How To Gain More Property Management Leads & Grow Your Business

In this article, we will uncover some of the most impactful ways for you to gain more property management leads and grow your vacation rental management business.

To grow your property management business you must first develop and curate a list of qualified leads - this is no simple task. Lead generation can be tough but luckily Hostaway is here to help!

We have a list of the 6 best ways to gain more property management leads. These are tried and true ways of generating new leads. Use these tips to develop and finetune your lead generation strategy.

Build Your Website

Let’s start with the basics, get yourself a website!

Not only should you get yourself a website but you should invest your time into building and optimizing it. Your website is the face of your business so it better be great!

When designing your site determine your goals. If you want to develop your business by gaining new properties make that obvious. Let visitors know instantly that you provide property management services and you’re looking for new properties. Studies have shown that you have under 5 seconds to communicate your message to a visitor. If your company message is not articulated within 5 seconds visitors will bounce from your website.

Secondly, make sure to add many call-to-actions (CTA) throughout your website especially in your main navigation. Your goal is to have as many prospective clients call and email you as possible so make sure those visitors can easily navigate to your contact page and find a phone number.

Pro Tip: Build your website using Wordpress in order to leverage Hostaway's Wordpress reservation plugin.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

You’ve got your site, great! However it’’s somewhat useless unless prospective clients see it.

One of the most powerful strategies for gaining leads is search engine optimization. Ranking highly in Google can often seem like an impossible task but with some dedication and know how it can be an amazing strategy for gaining more property management leads and developing your brand. Studies show that organic search traffic is some of the most valuable traffic your website can generate. This is not surprising since they’re specifically searching for your exact service.

The key to SEO in the property management industry is focusing your attention on your local market. Local SEO is a collection of strategies and tactics that helps you rank in your local geographic area. By optimizing your website for local search terms you do not need to compete with companies with deep marketing budgets that are trying to capture national/ international search queries.

Some great keywords to focus on are:

• Property management + {your market}
• Airbnb management + {your market}
• Vacation rental management + {your market}

Pro Tip: Make sure to claim your Google My Business (GMB). GMB provides a significant Local SEO boost.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

PPC is the paid shortcut for getting to the top of Google. This can be a powerful strategy for quickly generating traffic to your website.

This may seem like an expensive marketing strategy but with a strong campaign you’ll only pay for qualified leads that are interested in your service. The truth is it’s one of the most targeted marketing campaigns you can do and has measurable returns on your investment.

PPC like SEO should be focused on your regional market and utilize long tail keywords that target your ideal customer.

Pro Tip: Use the “negative keywords” feature when developing your campaigns in order to better target your ideal customers and improve your return on investment.

Networking

This strategy is simple; make some new friends and stay in touch with your current ones!

Having a strong network is a fantastic way to passively gain leads. You’ll be surprised where leads come from when people know who you are and what you do.

Better yet networking can help you gain new property management leads but also new employees, partnerships, suppliers, or advisors.

A great place to start is by attending real estate meetups in your community, joining your local chamber of commerce, or tourism board.

In addition to building your network within your local community find ways to connect with others within your industry. This can include developing your relationship with your suppliers, vendors, and of course Hostaway! But also with other property managers and hosts within the short term rental community.

Don’t think this networking is impossible because of Covid. Send an email, pick up the phone, or join an online community such as Bigger Pockets, Linkedin, or Facebook Groups.

Pro Tip: When trying to develop your network don’t come out of the gate looking for new leads. Gaining leads is hopefully an outcome of being a great friend and/or connection.

Referrals

Once you’ve built a network consider providing referral bonuses or simply asking for leads. If you’re well respected, trustworthy, and great to work with, most people are happy to help, especially when incentivised with a referral bonus.

The best people to offer referral bonuses are to realtors and other property management companies. Realtors and property managers have connections with many homeowners that may be interested in your service.

Common Referral Program Structures:

• Fixed Rate for a Closed Deal

For example paying $1,000 to the referrer after signing a contract with the new homeowner. When setting up a referral program this way make sure to consider the earning potential of the property. Properties earning $100,000 / year are more valuable than properties earning $20,000 / year.

• __Fixed Period Revenue Share for a Closed Deal __

For example paying 25% of the first month's gross revenue to the referrer after signing a contract.

• Lifetime Revenue Share for a Closed Deal

For example paying 2% - 5% of the gross revenue to the referrer after signing a contract with the new homeowner.

Each of these referral structures has it’s own unique benefits and drawbacks.

Facebook Groups

We admit it this is similar to #4 but Facebook Groups are amazing, often underutilized, lead generation strategies and need to be highlighted.

You’re probably wondering where is Social Media Marketing (SMM) on this list? Why are we focusing on Facebook Groups? The answer is Social Media is a great tool for building a brand but is not the best for generating new leads. Facebook Groups on the other hand has active audiences, with shared interests, that are likely not aware of your service. Bonus: it’s free marketing!

Join your local community Facebook groups, Airbnb hosting groups, and local housing groups. You never know when someone will post in the group looking for someone to help manage properties in your community.

Even if no one makes a post explicitly asking for management services you’ll have a list of homeowners in your local community. The membership of Facebook groups is a giant list of potential clients that may need your service!

Within the group you can post advertising your service and regularly communicate with homeowners within your target community.

Pro Tip: If the community you want doesn’t already exist, start one! Perhaps even register for the Airbnb Community Leaders Program and have Airbnb endorse your group.