264 Marketing for Master Planned Communities - Stephanie Walker Apr 16 2025

Greg Bray: [00:00:00] Hello everybody and welcome to today's episode of The Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine. 

Kevin Weitzel: And I'm Kevin Weitzel with OutHouse. 

Greg Bray: And we are excited to have joining us today, Stephanie Walker. Stephanie is the VP of Marketing for Rancho Mission Viejo. Welcome, Stephanie. Thanks for joining us today. 

Stephanie Walker: Thank you for having me. 

Greg Bray: Well, let's start off by just getting to know a little bit about you. Give us that quick overview and background about yourself. 

Stephanie Walker: Yeah. So, I have been with The Ranch for just about 13 years. I joined the team here, gosh, right [00:01:00] ahead of the initial launch, as part of The Ranch plan Sendero, which was the first village, about a year ahead of grand opening that village, which seems like an eternity ago.

But prior to joining The Ranch, I worked at a number of different local agencies with wide range of clients. However, nothing specific to the real estate or development industry. So, you know, starting here, it was very eye-opening to learn kind of the ins and outs about development, especially, again coming from an agency setting. And especially considering I was only a few years out of college at the time. 

But I've always been super passionate about branding, marketing. Initially thought I wanted to be on the creative side of things. Don't we all, right? The fun part of the job. But interestingly enough, I grew up in Rancho Santa Margarita, which is one of The Ranch's previously developed communities. So, I did understand the concept of a master-planned community and was somewhat familiar with The Ranch just as a well-known developer.[00:02:00] 

Kevin Weitzel: All right, before we dive into anything more business and work-related, I need to hear a little factoid about you that has nothing to do with work, family, or the industry. 

Stephanie Walker: I would say over the past couple years I have developed a love for the game of pickleball, which is funny because I actually attribute and credit that to The Ranch. A few years ago, maybe four years ago, they started creating different leagues within the company. With all of our employees, we have tournaments, a fall spring league. We are fortunate that we have beautiful court facilities here at our office. So, I love to kind of do that in my spare time. 

But it's funny, the irony of this is when I started working at The Ranch, one of my initial responsibilities was to manage social media and website inquiries. This is 12 years ago. I can't tell you the number of questions from people that we would get about pickleball. And at the time, half of us didn't know what it was, and they're so enthusiastic about this new sport. They want us to retrofit all of [00:03:00] our tennis courts, change it to pickleball. So, flash forward, 12, 13 years later, here we are. We play as a company and we develop pickleball courts now as part of our planning efforts.

Kevin Weitzel: Now, do you ever invite any of your vendors in to challenge them and just humiliate them on the court or no? 

Stephanie Walker: Occasionally we'll have a vendor sub. We've talked about the local fire station. The firefighters have also expressed an interest in wanting to play. So, that could be on the horizon. 

Greg Bray: Pickleball is a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. 

Kevin Weitzel: That's what I hear. I don't remember, did it originate in San Diego? I gotta look at it because I think it is California. But anyway, so Rancho Mission Viejo, their projects are all in the San Diego area?

Stephanie Walker: We are in South Orange County. Kind of if you're familiar with San Juan Capistrano, we're just east of the city of San Juan and south of Lidera Ranch. So, we are in an unincorporated area of South Orange County. 

Kevin Weitzel: Nice. Okay.

Greg Bray: Well, give us just a little bit more background then about all those projects in The Ranch, [00:04:00] what types of homes are you guys putting in, who's your target audience for that area, and a little more background for those who aren't familiar with it. 

Stephanie Walker: Sure. So, Rancho Mission Viejo, which we refer to sometimes as The Ranch, we're a master-planned community, and we're also a historic cattle ranch, very unique. It's a family-owned company, the O'Neills, the Moises, and the Avery family, since 1882. And I think it's worth mentioning that the family, we've been developing communities for over 60 years. So, pretty phenomenal when you look at the span of that. 

So, kind of in full totality at build-out, Rancho Mission Viejo, the community will have about 14,000 homes. Part of that 14,000, is 6,000 homes that are dedicated to 55-plus or age-qualified neighborhoods. We refer to this as Gavilan. It's our brand for 55-plus living. We'll also have up to 5 million square feet of nonresidential uses, amenities, parks, schools, recreational facilities, roadways [00:05:00] that link the individual villages together, kind of in a noncontiguous setting.

Another really important part of the company and community as a whole is something that we call the nature reserve. So, basically, 17,000 acres, which is 75 percent of the entire development, will be preserved as natural open space. It'll just be completely dedicated to habitat conservation. This is so unique for any community, and it's such a big part of our marketing, of our larger story. It's a huge draw for folks who want to live here.

Kind of to give you a breakdown. So, the community of Rancho Mission Viejo, I referenced the first village of Sendero, which opened in 2013, just about a thousand homes, just under a thousand homes. The next village, Ascencia, opened in 2015, just under 2,900 homes. And where we're currently at today is the village of Rienda, so our third village, we have released a little over 400 homes and we are about [00:06:00] 77% sold out. We are about midway through the entirety of the project.

I think another big draw to The Ranch is the attainability factor. And the company as a whole has a big commitment in putting attainable homes on the ground. The current offerings for Rienda that I just referenced have a lot of entry-level attainable homes that are marketed towards a lot of first-time buyers. I think that's very important and very unique, especially when you look at kind of the competitive set around us. That's not typical. 

In a nutshell, there's so many phenomenal attributes about the company, but kind of the three big ones that really, I think, differentiate us, we have a very multi-generational lifestyle. Like I mentioned, first-time buyers all the way up to 55 plus. The land with the nature reserve that I referenced, and just an abundance of resources abundance of amenities, the scale and magnitude of the amenities that are available throughout all of these villages, are a really huge draw for [00:07:00] people who move here.

Kevin Weitzel: All right, just to make sure I heard you right. Did you say 14,000 homes? 

Stephanie Walker: 14,000 homes. 

Kevin Weitzel: So, basically you guys aren't building just home communities, you're building whole cities. 

Stephanie Walker: Yes, you could refer to it when it's built out as a small-scale city for sure. 

Kevin Weitzel: And it's an unincorporated area, so does that mean that it's in the process of becoming its own township city or whatever? 

Stephanie Walker: You know, it's interesting, that will largely be left up to the residents. That's my understanding. Once they have a certain population that's here it's my understanding the residents will get to select if they want to stay in an unincorporated area or if it becomes a city similar to Ladera Ranch, Tustin. Some of them start out as unincorporated areas and then gradually, as the population grows, they become a city. But as of now, no. 

Greg Bray: So, Stephanie, you talked about that huge breadth of potential buyers, you know, first-time buyers all the way up to 55 plus, move up and downsizers and everything in between. From a [00:08:00] marketing perspective, how do you message all of those different audiences in a way that they all feel like what you have fits their needs? 

Stephanie Walker: Yeah, it's a great question. It's not a one-size-fits-all all approach. We have custom messaging, custom creative, and custom targeting for all of these different audience segments. There's not just two or three segments. But if you put them into different buckets, you have your first-time buyers, your move-up buyers, and then your 55 plus. Most certainly the visual and the messaging that we send to a 55 plus is not going to be the same as a move-up buyer with four kids. So, I think that is such a key element of our marketing. Just making sure what we are putting forth is really resonating and speaking to everybody. 

Greg Bray: As you're working on that messaging, how do you guys balance the idea of I need to sell the house versus I need to sell the experience in the larger community and some of those [00:09:00] amenities and things that you mentioned that make you kind of different from some of the other offerings that they might be looking at? Do you guys focus only on one or the other? Is there some kind of mix-and-match formula that you've figured out? Where's that balance life?

Stephanie Walker: Yeah. It's a really interesting dynamic because our role is the developer and we work directly with a big array of different neighborhood builders. Our job is not necessarily to sell the homes. It's to generate qualified traffic. And so, for us, kind of our big picture is we call it experiential marketing. So, we try and get folks to fall in love with the community, the amenities, the land, the activities, the programming. All of the things that make The Ranch so unique, that is in the forefront of all of our marketing. 

And I don't want to say that the homes are secondary, but from our standpoint, as the developer, we find that once people come to the community, fall in love with all the different things phenomenal attributes, the home just seems to fall into place [00:10:00] because we have such a wide array of different home product available for all different ages. But this community and what The Ranch offers to folks, again, is so unique and you're not going to find that anywhere else. 

Kevin Weitzel: Is it kind of like the difference between just Billy Bob gym versus like a Lifetime? Where instead of just saying, well, there's the racks over there and here's the towels, here's the changing room, they've got classes, they've got a bar, they've got a place you can meet and greet. They've got all sorts of instructional areas. Is it that kind of difference, and that's pretty much what you're marketing against? You're marketing against the people that don't offer any of that kind of stuff. 

Stephanie Walker: Correct. And it's not just a singular gym. So, in those three villages, each of those villages could have three to four different pools, three to four different bars, one to two fitness centers. And if you're a resident in one village, you are not limited to usage in just that village, you have access to the full array of amenities throughout the entirety of the community. So, I think that's a big draw for folks. 

Your question to the [00:11:00] gym. It might not be a traditional just primarily indoor gym. Like you see it at Lifetime. We have open-air fitness centers. And the company, you know, really prides themselves. We do a ton of consumer research. We invest a lot of time and energy consistently into understanding consumer wants and needs, whether that's with fitness, other amenities, lifestyle programming. And so, our planning and our approach to designing amenities constantly shifts with this new research and new learnings. 

Kevin Weitzel: Now, we just got this question in from an anonymous listener, they want to be nameless. What percentage of your active adult home buyers are well to do females? Asking for a 55 plus person that wants to remain anonymous. 

Stephanie Walker: They're there. 

Kevin Weitzel: Heyo! 

Greg Bray: I was just wondering, Kevin, how are you getting live questions coming in? What in the world? 

Kevin Weitzel: Yeah, it kind of points the finger at who's actually asking the question, right?

Greg Bray: Well, Stephanie, [00:12:00] going back to what you talked about. Your job is to generate leads and awareness. You're not focused as much on the actual homes. You've got builders then who are responsible for kind of selling maybe a little bit against each other in the community, although I'm sure there's this interesting partnership versus competition kind of layer. How much do you get involved in guiding them or helping them with their marketing, or are they off on their own with what they're trying to do? 

Stephanie Walker: That's, I think, the beauty of the program. We refer to it as the master marketing program. If our builders, let's just say you have five or six, it is, it's a healthy competition, but everyone has their own very pinpointed segmentation, right? So, all the products are outlined ahead of time. The price point, it's all structured so that nobody's on top of one another. It's very thoughtful. There's something for everyone. 

Part of that program, that master marketing program, we as the developer lead. So, we are essentially in charge of all of the [00:13:00] branding, all of the messaging, all of the media placement, any ad that you see for Rancho Mission Viejo comes from us. And there's so many benefits to that, as you can imagine. There's a synergy there. You're having one holistic message instead of five different campaigns from different home builders. So, it's a universal message. We work so closely with our builders. They're partners for us. It's a very collaborative process. 

Kevin Weitzel: Well, that said, let me ask you this. Do you forward your builders your content, you know, f their website? Or is it just a forward linking, so when somebody is looking at that community they will try to sell their homes, but then it points to your community website? 

Stephanie Walker: Yeah. Great question. So, you know, as a goal for any, I think business owner, our number one objective is to get folks to stay on ranchomissionviejo.com. Again, they're seeing the totality of what the community has to offer, not just the singular home. But we do give people the option to self-select. They can either register just for the general Rancho Mission Viejo [00:14:00] interest list. I think we have just over about 30,000 folks on our interest list, which is fantastic. And then we also give folks the opportunity to register directly for any of the individual builder neighborhoods. 

If somebody registers for Shea Homes, they'll register on ranchomissionviejo.com, but that information will directly point through our CRM and go directly to that builder. The reality is we know some folks go directly to the builders' corporate websites. That's always going to happen naturally. But we've been pretty pleased just with the overall strategy and the majority of folks definitely visit ranchomissionviejo.com, which is so paramount.

Kevin Weitzel: And a lot of builders like to point out that they have a proximity to a certain thing. Like maybe down in San Diego, they're working this close to SeaWorld, or this close to the Naval Academy, or not the Naval Academy, but the recruiting station there. Or if you're in the Anaheim area, you know, we're this close to Disneyland, we're this close to Six Flags. You guys don't need any of that. You have it all, right? 

Stephanie Walker: You could argue you never need to [00:15:00] leave the community, but of course, location is always key for everyone. It might not be at the top tier, but we do definitely place an emphasis on South Orange County living. I mean, this area where The Ranch is a destination unto itself. We're less than 5 miles away from Dana Point from the beach. We're a couple of miles away from historic downtown San Juan Capistrano, which is just taking it off. We understand that retail and the surrounding community is another very important component. And so, we definitely leverage that. 

Greg Bray: Stephanie, how do you guys plan for the nurture process on your leads when you recognize that not everybody who might be on that interest list is ready to buy today? Some of them may be looking at when I retire, this looks like a good place and it might be a few years out or things like that. What types of things do you do to keep those people interested and engaged and up to date as you're trying to help them down that buying journey? 

Stephanie Walker: Yeah. So we have a very kind of [00:16:00] pinpointed drip campaign, and we have multiple creatives that go to different folks, 55 plus, for example. And that particular buyer, that demographic is interesting. They take a lot longer in the purchasing cycle. Like you just referenced, they could take two, three, sometimes four-plus years to make a decision. So, we understand the importance of nurturing and keeping with this audience. So, we have a very meaningful campaign that again, exposes them to all the different elements in a very thoughtful kind of sequence.

We just keep on top of their radar. We have different tactics for retargeting them and just making sure that they always understand there's new offerings available. I think another huge priority for us, aside from just the digital side, one of our big pushes is to always get folks to come out here and physically visit our visitor center, which is right in the middle of a massive amenity called Ranch Camp. Because I think there's something to be said once you physically come out and see the place that sometimes doesn't [00:17:00] translate in the digital setting. So, that's a huge push for us as well. 

Kevin Weitzel: This might be kind of a convoluted question, but because KPIs and ROI on spend is so important to, you know, homebuilders specifically, and anybody in the marketing side of the equation, number one, how are you tracking that? Number one, what matrices are you tracking? And then two, Is it just that the homebuilders are satisfied with the number of sales they get in those communities that keep them satiated and happy with the results? How are you keeping that relationship alive? And, again, what attributions are you looking for? 

Stephanie Walker: So, there's a couple of different things that we measure. Obviously, sales is a top-tier point for us, but we are constantly measuring registrations, that's a big one, to ranchomissionviejo.com. On the builder level, we're also measuring traffic at the visitor center on a weekly basis. That's a big one for us and a big indicator of the market kind of as a whole. We look at traffic to the builder models. So, those are all really important [00:18:00] factors.

From a website standpoint, website traffic, of course. Engagement, the duration of each session tells us a lot. Conversion rates. About a week or so ago, here's a perfect example, we just released a pricing e-blast for three neighborhoods. We had a 70 percent engagement rate, which was so huge for us, and that tells us a lot right there. 

We're also constantly analyzing folks just from, like, a geographic standpoint, you know, where are folks originating from specific to the larger region? What mediums are they coming from? Whether it be Google, Facebook, Zillow, there's different learnings that we kind of gauge from all these individual platforms. For example, if we see a lot of growth on Zillow or realtor.com, you know, that is a very positive sign for us for just kind of overall market engagement just since those are very purposeful search channels.

We're constantly looking at SEO or organic traffic click-through rates. And just [00:19:00] constantly communicating with our buyers, whether it's monthly e-newsletters, social media communications. We have a good cadence, I would say, where you're not inundating folks, but you're always keeping The Ranch kind of top of mind.

Greg Bray: Did I understand that you had a 70 percent engagement rate on an email blast? 

Stephanie Walker: That's what they tell me.

Greg Bray: That's crazy good. 

Stephanie Walker: Yes. And we normally have very positive numbers, but this kind of was an anomaly. So, again, that tells us for three neighborhoods that there's interest right now. There's interest in the market. There's interest in homes. These three neighborhoods in particular are priced over a million dollars. So, it's a good indicator for us. 

Greg Bray: And for everyone out there who thinks email marketing is dead, no, it just has to be done well.

Stephanie Walker: That's right.

Greg Bray: So, Stephanie, this has been really interesting to learn more about how you kind of balance the community versus the builders and everything there. Given your background kind of [00:20:00] working at some agencies before, what's been the biggest change for you going from the agency side to the in-house side, and what would you want agency people to know that you didn't know back when you were on the agency side of the desk? 

Stephanie Walker: Oh, gosh. I mean, it's funny because our dynamic, we have such a small team in-house at Rancho Mission Viejo, the marketing team, and then we have this extension of all these super talented consultants. Our lead creative branding agency is P. S. and M. Communications. They are phenomenal partners. And that's exactly that. We look to them as partners.

So, being on the quote-unquote client side is obviously very different. But, I think, just all the new learnings and just knowing that in marketing in general and in our industry, you have to be able to pivot. You have to be willing to make shifts based on any of the unforeseens, the market dynamics, the economy, all the different variables. I would have never known [00:21:00] that years ago being on the agency side. And so, you know, working with a partner who's open-minded to pivoting and making adjustments when necessary versus just sticking to the same script. I think that is so key for us and just for marketers in general.

Greg Bray: What's one thing that you would tell somebody who's struggling with their own marketing, where they feel like, gosh, our email open rates are like 1%? What should we be doing differently? What's something that you would suggest to someone who's been struggling to get their marketing kind of performing that they should look at first?

Stephanie Walker: I think first and foremost, they should revisit their targeting. If they need to make refinements, really make sure that there's a clear call to action, and understand from a tracking standpoint where your visitors are coming from. Don't be afraid to utilize a mix of platforms. Once you're analyzing all this data, don't be afraid to pivot. Again, it's not a one-size-fits-all approach. I know sometimes that might [00:22:00] be the easiest and the most cost-effective, but you don't always see the benefits by having that one size fits all. So, I think that's important. 

One more example I was just kind of thinking in my mind, not being afraid to pivot and maybe not from a digital standpoint. But a big one for us kind of post-pandemic coming out of 2020. I think there was this period in time when everybody thought things were just going to turn completely virtual and everybody was going to adopt this digital home buying experience.

There were a lot of different learnings that came out of that. The ability for us to put forth more enhancements on the website with virtual tours, Matterports, those type of resources, I think that was really a great lesson learned. But on the other side of things those folks who thought the traditional model experience would become obsolete and folks wouldn't want an actual physical salesperson there.

We learned very quickly, through several builders who tested that out, that that was not a winning combination. That desire for [00:23:00] human connection and contact is still so key, still so critical, at least at Rancho Mission Viejo, probably because we have such a bigger story to tell than just the home. So, again, just going back to we're constantly implementing and taking away new learnings. I think it's important for any company to be open to that. 

Greg Bray: Well, Stephanie, again, we appreciate you sharing so freely with us today. Do you have any last words or thoughts of advice that you'd like to leave with our audience before we wrap up?

Stephanie Walker: I think just believe in your brand and listen to your consumers. Building trust as a brand is so important. Just stay true to your core pillars. 

Greg Bray: Well, thank you again. And if somebody wants to reach out and connect with you, what's the best way for them to get in touch?

Stephanie Walker: I would love for anyone who wants to connect to reach out to me on LinkedIn. I love meeting others in the industry and learning about their unique businesses. 

Greg Bray: Well, thank you everybody for listening today to The Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine. 

Kevin Weitzel: And I'm Kevin Weitzel with OutHouse. [00:24:00]