With 72% of renters using the Internet to find their next apartment, every landlord and property management needs to have a well managed business website for their current and future residents. A professional online presence will connect your with your renters, help you acquire new clients, and establish your business in the community.
This article will look at key components to create an awesome homepage for your professional property management website. Some website design companies or marketing firms will charge you thousands of dollars to create the content for your homepage, but you can do it yourself for free by following these simple steps.
You do not need to be a programmer or software developer to create a beautiful website for your business. Website templates and builders are all ready coded on the back-end, so all you have to do is develop the content, write the copy, and select the visual elements with the easy to use website building tools.
When creating content for a new website, it is important to ask yourself a few questions prior to diving in. Treat each page with a goal and a mission to deliver a clear message to your target audience or viewer.
Ask yourself:
- Who do I want to read/see this website?
- What is in it for them?
- Where are they in the buying process?
- What keywords or phrases would they most likely use to search for your solution?
Each page of your website should include the following features:
- Engaging Headline
- Easy to read description of your product or services
- Keywords or phrases so you can be easily found online (See SEO for more information)
- Short sentences and paragraphs broken up with subheadings
- A conversational tone/style of writing. Address the reader as “you”.
- Identify solutions/benefits your service provides to your audience’s’ problems
- Zero grammatical errors or typos
- Call to action
- Images
- Obvious site navigation
- Logo and company name
- Contact Information
- Mobile Friendly
This guide will take a deeper look at each of these webpage features.
You will also find a Website Development Content Checklist here to further assist you.
Headline
You have 3 seconds to make an impression on your site visitors and they want to know exactly what your company offers, as presented by the headline on your homepage. A headline is different from your company’s name.
Your headline should be clear, simple and to the point. Use big font for your headline, followed by a subheading that offers a brief description of your services and resonates with a common pain-point of your customers. Hubspot recommends that you make headlines and sub-headlines at 22 px, and body copy at least 14 px.
- Learn More from Kissmetrics Guide to 9 Steps to Write Your Ultimate Home Page Headline
Benefits
You need to entice your site visitors to work with your company by presenting the benefits of your services. Tell them what you offer that makes you standout among your competitors.
For example:
- Are you a landlord that offers easy online rent payments?
- Do you offer rent discounts or community parties to your residents?
- What amenities make your properties standout? Even saying you allow pets will attract a lot of renter prospects.
- Are you a property manager that provides owners access to complete reports through a portal?
Your website is the perfect place to demonstrate the value you bring your current and future tenants and owners.
Simple Copy
Keep the copy and text of your website simple and easy to read. You should write in a conversational style that addresses your reader directly. Keep paragraphs short of easy scanning. I recommend that all paragraphs should be between 1-3 sentences and separated with headings and subheadings.
As you write about the benefits and services your provide your industry, remember to include keywords and phrases. Keywords will help people easily find you online when they search for rentals online in your area. Including keywords in your website copy is basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and a very important part of maintaining your online web presence.
Calls-to-Action
Calls-to-action is a marketing buzzword that refers to a line item, link, or button, that directs a website visitor to take an engaging step on your website or with your company. Calls-to-action can be a simple, “Learn More” item like the one above that guides you to a helpful resource. Or they can be a lead capturing form that asks site visitors for an email address to get more information. Another example of a call-to-action is a guide or ebook that you may ask a site visitor to download.
For property managers and landlords, your primary calls-to-action from a homepage should focus on getting your site visitors to click on your Rentals Page to view vacancies, to “Apply Now” for an available property, or to easily find your contact information for more information about available properties or property management services for new owner clients.
- Learn More from Real Estate Marketing Blog >> Real Estate Calls to Action
User Friendly Design
Your website should present a design and style that is friendly to online readers. 7Elements shares the following advice for website designs to improve user experience, “To enhance users experience on your [business] website, you need to organize the content for scanning…Break things down into short paragraphs, use bullet points…Simplicity and basic colors are the best bet. Again, the content is the focus.”
Mobile Friendly Website
With 50% of renters using a smartphone to search for an apartment online, it is vital that your website is mobile friendly. A mobile friendly website will automatically adjust to fit the screen size of the user’s internet device.
When you pick your website platform, make sure the company prioritizing mobile friendly features and includes this without you needing to do anything extra to the platform.
Images
Quality images need to be a priority for your website and all your marketing material. As a visual society, images have become an important way to communicate. Marketing expert, Jeff Bullas points out the following reasons to publish images and photos on your business website:
- Articles with images get 94% more total views
- 60% of consumers are more likely to consider or contact a business when an images shows up in local search results.
- In an ecommerce site, 67% of consumers say the quality of a product images is “very important” in selecting and purchasing a product.
- In an online store, customers think that the quality of a product’s image is more important than product-specific information (63%), a long description (54%) and ratings and reviews (53%)
It is important to include high quality images that have been properly formatted on your website. No one will take you seriously as a professional if you include blurry, stretched or smashed images on your website. It is equally important to make sure your logo is high quality as well.
Site Navigation
Poor navigation will lead to a high bounce rate on your homepage. It’s important to give your visitors a clear path into your site all while making sure your navigation is visible, simple and easy to find.
Contact Information
Your contact information should be easy to find on your homepage and in the navigation of your site. Providing a phone number and email address will build your credibility as a professional business. Being easy to contact will also make is so you can always address your current and future clients needs.
Bad communication or being hard to reach is one of the biggest complaints about poor customer service. Having your contact information easy to find will automatically make you stand out.
Google Voice and Skype offer easy resources to set yourself up with a business number so you don’t have to publish your personal number online.
If you are looking for a property management website platform, that gives you an easy website design tool to create an awesome homepage, Rentec Direct offers landlords and property managers a free professional website and domain registration. Learn more at Rentecdirect.com
