How to Speak to both Residential and Commercial Customers on One Website: A 10 Website Case Study
Businesses commonly offer both residential and commercial services to their customers, suiting the needs of a larger audience. The tricky part is figuring out how to promote those different services on the same website. For some companies, it makes more sense to create separate websites, one for the residential division and one for the commercial division. Other times companies find creative ways to feature both divisions on the same site.
We looked at 10 websites to see how businesses in different industries handle speaking to both residential and commercial customers on one website and now we want to share our findings with you! Hopefully these examples will help you figure out if your website needs some reworking or if your current approach is suitable.
Real Estate Websites
1. Starr Properties
Even with just a quick glimpse at the homepage of the Starr Properties website, it’s extremely clear that this real estate company has properties available for both residential and commercial customers. In addition to the “Residential” and “Commercial” tabs in the main navigation bar at the top of the site, there are large photos with buttons underneath on the homepage that link visitors to different pages, detailing the commercial and residential properties they have available. In this case, it’s necessary to make this clear distinction for commercial and residential customers because the information they need is very different. With one simple click, customers interested in finding a new location for their business can eliminate browsing through single family homes, condos and student housing and instead go straight to viewing the retail, office, restaurant or medical building space Starr Properties has available.
2. Lofts of Columbia and Certified Realty
Certified Realty and Lofts of Columbia appear to be two completely different business entities but they are actually owned by the same person. Aligning with the questions we posed in our Should I promote my residential and commercial services on the same website? post, it was a good decision to maintain Lofts of Columbia and Certified Realty as two separate sites. The Lofts of Columbia target residential customers while Certified Realty is a strictly commercial real estate company, so it wouldn’t make sense to promote both divisions on the same site.
The Lofts of Columbia website is interesting in and of itself however. Within this one website, residential customers are able to access information about two different apartment complexes that make up what are considered to be the lofts in downtown Columbia. One of the complexes is called Lofts at 308 Ninth while the other is called Lofts on Broadway. From the Lofts of Columbia homepage, visitors can navigate to the different apartment complexes by clicking on either “308 Ninth” or “Broadway” in the navigation bar. Although at first it may seem strange for both complexes to share the same website, this layout works to assure customers that if they can’t get into one of the lofts, they can probably get into the other. Also, it’s convenient to give customers access to both options in one place.
The reason placing these apartment complexes on the same website works well is because they both target the same audience. Both of the buildings contain high-end, luxury style apartments in the downtown Columbia area. It’s very likely that if you’re interested in living at one of the complexes, the other one can meet all of your requirements as well.
Landscaping, Construction and Design Websites
3. Rost Landscaping
Rost Inc. is a company that provides high quality landscaping services in Central Missouri. On their website they display images of work they’ve done for households and businesses, all exceptionally designed. They don’t make a distinction on their site between the services they offer to residential customers and those they offer to commercial customers. Regardless of if you’re a resident or a business, Rost markets their services to the same people, people who want and can afford professional, high quality landscaping design.
4. Mertens Construction Company, Inc.
Mertens is a company that supplies rock products from quarries in central Missouri to its customers. In the products section of the Mertens website, they clearly explain that their products are meant to help in a variety of construction projects. From large projects taken on by a big business to a smaller scale project that your neighbor could be working on, Mertens has rock for everyone. The logical reason they don’t separate their website into different sections for their residential and commercial customers is because the information both types of customers need is exactly the same. At the end of the day, rock is rock. Since Mertens can speak to both audiences in the same way, there is no need to separate the divisions, let alone create separate websites.
5. Ri-Mor Mulch
Ri-Mor is another company that doesn’t divide the residential and commercial services they offer on their website. Using the same reasoning as discussed with the Mertens website, mulch is mulch. Whether you’re a customer looking to buy mulch for your home or for landscaping the outside of your office building, the process of finding the mulch you want and the information you need to make your purchase decision is exactly the same. This means Ri-Mor can speak to all of their audience members in the same way.
6. Interior Design Associates
The Interior Design Associates website is similar to the Starr Properties website in the sense that they both segment their services between commercial and residential customers in a very bold way on the homepage. Interior Design Associates offers a very specific type of work in the commercial division, displaying a portfolio divided between offices, medical offices, and dermatology offices. When you click on the residential tab, you can view the work they’ve done in kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, living rooms and more. Because the design needs vary greatly between commercial and residential customers, this business can speak more appropriately with audience members by maintaining separate sections within one website for each type of customer.
7. Hercon Construction
The homepage of the Hercon Construction site is dominated by a split screen directed at commercial and residential customers. Although it’s not necessary for all construction companies, this one chose to speak to residential and commercial customers separately. Doing so allows them to tailor messages and material within the site for the specific building needs of the customers. There are elements that go into building a house that residential customers may be concerned about that commercial customers should be able to bypass on the website. Either way, the Hercon Construction site allows both types of customers to find information that pertains to their specific questions.
Professional Services Website
8. Star Heating & Air Conditioning
Heating and air conditioning installation are services needed by both residential and commercial customers, so Star targets both markets on their website. But instead of separating their services right off the bat between commercial and residential customers, the information is set up in three sections: installation, service and fabrication. Within those areas, visitors to the site can then navigate to information regarding new home installation or commercial projects. Since Star already has well-established commercial services, those services don’t have a huge presence on the site. The information for residential customers is much more extensive in comparison to what you see on the site for commercial customers; residents are guided through each step of the installation process. If your company is in the same situation where you offer services to both types of customers but want to focus your website for marketing to one group more than the other, this is a model to follow.
Technology Websites
9. Easy PC
The Easy PC website works the opposite way of the Star Heating and Air Conditioning site. Instead of mainly targeting residential customers, the Easy PC website appears to cater to businesses first and then makes an exception for residents. Easy PC is a local Columbia company that provides small businesses with IT support. On the homepage, there are two big buttons that link visitors to a page specifically speaking to businesses who want tech support. Upon opening that page, visitors are exposed to a button in the side bar calling out to residents who need IT help. The only other location on the website that links residential customers to the information they need is in the footer.
Seeing how Easy PC and Star handled speaking to both audiences on their website shows how even if you have two distinct audiences, you can prioritize your website space to reflect either the market you’re trying to increase sales for or the group you specialize in helping.
10. Tranquility Internet Services
Tranquility is the brother company of MayeCreate Design located in Columbia, Missouri. They offer internet services in business settings and residential settings. This is a case where customers in the market for internet services would need different information depending on if they were interested in getting big business internet or small residential internet services. Because Tranquility needs to talk to their customers differently, the website is strategically divided into different sections so visitors can easily get to the material they need. In addition to the clearly labeled tabs at the top of the site that say “Business Internet” and “Residential Internet” there are also more links on the right hand side of the homepage that can help customers navigate to the appropriate page in the website.