Most popular custom agency mods at REW for Renaissance

[Morgan]

Now that Renaissance is just over 1 year old and we’ve launched over 500 of them, we have a really good sense of what customers are loving about the platform, and where they are investing their agency time/retainers to maximize returns from their site and also showcase their brands.

Due to Renaissance’s success and REW’s recent growth, we have also considerably increased our resources on the BDR, AE, AM, CSM and sales support teams, as such we’re in hyper education mode for those new team members, making sure they know exactly what to recommend to our newest customers and our long term clients who are making the transition to Renaissance.

To make the education fun and interactive I’ve decided to work with @AmyPye and the rest of her agency leads and produce a top customizations list.

In this post on a per-thread basis, I’ll be sharing a description of the customization, as well as an example and an estimate of how much time (on average) it takes to complete the task. *Note, estimates are averages, and actual time can vary from customer to customer based on how many revisions, and how much communication is required by the client. So please use estimates as a reliable average for budgeting purposes only (they are not fixed bids).

To make it even more fun (and to celebrate the recent addition of many new team members on the agency side) I’ve also approved 5 bonus agency projects (per new AE, AM, etc) where they can give away a full starter agency package (up to $5,000 value) so that customers can explore agency at no cost when they sign up for Renaissance or if they are renewing with us and migrating to Renaissance. (Note - these projects must be ordered and completed April-May)

So if you’re interested (and you want to get in on one of the free agency projects) please reach out to your AE / AM right away as once those packages are given away, that offer ends.

So without further ado! I’m going to start by posting some of our most popular mods! (See threads below)

[Morgan]

The first customization I am going to post (which is by far the most popular customization on the design side) is brand match

Really great examples of this are customers like @staciestaub from West + Main Homes.

Her site is https://www.westandmainhomes.com (or here is a screenshot)

Note - this design won gold this year at the Muse Design Awards!

As you can see, the team has done an amazing job taking her brand and colours and matching it throughout the site. This involves the homepage + carrying those colours through the various buttons, fonts, styles etc.

The team provides this estimate:

1. Brand Match: Mockup and application of custom color and fonts to match your branding

2. Mockup of the homepage to show colors and branding

3. Custom fonts (Max 2) - Google fonts preferred, otherwise web package and license for custom web fonts is required at customers expense.

4. Custom colors

Build out homepage custom color and font from mockup
Estimate: 10 hours

[Morgan]

The next agency mod that is most requested comes from programming and relates to the IDX.

Additional search options / panels:

In this scenario, customers might ask us to map additional fields to their search that are not included in the default setup.

When we do this, we make those panels available in several areas:
1: On the public IDX search itself (of course)
2: Available for use via snippets in the backend for CMS pages
3: Create Saved Search

An example of this I’ll share from our own site www.carlycarey.com and that is “# of kitchens”

This is not a common field in many MLS’s and in fact even though we mapped it, we decided not to make it public facing (because it’s a somewhat uncommon use case) but the reason @Carly wanted it mapped was because in our MLS (Matrix) there is no reliable field for “has suite” and yet sometimes our clients will ask us to set them up with saved searches only with properties that have suites.

The best way to do this in Matrix (and thus why we coded our custom panel this way) was to search “multiple kitchens” since virtually all single family residential properties with multiple kitchens have suites.

The programming team provides this estimate:

Panel Setup: Add a new panel to the IDX.
Estimate: 2 Hours

One Caveat to this estimate is that it relies on straight-up data that exists in the feed. Sometimes our customers want to get more complex and have us custom create fields that don’t exist (for example price per square foot) - in this case, we would need extra programming and testing/communication time because we’d be creating a new field out of 2 separate fields (price and square footage) so in these situations estimates are higher.

[Morgan]

The next popular agency service I’d like to discuss is an SEO audit.

Some customers are really great candidates for SEO, and some are not (depending on their objectives, budget, and current domain authority), however there is one sure fire way to find out!

Have our team do an SEO audit.

On an SEO audit, we start by asking you the standard set of questionnaire questions (what do you want to sell, where do you want to sell it, anything you’d like to avoid ranking for and are you buy / sell or both?)

We then ask to be invited to your Google Search Console as well as Google Analytics (if you don’t have these, that’s ok, we can set them up for you or show you how to set them up and invite us).

Once we get invited: We take a look at your site to see if it’s set up from a page structure, content, and on-page perspective.

We also look at your analytics and search console to evaluate your current status, link profile etc.

After we have done our audit, we put forth our findings in an emailed report along with recommendations.

The provides this estimate for SEO audit:

1: SEO Audits: (5 hours)

[Morgan]

Next on my list headed back to design are “custom calls to action”

This is predominantly a design element but can involve programming if it is mean to do something other than connect to a default existing form

A nice few examples (Screenshots below) are on https://www.vanbart.ca

He has two nice ones on his homepage (inspired by the ones on Carly Carey’s site)

and

Without any custom programming (sending to default forms) the design team provides this estimate:

1. Custom CTA Section

2. CTA text content and cms page links to be provided by client

3. Image can be provided by client, or we can source stock images

Estimate: 4 hours

[Morgan]

Sticking with the design theme, another design element that can feel really awesome on a CTA or background is a logo/brand pattern.

Think of it kind of like a logo wallpaper

A really nice example of this is on https://www.polsinello.ca (Screenshot below)

or on Hasson (a new brokerage site we’re not quite ready to launch but it’s awesome!)

1. Branded background pattern:

2. Based on the existing logo
   Estimate: 2 hours

[Morgan]

Since design is always so fun to show off, let’s stick with that theme and talk about custom Masonry Grids.

A really great example of this is over at my main man @andreREW’s site https://www.dcmodernhomes.com

This is a really slick-looking element, but does require more time and communication between team and client, so make sure if you’re going to do this one, you know exactly what you have in mind to link to.

1. Custom CTA “Masonry” Grid Layout:

2. CTA text content and cms page links to be provided by the client

3. Images can be provided by the client, or we can source stock images

4. Up to 12 CTA’s
   Example:
   Estimate: 10 hours

[Morgan]

One more on design (and this is a big one!) Let’s talk about Branding.

@AmyPye will have a lot to say on this topic (fo sho) but let me set the stage and some expectations.

The first thing I’ll say is “Branding is not your logo” - Logo is a really important part of branding, but so is messaging, colours, typography, tone, visual direction and so much more.

REW (I may be biased) is the best in the world at Branding when it comes to the real estate space, and we love doing it (it’s very rewarding for our teams as well).

Most of you have probably seen some of our work such as Carly’s site as well as our complete Rebrand of RIS Media / Real Estate Magazine, but if you want to get a more robust sense of what we do, check out the Google drive link I have posted as below: (note, all design work copyright Real Estate Webmasters

CC Brand Guidelines.pdf

And here are some pulled out inspo pics:

As you can see, we don’t mess around when it comes to branding

Amy and the team have provided the following guidance for custom branding budgets.

1. Branding Packages:

2. Tier 1 $10k

1. Consultation & Discovery
2. Logo Concepts (delivered within 4 weeks)
  1. 3-5 unique concepts
  2. Up to two rounds of revisions
3. Packaged Logo Files
4. Brand Guidelines

2. Tier 2 $15k

1. Consultation & Discovery
2. Logo Concepts (delivered within 4 weeks)

  1. 3-5 unique concepts
  2. Up to two rounds of revisions

3. Packaged Logo Files
4. Brand Guidelines
5. Branded email template (Saved Searches)
6. Social Media graphics

3. Tier 3 $25k

1. Consultation & Discovery
2. Logo Concepts (delivered within 4 weeks)

  1. 4-6 unique concepts
  2. Up to 4 rounds of revisions
3. Packaged Logo Files
4. Brand Guidelines
5. Branded email template (Saved Searches)
6. Social Media graphics
7. Renaissance custom design/brand match (more in-depth than standard brand match includes logo wall papers, custom CTA's etc)

[Morgan]

Back to programming for a bit

Let’s talk some more IDX mods:

#1: Adding addition IDX data to the details pages (assumes data is already mapped)

Estimate 1 hour per element

#2: Co-mingling MLS feeds (basic) if combining only 2 feeds (not including de-duplication)

Estimate 5 hours for 2 feeds, 3+ feeds increases per feed cost.

#3: “Sculpt” data feed (including excluding listings) for example in your build you may want us to get rid of rentals altogether, or perhaps specific areas, price points etc

Estimate 2 hours per element.

#4: Adding sold data (if available) - adding sold listings (non VOW) as a separate search.

Estimate 6-10 hours + $99 per month if hosting separate feed.

[Morgan]

One item that I really like that we did at www.carlycarey.com was this cool roll-over community navigation.

It’s not just a design element, it also has an interactive component where you roll over it and it dynamically displays images that match that community. Head over to the site and check it out.

The team estimates

“Discover areas that suit your lifestyle” CTA from community pages (Rollover communities with images)
Estimate: 5 Hours (3 Design + 2 Programming)

[Morgan]

The last 2 custom agency projects I’d like to talk about are specialties of Real Estate Webmasters and those are WPO (Web Performance Optimization) and ADA (American Disabilities Act) Audits.

The first thing to know about Renaissance is that out of the box, it is already completely WPO and ADA optimized. It has the highest scores (out of the box) among any real estate specific platforms. (Example screens below)

And

But what customers need to know is that “Their content” is not automatically ADA or WPO optimized. (Nor can it be) - these are manual processes that require an in-depth understanding of these specialties and so while we have already done these tasks on the core platform, if you want your content to be ADA compliant and WPO you must take the time to learn how to do this, or have our specialists do this for you (including on your customizations) *note, no estimates here assume WPO or ADA work.

In terms of understanding what needs to be done, we provide both WPO and ADA audits.

Estimates for audits for both ADA and WPO are 5 hours and include a report on recommendations / actions required.

Actual ADA / WPO work required will vary significantly from site to site depending on size of site and amount of customizations.

[Morgan]

That’s my list so far (I may come back and share more later, so be sure to subscribe to updates on this thread).

Any questions please feel free to ask or reach out to your account manager.

As I mentioned, we have provided a limited amount of agency packages (up to 25 hours) for each AE and AM to offer their clients. Those will likely be gone by the end of the week, so if you’re interested in getting up to $5k in free work, please have your order in ASAP.

Hope this has been helpful

[AmyPye]

So excited for this. I am putting together a document that includes all of this information as well as more examples. Let me know if you would like us to send this to you when it’s ready!

I’m MOST excited for the branding as that’s my background. If anyone ever wants to chat colour palettes or typefaces, I’m all ears!

[AmyPye]

Thanks to @Elianna for putting together this great video that highlights some of our top mods. They are some great examples here and we can always provide more if anyone is interested.

Top Customizations for your Renaissance Website