Our mission at RentVision is to make renting your apartments easy, and over this past year we've updated many of the solutions within our Predictive Apartment Marketing System to continue doing just that.
Video: 2021 Year End Review
Noteworthy New Features We've Created In 2021
A Weekly Client Report
For RentVision clients with integration, a weekly client report will be sent by email every Tuesday with timely information about each of their communities. Metrics displayed within the report include number of available units and move-outs set to occur in the next 7 days, current ad budget, lead generation statistics, and their Future Occupancy compared to target at the community level, as well as the status of each of their units (leased or vacant), number of walkthrough video tours watched, market rent pricing, and more, at the bedroom level.
Example page within the weekly report.
Automatic Featured Floorplan Reordering Based On Future Occupancy
Additionally for clients with integration, the floorplan that needs the most traffic will automatically be placed first in both the Featured Floorplans section of their apartment community website's homepage, as well as in the Recommended Floorplans scroller on the individual floorplan pages.
Report Card & Ad Budget Calculator
The Report Card measures the most important marketing, leasing, and if applicable, revenue metrics, and gives each a grade based on how they compare with similarly sized communities. This will help reveal any shortcomings in areas like Average Call Duration where improvement is needed, which our Strategic Advisor can assist with.
The Ad Budget Calculator is a similar advising tool to help establish what the high and low ends of a community's marketing budget should be for both Google and Facebook ads so that our Predictive AI can automatically switch between the two as demand dictates.
Google And Facebook Ads Reporting In The RentVision Platform
We've updated the Google Ads page within the RentVision Platform (RVP) so that it shows a summary of campaigns, ad impressions, an ad example, and the amount of paid web traffic the ads are generating to the website.
Additionally, we've dedicated a similar page for Facebook Ads within RVP that features the same information.
in the RentVision Platform.
Alt-Text Added To Every Photo
In an effort to ensure RentVision's websites achieve Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Success Criterion 1.1.1, we've added alternative text descriptions to every image so that it's possible for all users—regardless of ability—to access a community's website and rent an apartment.
Corporate Site Photo Grid
We created the option for our clients to add a photo grid to the homepage of their corporate site and give visitors an idea of the various apartment communities (and amenities) they offer.
Other Updates In 2021
- We began calculating Future Occupancy metrics on properties with less than 60 units.
- Our client success team enhanced the Launch Survey, further streamlining the information gathering stage within our efficient onboarding process.
- Our advisors started using Cost Per Minute as the key metric for measuring the performance of digital advertising campaigns.
- The product team made strategic improvements within Google Ads, placing a higher value on visitors who spend more time on our clients' websites. This enables Google's machine learning to maximize our clients' ad spend by displaying ads that generate this highly qualified traffic.
- We added the ability for clients to add a Testimonials Slider to their corporate site's homepage.
- We created secure, password set-up emails for new users to easily gain access to RVP.
- Our product team added a System Status page, which is linked in the footer of RentVision.com, so our clients are aware if something goes wrong with community sites, corporate sites, or RVP.
- Prospective residents can now utilize a Commute Score Calculator—a new tool on our community sites—to see how long their commute is to their work from the apartments. The tool can calculate commute times for cars, bikes, walking, or bus transportation.
- We've added a Paid Web Traffic graph inside RVP for communities that are running digital ads. The graph displays both their monthly ad budget and the combined amount of paid visits generated from cost-per-click campaigns in Google and Facebook.
- Rather than setting an Annual Target Occupancy (ATO) based on a number a client gives us, we developed a method to dynamically calculate an ATO using their actual data (and assuming that they don't want to raise rent prices). The ATO will be calculated daily, reflecting the change in seasonality that occurs.
What's Coming In 2022
Here are just a few of many of the noticeable updates to our Predictive Apartment Marketing System coming next year:
Monthly Report
This report will be sent out via email on the first of every month, and will display the same metrics featured in the Report Card (advising tool) as well as ad performance data for every community.
New Future Occupancy Graphs In RVP
Our design team worked hard on creating an easily understandable Future Occupancy Graph that will be coming to RVP. When that's released, we'll also be unveiling a floorplan-specific performance table that lets clients see the historical performance of each floorplan and the corresponding rent changes.
Stair Stepped Budgets On Predictive Ads
Rather than toggling between just the low and high budgets a client sets for their ads, we will be implementing 'stair stepped' budgets that incrementally increase (or decrease) daily depending on demand.
Image Extensions On Google Ads
We will create more visibility for our clients' apartment communities by beginning to add images to complement their existing text ads in Google.