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Property management lead generation can seem overwhelming, especially if you’re just starting out.
Where do you focus your efforts?
How should you divide up your budget if you have money to spend?
What are the best short-term and long-term property management marketing strategies, and which can you hire off or delegate to team members?
Below, we cover every major lead generation method property managers can use to attract high-quality clients.
Whether you’re just starting out or you’re a seasoned property manager with a team behind you, you’ll find something that can help kickstart or supplement your existing lead generation efforts.
7 Ways to generate property management leads
There’s a lot we can cover, but some lead generation methods are more time and energy intensive than others.
And still others require a certain level of financial investment to make work, or other resources.
So, in this section we’ll be covering those perfect beginner and early lead generation methods you can grab and use right now even without much budget.
1. Social media marketing
Social media marketing refers to both organic and paid marketing, but for this point we’ll focus primarily on organically attracting property owners to you.
Posting on social can be done in just a few minutes per day and can range wildly in content. The main thing here is to focus on those platforms you feel you have the best early results in.
After trying Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, if you’re getting the best results from TikTok, keep posting there.
For example, you could do short useful tips for property owners they can catch as they scroll through their feed. Make them visually appealing with some quick cuts or text overlay but don’t feel like you need to go overboard or even do any editing at all.
The most important thing here is just to post regularly and make that content you post hyper-focused on communicating to property owners.
2. Referrals
This can potentially be a big source of leads, as it doesn’t just refer to one singular source.
There are three main types of referrals you can collect:
Client referrals
The first are client referrals. These are referrals you receive from past or current clients who have been pleased with your services and, as a result, referred another landlord or company to you.
Family and friends referrals
Another powerful form of referrals, those from family and friends come primarily by way of them hearing about what you do and you reaching out.
Let them know how you help property owners and that if they know or ever run into one in need to offer your services.
These might not be frequent, but those you do get will be some of the highest-converting leads you can get.
Real estate agent referrals
Real estate agent referrals are different from the first two types of referrals in that this is a formal business arrangement.
Real estate agents and property managers work in the same general sphere. In fact, sometimes their jobs overlap as larger property management firms will often manage their client’s entire portfolio, even the buying and selling.
But if you’re starting out, one potentially great source of leads is in making relationships with local real estate agents.
Let them know that you’ll refer sales of your client’s properties to them, or simply offer them a referral fee, while in exchange they agree to pass you referrals of their investor clients who are in need of property management.
3. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network.
That makes it the perfect place to go for both property managers looking for property investors with whom they can reach out to as well as a place where investors and property owners go looking for property management.
So not only should you have your LinkedIn profile set up and ready to impress, you should also put together a strategy for 1-to-1 reaching out to investors.
Now is a great time to publish content to LinkedIn as well, as it offers big reach for very little ad spend.
4. Send direct mail
Direct mail is simple and a bit dated now, but still effective and a relatively easy strategy to employ or hire someone else to handle.
By requesting access to your city or county’s assessor database, you can reference whose mailing and property addresses are different, suggesting that the person owns but does not live in the property.
After making your list, it’s time to design and print the marketing material you’ll be using and mail it off.
5. Cold call local property owners and investors
I know, *cringe*. It’s not a very fun-sounding thing to do.
But if the phrase makes you recoil at the thought of being screamed off the phone, don’t worry.
Not only is it far easier to cold call when reaching out to other professionals (who will typically treat you with professionalism in return), but you can easily hire an assistant to handle both gathering the list and the calling for you.
And, let’s not forget the most important thing: it works.
It’s not the best lead generation method on this list, but it can be a useful supplement to an overall lead generation strategy.
Even better, combine it with what we talked about in the previous point– meaning call them after they should have received your direct mail– and suddenly a cold call has some warmth.
This:
“Hey Jane, this is Mark, I’m the founder of a local property management company.
I noticed you own a beautiful property at [address]. Have you ever thought of having a manager handle the day-to-day upkeep of your property?”
Becomes this:
“Hey Jane, it’s Mark. Did you get my mail? I recently sent you a small brochure mentioning my property management services.
I noticed you own a beautiful property at [address]. Have you ever thought of having a manager handle the day-to-day upkeep of your property?”
It might sound like a small difference, the little bit of added warmth can go a long way toward convincing the prospect to hear you out as it instantly makes them more comfortable with you.
6. Start and join Facebook groups
This is another effective lead generation strategy. However, this one is a bit on the longer-end as it requires patience.
There are lots of real estate and property-related communities on Facebook and likely several in your area.
However, the good ones don’t typically allow self-promotion. Instead, you need to be as helpful as possible to attract organic attention over time.
So:
- Answer questions
- Join in discussions
- And just generally be active
Another reason for this is most groups will allow the occasional promotion of some kind if you’re an active member who is contributing regularly to the group.
Though the main benefit will come in making a name for yourself in the group and being a known figure in property management.
So, the next time someone needs services you might just come to mind. All you need to do then is make sure your Facebook profile clearly presents what you do and how you can help.
7. Take part in and join local clubs and meetups
This last one is a wide branching topic that covers a number of things, but they all revolve around the idea of getting active in your local community with investors.
That includes:
- Visiting meetups found on sites like Meetup.com
- Scheduling your own meetups with local real estate and property professionals
- Joining local property investor clubs and other property professional groups
4 Advanced property management lead generation
Now, let’s dive into a few more advanced lead generation tactics.
These either take a decent budget, skill level, or simply take more time than many of the methods mentioned in the last section.
With that said, they can be some of the most effective lead generation methods of all:
1. Content Marketing
This includes a number of different things, such as:
- Starting a blog (primarily to tap SEO)
- A podcast
- Or a YouTube channel
Taken together, it’s one of the single most powerful lead generation methods.
Content marketing doesn’t generally cost much of anything, but it does require time and patience, whether that’s through building a blog to rank for keywords on Google or a YouTube channel.
However, once you are set up it can be an amazing source of evergreen leads.
2. Start a podcast
Technically a part of content marketing, the way you can use a podcast is entirely unique from other types of content. So, let’s cover that here.
Starting a podcast where you interview local property investors and other real estate professionals is a powerful way to not only generate leads but connections all throughout your local industry.
The basic idea: contact local professionals and tell them you’d like to ask them some questions about what they do.
People love talking about themselves, so it’s an easy thing getting others to agree to let you interview them. And, over time, you can create a foothold in your local market and begin to be seen as an expert.
Establishing yourself as a local expert might not immediately seem like the route to success, but in today’s digital world it is one of the most effective ways of guaranteeing a regular flow of high quality leads to your doorstep.
3. Paid advertising
Paid advertising (PPC) by its very nature will take a decent budget, but it’s also one of the single best sources of leads for property managers.
There are a number of platforms you can pay to advertise on, whether it’s through the top-page listings on Google or a midroll or banner ad on social:
- Google Ads
- YouTube advertising
- Social media marketing (SMM) via social platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.
- Yelp advertising
4. Pay-per-lead services
Another great paid marketing option are pay-per-lead (PPL) services.
Pay-per-lead services are platforms that allow you to pay to obtain leads from owners and property investors.
A few examples of pay-per-lead platforms include:
So, when should you and should you not use pay-per-lead services?
They’re a great way to generate quick leads, like most paid advertising methods.
They’re also a great way of getting highly qualified leads, which could make it worth it just in the time you save.
With that said, the cost of acquiring said leads can be high and there can be other fees associated. So, if you’re on a tight budget it may not be the best avenue yet.
What do you do with all these leads?
We hope this list of lead generation tips and methods gets you started in the right direction, or supercharges your existing lead gen.
But one question remains: once you’ve begun generating leads, what do you do with them?
With both generating clients and leads and applicants for your client’s properties, you’ll encounter the same issue.
The solution is a CRM or customer relationship management system that allows you to centralize and organize all lead communications.
With DoorLoop’s all-in-one property management software, you can not only manage every facet of your client’s properties, you can also:
- Send communications directly from within the app
- Store contact information for safe keeping
- And track progress with those prospects, both for your future clients and applicants for your client’s properties
If you’re ready to start taking your lead generation efforts seriously, check out DoorLoop to see how it can help level up your lead generation.
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