Prime Capital investmetnts
Redesigning an experience for a legacy real estate investment firm with 2,000+ multi-family units.
Prime Capital Investments is a real estate investment company which brings multi-family real estate investment opportunities to accredited and sophisticated passive investors.
As the lead designer and developer, I was responsible for setting design direction for the rebranding and user experience redesign, while collaborating with leadership, acquisitions, and the marketing team on digital strategy.
Prime Capital Investments updated brand identity
Outcome
Prime Capital Investments was transformed. They're now armed with a digital strategy, an investor onboarding flow, as well as the ability to raise more capital, faster.
By completing this project, PCI raised their maximum investment capacity from $15.00MM to $35.00MM
After launching the redesigned Prime Capital Investments experience, new investor signups went up by 2000%.
Some of the iterations included testing various onboarding flows to see which yielded the most signups. We learned that having multiple entry points into the funnel, catering to investor's experience, was the best solution.
We created three ways to enter the funnel:
- Top of the Funnel (Email Signup): Allowing new investors to dip their feet in the water by giving them a place to sign up for PCI's educational communication. (Collect Email Only)
- Middle of the Funnel (Download Case Study): Allowing curious investors to sign up to download a behind-the-scenes look at one of PCI's success stories.(Collect Name, Email, and Phone Number)
- Bottom of the Funnel (Investor Portal Signup): Allowing "warm" investors to sign up to PCI's investor portal where they can view real estate investment details and place their soft commitments. (Collect Contact Info, Investment Amount, and Accreditation Status)
By applying design-thinking practices, updating their new investor onboarding experience, and modernizing their brand, we've positioned Prime Capital Investments to build stronger broker relationships and attracting family office investors—ie. bigger and better deals.
Prime Capital Investments has just completed their largest raise to date on a 88-unit, apartment community in the heart of Tempe, AZ. They acquired the asset for $18.07MM—of which, $6.20MM came from just one source.
An interactive map feature showcasing all of Prime Capital Investments' assets across the United States
Prime Capital Investments hero section of the home page with a singular call-to-action—"Partner with Us"
PCI's Home Page Open Graph graphic
PCI's Investing Guide Page Open Graph graphic
Prime Capital Investments social media feed
Prime Capital Investments Investment Summary template design
Prime Capital Investments web experience on mobile
Purpose
Prime Capital Investments was looking for a way to attract more accredited and sophisticated investors to their deals so they could acquire more (and larger) multi-family properties.
PCI is a multi-family real estate investment firm with over 2000+ units and 20+ years of experience. They source off-market deals and and raise capital from their network of passive investors.
They lead the real estate investment process from acquiring the asset, renovation the property, upgrading its operations, to distributing profits on a quarterly basis from rent and other capital events (such as a sale of the asset) to all investors involved in the deal.
- Digital Strategy
- Competitive Analysis
- Design Direction (Branding / UX & UI Design)
- Front-end Development
- UX Writing / Copywriting
- Marketing System Design
Process
My end-to-end redesign process consisted of updating the company's brand identity, user experience flow, as well as their marketing assets.
Month 1: Self-Evaluation, Competitor Analysis, and Brand Identity Redesign
Research & Brand Identity Redesign
I started by getting understanding of the current state of the company's digital strategy. To do so, we conducted a heuristic evaluation of its current website and brand identity. We also did a deep-dive into our competition.
We concluded that in order to stay relevant, we needed to infuse design-thinking into the company, and started with redesigning our brand identity.
Below is the logo prior to the redesign. It had some nice features, such as lines and colors, but felt that the font was a little dated.
Previous Prime Capital Investments logo
In the redesign, we kept the color scheme from the previous design to maintain a level of familiarity with previous and existing investors.
The Prime Capital Investments color scheme that we infused in the redesign
We went from an assortment of fonts to one single font family—Montserrat—chosen for its clean, low-profile look and it's wide array of weight options. The Montserrat font family was influenced by urban development, which fit Prime Capital Investments contextually.
Headings: Montserrat Bold
Body Copy: Montserrat Medium
Preserving the color scheme, line features from the previous logo, and infusing a new font, we created a new, responsive logo design.
The new Prime Capital Investments logo is responsive, having a full version of the logo as well as a scaled-down, abbreviated version
Along with the logo redesign, we created matching designs for business cards, a letterhead, as well as some digital collateral, like a smartphone wallpaper.
The Prime Capital Investments business card, letterhead, and smartphone wallpaper designs using the updated brand identity
Month 2: UX Research, Wireframing, & Website Design
Coming up with the Digital Strategy
During our research phase to seek out the best investor onboarding flows, we found that companies that raise the most capital for their real estate projects have the most integrated experiences.
Companies that don't have UX in mind have a segmented process from their marketing pages, to investor portal onboarding, to their nurture sequences.
We created a flow that creates the least amount of resistance for new investors to get signed up and commit their capital into a project.
Sitemap
The journey we mapped out for new investors, from their website visit to becoming a partner in the Prime Capital Investments real estate portfolio
UX Design & Feedback
Having a high-level understanding of the userflows, I created a "sketch" of what sections each page of the new website would have, as well as how it would contribute to the overall goal—to attract more investors and to close more deals.
My "sketch" of the Home Page:
A "sketch" of the Home Page for the new Prime Capital Investments website
Wireframes
Having a high-level sketch gives a good idea of the content, and now we wanted to flesh the concept out more by infusing the content into the design. The content for each page was an outcome from several UX writing workshops.
The design was now coming to life—a wireframe of the Home Page:
A wireframe of the home page for the new Prime Capital Investments website
Website Launch
Combining the updated brand identity with the wireframes, I designed & developed a live version of the site.
A live version of the Home Page:
The live version of the home page of the new Prime Capital Investments website
We launched the website and iterated on the investor onboarding experience, seeking to increase engagement (measured by the amount of time a user spends on the website), as well as reducing the bounce rate and increasing conversion rate.
Case Study Download call-to-action exists in the Footer of the PCI website
Month 3: Creating Marketing Collateral that Sell PCI's Real Estate Investments
Using the design system we created, we developed on-brand social media communications, email templates, and deal presentations (Investment Summaries) to entice investors to deploy their capital with PCI.
"I only get the best reviews on our investment platform. We have the best marketing team."
