Stacy Bouchard from D2 Demand Solutions posed the question “Is your Sales Process Prospect-Centered?” a few weeks ago. While it’s a great question that the apartment industry needs to strongly consider, looking at the sales-cycle is only half the battle. Making the sales cycle prospect-centric can only be so effective if apartment marketing is still delivering sub-par leads.

For example, most multifamily websites provide a feast of choices and assume that the online prospect will take a self-guided tour through the site, consuming whatever content they feel like. Having options like video tours, vibrant site maps, and online leasing is good. But, in some instances, it may be too much of a good thing. You wouldn’t give a prospect a brochure and a sitemap then tell them to go look at whichever parts of the property they felt like. So why are we doing it online? In most cases, the answer is “because we want qualified leads.” And that’s not a bad answer. It’s just not a prospect-oriented answer.

According to some sources, the average prospect looks at more than 20 communities online prior leasing. That’s 20+ self-guided tours of pool photos and amenity lists for every prospect that contacts your community. Crafting a prospect’s experience through the marketing funnel provides opportunities to customize their journey and shorten the path to leasing.

Making the marketing experience prospect-focused doesn’t have to be a forced process and for some, a self-guided experience is just how they like it. Exactly how the customer journey unfolds will vary from demographic to demographic. How the content is labeled and addressed can make a big difference in some cases and, in others, proactive chat sessions can help prospects cut to the chase. That’s why prospect-oriented marketing is so dependent on knowing your customer and how to communicate with them.

Tailoring content, varying marketing funnel steps, and providing alternate content for similar customer types makes the marketing experience seem high-touch and gives the prospect the impression of a very service-oriented community. And introducing the concept of “service” in the marketing cycle goes farther than just qualifying a lead, it actually becomes an amenity; a competitive advantage.

If making the sales-cycle more prospect-oriented is a priority (and it should be), then aligning marketing with that priority needs be just as important.