Big Growth, Small Budget: How Smith Douglas Homes Is Building Its Brand and Its Future

Situation

Founded in 2008, Smith Douglas is a regional builder that has its roots in Atlanta and is that city’s largest private home builder.

Prior to 2016, the company had only operated in one market, but it had a vision to expand and become one of the top five builders in each market where it offered homes.

Dusty Talbert joined Smith Douglas in 2014 as Marketing Manager. Initially, his role was to help the local marketing efforts in Atlanta, but as the company clarified its growth plan, he was tasked with implementing its marketing strategy during expansions into Birmingham, Charlotte, Raleigh and Nashville.

“At the time we decided to expand, we had about 30 communities in Atlanta alone, which is a very large footprint in this market,” Talbert recollected. “But our vision was to be one of the top builders in the Southeast, so we started on the path to achieve that.”

Challenges

Talbert had come from a national builder and was accustomed to having a bigger marketing budget. At Smith Douglas, which was starting out with a smaller number of communities, Talbert had to find resources that allowed him to do more with less.

“At a big public builder, you do your best to make everything work, but if something doesn’t perform, you cut your losses and invest elsewhere,” Talbert explained. “With a smaller private builder, you have a little less margin for error, so you have to make every dollar work for you.”

Part of Talbert’s challenge was to increase home buyers’ awareness of Smith Douglas.

The company was well established in Atlanta, but within two years of Talbert coming on board, it was marketing communities in Raleigh and Birmingham, and looking to break ground in Charlotte and Nashville—but Smith Douglas was virtually unknown in all four cities.

“Entering a new market was a new challenge for me because there’s no brand awareness of who you are and what you can do for buyers,” Talbert noted.

“So you have to start getting your name out there any way that you can to establish that awareness.”

Shortly after Talbert was hired on, the two other members of the marketing team left the company, and the department became a temporary one-man show—starring Talbert. He was hard-pressed to find the time and resources to accomplish everything without a team.

“The most difficult task was to prioritize what you were going to do each day,” Talbert admitted.

Solution

Talbert got a pitch about the Promoted Communities platform on Zillow Group. The Smith Douglas team was already aware of Zillow Group—the builder sent their listing feed to Zillow sites from its various MLSs—and knew of its high market share of buyer traffic.

“We knew Zillow’s market share in the digital space,” Talbert acknowledged. “With 95 percent of buyers starting their searches online and Zillow being the number one real estate search site, that’s a lot of people getting their eyeballs on our communities.”

Talbert participates in internal sales meetings every week with sales agents and managers, and although he successfully rolled out Promoted Communities to his team, he thought it would be ideal for them to hear directly from Zillow.

His business consultants, Kristi, Brooke and Bryan, flew to Atlanta, introduced the product to the Smith Douglas agents in person, detailed the features and tracking tools, and answered questions the agents had about getting the highest ROI from Promoted Communities—including listing all Smith Douglas communities.

“They gave us tips and tricks that we could use to enhance our brand right away,” Talbert recalled.

To differentiate Smith Douglas listings from other builders, Talbert takes every opportunity to display the name on search results, listings and contact forms.

“Each of our listings shows Smith Douglas branding and gets in front of lot of people we would not have had exposure to without Zillow and Trulia,” Talbert explained.

Results

Talbert talks with his business consultants every week to continue learning how to get the most of Smith Douglas’ investment with Zillow. His top priority is to get all the listings up on Zillow Group sites to make sure buyers find them. One way Kristi and Brooke suggested he accomplish that wasto post video walkthroughs—two-minute videos captured through the Zillow Real Estate App on a smartphone or tablet—for Smith Douglas communities.

“Video walkthroughs boost our homes above and beyond what else is out there,” Talbert affirmed.

Smith Douglas changed the way it trained its agents to track how buyers heard about their communities. Instead of generally asking where they heard of Smith Douglas, the agents ask more leading questions to accurately pinpoint the source of each buyer’s information.

“We can get our message out to more people compared to other advertising platforms,” Talbert pointed out. “With the exposure Zillow Group has, I’d venture to say at least 70 to 80 percent of the time, buyers will find us there.”

Today it’s easier for Talbert to track the ROI of his participation in Promoted Communities. His account rep sends him a monthly report card that breaks down the number of lead emails, phone calls, driving direction clicks and builder website clicks that Smith Douglas receives. Talbert can request the report as frequently as he wants and have it sorted by community.

“Their team has been incredibly helpful so far and I’m looking forward to fostering this partnership,” Talbert remarked.

Smith Douglas Homes by the numbers

4 marketing team members

4 markets entered over a 2-year period

14 sales attributed to Zillow Group since advertising with them (July to November 2016)

70-80% of all buyers find them on Zillow Group sites

Since joining Zillow Group, Talbert has seen a notable increase in buyer leads and their engagement with Smith Douglas homes.

Talbert knows what he’s looking for in an advertising partner, and he understands the buyers he wants to attract to Smith Douglas. For him, it’s about being in the right place at the right time—for local home shoppers and those relocating to the cities where Smith Douglas builds—with the right message that matches what they’re looking for in a home.

“The benefit of Zillow and Trulia is that they’re two of the biggest real estate search sites around and have a fresh, new focus on new construction,” Talbert noted. “Zillow Group’s Promoted Communities platform gets our information in front of exponentially more prospective home buyers, giving us a better chance at hitting our increased sales goals.”

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