Realty Website Gets Remodeled :: Covenant Communications

Realty Website Gets Remodeled

Who they are:

A locally owned and operated commercial real estate advisory firm, BishopBeale specializes in the Central Florida market, offering its clients decades of local experience and honest advice.

Why they came:

Combining 40 years of experience, Billy Bishop and Mike Beale joined forces last year to offer Orlando local expertise, unrivaled customer service, and successful strategies to take their clients’ commercial investments to the next level. But they needed a marketing partner who could help them do the same for their own business. Enter Covenant. As a full-service marketing firm, we set to work, scoping out the details of a marketing plan that would develop their brand, message and website, and the individual elements of each that would be used to best deliver them to their target audience.

What we did for them:

We kicked off the project by meeting with Mike, Billy and their marketing director, Caroline Miller. We asked them thought-provoking questions to determine what they were looking to accomplish, how they planned to do it and how they wanted to be perceived by the public. They wanted a logo and brand identity design that would establish them as the one-stop shop for all of their clients’ realty needs. Although they wanted to maintain their strong local roots, they also wanted to show that they have the expertise to branch out on a national level. So we set out to do just that through the development of the following:

Brand Identity: Before beginning the project, we asked Mike and Billy to fill out a creative brief, with a series of questions that would help us narrow in on what they were looking for. They wanted something contemporary and current, but that would still look professional. We met with them in person to discuss their answers and to make sure we were heading in the right direction. From there, we were able to present them with 20 logo concepts, from which they chose one to make revisions to. After arriving on a final logo, we incorporated it into a brand board, so that the client could see how it would look built out into several of their key pieces, like a brochure or a realty sign. Next, we built out stationery and e-signatures, so that the look and feel of the brand would be used consistently in everything they sent out to the public. We then outlined all of these pieces in a brand book, to assure that the brand rules are followed company wide and put everyone on the same page.
Message: Now that we had the look and feel of the brand established, we still needed to nail down a message that would explain clearly and concisely who they are and what they do. And who better to answer those questions than the principals of the company themselves? So we conducted interviews with Mike and Billy, asking them questions that would define why BishopBeale isn’t just a real estate advisory firm in Orlando. It is the real estate advisory firm in Orlando. After coming up with a clear message that everyone was happy with, we turned this basic information into a one-page sales sheet that they could hand out to current or potential clients.
Web: We started by thinking through the navigation, and creating a blueprint of what we thought the architecture of the site should look like. We reorganized the content, placing the “Properties” page first, since selling and leasing properties is the driving force behind their business. For each property, users can view an image, description, PDF, and a map of where it’s located. Putting ourselves in the shoes of the user, we wanted to put all of the information they’d be looking for right at their fingertips. Since a homepage is the doorway to any website, we wanted to set a good first impression right from the start. So we created cool features and effects, like making the “b” icon in the logo bounce when you mouse over it. Or adding a “b” symbol in the navigation that indicates which page you’re on. And, to make sure the content never gets stale, we added a featured property and testimonial section that would generate new content every time you hit refresh.

To solidify BishopBeale as a leader in its industry, we wanted to take things one step further. So we created a map that could be viewed from the homepage to show users the location of every available property by category. It even gives users a short description of each when you click on a pinpoint.