It takes a true mix of approaches to make a good marketing plan, according to Taylor Morrison’s chief marketing and communications officer Stephanie McCarty.
“On the lower part of the funnel there will always be email, paid search, all of your traditional tactics that I think if done really well, can be very successful in converting,” McCarty says. “And in the upper funnel, we’re invested in our organic social strategy, our video content strategy, and numerous things for brand awareness. I think the magic happens when you have all of those in harmony together.”
McCarty, who joined Taylor Morrison as vice president of corporate communications in 2015, soon became the company’s first CMO in 2018 when CEO Sheryl Palmer had a vision to separate marketing from sales.
“We now exist in service of one another, but each is getting the love and care that it needs to be effective. It’s been really fun,” McCarty adds.
Below, she shares insight on what Taylor Morrison is seeing in new-home marketing ahead of her appearance at the CMOs in the Spotlight panel at Accelerate in Austin, Texas, on March 24, 2025.
Are there any trends you’re seeing in new-home marketing today? Anything Taylor Morrison is taking note of?
When I think about Taylor Morrison and our marketing approach, we don’t really seek inspiration from within the category, to be honest. We’re very attuned to how consumers are engaging with brands and how they’re discovering new brands. From a consumer’s perspective, they are in a constant state of searching, streaming, scrolling, and shopping. And that doesn’t turn off when they begin considering their home purchase or search. So I think trends within marketing are: ‘how can you better position yourself to be where consumers are’ and to operate more like the direct-to-consumer brands or retail brands.
What would you like to see change in new-home marketing?
If we engage with consumers like the way they are used to engaging with other brands, I think it’s going to set us up for the greatest opportunity to be successful. I’d like to see home building ditch that old school approach to how we market because I think as an industry, we tend to market to you know 5% that might be in the market for a home. That leaves 95% of people who might not be in the market today out. Their life can change in an instant and they might be in the market tomorrow. So, it’s a matter of being top of mind for them and I think that’s harder in our industry. As you know we don’t sell a widget that people consume daily.
Would you say that’s the biggest challenge in marketing new homes?
There’s a constant tension between much to invest in lower funnel versus upper funnel. I think there’s no right answer, but when I think about Gen Z and the younger generations who are going to be coming into homeownership and the discovery phase—and we certainly are seeing several buying—I think it’s incumbent upon us to re-articulate what the American dream can look like for them, what homeownership can look like, which what they want isn’t necessarily what the generations before them wanted.
So how do you approach this potential change of buyers and audience?
I think marketing has never been harder than it is today. I feel like marketing, at least at Taylor Morrison, has been tasked with transformation. We have to be a true change agent for the consumer to bring in new ways of thinking and being available to them in the ways that meet their preferences. It’s never really easy to be in marketing, but I feel like it's probably even harder now than it ever has been, but in the same vein, I think it's probably the most exciting time to be in marketing. Every consumer segment has their favorite way of engaging and I think it depends on the pipeline of where they are in the funnel. Yet, at the core of all of it is really great content, regardless of how it’s being delivered.
How do you know the right content is being delivered?
That's always going to be what keeps me up at night. Do we have enough content? Is it the right content? Is it snackable? Is it consumable? Is it interesting? Is it entertaining? Is it specific enough? You know, I think as an industry we speak in generics a lot because that's a lot easier, but consumers’ expectations are changing, and they want more personalized content.
In recent years, how has the industry’s attitude toward marketing changed?
For the overall industry, I think marketing right now is being redefined as a real growth driver in home building. And a revenue generator, not just a lead generator, which is a total mindset shift in how to view marketing.
For the consumer, I think that if you have a brand that's worthy of being emotionally connected to, then there's a lot of value in that.
Not too long ago, a whole five years ago. Consumers tolerated or accepted a lack of transparency in terms of information or pricing. When I stepped into the CMO role six years ago, our website was just a pure seduction tool. It was just a bunch of pretty pictures, but if you wanted any information on the process or the true price of that home, you had to go into a sales center or you had to call. I can't think of any other product in the world that I would entertain that type of process with, and consumers are busy. They can make decisions if the website is truly selling 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and you should have as much information about your product available. That's really a mindset shift. We found that the more information you put on your website, the stickier it is, right? The more emotionally invested people can become.
