Overview: Magellan Development came to The Ocean Agency in effort to improve the online presence of both areas of the company, rental units and homes for sale. The bottom line was to increase targeted traffic and most importantly increase conversions to both company websites. As one of Chicago's top developers (as noted by Crain's Chicago Business, the Chicago Tribune, and the Chicago Sun-Times), it was essential that the firm's online presence reflect their brand's leadership and authority in the city and the broader real estate community.
Challenge: To increase brand awareness, targeted traffic and most importantly conversions while working within their existing corporate identity to improve the Magellan Development and NNP Residential overall online experience.
Solutions: The Ocean Agency began this campaign by revamping nnpresidential.com and magellansells.com.
We redesigned the websites to better communicate their message and provided a better overall online experience encouraging more visitors to convert into clients. We added textual and video content about the community, a search function that allows users to search available units that best fit their needs, and a regularly updated community blog that highlights Magellan sponsored-events as well as local entertainment options.
After revitalizing their company websites it was time to build their online presence in the eyes of their online audience and major search engines. We established Magellan's presence on a wide variety of related and popular websites, including architecture communities, university housing resources, and pet communities (their buildings are some of the most pet-friendly in Chicago). Moreover, by integrating social technologies into their websites, we have helped Magellan agents and staff communicate directly with both potential buyers and their existing community in an authentic manner.
With the revitalized websites and new abilities to interact with their target audience it was time to start driving enormous amounts of targeted traffic to their websites. Because their are millions of searches performed each month in major search engines using "Chicago real estate", "Chicago condos", and "Chicago apartments" and related key phrases, we developed an organic SEO strategy pushing their website to the top of major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. We targeted a wide range of key phrases, including highly competitive and popular phrases such as "Chicago apartments" as well as more specific phrases such as "downtown Chicago apartments" and "Chicago luxury apartments". These key phrases are seached millions of times per month and being on page #1 was a major coup for Magellan Development and NNP Residential.
Results: Magellan's websites now receive a combined 25,000 visitors per month, with the majority coming in through the organic listings in Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Their new powerful page #1 rankings include highly competitive search terms such as "Chicago apartments" (135,000 searches per month) as well as more targeted (more likely to convert) long-tail key phrases such as "downtown Chicago apartments" (3,600 searches per month)and "Millennium Park condos" (110 searches per month). In addition, the social technologies integrated into their web presence have allowed them to more effectively connect, communicate, and interact with prospective buyers as well as current residents. This dramatic boost in social interaction has led to an enormous increase in brand awareness, targeted traffic and conversions resulting in huge success despite the state of the real estate market in 2009.
As one of Chicago's most prominent real estate firms, it was essential that Magellan's web presence reflect the company's real world status, and thanks to their relationship with The Ocean Agency, it does. Perhaps the most significant difference we've made is the simplest - on a daily basis, Magellan's websites receive over 1000 visitors. For Magellan, their audience comes to them, not the other way around.
