I am looking for feedback regaring this Site www.sanderco.com. If you have any comments/suggestions please email me at brenda_swanson@sanderco.com.
Thank you!

__________________
Brenda Swanson
Marketing Specialist
Sander & Co., Inc.
www.sanderco.com

Went to the Sanderco site. The purpose or mission statement taking up the landing page is full of platitudes, not information. It doesn't put forth the unique business propostion of the site. If there were more content the layout might need to pull things together better. As is there is almost nothing to see. There are too many clicks to see too few listings.

I'm sure there are a dozen issues and ways you are superior to other property managment companies. Property managment has a lot of different facets and interesting challenges. A good copywriter could make property management sound downright valuable. There could be, say, two or three pages just on this. Pages found: none.

The site needs a tagline, a business proposition, better listing descriptions. Were these to change, layout issues may arise.

All I get is:-

No account information was found for domain[sanderco.com

Nick

Try the link I put in my post.

Thank you for your opinion. As far as the property management section goes there are some sample services listed. I agree that the content could use a little work...we don't have the money to hire a copywriter at this time. I am wondering what the opinions on the colors and the layout are. I have some updates since my initial post. Do you like the graphic on the home page? Is the real estate learning center helpful? Can you find our contact information easily? Does the property for lease section provide you with adequate information? Please any feedback is appreciated.

__________________
Brenda Swanson
Marketing Specialist
Sander & Co., Inc.
www.sanderco.com

Do you like the graphic on the home page?

A soccer player? No. This is distracting, makes people (expecting real estate management) do a double take, and doesn't mean anything. This, like the problem mission statement is trying to distract from the lack of information. The mission in no way concerns property managment, and so directly contradicts the "developed from a point of customer advocacy" part.

Is the real estate learning center helpful?

Yes for users, but not for you as it simply underscores the lack of content on the site. On most sites, this would not be called a "learning center," it would be called Links. By using big words to distract from little content, you simply draw attention. This is the content equivalent of the bald guy with a combover.

Love the Color Scheme!

1. I would agree that a soccer player is probably not the ideal choice. It's distracting, it does not at all relate to the concept or content of the site, and unless it's being used as a part of your print advertising campaign, I'd walk away from it and use an image that relates to what your company DOES.

2. The entry page layout does not match the layout of any othe pages on the site. To me this is distracting to say the least, as it causes the focus of the viewer to shift when a link is clicked.

3. Far too many clicks are required to get to "the meat" of the site. And then by the time you arive at the section you were looking for, there's little meat at all. (I deal with property managers every day, and I could barely make out the goal property management page.)

My suggestions..

1. make the layout as consistant as possible over all pages in the site.

2. Focus on the MESSAGE you want to present to prospective customers, not on buzz words.

3. "Tighten" the site down. and in doing so, condense your messages so that they are reachable as often as possible from the front page of the site.

Brenda,

I understand that you're not looking to hire a copywriter at this time, but honestly, you sadly need one. That paragraph on the top page is just plain confusing and painfully generic. It doesn't actually mean anything!

"Through creative solutions, developed from a point of customer advocacy, we provide high quality service".. huh? You lease commercial property, right? Why are you making me click through to secondary pages in order to understand what exactly your company DOES?

Pele needs to go: he has nothing to do with your business. Your "asset presents itself" tagline isn't necessarily *bad*, but context is defeating its better virtues and rendering it into stupidity.. once again, it's almost as though you're going out of your way to actually *hide* the fact that you sell commercial real estate.

Brenda, find the money: you're selling commercial real estate with costs in the millions, and you're using a below-mediocre corporate drone site to do it. I know how much a copywriter would cost you to at least do a repair job on that top page copy - it's virtually *nothing* compared to your sales potential, particularly if you contract a good freelancer to do it.

The alternative is to do what you're doing now: basically, vanity marketing. You have a site for the purpose of having a site, and nothing else.

__________________
Robert Warren
Copywriter, Editor, Business Communications Consultant

"Ten Copywriting Blunders That Are Poisoning Your Website"
FREE Report: http://www.rswarren.com/downloads.php

Thank you all for your opinions. Our company is a full service commercial real estate firm. We offer poperty management, investment analysis/management, brokerage, consulting, and property marketing. Our main focus is not just property management. We are a small company in Minneapolis with only one property at the moment. The purpose of the site is to showcase the property and to assit when explaining things to propects over the phone, and of course to generate business overall for our investment/brokerage end.

The thought with the soccer player is that the ball is an asset and we are the player, we wanted to portray the feel that if you make decisions at the right time...when the asset presents itself...that we will be able to score for you.

Jerry wrote:
"The entry page layout does not match the layout of any other pages on the site. To me this is distracting to say the least, as it causes the focus of the viewer to shift when a link is clicked".

I tried to keep the look and feel of the site consistant throughout. What would you suggest to make it flow better? The navigation and the colors are consistant.

I am going to look into copywriters and see what I can find. Thank you for your ideas and comments. I appreaciate you taking the time. Take care.

__________________
Brenda Swanson
Marketing Specialist
Sander & Co., Inc.
www.sanderco.com