Giving an old company new life

Benson & Mangold Real Estate is a well-established real estate brokerage based in Talbot County, Md. For more than 50 years, the company has operated under the same broker. For most of that time, the company has also worked with stale and inconsistent branding. The company site was a piecemeal mess. Listing brochures had no flow.

Benson & Mangold has a great reputation. I stepped in to help the company turn its image into something concrete. They needed an easy-to-use and easily maintainable website. They also needed attractive printed publications to leave at each of more than 500 listings.

More than a fresh coat of paint

The company website redesign was the biggest task I undertook at Benson & Mangold. The old site, built using simple HTML pages and difficult to edit, was replaced with a site built on the WordPress platform. We reworked the company logo, the agent bio pages and installed a brand new IDX system that allowed for the automation of our listings and all others within MRIS.

Once the big pieces were finished, I worked on developing links that would take browsers to exactly what they were looking for. We simplified the navigation architecture. And we made sure photos and other pleasing graphics were placed throughout the site — modestly.

This makeover has since brought thousands of visitors to the once-clunky company site and kept them on the site for an average of several minutes each — a feat on the internet. Guests create accounts, save listings for later and reach out to our agents directly. It’s a dynamic place to search for homes in Maryland. The simple construction on the always updated WordPress platform will make any future updates simple.

Dana Eggert

Dana is one of Benson & Mangold’s top agents, and she is always looking for ways to set herself apart from other Realtors. She maintains a strong web presence, but she was lacking a visual consistency between her brochures and her print and electronic mailings. She also wanted to create videos to showcase some of the towns in the area with the biggest draw for second home buyers: Easton, Oxford and St. Michaels.

Over the course of three years, Dana and I have completed many projects. The video to the right is an example. Some of her print and web projects are shown below.

Agent head shots

Every Realtor needs a quality, friendly portrait for ads, websites and business cards. During my time at Benson & Mangold, I was contracted for many of these. Here are a few.

Clients
Judy Moore, Connie Loveland, Marie Wroten
Agents, Benson & Mangold