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How about if you can “build” your home before it’s actually built?
With Commodore Homes’ new interactive website, you can “build your own home” before you really build your home. Design your kitchen? Yes, you can do that too! Create a password-protected account and you’ll be able to save your selections for future reference.
The site encourages visitors to explore and connect with their qualified builders and custom products while viewing videos of the design, construction, and transformation of new homes. Interested in the specific cabinets and faucets and want to shop from home? In the Options area, there’s a complete listing of features and options to select from and save as you plan your next home.
When the prospective homeowner creates an account and enters the website, your address initiates a search for the nearest potential Commodore-approved builder. The visitor can find this information under the “Find a Builder” tab.
The Company Portal describes Commodore in more detail and answers informative Frequently Asked Questions, information about markets served and interesting residential-related news and blogs.
The site provides a sales rep access area to determine who may be showing notable interest. Beyond the corporate site each of their divisions has a site. Each site is managed by the web admin from one central website manager portal. View the division sites here:
For the prospective homeowner, this website offers a great opportunity to explore the range of possibilities with its interactive and unique inHouse Experience.
How many times have you visited a friend’s new home and heard them say, “If there is one thing I would have done differently, it would have been…” ? This unfortunate situation is not uncommon when elements are visualized independently of other features. Or, the plans may have been viewed in a 2-dimensional floor plan with a limited perspective.
Commodore’s fantastic interactive portal allows you to visualize all of the critical exterior and interior elements of your future home. Additionally, after saving your favorite configurations, you may go back to review, edit and save again.
After opening Commodore’s easy-to-use (and even fun), interactive website, go to the inHouse Experience section where you can begin to design the “curb appeal” elements by selecting between one or two-story configurations, sidings and roof pitches. A simple click will show how your home would look; the graphics change with each selection.
Secondly, move inside to configure floor plan, kitchen, flooring, décor, and all of the other important features. The combinations are nearly limitless and seeing each element in the context of the others before construction is a homeowner’s dream.
Avoid those decorating mistakes that frequently raise their ugly heads, often after you have moved in.
First, you will select your choice of a one or two-story plan. From here you can visualize a range of roof pitch angles and exterior features including dormers and curbside exterior features that really create the personality of the home.
Next, you may select a shade of shake lower front sidings, exterior trim colors, vertical and horizontal siding shades, and various types of roofing and shutters. You can even select your front door. Each time you click on an option, the picture will change, allowing you to mix and match hundreds of combinations.
Move inside and browse the floorplan that fits your lifestyle. Options include three and four-bedroom plans with two bathrooms with a choice of shower styles in the Master bath.
To many, the kitchen is the most important room in the house. Here you have a world of combinations to create that dream kitchen. While there are literally hundreds of combinations to consider, create your custom kitchen cabinets, Neo Kitchen with a variety of flooring, countertop, cabinetry, appliances and hardware choices.
Not just a website, Commodore is a website system with robust tools to empower Commodore and their builders to have online access to all sorts of information. The site includes the ability for the Admin to add new InHouse Experiences to any of the 8 sites as well as add builders/dealers and give the dealer embed code allowing them to add InHouse Experience tools to their own website!
Builders also have access to private logins with private information and downloadable resources on each home they carry. Commodore can add builders/dealers, and give them access to information on different home series, even access to more than one site.
Adding pages, adding new homes, adding home series, all of these are a snap as is managing call-to-actions and sales features. The cost effectiveness of building a portal and giving builders access to download materials rather than printing and shipping has been significant. Builders have timely information, the public has a resource-rich site where they can build their home, and Commodore has the tools and power to keep everyone up-to-date all the time! A triple win!
Does your dealer network or builder network need access to key marketing assets efficiently? Is your business ready to take the next step to develop tools for customizing your product online? Talk to us!
It’s important to keep up with the frequent changes on the web that affect your company’s online presence. Here are several key points to keep in mind to make sure your business has an effective web presence that is consistent and performing well according to today’s standards. The way that you present yourself on the web will influence your audience's judgment of your company and whether they stick around to interact with you.
Having a site with responsive design is a must. This means mobile and tablet friendly as the website “responds” to adjust and present content well based on the device it is being viewed on.
An increasing number of users are navigating the web on their tablets or smartphones. Ensure your company’s visibility by having a responsive design. The mobile view of your website should have large, clear text, images, and buttons that are easily clickable with a finger. Don't put clickable links too close together and make them easy for large fingers to click. Analyze each page of your mobile website individually for its usability and design. To make sure your website is responsive, you can build it using webflow development principles.
A website layout refers to a framework or pattern that defines the structure of a website. It structures the information seen on a website, both for the owner and the users. A web layout provides clear navigation paths within web pages and places the most important website elements at the front and center.
Typically, the users of your website will do what you “tell them” to do.
By having an organized site navigation, you’re making it easier for the user to complete a goal. That goal is usually a conversion of some sort; it may be checkout completion, an email opt-in, registration sign-up, etc. Once the goal is initiated, make sure your users know they have arrived at the correct place with relevant content on the appropriate page.
If you want to embrace HubSpot web design, for instance, you can work with a HubSpot specialist who can be an extension of your web design team. By doing so, your business will have a repeatable stream of new leads and customers to attain consistently high revenue.
Check the following tips when designing your website layout:
For users to view you as an authority, you will need to display your company’s expertise and be a resource.
A blog allows you to publish content quickly and easily. When you provide value upfront in the form of content, you allow others to build trust in your knowledge. That trust supports your credibility and places you in the position of the expert. Users will come back to your site time and time again when they know your site contains a wealth of resources in the form of guides, videos, whitepapers, and other content you can publish on your blog.
Here are some tips to make your website a blog resource center:
Moving someone from visitor to lead is lead capture, and to do so you need a CTA (Call to Action).
It’s essential to stay current with best practices for gathering information from your viewers. Many sites have had good success with embedding an email opt-in box in a blog post. Nowadays, it’s necessary to get creative. The old email opt-in box in the sidebar of your site trick isn't working as effectively and should not be your only means of CTA on your website. On your blog, offer expert level information as downloadable content. Use call to actions to entice a viewer into downloading your content to gain a valuable lead for a product or service you offer.
To be an effective web presence, your site needs to make it easy for your own business, as well as any visitor, to share your great blog and web page content on social media! Offer the primary social media network sharing buttons at the top or side of key pages. It’s highly recommended to have them on every new blog post you publish on your business site. Typically this is a one-time setup by your web developer. Allowing others to share your content helps your content to get spread wider and farther online.
Become an active social listener in your industry and learn the pain points of your audience. The more problems you can solve for your audience, the more value you provide, which enhances your web presence and the value your audience recognizes in your business. By following these 5 simple guidelines on your business website, you can establish an effective web presence online that grows business.
It's not just a website, it's a sales tool!
The mobile web continues to evolve and businesses must adapt!
It's a fact that more and more people use smartphones and that website traffic is shifting from desktop to mobile dominated.
Many times businesses see others with an App and wonder if they should have an app for their business.
In this episode of Halftime Mike I dive into this practical question and give you guidance so your business can make a decision to meet your needs. This episode flows out of a joint presentation I gave with Nathan DeSelm of Villing at a regional American Marketing Association Meeting. Our presentation was entitled, "Battle of the Planet Apps" and I've included some images below from the presentation. (I think you'll quickly see where we got our play on words from!)
So, if you're looking for the answer as to whether you need to jump in and have a app developed, or whether a mobile site will meet your needs, my aim here is to give you the information you need to decide!
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Mobile is the way of the future. With stats from January 2014 showing that already 58% of Americans were using a Smartphone, the age of the mobile device is NOW!
So do you go mobile site or app? As a starting point, you need a responsive website (A website that responds to the device the user is viewing your site on) simply because of the sheer volume of mobile web users and the trend for all web traffic to increase on mobile devices.
This is critical in order to present a quality first impression to anyone coming to your site. The keys then are whether there is the need to go deeper and actually have an app as well.
So, it my opinion it's not really a "one or the other?" question. You need a mobile site. The second question is then whether you also need a app!
The bottom line is a mobile website is needed regardless!
It helps you have a quality web presence and is great for new visitors to learn about you. An app, on the other hand, is great where you need to drill deeper and provide existing clients and customers with more, frequently accessed, personalized information and tools.
[Tweet "The bottom line in app versus mobile is that a mobile website is needed regardless! via @mike_gingerich"]
Thoughts on apps versus mobile websites? Need one or the other? Contact my team!
Share them below!
I’m a Indiana Hoosier native where basketball is the top sport. Every team heads to the locker room at halftime to evaluate the first half and create a updated plan for the second half. That plan includes adjustments based on reviewing what worked and what didn't. The “halftime” is a key review point where the game stops, the team pulls away to huddle in the locker room away from the fans, and they come out prepared and ready to succeed in the second half.
That’s what this podcast is all about, taking the time to pull away for bit to evaluate, learn, and set some strategies for your business to succeed in the second half. Join me by subscribing and let me be your “business halftime” to help you find great success going forward!
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