Carlson Partners
Overview
Carlson Partners is a tenant-focused real estate advisory. They exist to help tenants with relocations, renewals, expansion, and more. At the end of 2021, Carlson Partners came to us for a one-of-a-kind website that would utilize visual elements to convey authenticity and subject matter expertise. Carlson Partners had recently moved offices by the time they came to us for a redesign, and they wanted a revitalized online presence that would live up to their standards.
Objectives
• Develop a unique, modern website that sets a tone of professionalism that tenants can expect to get with Carlson Partners.
• Convey Carlson Partners' tenant-first philosophy at every turn, through concise copy and meaningful visuals.
• Produce a site that establishes credibility and trust with the target audience.
• Create a story that leverages niche subject matter expertise.
Understanding Your Target Audience
Early collaboration between Carlson Partners and August Ash revealed a very particular target audience. That is, CEOs and high-level decision makers. Discovery calls also revealed that the majority of Carlson Partners' business comes from word-of-mouth referrals and repeat business, rather than lead forms.
A key consideration in the early stages was to provide value to someone who’s already familiar with your business. The site is uniquely designed, not so much as a lead generation machine but as a source of validation. It should instill confidence in visitors that they are dealing with experts.
A well-crafted site is not just a well-crafted site. 75% of users admit to making judgments about a company's credibility based on their website's design.
Brand strategy
As part of our partnership with Carlson Partners it was very important that we understood their brand and how they wanted to be perceived digitally. With a brand guideline in place, we worked with Carlson Partners to identify their brand attributes as entrepreneurial, modern, and innovative. This helped us build out visuals that aligned with how they wanted to be perceived.
Show don't tell.
This was a driving force in the approach for Carlson Partners' new website. From the start, there was a clear direction to provide imagery, videos, infographics, case studies, and punchy copy that would cut the fluff, and get to the point. There was immediate agreement that the work speaks for itself, and therefore, should be front and center.
"Our goal was to develop a site that intentionally felt unexpected, a visual language that separated Carlson Partners from their competitors."
