The J.C. Hart Company, an Indiana property management company with over 20 multi-family apartment communities, was spending too much time managing their websites and needed a better website solution so they could focus on other, more lucrative marketing initiatives.
Their solution criteria included:
- A central interface so they could make changes across 20 websites at once and reduce time spent on maintenance.
- Unique, individualized content for each community’s website.
- Fresh design that was fast and mobile responsive.
- Tight integration with their current scheduling software, LeaseHawk, as well as their resident management software, Resman.
The Integrated Website Solution
Having worked with Resident Spark before on analytics projects, and knowing they had a multi-location website capability, J.C. Hart turned to them for help on their website redesign and relaunch.
“There’s plenty of companies that know what they’re talking about. The big differentiator with Resident Spark is that they know what they’re talking about and execute in a timely manner.” -Mark Juleen, J.C. Hart V.P. of Marketing
Together they worked on a website solution and design that would give J.C. Hart the ability to manage websites through a central interface and still have the flexibility to make changes at the property level. They could create a new page once and have it populated across all sites with each property’s unique information, name, and copy instead of having to do each page one at a time.
Branding was important, and J.C. Hart retained brand control over the sites while still having unique logos, photos, and copy for each property. Ryan Cox, J.C. Hart Digital Marketing Manager said, “One of the challenges was that a job this big (20 individual websites) is really 20 different brands, while carrying through one brand identity.”
Other website features included:
- The ability to quickly add new websites for properties that J.C. Hart had built or acquired
- Prospects could schedule tours directly on the website with custom LeaseHawk API integration
- Resman custom API integrations including floor plans, pricing, and resident services
- Strong call to actions on mobile and desktop
- Photo galleries, floor plan, amenities, testimonials, and more
- Automated social media integration with Instagram
Website Results
More Scheduled Tours & A Better User Experience
The ability to easily schedule tours on their website was important, as J.C. Hart has learned that prospects who schedule tours are more likely to lease. Within the first couple of months they’ve had an uptick in scheduled tours, due to the strong CTAs on the website as well as the LeaseHawk integration. This was especially true for their apartments that cater to students and young professionals who are more likely to schedule online rather than call.
The J.C. Hart team has been pleased with the user experience on their sites.
“I think on mobile they are ten times better than previous mobile sites. The way that they render on mobile is just so much better, and the way that people can navigate and the calls to action on mobile are better.”
-Mark Juleen
Reduced Maintenance
J.C. Hart reported reduced maintenance on their sites.
“A centralized hub for mass-changes, and a decentralized exact-hub for individual properties is an excellent feature. Additionally, better websites (speed, content, layout, usability, UX, functionality) mean I’m having to make changes less, and the maintenance is definitely, significantly reduced.”
– Ryan Cox
Going Forward
With their new websites, J.C. Hart has been able to begin focusing on other marketing initiatives while:
- Increasing their scheduled tours
- Reducing their time spent maintaining websites
- Creating a better user experience, especially on mobile
