Empire Communities

Objectives:
• To act as an information hub for all things related to Empire’s operations
• To act as a robust resource for our various stakeholders and clients throughout the sale cycle
• To act as a gateway to all of our projects’ micro sites

Target demographic:
• First time home buyers and existing homeowners alike (various stages in customer journey: from pre-sale to recently closed, and past customers): married couples, families, singles, downsizes, local and international investors
• Potential/existing business partners
• Realtors seeking a exclusive access
• The Empire team

Our Unique Approach:
With 90% of American home buyers using online resources to start their new home search we felt it was important to provide an online experience that was robust, easy to navigate and content rich. Traditionally our web focused solely on sales and product we had to sell, however with our new site we provide much needed Home Buying Resources aimed to help our 1000+ new homeowners a year. We understand that beyond the purchase home buyers have many questions and are faced with a sea of real estate jargon. We can easily help to de-mystify this world and have put together a step-by-step resource section with handy checklists, articles and infographs. In addition to our new website we have also given a face-lift to our monthly e-newsletter making it more visually appealing with bite-sized stories all directing to our blog. Our team of writers are constantly on the lookout for helpful tips, new style trends, “best of’s”, “top 10 picks” and basically anything home and real estate related. The style mags and new home reports are constantly inspiring us to provide our readers new content. Our goal is to not only be one of Ontario’s largest home builders but to also be one of Ontario’s best resources for the industry.

Stat provided by the National Association of Realtors.


The Biggest Challenge To Overcome
The biggest challenge to overcome was to present the vast amount of information we had in a digestible way. In order to do this, we embarked on a research journey in order to learn more about our users. By doing this we were able to better understand what type of information they need, how they consume it, and where they look for it. We carried our findings into the information architecture, content strategy, user interface design, and overall user experience.

The second challenge was to create an easy to use Content Management System (CMS) that would allow copywriters to easily add/edit/remove their content in no time, using multiple design layouts. In addition, the custom CMS system offers great flexibility in design and site structure allowing the marketing team to add/edit/remove sections at their will.

The website saw 60,000 visits in the first month of launch, with 72% of new visitors and 64% traffic increase on mobile device.

Visit the website here: http://empirecommunities.com/