Managing over 65,000 units in 15 states and 120 cities is no small task, but the marketing team at Bell Partners has it down to a tee. We talked to our Multifamily Rentals Advisory Board member Kevin Thompson, senior vice president of marketing, and Allison Weber, director of marketing, to get some insights about their secrets to marketing success.

Zillow: Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you got started in the multifamily industry?
Allison: : I was just a gal trying to pay my rent, so I began leasing apartments for Bell and transitioned to managing several communities. My degree was in marketing, so when Bell started a marketing department, I jumped right in. Now I’m proud to say I’ve worked at Bell for almost a decade, holding six different roles with the firm and many fun adventures representing the Gen Y renter.
Kevin: My background comes from packaged-goods consumer marketing, I’ve worked at Proctor and Gamble, Fruit of the Loom, and Iams Petfoods. I got into the real estate side in 2000, with my entire real estate experience being with Avalon Bay, and Bell Partners since 2012.

Zillow: In your opinion, what metrics lend themselves to a 'best in class' marketing department? What performance metrics do you look at?
Allison: : Until about 6 years ago, metrics were a huge challenge because they were so difficult to measure accurately with the tools we had available. Metrics we consider valuable are cost per lead, cost per verified lease, lead to lease conversions, and total marketing cost/unit/year.

Like any good investment, year over year variances are important to Bell and our clients. We have a tolerance for a certain percent increase year over year and have to make important marketing decisions for expense optimization. It’s all about a mix of quantity and quality.

Zillow: Which factors do you consider when deciding where to allocate your online marketing budget?
Allison: We have 3 types of business at Bell and each process is slightly different. Recommendations won’t differ at all depending on ownership structure; we treat them all the same. What’s different is what they do with it. If they want or need to opt out of our marketing recommendations due to the owner’s asset plan, that’s their call.

First, we have communities we fully own (Bell-owned), and Marketing provide budgets on the results of analytics to power budgets for the future year as needs change. The second type is fee managed communities. Clients pay us to manage them, and in these cases, it’s ultimately the client’s call whether or not they want to take the recommendation. The third type is joint venture partnership, where we own a percentage but do not have managing control. These properties take recommendations, but the deciding party is usually the regional manager of that asset.

We also provide general recommendations inside our budget template. For example, we list the vendor name along with the cost for packages and programs. Some have a several options, but we selectively choose certain things to require (like a website), and certain things to recommend. We use national, regional and local averages to decide if we require or recommend items, and with Zillow’s stellar performance, it’s one of two items that are on the “recommended” list.

Zillow: Why is being metrics-driven important to your team?
It’s our job to maximize the value of our assets. To do that, we have to spend our money in the right places. We have a fiduciary responsibility to spend our client’s money effectively, and if you don’t measure it, you simply won’t know how you did. Who wants to invest in that? We use metrics to guide unbiased business decisions, hold ourselves and our advertising partners accountable, and ultimately to maximize revenue and reduce expenses. Without metrics, you are really just guessing.

Zillow: How are you preparing your department for the next wave of renters — what’s your take on what they will be looking for, how they search, and how your marketing department can reach them?
Allison: I think for us we’re stepping away from traditional multifamily marketing ( the “balloons and warm cookies” approach) and print advertising. We’ll look at marketing cost per unit per year and determine what to slough off to invest wisely in other things

Mobile device presence is definitely a priority, over 40% of our traffic is from non-desktop devices — two years ago it was 8 percent. The mobile search experience on lots of ILSs is good now, but that wasn’t always the case. Everything location-based doesn’t feel like advertising. It’s important to be able to look at any device at any time, sort, filter, and change things and always have it work. I appreciate that about Zillow.

Moving things online and using technology for great efficiency will really matter — like online leasing, payments, resident portal management, and service requests. That allows us to offer our residents a Hassle-Free Living® experience.

Zillow: Can you shed some light on why you chose Zillow to be in your budget, and what aspect makes Zillow an appealing marketing partner?
Allison: We are always looking for the most effective marketing tool at the lowest cost per lease with the highest propensity to convert. So when asked to test a small pilot with Zillow, we were open to try it. The reason we chose to continue and expand participation was because it works. It converts. We’ve also been very impressed with the user-experience, especially on mobile.