Zillow’s going coast-to-coast shining the spotlight on some of the best multifamily marketers in cities across the country. These rental industry pros have used the Zillow Rental Network to help grow their business.

Sara Graham has been with Dolben as the Director of Marketing for five years. She helps the company manage approximately 13,000 units, with more than 50 properties in New England and the Mid-Atlantic. We spoke with Sara to find out more about her team's approach to marketing and how they measure success.

Zillow: Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you got started in the multifamily industry?
Sara: Truthfully, it’s been a happy coincidence that I ended up in real estate: I fell into the industry when I was fresh out of college, after a failed one-year experiment at a PR agency. My real estate career began at Spaulding & Slye Colliers (now Jones Lang LaSalle), a real estate services and investment company. I originally started with the company as Executive Assistant to the Chairman, and then transitioned to a role where I coordinated various community relations programs for large-scale development projects. Flash forward fifteen years, and I can't imagine working in another field.

Zillow: What performance metrics do you look at in your marketing department?
Sara: We look at a number of metrics around leads and leases, but one of the most important to us is cost per lease. Each of our properties issues a monthly narrative which is sent to ownership and senior management. We look at leads and leases for every source on a monthly and rolling 12-month basis, and make changes to our marketing mix based on the performance of each campaign.

Zillow: What tools do you use to measure these metrics? 
Sara: We use a lead tracking system, so we’re able to keep our eyes and ears on the funnel, and see what’s converting most effectively. We’ve found that people often look at 4+ sources before they rent with us, and we’re able to track all of that activity through our lead tracking system. The reports that we’re able to pull from this and other integrated platforms provide us with an immense amount of insight.

Zillow: What advice would you give to a company trying to revamp their tracking efforts?
Sara: Before joining Dolben, I came from an environment that didn’t have electronic tracking, and instead used paper guest cards. Going from a low-tech to a high-tech environment makes an enormous difference in being able to tell what’s working. Having a solid training program in place is also a must: on-site teams need to know where their traffic is coming from, and training the leasing teams so that they are able to pull and understand performance reports at the site level is essential.

Zillow: How are you preparing your department for the next wave of renters?
Sara: I have a one-word answer: Mobile! Mobile is so hugely important. My team recently attended an industry conference, and one of our biggest takeaways was that mobile used to only be a sliver of traffic, but now it makes up more than 50 percent of online traffic. Things are tipping more and more in favor of mobile, and we need to have advertising partners that understand the importance of that. From our end, our property websites are all mobile-optimized, and we continue to explore ways to speak to our current and prospective renters via mobile – every part of the sales funnel needs to accommodate our customers’ desire for mobile technology.

Zillow: Can you shed some light on why you chose Zillow to be in your budget, and what makes Zillow an appealing marketing partner?
Sara: We’ve been working with Zillow for a long time. We started working with HotPads way back in 2010, so when Zillow and HotPads merged, we had the good fortune of being early partners to witness the continued growth, and we’ve absolutely benefited along with that. In terms of Zillow being an appealing marketing partner, one of the things that we really appreciate is that the communication is excellent; our relationship is a true partnership. Second, the Zillow Rental Network continues to grow, most recently with the addition of MyNewPlace. That adds up to more great exposure for us and our properties. Lastly, the Zillow team continues to invest in mobile technology, a strategic choice that we wholeheartedly support. We’re very excited to experience continued growth through working with the Zillow Rental Network.