Product designer

Challenge

Upon initial assessment, the Gilbert Duenas Home Selling Team presented a fragmented landscape that hindered growth and brand recognition. Key challenges included:

• Disparate Brand Identities: Three separate online presences (solano county town homes, sold by gilbert, and another unremembered domain) created confusion and diluted brand messaging.
• Lack of Centralized Marketing: Absence of email marketing and a difficult-to-recall primary website hindered consistent communication and lead generation.
• Chaotic Social Media Presence: Previous social media efforts lacked strategy and consistency, failing to build a cohesive brand image.
• Limited Scalability: Agents felt disconnected from the brokerage’s identity, preferring to promote their individual names, which deterred potential new agent recruitment.
• Unclear Target Audience: The brokerage lacked a defined niche, making targeted marketing efforts challenging.

Despite these challenges, the brokerage possessed a strong reputation for exceptional client service, going “above and beyond” to help clients achieve their homeownership dreams and leveraging valuable industry resources.

APPROACH

Recognizing the need for a fundamental shift, our strategy focused on creating a unified, agent-empowering brand with a clear path for growth. Our multi-faceted approach involved:

• Consolidating Brand Identity: We streamlined the three disparate online identities into a single, memorable brand name and online presence: GDHomes. This created a cohesive and easily recognizable identity for consumers and potential agents.
• Establishing a Scalable Business Structure: We designed a business framework that facilitated growth and empowered agents to thrive under the GDHomes banner.
• Empowering Agents Through Brand Association: I recognized that for sustainable scaling, agents needed to feel a strong connection to the brokerage. The strategy centered on building a company brand that agents would be proud to represent, allowing them to associate their own name with a recognized and respected entity.
• Crafting Appealing and Resourceful Brand Identity: I spearheaded/designed the complete rebuilding of the GDHomes website, utilizing the Adobe Creative Suite for visually engaging graphics and ensuring a cohesive brand aesthetic. Canva was used for efficient creation of social media visuals and marketing materials.
• Multi-Channel Online Presence: The long and cumbersome website domain was replaced with the concise and user-friendly GDHomes.com, significantly improving memorability and accessibility.
• Implementing Strategic Email Marketing and Performance Tracking: I developed structured email journey campaigns using Mailchimp to nurture leads and maintain consistent communication with clients, enabling audience segmentation and personalized content delivery. Crucially, I implemented robust tracking of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) across Google, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), postcards, and phone calls, leveraging Google Analytics to ensure accurate performance measurement and identify areas for optimization.
• Educating Leadership on Strategic Investments: I provided data-driven insights to the VPs on effective budget allocation for long-term growth. This involved a critical analysis that successfully redirected funds from a low-ROI physical sign investment to the high-impact domain name change and digital infrastructure. This strategic guidance resulted in over $20,000 in savings within the first three months by prioritizing cost-effective, high-impact digital solutions over traditional, less measurable methods. Zapier was instrumental in managing the various project tasks and ensuring timely execution.
• Implemented local SEO best practices to ensure visibility within Solano County, Woodland, & Contra Costa region.

outcome

My comprehensive strategies delivered significant positive outcomes for GDHomes, laying a strong foundation for future scalability and brand recognition:

User-Centric Design Approach: Executed user research, usability testing, and persona development to ensure all design decisions were aligned with user needs and behaviors.

Optimized Business & Marketing Operations: Strategic implementation of CRM best practices, informed by insights from SEMrush and Exploding Topics for market trends, led to a 1,700% increase in web traffic (tracked via Google Analytics) and a 54.55% reduction in monthly operational costs.

Successful Email Marketing Campaigns: Targeted email marketing initiatives executed through Mailchimp significantly outperformed industry averages, boosting engagement rates from 3% to 27%.

Enhanced Brand Engagement: Strategic audience segmentation and personalized content strategies within Mailchimp, Meta & Google campaigns resulted in higher conversion rates and stronger brand loyalty.

Top Google Ranking: Achieved Top Google Ranking in key competitive markets, leveraging insights from SEMrush and Exploding Topics, leading to a 77% increase in market reach and enhanced company value.

Consistent Brand Messaging Across Platforms: Developed and executed compelling copywriting and content (website, social media, audio/video edited with Adobe Creative Suite, email, blog) that ensured brand consistency and maximized audience engagement across diverse channels. Canva facilitated rapid creation of visually appealing social media content.

Data Analysis: Conducted thorough market research and competitive analysis using SEMrush and Exploding Topics, providing crucial KPIs (tracked in Google Analytics) to guide operational performance and identify growth opportunities.

Streamlined Workflows Through Automation: Developed automation tools for multi-platform workflows, managed effectively using Zapier, leading to improved search engine performance and enhanced user experience (UX/UI).

Effective Communication of Design Concepts: Created wireframes, prototypes, and mockups (potentially visualized using Adobe Creative Suite) to clearly communicate design solutions to executive leadership.

Credits

Additional roles