Strategy, web, and print for a premier land brokerage
Project Overview
Bates Land Consortium brokers premier ranches and investment properties — land measured in thousands of acres and millions of dollars. Reaching a discerning, nationwide buyer takes more than a listing page: it takes research into where those buyers search, a site built to rank and carry long, detailed property stories, and booklets substantial enough for a serious prospect’s desk.
Approach
I wireframed the website, then built it around a custom listing system. I also rethought the brochure-request flow, turning an anonymous download into a qualified, captured lead. The firm’s large-format property booklets, produced on press, round out the work — one coherent story, from the first search to closing.
The brand
Starting from the firm’s established mark, the founder and I built the system that carries it: an earthy land-and-timber palette, an editorial voice for property write-ups, and identified an icon style to adorn printed pages.
Bates Land Consortium Logo
Color Palette
The Competition
Merriweather Web Typeface Samples
About The Bell Ranch
Situated 150 miles east of Santa Fe in desirable Northeastern New Mexico, the Bell Ranch is a magnificent 290,100-acre land holding — 100% deeded — with no federal or state intrusion. The Ranch represents a singular opportunity to own one of the most historic large-scale cattle ranches which may become available in the United States for several generations.
Precipitation
The following monthly averages are derived from annual records from 1985 through 2009
Illustration Examples
Research and analytics, wireframes and workflows
Benchmarking BLC against ten competitors on search rank, backlinks, and authority turned up the patterns that shaped everything downstream. Those findings became wireframes for each page and workflows for how the site would run day-to-day, from listing entry to lead capture.
Four personas
The heritage ranch owner, the recreational buyer, the land broker, and the legacy investor. Four sets of goals, and a real understanding of each.
A property-forward site
A custom WordPress listing system that carries long-form property stories. The PDF brochure on each listing is the hook: buyers register to download it, turning quiet site traffic into qualified leads.
The editor experience
Each property detail page is built and maintained by the brokerage’s own admin. Staff upload photos and the property PDF, assign the broker to contact, and add a slideshow or embedded video when the property calls for it. Everything a listing needs, managed in-house, no developer required.
Printed offering booklets
Bates’s premier offerings get a printed booklet produced on an offset press. Most are built around large-format photography that lets the land fill the page, paired with custom icons, redrawn maps, and tabular data. Working closely with the founder through several rounds of revisions, I helped shape each one from raw property information into a finished piece.
PDF Booklet Examples
