorter period of time and keep your units filled year after year.