When you think about your list of employees and the roles they have within your organization, do you think about your property management website the same way you think about your employees?
Well, maybe you should.
While we’re on the topic – if your website was an employee, would you fire it?
Property Management Company Tasks and Processes
Every property management company is successful because it’s able to manage a collection of processes that need to be completed. Those processes are made up of different tasks, and those tasks are handled by roles.
The roles in your organization are described by job descriptions and filled by employees. But, they don’t have to only be people who work for you. They can also be vendors or partner agencies or even software systems and computer programs.
A website can fill a role, too. In fact, it can fill several roles.
A Well-Performing Website for Property Management:
The Jobs a Website Performs
What jobs would your website be responsible for, in a digital setting?
- Your website might be a Receptionist. You want to greet people efficiently and pleasantly and get them to where they are going.
- Your website must also provide Sales Support. It should help your sales people close business.
- Your website has to handle Marketing. It helps you bring the right people into the company.
- Your website is also a Leasing Agent. The vacancy page could be thought of as doing the work of an actual leasing agent.
Now that you know what you need your website to do, how do you review its performance?
Tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Websites
You should evaluate your website’s job performance in the same way you judge an employee’s performance: with KPIs.
It’s easy to track your website’s performance with Google Analytics. Two particular statistics will tell you what you need to know:
Bounces. This reflects the number of people that go to the front page or any page of the website and then just go away again. There will be a certain amount of these because some people are just looking for your address or some particular piece of information. But, tracking the number of bounces from your website is a good way to see if your website “receptionist” role is getting the job done.
Behavior Flow. You also want to look at what people are doing when they get to your site. Where did a particular visitor go when they arrived on your site? Are they easily finding the right pages? In other words, is your website “receptionist” directing people where they need to go?
Is your website providing appropriate sales support? It should be delivering high quality leads and ideal potential customers. The number of forms filled out does not matter quite as much as the quality of leads that are filling out the forms.
Evaluate how long people are staying on your website. Are they there for a while because they are engaged with the content? If you have a vacancy page, i.e., your website’s “leasing agent,” how long are people spending on that vacancy page? Are they getting the information they need, and are they filling out forms and making calls to you?
The job of your website is not simply to be a website. It’s not just there to look pretty.
A website needs support. To effectively market your products and sell your services, your website needs to be part of a complete marketing plan. You want to attract new customers who are just learning about property management and reach those owners who are ready to hire a management company, and need to know why they should choose you rather than your competition.
If you have any questions about your property management website, or anything pertaining to digital marketing for property managers, please contact us at Fourandhalf.
