Creating A Real Estate Website and Media Campaign — Quickly

Days before the scheduled vote to approve a real estate development in Colonial Beach, Va., our longtime partner at Dodson Development contacted us to make us aware of the project. The initial request was for a press release, which we drafted and had approved within a day’s time. Yet as we learned more, it because clear they also needed a web presence, especially to inform residents and tourists in an area with few remaining community newspapers to cover the town meeting.

Though the development’s name and branding is still in the works, we were able to quickly reserve a generic URL and, using SquareSpace, built a website within just a few hours.

The website is very much a digital brochure, with one added value: a lead-generation form captures the names of those interested. As the project progresses, the developer now has a list of names to keep informed. These are residents who want to give voice to the project, as well as potential home buyers, business owners, and investors to bring the project to fruition.

Though it’s always ideal to have a few weeks to build and plan, when you work at the speed of business, sometimes that’s just not possible. You have to stay flexible. There’s no time for deep strategy and whiteboard sessions — you trust the experts to get it done, the right way.

Total time: Four hours. Total value: Priceless.

Among other media outlets, the story also found its way to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the state’s newspaper of record, thanks to our own relationships with Virginia reporters and editors. It was the most-read story of the day.