Granite Ridge Builders
- UX Design
- Content Strategy
- Web Development
From an outdated frustration to a custom, easy-to-update user experience.
Granite Ridge Builders (GRB) is Fort Wayne’s leading custom home builder serving northeast Indiana, northwest Ohio, and southern Michigan. The GRB team’s website was outdated and difficult to manage as they had to reach out to a developer to make basic content updates. As a custom home builder, they decided it was time to build a custom website that could support advanced functionality to create a one-of-a-kind user experience.
"I manage the website content, and we came to Reusser because we were looking for a custom, quality-built website that was also user friendly."
Our approach
The GRB team needed us to hear their website dreams and figure out how we could make these dreams become an everyday reality. They needed us to understand their target audiences and figure out how to lead each user type on a journey throughout the website to guide them to the right information at the right time. They also needed us to think outside of the box for what types of custom features would take their website to a new level in their industry.
"We were able to customize their CMS in such a way as to completely streamline how the data is entered, making it easier to add and update content while also allowing us to drive categorization and filtering on the front-end. GRB receives a better management tool and their visitors get a better user experience. Win-win!"
The solution
Our team of designers, strategists, and developers worked alongside the talented GRB team to create a flawless frontend and backend experience with multiple custom features including: a media hub with a filterable video library, photo gallery, and blog; filterable available homes, open houses, communities, and floor plans; and a “my favorites” section where users can save their favorite home designs, communities, and floor plans. The user can print their favorites or export them as a PDF and each saved item will link to where it was found on the site.
One of our favorite components of this site is its content strategy. Each landing page was carefully crafted in advance strictly based on the users and what type of content they would need at specific points on the page. To support the strategy, we built multiple custom content blocks that GRB can use to adjust their current pages and create new pages in order for their site to be properly maintained and refreshed for years to come.
Of course, their incredible front-end design is paired with an intentional, organized backend layout that is easy to navigate and edit content.
The results
Since launching in March 2020, we are ecstatic about the successful performance of the site and how it has increased sales for GRB.
GRB is receiving an average of 50 leads per week vs receiving 10-12 per week on the old website.
After the site launch, GRB had their best sales year in its 19-year-old history, even during the 2020 covid pandemic. They sold 477 homes vs their previous year of selling 350.
From the American Federation of Fort Wayne in the B2C website category.
"If we wouldn’t have had a content strategy in place, it would have been a very overwhelming process. It was nice to have a plan in place for each section of content and have a date to have it completed by. It helped me stay organized and I didn’t feel overwhelmed by the process. You were great at providing examples and recommending a word count for us to make sure everything stayed consistent."
