Kelley Shannon

Meet the New Marketing Genius

By Geneva Ives on Nov 28, 2016 in Marketing, People

Meet Kelley Shannon, Vice President of Consumer Marketing at The Bozzuto Group and marketing genius who started her professional career in accounting before changing courses to focus on brand management.

“Coming from accounting where you’re looking at numbers all day, I was missing the creative piece. While I enjoyed the problem solving, I missed the human connection. Marketing allows me to be analytical and apply creativity to help people solve problems and meet business goals. It’s the right fit for me.”

In her role at Bozzuto, Kelley leads a team that focuses on impacting key touchpoints in a customer’s journey. With dozens of new communities every year, Kelley and team are busy developing marketing plans to deliver quality leads to over 200 communities, creating engaging brands and cementing memorable customer experiences – while ensuring that all marketing is reflective of their diverse and inclusive culture.

We recently had the chance to ask Kelley how she manages to keep up with (and support) the pace of growth at Bozzuto. Keep reading to find marketing tips you can apply at your own properties, no matter how big or small.

Q: Can you tell us a little about Bozzuto and what makes the company unique?

A: Bozzuto is a regional leader with a national reputation. We currently manage more than 60,000 apartments and homes. We pride ourselves on providing outstanding service and consistent value for customers, clients and partners.

Jamie Gorski, Bozzuto’s CMO, being the visionary that she is, is not one to rest on our laurels. She is always looking for what is new and interesting, especially outside of our industry. When we find it, chances are we’re going to evaluate it for its relevance to marketing real estate.

Q: How does Bozzuto use RentCafe?

We partnered with Yardi and the RentCafe team to create a property marketing website template that supports Bozzuto’s brand and marketing strategy. It provides us with a pre-approved yet customizable platform that our team can use to reduce the typical time to market, while maintaining our design and usability standards.

We can build new sites more quickly with RentCafe. We can also rapidly convert old websites that aren’t working and bring them to a place that better reflects the brand story and engages prospects instantly. Now site visitors view 23% more pages and spend 20% more time online with us.

Q: What are you doing to promote increased session duration on your property marketing sites? Why do you think visitors are staying longer?

A: We focus on putting information that prospective renters want front and center…floor plans and visual content. When you visit any of our sites, we’ve made the navigation to these key areas immediately accessible. And we often add video content on the homepage to draw people in. These visuals give you a sense of how the community lives, how people use the spaces. I feel like we’ve won when someone says, “I could see myself living here.”

Q: How important is the mobile experience?

A: With the growth in mobile as the first point of entry for many people searching for apartments, our goal is to deliver a great mobile experience. This means quick access to photos, contact information and online tour scheduling.

Q: What are some advantages that you have seen from working with Yardi?

A: RentCafe saves us time and offers a cost-effective website solution for both new communities and those needing to update their online presence. It helps us keep up with Bozzuto’s pace of growth without compromising our standards or putting extra strain on the marketing team. Yardi has been a great partner!

Q: If you’re not in the office, where are you?

A: I enjoy visiting the communities, but I’m happiest brainstorming with my team. We talk about marketing pain points and how to fix them. We find ways to automate tasks, and our latest effort is to add more whitespace to our days so we can have even more time to be creative and try new things.

Q: New things like…?

A: We keep up with the latest in marketing by attending non-industry conferences and following mega consumer trends. We also place a heavy emphasis on social engagement and reputation management. Our brand is our reputation, so listening to our customers and replying to their kudos or their concerns is our top priority.

Q: Outside of work, where will we find you?

A: With my family. I have two amazing daughters (8 and 10 years old) who enjoy “girl-time with mommy.” We go shopping, get our nails done and have sushi dates. But they also practice Taekwondo; they earned their black belts when they were 7 and 9!

Thanks for sharing a part of your busy day with us, Kelley! Connect with Kelley on LinkedIn and keep an eye out for this marketing genius – we’re sure you’ll be seeing her at events and on websites near you. And don’t forget to read our other marketing genius interviews for even more inspiration.