[Case Study] How Better Homes and Gardens KC Thrived When Real Estate Stood Still

Starting From The Beginning

When I joined Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Kansas City Homes in December 2019, I walked into a marketing department that hadn't fully embraced digital. Hundreds of agents across multiple offices were essentially left to fend for themselves online, with a scattered social presence, and minimal digital support from headquarters.

The marketing team consisted of just three people trying to support an entire network of offices and agents. We needed an entirely new approach to provide better digital tools for our agents while maximizing our limited resources.

That reality set the stage for what would become an 18-month journey transforming how one of Kansas City's largest real estate agencies approached digital marketing during one of the most challenging periods in real estate history.

1. The "250 Website Challenge"

My first major initiative was ambitious by any standard: help create individual websites for every agent and team in the company—more than 250 in total.

This was a daunting task for our small team, but by breaking it down into manageable pieces, we made steady progress. The process started with migrating to WordPress, creating templated structures that maintained brand consistency while allowing for agent personalization. I personally wrote the HTML for each site, establishing keyword-rich landing pages designed specifically for lead generation.

The initiative gave agents something they'd never had before - professional digital 'homes' they could leverage without becoming web experts themselves.

2. Breathing Life Into Social Media

When I reviewed our social channels, the numbers told a clear story: decent follower counts but abysmal engagement rates. Posts were sporadic, visually inconsistent, and failed to showcase what made the agency special—its people.

Previous attempts at agent spotlights had felt forced and generated little engagement. I redesigned our agent recognition campaigns from the ground up, focusing on authentic storytelling rather than just sales figures. This simple shift—making our content about real people achieving real results—drove a 20% increase in engagement across Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn within just three months.

By implementing consistent content calendars, platform-specific strategies, and actually measuring what worked, we ultimately achieved a 40% increase in collective engagement across all platforms by the end of my tenure.

3. When COVID Crushed Real Estate: The "Home is Here" Pivot

Everything changed in March 2020. Open houses canceled. Showings suspended. The market ground to a halt as buyers and sellers tried to navigate an unprecedented market landscape.

We faced an existential crisis as the entire industry paused. As a company, we knew we needed to find ways to appeal to our customer space that would cut through everything going on in their lives.

Rather than retreat, we launched what would become our most successful marketing campaign. "Home is Here" acknowledged the new reality—homes weren't just where we lived; they had become our offices, schools, restaurants, gyms, and sanctuaries.

We shot simple, authentic footage of team members working from kitchen tables, helping kids with homework, exercising in living rooms, and cooking family meals. The message resonated immediately with viewers who were experiencing these exact same transformations in their own homes.

The campaign generated traffic increases of 20% month-over-month on our website and engagement jumps of 15-20% across social channels, even as the traditional market indicators were plummeting.

Building on this momentum, we launched a companion campaign called "Work Your Way" specifically designed to attract new agent talent to the company. We created an animated video that showcased the flexibility and support our brokerage offered agents—particularly important as real estate professionals reassessed their career priorities during the pandemic.

The First Advertisement in Our 'Work Your Way' Campaign

This recruitment-focused extension positioned us as a forward-thinking brokerage when many were just trying to survive.

Lessons From The Transformation

What made these initiatives work wasn't revolutionary technology or massive budgets. It was systematic implementation of fundamental digital principles:

• Build scalable infrastructure first. The WordPress migration created a foundation for everything that followed.

• Focus on people, not just properties. Our most engaging content consistently featured the human elements of real estate.

• Respond to reality, not just the market. The pandemic proved that connecting emotionally with audiences matters more than traditional market messaging during disruption.

• Measure everything that matters. Implementing Google Analytics and establishing performance baselines made improvement possible.

By the time I moved on in May 2021, we had cemented BHG on the digital landscape in the Kansas City market. The systems implemented during those 18 months continued driving results long after my departure.

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Brian Long led digital marketing initiatives at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Kansas City Homes from December 2019 to May 2021. He now helps small businesses achieve similar digital transformations through Long Story Digital Marketing.