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Beat Your Competition with Tools and Templates
Driving Organic Traffic and Leads Can Be Simple
Nate Smoyer
May 14, 2024
There’s a tried and true tactic you can use to help separate you from your competitors and win more organic traffic:
A tool or template that your ideal customer needs AND is a natural pathway to using your product.
For the proptech companies I’ve worked with, these resources have worked over and over again. Not only are they helpful in generating new traffic, but they’re also a strong strategy for converting existing site traffic.
Below are five of my favorite examples of how to leverage tools and templates to generate leads. For each example, we’ll cover:
What it is
What makes it unique
How it gets traffic
How it generates leads
How it could perform even better
1. Rabbu’s Airbnb Calculator
What it is:
This tool allows you to estimate the revenue and overall performance of any address in the US.
What makes it unique:
Most of the Airbnb return calculators you used to see out there would only work off the inputs you set. Average daily rate, occupancy rate, etc. Rabbu’s calculator just asks you for an address and uses its algorithm to forecast the performance of any home:
“Rabbu has gathered the data of millions of Airbnb listings across the United States to calculate the earning potential of any address entered on its calculator.”
It seems like the rest of the STR community has caught on and is now offering a similar calculator. But for a while, Rabbu stood out with their tool.
How it gets traffic:
Rabbu’s tool ranks well for terms like “airbnb calculator,” ranking in the top half of the page. It’s also front and center as a CTA on their homepage to convert as much of the traffic that goes there:
How it generates leads:
In order to get return metrics like cap rate or cash-on-cash return for your address, Rabbu prompts you to create a free account. They also incentivize visitors to create an account with things like daily deals emails, unlimited access to the platform, and personalized for-sale alerts.
How it could perform even better:
Rabbu’s calculator is one of the best out there. The only reason they’re not beating out the sites ranking above them for “airbnb calculator” is because their site authority isn’t as high. With some sustained link building to their homepage, they might be able to overtake the #1 spot.
2. Hemlane’s Rent Estimate Calculator
What it is:
A calculator that helps you figure out if the rent you’re charging on a rental is too high or too low (plus what the average and median rent in the area look like).
What makes it unique:
While most of the other calculators ask you for the property address and spit out a rent estimate, Hemlane’s calculator incorporates gamification. They position it in a way that makes you wonder if the rent you’re charging/planning to charge is too high or too low. Unlike some of the other calculators, they ask for more specific property criteria to give you the best rent estimate possible.
How it gets traffic:
This calculator ranks well for terms like “free rent estimate calculator,” and is also a link under the Resources dropdown in their header menu across the site.
How it generates leads:
In order to get your rent estimate, users are required to enter their phone number and email address. Hemlane also offers a ‘Schedule a Demo’ option on the results page after you opt in. I’m assuming they also follow up with emails and potentially phone calls to convert you to a paying customer.
How it could perform even better:
Some simple on-page tweaks like adding “Estimate” into the H1 and the anchor text in the header link could help the page rank higher for terms like “rent estimate calculator,” which Hemlane is ranking for, but in the bottom half of page 1 on Google. I know these sound like old-school tactics that don’t matter anymore, but I still see them make a difference all the time.
This page doesn’t have as many links as some of the competitors on page 1 either, so focusing there could help too.
Last thing, I’d remove the phone number requirement from the form. That’s a big ask on cold traffic. It’s like they would capture more email addresses by removing the phone number field.
3. Roofstock’s rental property ROI spreadsheet
What it is:
A free spreadsheet that allows investors to run the numbers on an investment property. Get ROI metrics like cap rate, cash on cash returns, and monthly cash flow. I was fortunate enough to have a hand in creating this one.
What makes it unique:
Many other rental property ROI calculators and spreadsheets out there just give you those return metrics, but we wanted to make Roofstock’s even better. We created an area called ‘Purchase Decision’ where the investor can enter their minimum requirements to purchase the property. If the property met that specific criteria, the Decision box next to it turned green. If not, it would display red.
This allows the investor to play around with the rent and purchase price to figure out if there was a way to get the property to an acceptable return.
How it gets traffic:
This spreadsheet is located on a blog post that ranks well for terms like “rental property analysis spreadsheet.” Much of its traffic appears to be organic.
How it generates leads:
The spreadsheet is free to download (no email required), but includes links to the Roofstock marketplace where investors can view and make offers on pre-vetted rental properties. This is a great time to catch investors—if they’re actively looking for properties to buy, they should know about Roofstock’s marketplace of rental properties for sale.
How it could perform even better:
While keeping it ungated is helpful for users, there’s probably a missed opportunity in being able to get them on Roofstock’s email list to send new property updates each week. Roofstock should consider putting this spreadsheet behind an email opt-in.
4. Zillow’s rent affordability calculator
What it is:
A free calculator that allows prospective tenants to figure out how much rent they can reasonably afford.
What makes it unique:
It takes into consideration how much debt you have, your expenses, and how much you have saved to tell you how much rent you can afford without going into the negative each month. It also places a hard cap of rent being 40% of your estimated gross income.
How it gets traffic:
Zillow’s calculator ranks well for terms like “how much rent can i afford” and “rent calculator,” which each get tens of thousands of searches a month.
How it generates leads:
Just below the calculator, Zillow has a box that allows you to enter the city or zip code in which you’re looking to find a rental. It’s a great lead in from the problem (how much rent can I afford) to the obvious next step (now let’s find a place).
How it could perform even better:
People who live in high-cost-of-living cities typically have to spend more of their income on rent. Instead of using blanket benchmark percentages of income, Zillow could ask you what city you’re looking to rent in and adjust their percentages accordingly to create a really custom experience for users.
Example 5: Stessa’s profit and loss statement template
What it is:
A free spreadsheet that allows landlords to manually enter income and expenses on a rental property for a given year to create a profit and loss statement. This is another one that I personally worked on.
What makes it unique:
Many of the other profit and loss statements bucket common expenses into categories, whereas this one has a line item for each (e.g., landscaping, pest control, etc.). It’s also one of the only templates that doesn’t have gated access. Other pages ranking for this term require at least an email to download their templates.
How it gets traffic:
This spreadsheet is located on a blog post that ranks well for terms like “rental property profit and loss statement template.”
How it generates leads:
While the template is free to download, the article itself shows users how they can automatically generate profit and loss statements (as well as other useful financial reports) using a free Stessa account. It’s another example of a great lead in from the problem (how can I manually generate a profit and loss statement for my rental property) to an even better solution (this tool can automatically do it for you).
How it could perform even better:
The template doesn’t include any Stessa branding or a CTA that reiterates how you can automatically generate P&L’s inside of Stessa (for free). This is a missed opportunity.
How to Do This for Your Company
This is the basic process you can use to come up with ideas like these for your company:
1. Think about the main problems your product solves
Then take those pain points and break them down into the “jobs to be done” (like the examples above).
2. Use a keyword research tool to see how those problems/jobs to be done map to the right keywords
Tools such as AHREFs, SEMrush, or SpyFu are good tools to use. Try searching these keyword variations to gauge existing search demand:
“[job to be done] template”
“[job to be done] spreadsheet”
“[job to be done] calculator”
3. Build the page in a way that’s unique
Don’t just make the same exact template/calculator as everyone else. Try to create something that is differentiated in some way. At the very least, you can present it in a new or more well-designed way, add an additional reporting view, or provide more data as an output.
4. Build internal and external links to the page
Unless you have a very high authority site (like Zillow), you need links to help the page rank better in search. This can be as simple as starting with links from existing blog posts and adding links to the footer of your website.
5. Convert that traffic
Show people that there’s an easier/better/more advanced way to get what they were looking for out of the tool or template (i.e., your product). Consider adding Hotjar or CrazyEgg to record sessions on your tool’s landing page to better understand user engagement.
This article provided by Emil Shour of Catalyst Content. Follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn for more.
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