Google tour creator is a popular resource for many multifamily communities looking for ways to develop their own virtual real estate tours.
However, is Google tour creator really giving your community and leasing agents what they need in order to get a prospect from lead to signed lease in the most efficient and effective way possible? Probably not. While there is a place for Google tour creator, it should not be what your multifamily leasing team completely relies on. Let’s take a closer look at what this tool does, and doesn’t, provide.
You Need More Than the Top-of-Funnel Technology
Google tour builders create static tours that help garner interest in the property. And that’s a nice marketing piece to have. But, it’s not going to do much more than that. Take a look at Google tour builder examples to see what you’ll get. A virtual tour software should, and can, do more for your property than just creating a top-of–funnel marketing piece that gets someone to click. It should work within your full virtual leasing strategy. It’s not to say that top-of-funnel isn’t important, it’s just one piece of the puzzle, and you need a tool for the entire puzzle —- a tool that gets prospects from lead to signed lease and even beyond.
Integration is Key
A virtual tour platform has to integrate into your existing processes, technologies and strategies. Google tour creator just doesn’t have the capability to work seamlessly within the actual virtual leasing process. And, for what google tour creator costs, you’ll want that feature. Otherwise, you may have a technology that helps you know how to make a virtual tour for real estate, but not how to use it at every point in the resident lifecycle. From lead-to-lease, virtual touring should, and can, be a part of the process and a solution that helps efficiently move a prospect through each individual step towards leasing. The right technology should integrate, be multifamily specific and be used through the entire resident lifecycle.
Consider Usage Along the Full Resident Lifecycle
An actual virtual leasing solution can be used from the beginning steps of a lead being generated throughout the entire resident lifecycle. Yes, using a virtual tour creator like Google tour creator can help with lead generation, but it’s not going to help with lead nurturing, touring, answering prospect questions, or all of those steps in the actual leasing process. With the right technology, and if used appropriately, virtual tours and videos can be used for marketing, leasing, resident engagement and more. It’s a tool for everything throughout the entire resident lifecycle. That is what the leasing team of the future and property management teams need today and should prioritize.
You Have to Personalize
No matter how many Google tour guides or times you type in on Google “how to use Google tour creator”, you won’t learn how to create a truly personalized, authentic experience for each individual prospective resident. Not because you’re researching the wrong thing, but because the technology isn’t capable of it.
Creating a personalized experience, showing the prospect exactly what they want to see, what matters most to them, and in the way they want to see it, is crucial to building trust between the leasing agent and the lead. And that trust is necessary for a prospect to go from a lead to a signed lease. Furthermore, there needs to be authenticity and transparency. The human-to-human element of having an agent answering specific questions during a live virtual tour or when sending a personalized, pre-recorded playlist of videos is extremely important in order to build that trust with a prospect.
These are all elements that a Google tour creator can’t provide. Your standard 3D virtual tours or 360 virtual tours are in the same boat when trying to instill trust and authenticity into the virtual leasing experience. They’re great for a marketing resource at the top of the funnel, but leave prospects wanting and desiring more, needing their questions answered, and wanting to connect with an actual human to learn more. With a fully integrated virtual leasing platform like Realync, it’s all at your fingertips – and easily accessible on a mobile device. That transparency factor is immediately available and accessible.
Learn more about how apartment communities can use a virtual tour creator to close more leases
While Google tour creator can have an impact at the top of the funnel, drawing prospects in, it can’t do all the other things an integrated virtual tour solution can do. It doesn’t work as a comprehensive virtual leasing strategy and, in today’s market, that’s key.
Let Us Help You!
Close more leases, market more effectively, engage with residents and, as always, keep it real. Do you have a question or suggestion? Or want to learn more about what you read? Email us at contact@realync.com. We’d love to hear from you!
