Cavcon Construction, Greensburg’s premier commercial construction management firm, believed that creating an effective Web site could save them time in the contract process by providing a virtual portfolio for prospects. But Cavcon quickly learned that the Web site is also an extremely lucrative lead generator.
Before: Convoluted Sales Process
Cavcon Construction chose to create a Web site to streamline its multi-faceted sales process. Prior to the new Web site, meeting with a client and physically showing a portfolio contained the following drawbacks:
-Outdated content
Cavcon didn’t have time to add the newest jobs to the portfolio right away, so on occasion they weren’t able to show off their best new work. The Web site is now much easier to keep up-to-date.
-Damaged displays
Large portfolios can get kinked and dented easily, which doesn’t offer the best presentation to the client. The Web site offers perfect viewing, day or night, from any browser, on any screen resolution.
-Inconsistent message
The presenter may overlook important information such as project size and other key elements specific to the project. The Web portfolio delivers a consistent, targeted message.
-Expensive
A strong physical portfolio is expensive to maintain, and if easily damaged, isn’t putting your company’s best foot forward. The Web portfolio is easy to maintain and almost impossible to irreparably damage.
-Time consuming
It takes time to arrange a meeting, drive there, spend time with the prospect, make a presentation, and come back to the office. Now Cavcon can offer virtual meetings and talk with clients through their new interactive Web site instead of meeting in person.
-Single viewing
When a portfolio is presented in person, it’s only reviewed once. The prospect doesn’t have an opportunity to revisit the work at his or her leisure. Cavaon's new Web site is always available to the prospect, so he or she may refer it on to someone else.
Cavcon Construction’s plan was to eliminate these problems by developing an engaging, high-traffic, interactive Web site that prominently featured their many accomplishments. After some industry analysis and discussions with NuRelm, a plan was put in place and the Web site was created with a primary focus on the following areas.
Web Site Solutions: Key Design Secrets & Keyword Writing
Key Design Secrets:
The Cavcon Web site was designed to feature its portfolio prominently, so the following guidelines were put in place:
-Home Page Dominated by Completed Projects
Cavcon had a strong motivation to make the sales process easier with a visually strong Web site and selected several of their most attractive completed projects to give the visual impact they were seeking. The home page offers one large project image and 2 randomly rotating database images to feature 3 different projects at any given time.
-Fresh Home Page Content
Cavcon limited the text on the home page to briefly describe their capabilities, offer a featured project, and add a quick “latest happenings” area. This makes the Web site very easy to navigate and site visitors are able to review Cavcon's abilities at a glance. It’s also easy to update since the site is integrated with NuContent software, NuRelm's "Instant Web Site Update Technology".
-Rotating Header Imagery
The header image to the right is part of a randomly rotating database that changes as each new visitor reviews the Web site. This sends a subtle visual cue to the visitor that content is fresh, adds aesthetic interest and reinforces the thought that Cavcon has completed many large, impressive projects.
-Testimonials
Many service industry firms offer a static testimonials listing on their Web sites. Cavcon’s, however, ties each testimonial back to the related project, so that site visitors can review for themselves the project size, scope, and the detailed imagery.
-Featured Project Database
Cavcon’s featured project database enables a non-technical administrator to upload project statistics and photographs, select which category the project belongs under and decide if the project should be a part of the featured project rotation.
Keyword Writing:
Rather than have an outside company provide the Web site copy, Cavcon relied upon the abilities of its employees to talk about the company and describe projects. Although these employees had no knowledge of Web technology, they were able to enter the Web content easily with NuContent Internet software. This approach made the most sense because the project managers know the projects best.
With a little guidance from NuRelm, Cavcon also conducted keyword analysis and considered their capabilities from a prospects’ perspective before writing the content. This boosted their ability to be easily located and rated highly by the major search engines.
Better Results: Effective First Impression, Lead Generation, & Search Engine Optimization
"Not only was the initial problem addressed, but the Web site has done a lot more for us than we expected. The Web site is great! Its only been up for 2 months, and in that time we’ve had 9 serious requests for bids from people that found the site, a national chain added Cavcon to the official bidders list, and Cavcon was selected to build the new Starbucks in Somerset with the help of the new Web site."
-Carl Belli, Director of Business Development
Cavcon Construction
The Web site creates an effective first impression of Cavcon Construction. No matter which page a viewer hits first, the site visually indicates that this firm has performed a lot of high quality work in the field of commercial construction management. This has led to highly lucrative online lead generation and has encouraged word-of-mouth marketing with little added effort.
In addition, Cavcon's non-technical staff was able to take control of their Web site content to discuss projects and tell the stories that make their projects easier to understand. With a little research and guidance from NuRelm, Cavcon selected the keyword phrases that make the most sense for their industry to get their desired ranking in the major search engines.
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