Archive for the ‘Our Clients’ Category

Client Testimonial: Doreen Coones of Berkshires’ Monarch Realty Inc.

monarchrealty

 

Here in the Union Street Media office, we regularly trade stories about projects that we’re proud of, but as soon as we got this testimonial from Doreen Coones at Monarch Realty in Adams, MA, we knew we had to share it far and wide.  Building and maintaining a website is a challenge, and it’s great to hear how our process and our people have helped to surpass Doreen’s goals for her new website. 

“Union Street Media rocks!  We LOVE our new webpage, www.monarchrealty-ma.com, and our customers LOVE it too!  Because Monarch Realty Inc. is growing by leaps and bounds, we needed a more modern, user friendly and eye-popping website to accommodate our expansion.  Union Street Media is a God send!  We are so thrilled with the classy, resplendent, welcoming look and design and atmosphere of the site; it is more beautiful and user friendly than we envisioned! Not only is it alluring to consumers but it is so easy to use!  We have already received so many compliments from people who love our webpage and our new features!  Customers specifically admire the property search formats, the new listings layout, the interactive map and the ability to sign up for listing updates.  By far, the most popular new feature is our mobile site!  Our customers have stated it is the best mobile site they’ve visited and it is now the only one they use!

We owe our new found internet success to Union Street Media!  The entire team of professional and caring people are a pleasure to work with!  Everyone, from Dan Kompass, the Business Development Manager, to Joe Mester, Web Developer, work with you every step of the way while turning your website dreams into a live, vibrant site on the internet!

I wanted a web design company who could meet my goals, provide uncommon expertise, and one who afforded a continuing relationship after the launch of my website.  After searching the internet and examining several companies, the only web design company that stood out above the rest was Union Street Media.  Upon speaking with Dan Kompass, the Business Development Manager, I was sold!

Dan was incredibly honest, knowledgeable and understood exactly what I needed in a website.  He patiently explained the price structure, design process and gave me an estimated completion date for my project.  The contract he emailed was easy to understand, contained all the project details and the contract price matched the verbal quote.  The best part of all, there were no hidden costs!  The actual cost we were charged matched the projected cost!  Thank you Dan!

Ariana Wammer, Production Manager, was with me every step of the way, ensuring my complete satisfaction with each phase before we progressed to the next step.  She made the whole process a comfortable experience.  Her insight and understanding of what I wanted for both the design and administrative end of my website, gave me the confidence my website was in good hands.  Thank you Ariana!

I was fortunate to land Normandie Hyatt, Graphic Designer, as my website designer!  What a wonderful, dynamic & creative woman!  I did not realize Monarch butterflies, colors & formats could be so tricky and mind-boggling!  Thankfully for me, her young daughter lent a helping hand with the butterfly.  Determined to create a website the way I wanted, Normandie put on her thinking cap and went to work.  Upon my first site preview, I was astonished!  Her design was better than anything I envisioned!  She exceeded my expectations for my Monarch Butterfly and color scheme on the first attempt!  I fell in love with the whole sight right away!  Thank you Normandie for your lovely daughter, all your wonderful ideas and for your keen intellect of my desires.

Allyson Locke, Internet Marketer, is a person I cannot live without!  She is the epitome of a quality employee!  She is a laudable crackerjack with regards to all of the perplexing, complicated and baffling areas of internet marketing.  After one phone call with Allyson, I clearly understood an expert was what I needed to help promote my website not only at the beginning of the project but specifically once it was launched!  Allyson is the only person I wanted for the job!  Not only is she teaching me the basic principles of internet marketing but she constantly analyzes my site statistics and recommends improvements to obtain the best results for my company.  Her service was an upgrade to my project costs; one at first I was tempted to eliminate, but under the advisement of Dan Kompass I decided to include the figure in my budget.  It’s the best decision I made and one well worth the extra expenditure. Allyson is worth every penny and my website would be lost amongst the millions of other real estate websites without her finely honed abilities.  Thank you Allyson; I am so tickled to be working with you.

Most web design companies terminate the relationship once the project is completed and payment is received.  Not Union Street Media!  Minna Brown is my client service manager and an invaluable asset to both me and Union Street Media.  She takes as much pride in my website as I do!  She is in constant contact with me to make sure I am on track with my training on blogs and the back end administration of  my website.  She also noted I had not made any progress on the EXPLORE OUR AREA tab that I chose to build myself.  How impressive to know she cares and is easily accessible to lend a helping hand.  She continues to work with my local real estate board to configure a way to provide our customers with instant updates  on our listings.  Thank you Minna for your ceaseless efforts, without your positive attitude and encouragement my website would simply linger!

Union Street Media continues to provide stellar support once the training is complete and websites are launched.  Joe Mester, Web Developer, rapidly responds to my questions and concerns.  No matter how simple the query, he personally responds with the appropriate resolution and shows me where the training video/material is located.

Furthermore, Union Street Media does more than just design websites, they are committed to helping their clients use their websites to build a strong on-line presence, sell more homes and dominate their marketplace.  Their collection of resources available to their clients is commendable!    Their help center has articles, videos & blogs on an array of subjects devised to help clients attract, retain & convert leads to sales!

Union Street Media are team players and remain a key part of our business.  Their customer service is first-class and their products are unsurpassed.  We look forward to being the forerunner of on-line marketplace in our area and converting leads into sales through our high quality, easy to use website and mobile website.  We consider Union Street Media part of our family here at Monarch Realty Inc. and would refer them to anyone who is considering either creating or updating their website.  I salute you Union Street Media for a job well done.  Thank you for our new, interactive website & mobile website; you’ve made a customer for life!”

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Doreen T. Coones

Co-founder, Partner, REALTOR®
Monarch Realty Inc.

Our Award Winning Vermont Real Estate Clients

Congrats to the Union Street Media clients who took home awards at the 2012 Vermont Association of Realtors Convention!

We’ve been working with Vermont REALTORS for over ten years, and we are always impressed by the caliber of their real estate work, as well as their dedication to improving the communities they work in. In what can be a competitive and cutthroat business, it’s refreshing to see the evident camaraderie, commitment and spirit of giving back that these REALTORS share.  Since I have the pleasure of working with many of them as clients, it was a treat to be able to check in with the majority of them at last week’s annual Vermont Association of REALTORS convention.

Sitting at the awards luncheon,  I realized that I was clapping for a disproportionate number of our clients as various VAR honors were called out. While it didn’t surprise me given who our clients are, I wanted to step back for a moment and just acknowledge some of our Vermont real estate clients (to whom we owe our own success as a company) for their achievements.

Of note on the podium with REALTOR of the Year nods were:

Ken Libby, 2012 Vermont REALTOR of the Year

Addison County: Amey Ryan of IPJ Real Estate in Middlebury

Central Vermont: Martha Lange of Century 21 Jack in Montpelier

Orleans County: Lyell Reed of Century 21 Farm and Forest in Derby

Windsor County: Eric Johnston of Lang McLaughry Spera in Woodstock

Ken Libby of Stowe Realty and kenlibby.com in Stowe, was not only Lamoille County REALTOR of the Year, but he was also surprised to be Vermont’s REALTOR of the Year.  Ken is a long-term Union Street Media client, and while he may not have a lot of time to work on his website, he always has time to work tirelessly for the various groups he’s involved with.  It’s hard to keep track of all of the things Ken has worked on.  He’s the past Stowe Police Chief, has been active in youth athletics, serves as the Chair of countless organizational boards, maintains a high level of activity in the local and national real estate arenas.

Congratulations go out to each of our honored clients, and to their offices!

Despite tough economic times and natural disasters like Tropical Storm Irene, this is a vibrant and strong local real estate community and it’s refreshing to see our clients doing well.  We’re glad to be able to be a part of their success, and look forward to seeing even more of our clients’ names in lights across every state we service.

A Fall Real Estate Website Refresh

Ingrid Punderson Jackson, owner of IPJ Real Estate in Middlebury, Vermont, has been a loyal Union Street Media client since we launched her original site in 2007.  Ingrid’s original site featured the paintings of her husband, Woody Jackson, prominently on the homepage and through out the interior pages of the site. The site offered her clients a sophisticated but easy-to-use tool for property searches and showcased her knowledge about the Middlebury area.

Like everything, real estate websites have a life cycle.  Five years post-launch, Ingrid’s site was still providing her with a professional web presence, but the design had become a bit dated.  Calls to action needed to be more prominent and new features, not previously available, were missing from middvermontrealestate.com. Recognizing the value of the site as a lead generator for her and the three agents in her office, Ingrid decided to ‘refresh’ her real estate website design.

Through our real estate website design refresh process, we were able to upgrade the site’s conversion and search tools, property detail views, and overall functionality. Our Design Team made sure to incorporate  the imagery and essence of Woody’s art from the old site into the new one to maintain IPJ Real Estate’s identity. Along with a refresh, Ingrid decided integrate our mobile platform on the website enabling her clients, many of whom are out-of-state alumni of Middlebury College, to easily find homes for sale on their phones.

IPJ Real Estate (version 2.0) is a great example of a site that has been updated to reflect changes in technology and design without losing sight of the company’s overall goals and personality.  Check out the before & after below!

Previous Website

New Website

Recent Real Estate Website Launches

New Hampshire Real Estate Websites

www.fourseasonssir.com

Four Seasons SIR (New London Agency) Redesign

Four Seasons Sotheby’s International Realty (formerly New London Agency) is family owned and run by sisters Pam Perkins and Stephanie Wheeler. The company prides itself in providing the most comprehensive real estate website on properties for sale in the New Hampshire Dartmouth Lake Sunapee Region.

The new real estate website is broken down by regions and life style searches which they have found are more frequently used by home buyers. One of the reasons they wanted a redesign was so they could expand their market area to new offices that they were opening. They wanted to make the user experience fast, relevant and very intuitive. They understand the importance of SEO – but their first priority is making sure that they keep the qualified buyers on our site – rather than focusing first on trying to get millions of people to give the one click.

Cape Cod Real Estate Websites

www.jackcottonrealtor.com

Jack Cotton Realtor

Jack Cotton is one of the most successful and respected Realtors in the country. Jack has been a REALTOR® for more then 30 years, having sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Cape Cod properties. He mainly uses his site as a marketing tool for his luxury real estate clients. He did have some additional goals about showing up higher on search pages for key terms important to his business.

 

Martha's Vineyard Real Estate Websites

www.sandpiperrealty.com

Sandpiper Realty

At Sandpiper Realty all of their agents are full-time, career professional REALTORS®. This may seem like a common qualification however, out of the 70 other island offices a very small amount are REALTORS®. They have been in the business for over 40 years and have consistently been the top selling listing office.

Their new real estate website was split into two separate sites – one for sales and one for rentals. The key here was to maintain the same branding and layout even though they were offering much different services and listings.  This was accomplished by designing a clean non-cluttered site with attention to large photo showcases.

Texas Real Estate Websites

www.mansfieldareahomes.com

Robyn England

Robyn England is a REALTOR® in Mansfield, Texas. Her real estate website is utilizing the WordPress IDX Broker plugin which can integrate with many MLS feeds. Working as a part of Ebby Halliday Realtors Robyn wanted a website of her own where she could direct users to search for homes in her market area and have all of the result pages branded to her.

Vermont Real Estate Websites

www.jeffbeattie.com

Jeff Beattie, Coldwell Banker Carlson

Jeff Beattie had an individual agent site through Coldwell Banker Carlson but realized that in order to grow he would need to invest in a site that was branded to him. As with many agents one of his main goals was to increase the number of buyer and seller inquiries. He wanted to create a “one stop shop” resource for buyers, seller’s and anyone else interested in local real estate and community information.

By creating his stand-alone website he was in effect increasing his web presence and also relaying to buyers what type of REALTOR® he is. Living in Vermont he spends a lot of time outdoors hiking, kayaking, x-c skiing and snowshoeing. This is prevalent in the design and aims to convey his outdoor lifestyle.

Vermont Real Estate Website

www.wadetreadway.com

Wade Treadway

Wade Treadway had a specific goal in creating his new real estate website – instead of focusing on one area, he would focus on specialty properties throughout Vermont. Wade has experience with sustainable properties, agricultural properties, horse properties, and more. The idea was to create content around very specific strata of properties using the recommended search tool. Wade had a clear understanding of what kind of key terms he was more likely to appear for when a user performs a search, and that idea led the focus of his site.

Vermont Real Estate Websites

www.middvermontrealestate.com

IPJ Real Estate Design Refresh

Ingrid Punderson Jackson has been a client with Union Street Media for several years. She recently signed up for a design refresh. Realizing that her existing design was a bit dated, Ingrid worked with our designer to create a Vermont-modern design that showcases her husband’s art work and the Middlebury area. One of the important pieces of a refresh is to ensure a complimentary transition from the existing design.  Stay tuned for a before-and-after post about this project.

Maine Real Estate Websites

www.rizzomattson.com

Coldwell Banker Rizzo Mattson

Coldwell Banker Rizzo Mattson is located in Augusta, Maine and has 17 licensed agents focusing in all areas of real estate from residential to investment properties.

They had several goals when they embarked on creating their new site; first of which was to have easy access and control on the site – which our back-end Admin system allows. Second, if issues did arise they would have the ability to contact someone and get their issues resolved – which our awesome (in house) Support team is able to fulfill. To close the loop, they wanted better lead management capabilities – this is where our client section in Admin is able to help them evaluate how their users are interacting with their listings.

Boston Luxury Real Estate Websites

www.bostonsluxuryproperties.com

Boston Luxury Properties

Boston Luxury Properties Real Estate is located in Kenmore Square, which is in the Back Bay just south of Boston University. They have seven agents and focus primarily on high-end rentals but are moving into real estate sales. Their team has always focused on the web to develop their business, and jumped at the chance to use Union Street Media’s real estate website platform in conjunction with You Got Listings rental database system.

Cape Cod Real Estate Websites

www.chathamrealestate.com

Chatham Real Estate

Rick from Chatham Real Estate came to Union Street Media still liking his previous site design but realized that our system was superior to his existing provider. With that in mind we were able to create a complimentary design that allowed users much more functionality when it came to searching and reaching out about specific properties.

Maine Real Estate Websites

www.coastalmainere.com

Megunticook Real Estate

Megunticook Real Estate is a subsidiary of Megunticook Management and Realty, a full service property management, rental, and real estate brokerage operating in Camden, Maine since 1969.  This team of five agents is focused on primary and secondary real estate in the mid coast region. Megunticook Real Estate came to us with one goal – better placement. With that in mind they signed up for our Dedicated Internet Marketing package to ensure their new site was optimized from the beginning.

New Union Street Media Websites

In the last few weeks, we’ve had the privilege at Union Street Media of launching several new websites.

The Lynn Jackson Group, a Century 21 Jack office, located in Vergennes, VT, was looking for a new website provider that would be able to help them expand their market. Union Street Media had the right tools to do the job. The system allowed them to update listings and syndicate with Social Media sites with the added ability to create additional content pages on their website; a task that had previously taken up a lot of their time. The new website also allowed them to segment their MLS data, providing site visitors with recommended searches and more SEO authority.

 

The Lynn Jackson Group

Loon Mountain Real Estate Co.

 

Loon Mountain Real Estate Company, which is part of the Loon Mountain Ski Resort needed a website to increase awareness of their real estate listings. They choose Union Street Media because our platform would allow them to update and track their marketing and social media efforts. Their website needed to stand out and help them gain market share in a geographically competitive market. As a small office, they have a lot of responsibilities and need to make sure they are doing everything possible to generate leads and traffic. The new site has a user friendly layout that will help visitors browse both rentals and homes. The site also allows their team to build additional pages on the site focusing on new markets and towns that will help them boost SEO rankings and customer engagement.

 

 

Otter Creek Awnings is a Vermont-based company that specializes in the design and production of residential and commercial awning systems, custom closets, solar screens, and sunrooms. They approached Union Street to redesign their existing site because they wanted to focus on their customers.  The goal of new site was to “show not tell” prospective customers why they should work with Otter Creek Awnings. The new site design will distinguish between their services and allow customers to see a professional portfolio of their work. The site also allows them to upload testimonials and keep the site fresh with new content via a company blog. At the end of the day, their website differentiates them from their competitors.

 

Otter Creek Awnings


University of Vermont/Bored

 

UVM/Bored approached Union Street Media to upgrade their student events website. They wanted the site design to be modern and exciting, while still maintaining the /Bored brand. With years of educational website experience, we updated the main navigation to increase the efficiency with which students and other visitors could find information and events.  The new site platform will allow more flexibility in terms of ongoing updates to content, events and design.  Finally, /Bored knew that to truly modernize their web presence, they’d have to focus heavily on social media integration by allowing students to share, tweet and link events with their friends and also have access from mobile devices.

 

 

Graves Realty, which is part of Sugarbush Ski Resort didn’t have its own identity online. Union Street Media stepped in to help them develop a stand alone real estate website that would be easy to use and SEO friendly. While the two companies shared branding, the Graves website had to be easier to use and have a clear navigation to their listings. One important feature Graves liked was the ability to upload additional images and descriptions to their listings so they could really showcase what they had to offer. The new website also allows them to track performance and lead generation with business analytics.

 

 

 

Graves Realty

Sweeney & O'Connell Real Estate

When Sweeney & O’Connell asked Union Street Media to develop a new website, their goal was to create something that would be easier for both their employees and potential clients to use. The updated site gives them a fresh, modern look that makes it easier for clients to browse the MLS data and agent listings; creating recommended searches and town pages that will help them establish their market knowledge. They have also broken down the MLS by school district. The SEO-friendly nature of the Union Street Media platform will increase their search engine visibility and drive more traffic to the site.