RIC design build is one of The Chop Shop’s longest running clients (and one of my favorites, if I’m being honest). They do amazing historic renovations, modern additions, single room or whole home remodels - all using sustainable building practices. RIC owner, Matt Warner, originally came to me through my friends at Campfire & Co., who were building his first professional website back in 2014. Like many of their web design clients, Campfire had pulled me in on the project to help put together a few pages of copy for the website. Four year later I’ve helped RIC write copy for two websites, dozens of blogs and hundreds of social posts.

RIC does amazing design build work on historic and modern homes in the Richmond area.

Understandably when we started working on the first site, Matt assumed it would revolve mostly around imagery. He had lots of professional photographs of their final work he wanted to showcase in a digital portfolio. However, we quickly came to the conclusion that without wrapping some stories around these images, the full breadth of thought and work that went into each one was never truly explored.

When the first site went live, Matt sent me this feedback, “I was really impressed with how you listened to my ideas and translated that into meaningful content that really explained my remodeling business. Your work has turned into one of the things that I like best about my new website.” He also asked me to stick around and help him write some blog posts for his new site. It turned out there was a LOT of material to work with beyond images including highlighting sustainable practices, materials and tools that they use in their projects. We also dove deeply into specific projects and highlighted the RIC team mates and their specialties and experience.

The blogs give us the opportunity to tackle energy audits, insulation and other nitty gritty topics that are important to the RIC mission and values.

Eventually Matt also asked me to start handling his Facebook and Instagram account, making sure fresh content was posted every week. We do anywhere from 3-5 posts per week - mostly of “progress shots” that show the dirtier, grittier side of the design build process as well as the planning phases, and details that you simply wouldn’t see on a portfolio page on a website. Matt mentioned recently that he believes this transparency in his content marketing has built a lot of trust with clients, potential clients, and the Richmond design community in general.

Being transparent about their process has created trust with their audience - the most important goal of Content Marketing!

This year RIC is celebrating its 10th year in business, which meant it was about time for a website remodel. Like the home design industry, web design trends and standards change and it’s important for businesses (especially those in design) to keep their web presence up to date and representative of their work. Once again, Campfire & Co. took on the design and development portion of the site while I worked on refreshing and reworking the copy for the site’s new, clean layout. I think it’s a beautiful representation of the kind of work they do, and while the content isn’t overwhelming, there is enough of it there to really tell their story.

RIC is a great example of how content marketing can work well for a business - telling their story, talking with their audience, and growing alongside the company and its needs. What started out as a few pages of web copy has turned into four years of consistent storytelling and trust building that sets RIC apart.

You can follow the RIC design build blog, their Facebook page and their Instagram feed for weekly updates, amazing before and after shots, and really cool stuff they are doing with green building and sustainable design.

Traditional marketing talks at people.

Content marketing talks with them.

Client Profile: RIC design build