Apartment Blog

For Rent Media Solutions™ asked this very question to its users by conducting a robust series of usability tests, with real apartment shoppers viewing eight different apartment listing Web sites including ForRent.com and its competitors. Usability testing is a technique used to evaluate a product by testing it on actual real users. A July 2008 MarketingSherpa.com study showed that highly engaged visitors have a conversion rate of about five percent, compared to about 0.2 percent of poorly engaged visitors — a 2500% difference. Did you know that Web users form first impressions of web pages in 1/20^th of a second? ¹ That is literally in the blink of an eye.“The world’s most powerful functionality will falter if users can’t figure out how to make it work.”²

In 2008 our Product Development Team videotaped users while navigating our site and our competitors’ sites to find out what worked and what didn’t work. They gathered comments and page ratings from OpinionLab, a third party leader in Voice of Customer (VoC) business intelligence. VoC plays a critical role in defining an organization’s ability to recognize and react quickly to shifting market forces and customer defined opportunities. Seventy five percent of web users admit making judgment about the credibility of an organization based on the design of its website.³ The Product Development Team surveyed direct email lists of consumers in ForRent.com’s demographic. In addition, they conducted in person interviews with people who were actively looking for apartments to get their opinions on their search experience. Throughout development, prototype testing was conducted.  We videotaped test users carrying out specific tasks on the proposed design of the new search. The purpose of this testing was to find design and functionality errors at an early stage. As a result, we learned that apartment shoppers felt they had very little control, could not maneuver through any of the eight sites tested and felt the sites did not produce relevant results.

We listened to users and redesigned our search functionality to eliminate their complaints and bring a “smarter search” experience for all. For Rent Media Solutions is proud to announce the launch of the all new Intuitive Search functionality and enhanced search results pages. These features are exclusive to ForRent.com. The intuitive search and enhanced search results pages give apartment seekers more control and more relevant results to help them have a “smarter search” experience.

Intuitive Search provides both “Exact” and “Close” matches, based on the user’s search criteria. These features give apartment shoppers more choices, intuitively providing them with results that are relevant to their needs. This means more exposure for your listings and a better experience for potential renters.

Watch the ForRent.com Intuitive Search video here for more information.

Source: ¹ Behavior and Information Technology Journal, , ² Garrett, J.J. (2003).  The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web.  New York: New Riders, pg. 14, ³ Research Summary from the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab. Stanford University.

The new LEADS Dashboard offers easier, more efficient approach to media monitoring

NORFOLK, Va.-(April 21, 2009)-For Rent Media Solutions^TM, a leading apartment resource for searching apartments nationwide, and a division of Dominion Enterprises, announces the launch of the new LEADS^TM Dashboard. The dashboard was designed to offer a more streamlined approach for property managers to monitor their advertising performance and drive more leads.

“Property managers today are challenged to get more done with fewer resources” said Terry Slattery, president, For Rent Media Solutions. “In these economically challenged times, we understand the importance of proving advertising value for our clients. The new LEADS Dashboard lets our account executives act as total media consultants for our clients, evaluating the overall health of their advertising.”

To better accommodate clients’ needs, For Rent conducted a survey amongst 71 national and local advertisers and decision makers. According to the respondents, walk-in visits, e-mail guest cards and phone calls ranked high as the most valuable type of response from apartment seekers. For Rent used these findings to redesign the tool to sort and color-code data based on lead type, allowing clients to easily find the information they are seeking.

According to a January 2009 survey done by MENG & Anderson Analytics, customer retention, marketing ROI and lead generation rank high as top marketing concepts that are important to marketing executives. For Rent’s new tool will be especially beneficial to the property manager who is constantly watching their advertising. In a business climate when conditions are unstable, the LEADS Dashboard offers a quick overall snapshot of all For Rent Media Solutions advertising being used by a property manager so they can effectively monitor their results.

“Apartment managers are looking for ways to secure their position by ensuring their property’s prominence in the marketplace,” said Brock MacLean, senior vice president of national sales and development. “They are concerned with advertising budgets and being able to prove performance quickly and easily. According to eROI, 18 percent of U.S. e-mail marketers are not tracking the effectiveness of their campaigns, mainly because they didn’t know how. The new dashboard puts all of a property manager’s important media tracking information, including e-mail guest cards and phone call leads, directly in front of them in an easy to read, compact format.”

A recent study by The Kelsey Group, a leading provider of strategic research and analysis, notes that 43 percent of marketing professionals surveyed thought having the ability to track the source of their clicks was an important service offered by a sales channel when selling online ads. Graphics inside the LEADS Dashboard clearly display the percentage of total LEADS for each lead type so property managers can see what form of communication is most effective for their prospect.

To get a peek at the new LEADS Dashboard, watch this video. For additional information, contact Jennifer Drinko, director of business initiatives via email at jennifer.drinko@forrent.com or phone at 757-351-7380.

About For Rent Media Solutions^TM

Headquartered in Norfolk, Va., For Rent Media Solutions is a division of Dominion Enterprises. As the multi-family housing solution for apartment seekers, property/apartment managers and owners, For Rent Media Solutions provides superior products, outstanding customer service, and tangible results.  For Rent Media Solutions is a leading resource for choosing your next apartment for rent, townhouse, condo, duplex, efficiency, studio or loft and provides a free customizable apartment search from more than 50,000 apartment listings nationwide.  For Rent Media Solutions operates For Rent Magazine^®, as well as ForRent.com^TM-The Magazine, and publishes 99 magazines covering more than 190 markets nationwide, including After 55^TM Housing & Resource Guide, and Apartamentos Para Rentar^®. For Rent Media Solutions operates four additional Web sites: ForRent.com^®, SeniorOutlook.com^TM, CorporateHousing.com^®, and ParaRentar.com^TM.  For Rent Media Solutions is a company dedicated to the needs of the apartment industry, bringing prospective residents and apartment communities together.

About Dominion Enterprises

Dominion Enterprises is a leading marketing services company serving the automotive, enthusiast and commercial vehicle, real estate, apartment rental, and employment industries. The company’s businesses provide a comprehensive suite of technology-based marketing solutions including Internet advertising, lead generation, CRM, Web site design and hosting, and data management services. The company has more than 45 market-leading Web sites reaching more than 16.7 million unique visitors, and more than 450 magazines with a weekly circulation of 4.3 million. Headquartered in Norfolk, Va., the company has 5,400 employees in more than 200 offices nationwide. For more information, visit http://www.dominionenterprises.com/.

Community Theater^TM, created by ForRent.com, is a professionally produced streaming video that highlights the features of apartment communities. This is important to consumers because it showcases the apartment communities you look at so you can make an informed decision about where you want to live. Community Theater was launched in September of 2006; now, less than two years later, there are more than 1,000 streaming videos available on ForRent.com for apartment seekers to use as resources!

Why should you care? Because when you’re searching for your new apartment to rent it’s important to go to a website that provides you with the best possible representation of where you’ll be living. Statistics also show that consumers are watching more and more online videos every month. According to comScore, nearly 135 million U.S. Internet users viewed 11 billion online videos during the month of April 2008.

“Interactive advertising is evolving rapidly and online video has emerged as a major factor in the culture of communication,” says Terry Slattery, vice president and general manager of For Rent Media Solutions. “Our videos have received more than 3.9 million views, and in June 2008 alone our videos averaged over 19,900 views per day.” That’s impressive! In just under two years the ForRent.com Community Theater product has reached this amazing milestone.

Besides airing on ForRent.com and the property’s management company Web site, these videos can also been seen on a variety of websites that you visit daily, such as major search engines like Google^TM and Yahoo!^®, social networking sites like MySpace^®, video sharing sites including YouTube^TM and many more.

So whether you’re in the market for a new apartment, or just moved into your new space, remember ForRent.com is the ultimate place to find an apartment and provide resources for apartment renters. ForRent.com strives above all others to put the consumer’s wants first.

Consumers are constantly using mobile devices to look up restaurants, directions, movie times, etc. Apartment hunters looking to find apartments for rent on-the-go can rest easy. ForRent.com is keeping up with these mobile trends by providing consumers the with capability to search for apartments on their cell phones.

“With mobile devices growing more sophisticated, multifunctional and high-speed, consumers are relying on their phones to accomplish every day tasks from shopping to finding directions,” said Brock MacLean, vice president of national sales and development, For Rent Media Solutions.

So how does it work? On the ForRent.com Mobile Website, apartment seekers can find the same basic search information that’s on ForRent.com, including address, city, state and zip code. After the search information is entered, the apartment seeker will be directed to a search results page that features a property photo as well as contact information. Once an apartment has been selected from the search results, the apartment seeker will then be directed to a more detailed page for the property, where they will find a property description, additional photos, contact information and driving directions.

Imagine that you’re driving down the road and see a nice looking apartment community with a sign that says ‘Move-In Special’. You can use your cellular device to go on the ForRent.com Mobile Web site to check out the community. With the contact information at your finger tips, you can call to set up a walk-through appointment for later that day. Just like that, you’re on your way to finding the apartment you’ve been dreaming of!

With more than 25 million mobile phone users in the United States, going mobile is the next logical step by For Rent Media Solutions in the evolution of the technologically savvy products to provide for consumers. What will they think of next?

The ForRent.com mobile Web site is accessible to all cell phones with Internet capability. So let us know your thoughts. Would you use your mobile phone to search for apartments?

Saying our consumers are creative is an understatement! They are brilliant. The videos that were submitted to our “If Only Your Apartment Furniture Could Talk” video contest are comical, entertaining and witty. Sure to crack a smile on your skeptical face.

Just check them out! You’ll hear all the bad jokes from the change stealing, remote swallowing couch. Or join in the discussion as rental couches grumble about their lazy owners. And you’re heart strings will get strung in this true story of star crossed lovers in ‘Sectional Healing’ (gotta love the play on words there, also). And lastly, listen to the garage sale couches as they threaten to leave their owner in ‘Funny Talking Furniture’.

We could watch these amusing videos over and over again. But we wanted to share the wealth with you! So do the same and brighten someone’s day! Send them the link to www.WinApartmentFurniture.com

Have Thursday! The weekend’s almost here!

During the housing boom, buyers were borrowing thousands of dollars to pay for homes on the market. However, in today’s economy, many of the buyers aren’t able to repay those loans due to rising interest rates, resulting in mass foreclosures. With foreclosures, many residents are forced to find alternative living arrangements, most often apartments to rent. Due to pet restrictions in apartment communities, pet shelters are seeing an increase in the number of animals being given up. Or worse, left on the streets.

ForRent.com doesn’t want to see anymore pets separated from their family. Pet owners needing to relocate can use our site to find pet-friendly apartments. With our easy search criteria, you’re sure to find an apartment in your area that accommodates you and your animal. Please visit ForRent.com today! Your pet is a part of your family and we want all of you to stay together.