Toth Marketing

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of development at The Lake District, a 160-acre lifestyle community outside of Memphis. It’s currently in the development phase—nothing’s fully constructed yet. When finished, we’ll offer 300 custom homes starting in the upper $300,000 range, 265 apartments, a man-made lake, and brand-name restaurants and retailers. It’s a massive development, with the estimated total cost coming in just under $500 million.

What challenge were you trying to address with Toth Marketing?

We’d been working with a different vendor, but they weren’t meeting our expectation in terms of responsiveness and quality of work. Looking to refresh our entire website, we partnered with Toth Marketing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, Toth Marketing updated our website. We were pleased with their work, so we handed over responsibility for all of our design, marketing, and strategy consulting needs to their team. They’re currently our go-to for anything related to branding and outreach.

So far, they’ve provided a wide variety of services, ranging from overall strategy consulting to video production. They handle any of our web design and development projects, and they are responsible for putting together events. They maintain our social media and PR campaigns, publishing one press release a month and securing recognition from local news channels. We collaborate on forming a cohesive brand identity throughout the community. For example, they formulated the signage and aesthetic for our independent grocery store. Finally, Toth Marketing manages our email lists, both designing the templates and creating content that focuses on collecting intent letters from possible tenants.

What is the team composition?

We work directly with two representatives from Toth Marketing, but they have team members in the background that actually execute the design and development work.

How did you come to work with Toth Marketing?

We’d been working on the project for two years with a different company when we received a referral for Toth Marketing. Because we weren’t pleased with our current situation, we chose to change vendors.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent over $200,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2017, and it’s an ongoing project. We plan to stick with Toth Marketing through the entire development process until the community opens.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

So far, their work has been above and beyond what we expected. We’re currently tracking intent letters, event attendance rates, and social media engagement and seeing positive results. They’re primarily managing our Facebook page, which went from 100 to 750 followers under their guidance.

How did Toth Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, they’re good. They may have missed a deadline once or twice, but not on important tasks. We understand that things happen. For the most part, they are on time and collaborate very well. If we need to make any changes to the schedule, we talk through it. Their team is very proactive from a communication standpoint, keeping us updated regarding progress and possible challenges.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They truly care. Even when they’re not on call, they make themselves available. We’ve developed an incredible relationship. In terms of quality and experience, they’re top-notch. Their deliverables are stellar, but we really love working with them because they’re committed not just to our project, but to us as a company as well. We haven’t built this level of trust with other agencies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their core team is only three people, so they outsource some the work. Even though the contractors deliver great products, we’d love to see their team increase its internal capacity. They’ve grown since the beginning of our partnership, but so have our needs. With more staff, they’d be able to take on more responsibility.

Any advice for potential customers?

Working with Toth Marketing is all about balance. Clients can’t just hand everything to their team and expect them to get it done. They’re much more focused on collaboration, and they’re clear about that from the beginning. To get the most out of their services, clients need to work with them closely. Their team is very structured, staying on top of everyone involved to make sure all commitments are honored.