Don’t Hide Your Apartment Web Sites From Mobile Users

Here’s yet more compelling data why your apartment property websites MUST be mobile-enabled.

This week, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project released the results of survey exploring how Americans use their cell phones (read the full report here). A couple of the findings are of particular importance to the multifamily industry and how we market apartments.

One third of American adults (35%) own a smartphone of some kind, and these users take advantage of a wide range of their phones’ capabilities. Fully nine in 10 smartphone owners use text messaging or take pictures with their phones, while eight in 10 use their phone to go online or send photos or videos to others. (Emphasis mine)

With so many people using smarthphones to research information online, are your community web sites mobile-enabled? Do you make it easy for mobile surfers to find information they need?

To illustrate the importance, let’s pretend I’m shopping for apartments in a certain part of town. I pass by these two apartment communities and look them up on my iPhone.

Mobile Enabled

These two screenshots illustrate how easily I can access the site’s information, including floor plans, pricing, and availability.

Not Mobile Enabled

This web site is Flash-enabled, so there were several items I simply could not see on my iPhone (not as much of a problem on Droid phones), and the site isn’t mobile friendly. I moved from my iPhone to my iPad to more easily read the non-Flash-driven items, but I still couldn’t access the important items: floor plans, pricing, and availability.

Marketing Takeaway

With my short attention span and limited time, guess which apartment community I’m likely to contact?

You know the answer: it is imperative that your apartment marketing be accessible to potential renters when they want it and how they want it, particularly via mobile devices.

Because when the most active group of smartphone users, Generation Y, enters the rental market en masse, the last thing you want to do is make the information they want hard to find.

Are you property web sites mobile enabled? What kind of results have you seen?