5 Reasons Your Apartment Community Needs a Mobile Website

1. Your Customers Are Already Mobile
   It was just a few years ago that having a website for your property was optional. Today you wouldn’t dream of marketing and leasing apartments without one! More than 57.8 million American consumers (and growing) are accessing the web via mobile devices every day. In the multifamily space, mobile traffic to apartment websites increased 74% per property in the last 6 months alone according to VaultWare mobile site analytics. If you aren’t providing a quality mobile experience to your customers you’re already behind the curve.
2. The Mobile Web Will Surpass Desktop Web Use Within 5 Years
   Mobile web usage is growing at a significantly faster rate than the traditional web with most analysts predicting that in just 5 years mobile web usage will overtake desktop web usage. Quantcast reports that last year the mobile web grew 110%. Are you prepared for more than half of your website users to visit your website on a 3-inch screen? (It’s a good idea to take a minute and check out what your site looks like on your smartphone before reading further.)
3. Balloons and Directionals Can’t Beat GPS
   If you want that apartment hunter down the street to find you, you can try balloons, directionals and sign-spinners, or you can make it easy for them to find you on their Blackberry! Smartphone GPS technology has become an integral piece of the mobile web that your mobile website must take advantage of. From automatically identifying the communities closest to a potential resident’s current location, to turn-by-turn routing and directions, properly implemented GPS features in your mobile website can be an apartment manager’s best friend.
4. Smartphones Are Considered Important Tool in Making Purchasing Decisions
   More and more, consumers are using their mobile devices to aide them in purchasing decisions and to make purchases. A study by AT&T and Demandware Inc. found that almost 1/4 of retail shoppers use their phone while in a store to competitively price shop an item and 60% ranked the ability to check product availability as important to very important. While only 15% of consumers have used their mobile devices to make purchases, the mobile purchasing trend is expected to increase dramatically as mobile network speed, screen resolutions and perhaps most importantly, website usability improve.
5. Google Cares About Mobile
   Google knows the difference between content designed for mobile use and traditional desktop computing. That means that any SEO you are doing for the traditional desktop web isn’t doing much good on the mobile web. If you aren’t presenting mobile optimized content, Google isn’t going to send you any mobile traffic. But rest assured your competitor appreciates the extra traffic you’re giving them!

VaultWare Mobile Websites are a cost-effective and easy-to-implement solution for apartment managers ready to capitalize on the mobile demographic. They work seamlessly with your existing website, are compatible with all major mobile platforms and require little to no development costs. With mobile demand for current apartment availability increasing 73% and mobile apartment reservations increasing by 67% since February 2010, we highly recommend combining the VaultWare Mobile Reservation System with your mobile website and taking advantage of automatic rate updates, industry-leading availability and reservation functionality and centralized content management for your online ads, website, mobile, Craigslist and social media.

Contact VaultWare today to learn more or to schedule an online demo.