Case Studies Lumbermens – ModernView™ Decking Website DDA sets the bar high when it comes to innovative website design and development.
Challenge
The market for green products is growing and consumers are more and more interested in buying. Consequently, manufacturers and distributors of green products are pouring greater resources into marketing—both online and off—and into the design of promotions. After acquiring a new composite decking brand, Lumbermens Merchandising Corporation (LMC) needed a website design that offered a high level of aesthetic appeal, valuable textual and visual content organized in an intuitive navigation system, and search engine optimization for high rankings on Google and other leading search engines.
Objectives
LMC identified features distinctly unique to the ModernView brand and stressed the objectives of a web design that "WOWs," with places to showcase photos of the product from contractor projects, as well as installation manuals and other items of interest. During internal conceptualization, DDA decided to go above and beyond standard website development by adding movement to the site and devising strong marketing messages that set ModernView apart from the competition. Another shared objective of both LMC and DDA was gaining and constantly improving search engine rankings for key terms related to "composite decking."
Solution
DDA devised a plan to take five of the best contractor pictures and animate a subtle element in the picture so that it would create motion to draw viewers in. Each animation was designed around an element found in our natural world: water, fire, wind, plant growth, and time progression. The five animated scenes served as the backdrop for categorized content and a complementary design for the website was organically created. After keyword research was conducted to determine the level of search engine optimization competition and identify appropriate terms, DDA produced 20 pages of search engine optimized content rich with keywords directly relevant to composite decking. In addition, DDA developed marketing themes and messages to distinguish ModernView from the competition, highlighting key attributes, such as eco-friendly manufacturing, over 20 years of manufacturing experience, and total encapsulation technology that makes this product suitable in a more diverse range of applications. Plus, DDA custom-programmed a Dealer Locator tool that enables users to search by state or zip code for dealers that distribute ModernViewT Decking.
Results
Utility, visuals, and information combine to provide a new type of online experience users will now come to expect. Subtle, but sophisticated, the animated scenes compel users to click throughout the site to see more. Even though the site just recently launched on a newly acquired URL, it is already ranking on the first page for many terms targeted around composite decking. The long-term search engine optimization results are very promising. LMC has received countless compliments on the new website from composite decking dealers that stretch from coast to coast. After launching their new website, LMC stated, "you definitely beat our expectations with the animation features." Lumbermens is even considering submitting the website for a web award.
